15 Month Doctor's Appointment

Oh, how I hate Finn's doctor's appointments anymore. Before 6 months, they were great. His doctor would tell me how smart, how beautiful, how perfect he was and how I was doing a wonderful job. It was an all around ego boost. Then we started having issues with his weight (well, actually the issue was with the weight chart, but the result was that I felt like I was somehow inadvertently starving my child), and somehow I always managed to schedule his appointments in the middle of nap-time (granted its pretty difficult to guess when he is going to be napping 3 months in advance), so he would be completely falling apart.

This appointment we finally didn't have any troubles with his weight. According to their 2000 CDC chart he has finally settled on the 20th percentile (according to my 2009 WHO chart he is, and has always been, in the 35th percentile), so for once I didn't get "the talk" about his weight. No, this time, even though I got lucky and we were between naps, he fell apart as I laid him down on the baby scale. That's the first thing we do. He wailed, screamed and shrieked for the entire rest of the appointment (which took an hour because he was so uncooperative).

It was such a disaster, it was almost comical. Since he wouldn't lay down on the baby scale, the nurse decided to weigh me holding him and then just weigh me and subtract. This was fine until I had to be weighed alone. He wouldn't let the nurse hold him so I had to put him down on the floor, stark naked, while I stepped on the scale. Sadly, there was no denying that the screaming, naked little boy running around the main hallway of the doctor's office was mine.

The nurse was never able to get his head circumference or check his pulse and the doctor was never able to listen to his heart and I had to hold him down in order for her to perform just a cursory exam. So, hopefully nothing's wrong with him, because there was no way that anyone was going to be able to find it. The doctor and I could barely hear each other over his wails. I ended up nursing him 3 times in my attempt to calm him down.

This was all before the shots! The nurse and I could barely restrain him. We probably could have used a third person. Its amazing how incredibly strong little toddlers can be when they're upset.  I half wonder if Finn didn't remember the shots he had the last time he was at the doctors office and that's why he got so upset so early on in the appointment.

But there were good things too! Apparently, by 15 months they are supposed to be able to say at least 3 words. Since Finn can say Mama, Dada (Daddy), baby, no, and hi, we were good there. Its even more impressive since Ben speaks so much Norwegian to him. His doctor told me that speaking 2 languages in the home can delay language milestones by as much as 6 months. She recommended that to get the most benefit from the second language that I should try speaking it as much as possible as well. So today I got out my old Norwegian 101 book and began reading it to Finn and getting a refresher course on grammar and vocabulary in the process. At dinner Ben and I tried to speak only in Norwegian. I did pretty well, considering its been nearly 10 years since I last took a class!

I discovered that Finn is a very confident walker, because according to his doctor, toddlers don't usually start walking backward until 18 months, and he just started walking backward this week. He looks like he's doing a Michael Jackson dance move and it is just one of the cutest things to watch. Its nice to know his gross motor skills are ahead of the curve!

I, of course, told the doctor that we were still breastfeeding a lot. For some reason, I expected to get chewed out and told that I needed to get him weaned, but I didn't. In fact, she complimented me on doing such an amazing job with breastfeeding. It was nice to hear, since I have doubts all the time about whether or not I'm doing the right thing by continuing. Maybe "right" isn't what I mean. I wonder whether I'm doing the appropriate thing. At some point breasts in the presence of a little boy becomes unacceptable. I just don't know what that point is. I wonder if I would be this worried about the appropriateness of long-term breastfeeding if I had a daughter?

And finally, when I told her about our new sleeping arrangement, she complimented me and Ben on our gentle approach to transitions with Finn.  This was also appreciated since I am sure some people (our friends included) think us crazy - at best - for how we have chosen to parent Finn.

So, even though I am still not looking forward to his 18 month appointment and no one said he was smart, beautiful or perfect, I think we got enough positive feedback to make it worth all the drama of the day!