It’s been a little while since I tossed out a medical update on kid#2, aka Anne Marie.  This will be the last such update.  You’ll still see more pictures than you probably wanted to see, I just won’t be doing any more medical updates.  A lot of reasons for that, the most obvious being she is doing great, fat as a prize pig at the fair, and almost ready to crawl and get her first tooth.  So here is the last medical update for one Anne Marie, 1 pound baby.

We’ve had several follow up visits this past week.  The first was a trip back to the NICU or Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UT Medical.  The visit was actually in an office on another floor of the hospital.  The three people that saw AM were amazed at her size, head control, her ability to rollover and the way she knocked back her formula.  That visit didn’t last long as far as AM was concerned, but the midicos who checked out AM were regulars in the NICU.  They were on day shift apparently because I didn’t know them, but Tracy did and they took a trip down memory lane.

Once that was done we went up to the NICU to visit some new friends.  We never made it past the admin desk.  Nurses were coming out of the woodwork to see the kid.  She was a rock star.  Even the doc who initially handled Linda Claire came out to say hello.  He was pretty psyched to see how well AM was doing.  It was a good visit all around.

Next up was Pediatric Pulmonology.   All good there too.  Last apnea/heart event was 20 August.  If she keeps that up she’ll shed the monitor in late October.  It was our second visit, and when I say our I mean just me and AM.  Frank was at school and the misses was out earning the bacon.  Of the many things Tracy has taught me, being my own advocate when it comes to medical issues has been one of the most valuable.  Now if I could somehow recall the lesson on tact my buddy and former boss Chris taught me there would be one less male nurse practitioner crying right now.

The kid gained over a pound since our last visit, that’s 16oz for y’all without a handy measurement converter.  So Dr. Vinnie-Boom-Bots says he might be putting her back on 24 calorie formula if she doesn’t start growing more, he wanted to see a half ounce a day. I let him stew on that math for a second.  It was 28 days since they weighed her last.  She gained 16.8 ounces over that time.  Simply dividing 16.8 by 28 gets you .6 ounces a day.  It has a technical term too, now what was that… oh yeah MORE THAN A HALF OUNCE A DAY.  Or you could just accept that gaining 1/2 ounce every day for 30 days (a standard earth month), would net you 15 ounces.  So the fact that she gained over a pound or 16.8 ounces from the visit last month you should know she was ahead of the 1/2 ounce a day weight gain.  I mean do I have to graph this for Dr. Killmequick?  He finally got it but then tried to blabber something to cover up.

Back up Dr. Spock, the NICU docs and our own pediatrician want AM to just stay on the growth arc she currently inhabits.  He seemed a little offended when I didn’t regard his advice with the proper amount of respect, which means none, I paid it no respect at all. My questions about his thought process from that moment on then got him the rest of the way offended.  Then he says AM may not qualify for the RSV vaccination.  I said bro, my wife’s company makes that plus your colleague from the last visit already scheduled her to get it.   The guy was just a big negative nancy.  We just went 4 months in a glass box, we don’t do negative, it’s bad for business.  So I just gave placating nods from then on and called Tracy  on the way home. She moved in for the kill.  She called the office and we won’t be seeing Doc McStuffins again.

On to the pediatrician.  That was today.  The kid is a porker.  Now tipping the scales at 11 pounds 13 ounces and taping at 23.2 inches.  She’s about 50th percentile in those two categories for y’all scoring at home.  Although that would be on the adjusted age scale. Her melon on the other hand is at 41 cm and hitting 76% on the actual age scale.  Our doc thinks she looks great and doesn’t believe she’ll need much if any physical therapy. We’re also starting some rice cereal tomorrow.

Did I mention other than when I intervene she is sleeping through the night?

So that’s the tale of the tape.  All is good and it’s full steam ahead.  Here’s a few pictures of fatty and her brother.

Here’s looking at you kid.

Bath time. Who farted?

Look pop, no hands!

Ok, you got me. I farted.

I think mommy stole this swing from the NICU.