6 Month Physical, 6 Weeks Late

Well, it isn't really late, just postponed because of his surgery. We got him in early for all of his shots so he would have immunity before being exposed to hospital germs, so the physical part of it was put on hold. So, today I braved the Dr's office with 4 kiddos (could have been worse with 6 kiddos if my older two weren't in school.) This was the first time since Aiden's surgery that all the nurses and doctors could get a look at him. I had barely walked in the door when I was attacked by two of the staff members. Their comotion over Aiden caused others to come out of the woodwork. They could not get over how wonderful his repair looked and how unnoticable the scar was at only 3 weeks out from surgery. Of course Aiden LOVED the attention since he is such a little flirt. By the time they called us into our room the entire waiting room had come over to see him and ask their various questions.

Dr. Mailander's nurses argued over who would get him as their patient. Rock, paper, scissors answered that question. He is now 16 lbs 11 ozs. and 27 in. long (he lost a little weight from the surgery). At birth he was 9 lbs 7 ozs and 21 inches long. That's a gain of 7 lbs 4 ozs and 6 inches. He is meeting all of his milestones, including crawling, sitting up unassisted, eating baby food, and recognizing Mommy and Daddy.

Once his initial evaluation was done his doctor came in. She immediately scooped him up and could not stop gushing over his repair. In all her years with multiple cleft babies she said she had never seen such a great repair and attributes it to not only a great surgeon but also the NAM and God's handy work. She had to call in the other doctors to check out the awesome repair. So here I am with the four kiddos in the room and in come 3 more doctors, followed by not only one nurse, but EIGHT nurses who all wanted to check out his repair. He ate up all the attention of course. Once the show and tell time was over it was back to business. She did her check and has recommended Aiden for an occupational therapist review. She wants him to see OT because even after three weeks post-op he still does not want to put the bottle nipple in his mouth, and moves his tongue kinda weird when he swallows. She is worried that could cause long term oral problems. This will be done STAT so we should be getting a call in the next day or so to get that scheduled. She also gave me the number for the speech evaluation because the cleft team said they wouldn't refer him till he was a year old. She would rather get him evaluated the earlier the better. I love how proactive she is instead of waiting till there is a major problem.

Aiden was Mr. Smiley, that was until Julie, the nurse, came in to give him his flu shot. He wasn't too happy about that but cheered up pretty quickly after the initial shock. We are praying for no side effects from the shot since we are planning on going to AZ this Fri, Sat, and Sun. for my sister's wedding.

That pretty much sums up the appointment. Desiree, Caleb, and Tatiana (my sister's kiddos) got the best end of the deal. Aiden got all the poking and proding and they got the lollipops and stickers. Doesn't seem fair but such is life when you are 7 1/2 months old.

*Sorry I don't have a pic (usually I do), but the room was a little crazy with the revolving door that it totally slipped my mind till I sat down to write this and realized I had forgotten.