Max's 1 Year Checkup Drama

So I'm trying really hard to take a photo every day this year - not a gob, just one, even on my cell for this Project 365 album I want to make. Tuesday was Max's one year checkup - no thanks to his slacker mom who forget to make an appointment. The office called to gently remind us that we needed to bring him in at the first available appointment, so the next morning we were off to the doctor's office!

Nothing went as planned that day. John met us there so he could take Gabe and Ben to play while Max got his doctorin' done...Ben fell asleep on the way to the office (a 15 minute ride) and Gabe fell asleep shortly thereafter, so John spent 2 HOURS sitting in the car with them.

That's right-  Max's appointment took 2 hours. He was such a peach - so patient with all the waiting around and not touching anything. The pic I snapped is of him using the doctor's stool as a walker - he did dozens of laps of the room. I think he was just happy to be running around (mostly) naked!

The problem was that Max has apparently not grown a smidge since his 9 month appointment. Now...when we went to his 9 mo appointment, Max has just barely started wearing his 9 month clothes...and now he's well into 12 months and starting to wear a few 18 month shirts. So I find this statistic very hard to believe...maybe the not gaining weight, because he started crawling and he's a lot more active now, but no height growth at all? Really?

I totally think that maybe they just measured wrong at his nine month, but in any case he's dropped to the 10th percentile for height and 25th for weight. Combined with his penchant for sleeping an average of 10 to 11 hours a day, the doctor wanted a blood test for his thyroid activity. Super!

We trot down to the lab...and wait...and wait...and wait. Turns out there's only one room in the lab set up for babies, and someone passed out in it right before we got there...and there was a big bloody mess, so the room was unavailable...for 30 minutes! Finally they sent someone down to peds to set up a blood draw for Max there. While I didn't mind waiting, it's a long time for a little guy, and he was just about done with that waiting room. If only he knew what was coming....

We go back to peds and they draw his blood (insert blood curdling screams and crying here). Then he gets not one but three shots in his legs to complete his fabulous doctor's visit. I swear he was giving me the evil eye - how could you, Mom? We nursed, calmed down, and jette3d back out to let Daddy head back to work and drop Gabe off at school after spending the entire morning sitting in the car. Awesome!

Turns out Max's thyroid is fine - but he's super anemic. So now we've got vitamin drops with iron and yummy metallic orange iron drops to take each day. You might remember that Ben had an anemia scare as well - this time with our new doctor the anemia was handled as an important condition to correct but not a full blown panic attack complete with accusations of brain damage. What a difference a change in doctors can make! Chicken is going to be Max's new food of choice.

Max actually doesn't seem to mind the drops at all. I think they taste a bit like Flintstones vitamins, if you were licking them off a rusty old pole. John gagged big time when he tasted them. Max just drinks them up no problem, so I assume he'll be back to full pink soon! And though he may be a bit anemic, he's otherwise perfectly healthy and determined to walk any day now...we'll try to grab a video for y'all!