A Great Doctor's Visit, Speech Evaluation

Henry had a busy day today. In the afternoon he had a visit from Lisa, a speech therapist, to do an evaluation. She asked a lot of questions and observed him and said he is doing great, right at the point he should be for a 9 month old. She didn't see any need to have more visits but will be available if we should need her should he stop progressing. That was nice to hear.

Later in the afternoon we headed across town to visit Dr. Tsai, the doctor from the NICU that follows up with developmental assessments every 3-6 months. Last visit she thought he was doing well but needed much more tummy time. She had requested he get physical therapy twice a week.

This visit she was absolutely amazed at his development. She played with him, observed him and asked questions. She was impressed by his focus and concentration while exploring new toys and repeatedly used the word "intense" to describe it. She said he is at the 9-10 month level. She was expecting him to be at 6 or 7 months. Looking at him she said he does not show that he was a preemie, he looks like a normal 9 month old. She considers him to be caught up, which normally doesn't happen until they are 2 years old. We will visit her again in 6 months, although she wasn't sure that was necessary and was willing to put things on an as needed schedule.

This, of course, is exactly what we wanted to hear. I figured no doctor or therapist would ever give him a completely clean bill of health, instead opting to point out a small issue here or there to justify their existence. Dr. Tsai has always been a very straight shooter and praise coming from her is particularly valued.

I hate to say this but things are going so well right now with his growth, eating, mobility, and digestive issues that I'm starting to feel a little bit of dread. It seems there is always some other shoe that drops just when things start going well. I hope this time it will be different.

Despite all the set backs, he is doing incredibly well. He certainly could be doing much worse. Today he weighed 18lbs 11oz at the doctors office, however he had just had a large bottle and he had to pee. He managed to pee all over the scale after he was weighed. His head circumference was 45cm and his length was 27 and 5/8 inches. The nurse did the head measurement twice and came up with the same thing, which is great. His head was measured at 44.7cm last Thursday. Either the stuffy head from his cold is causing his head to balloon or they measured it wrong at the pediatricians office, which wouldn't be a first. Now his weight is around the 25th percentile for his adjusted age, his length is between 25-50% and his head circumference is at the 50th percentile. This is more of what we wanted to hear.