Not Your Average Baby

Jude finally had his check-up at the doctor's today.  Technically, it was supposed to be his 2-month well baby appointment, but since he's going to be 4 months next week, they decided to just skip the 2-month one altogether.  I guess I never really understood what well-baby checks are all about, until today.  Basically, they're just checking to see if your baby is meeting certain developmental milestones.  So it'd be kinda hard to do a 2-month exam on an almost-4-month old. 

Sounds simple enough, right?  Make an appointment, bring the baby in, make sure he's doing all those things 4 month olds do, and go home.  Ha, if only.  First, we had to request a change of primary care physicians since we moved.  That went through in June, and we were assigned to a base clinic in DC, about 40 minutes away.  The next day I called to make an appointment, the soonest I could get Jude in was today.  The only appointment they had available was 2:40pm, arrive 15 minutes early, yada yada yada.  I took it, and afterwards realized that was prime afternoon nap time (for the boys, not me).  I was hoping Jon would be home to keep Jack but he had orientation stuff today so Jack would be coming along.  Ergo, I've been planning for, and dreading, this trip for several days now, especially since this was the first time I was making the drive into the city by myself. 

Thankfully, God was good to me and woke both boys up a little earlier today.  So Jack was more willing to go down for his nap an hour earlier than usual.  And even though he only got half a nap before we had to leave, that was much better than no nap.  I had a movie already set up in the car, snacks and toys in the diaper bag, the stroller in the back for the big guy and the Mei Tei for the little guy. 

Traffic was good, the GPS led me in the correct direction and we arrived an extra 15 minutes earlier than the 15 minutes early.  Of course, it's quite the process getting out of the car and into the clinic.  Mom gets out first, then gets stroller, gets Jack out of car seat and into stroller, loads stroller with many accessories, puts on Mei Tei, pulls Jude out of carseat, puts Jude in Mei Tei, shuts all car doors, walks to clinic, opens first door with handicap accessible button, attempts to open second door with same button, doesn't work, so Mom pulls on door with hand, swings it open as wide as it goes with foot, holds it open with hip and pushes stroller through, then gets heels scraped by door as it shuts on her.  There's paperwork to fill out, which I have to do on a clipboard, in the air, my elbows accidentally clipping Jude on the head.  Naturally, we learned that our medical records never made it over from the former clinic.  And then there's the waiting typical of all doctors' offices.  Except this one didn't seem too typical.  Jack quickly went through my whole bag of tricks, and we were still waiting to be called back.  After waiting about 40 minutes Jon called to say he was on his way back from work, did I want him to stop by and pick up Jack.  "Yes, please!"  So he came and took Jack home before he became overly difficult.  And then Jude and I waited another 15 minutes. 

We were approaching the one hour wait mark when the nurse finally called our name.  We chatted with her a few minutes, and then waited another 15 minutes for the doctor to show up.  She checked Jude-bug over, pronounced him healthy and happy, and then sent us to the lab for a PKU check (which the hospital neglected to report results for when he was born, thus we had to do another one!).  So yet more waiting, then a horrendous heel pricking experience.  Next stop was the immunization office since Jude hasn't had his vaccinations yet.  Annnnd ... he still doesn't.  Because by the time we made it there the place was closed.  So now I'll be making yet another one of these crazy trips in a few days.  Just what I wanted!

On the bright side, I really like the boys' new pediatrician.  And this one is an actual children's doctor, with a super cute office with animals on the walls, toys to play with and the examination table on top of a purple hippo.  And despite the lack of healthcare these past few months (which I kinda liked), Judey-boy is doing fantastic.  The doc wasn't the least bit concerned with his rare bowel movements.  She said it's common in EBF (internet lingo for exclusively breastfed) babies.  Translated, Jude mom's makes such amazing milk that nothing is "wasted." :)  His excessive spitting up is also normal, just messy and stinky.  Which is the same thing we dealt with with Jack.  He's oh so close to rolling over and loves to practice.  He's holding his head up like a champ and just this past week he's been sitting in the Bumbo.  He's grabbing, sucking his fists, recognizing mommy, cooing, giggling and not teething just yet.  And he weighs in at just shy of 15 pounds.  He's just above average in weight and height, but he's got his brother's big head (way above average!).  The funny thing is, at almost 4 months Jude is the same size as Jack at 2 months.  And I have to say, I could get used to this little baby thing.  Labor was easier, feeding is easier, predicting clothing sizes is easier, and he slept through the night earlier... Oh, I love my totally different, yet sometimes the same boys!

So that was Jude's day.  And do you know what else is special about August 12, it's the day we found out about #2.  Yup, exactly one year ago today I snuck a bun into our oven and surprised Jon when he got home from work (literally, not figuratively).  Wow, where does the time go?