Even though they turned 18-months old on February 4th, the "babies" only recently went for their checkup. The doctor that they were supposed to see had a little mishap on the way to the office. Thankfully, we didn't have to wait an extra hour and a half for him to get in, the office called in the on-call doctor and we were taken right away. Even though I still like this doctor (Dr. S), she hasn't seen the babies since they were...well...babies. Dr. S made a few observations I liked...but some that I think may have been a bit over-board. For instance, she is a tad concerned with the lack of actual words spoken by Cole, Eli, and Ava. Apparently, Dr. S feels that they each should have 6-8 distinct words. They don't. She asked what "Early Intervention" had to say about their speech development. Well. Um. Nothing. We've never contacted EI. Didn't know we were supposed to. Dr. S then asked me what the Child Development Center (that's the NICU doctor's practice) had to say at the triplet's one year follow up evaluation. Well. Um. Nothing. I didn't realize they were supposed to go for one. So basically, in a nutshell: Dr. S pointed out that I'm not really on top of things. =)
Here are the important facts...
Ava
30 inches long
19 lbs. 10 3/4 oz.
Not on the Percentage Chart
As you can tell from her picture, she's my chewer! Ava LOVES her "cozy" and can't sleep without it. She even carries it around with her during the day. But the minute she gets it...it's immediately in her mouth. Ava is definitely a Daddy's girl. As soon as he walks into the room, Ava shoots her arms straight up into the air...as if she's at gun-point.
Eli
31 inches long
23 lbs. 3 oz.
20th Percentile
Way back in the NICU, Nurse Cathy nicknamed Eli the "Goof Ball" and boy was she right! He is! Eli can be seen laughing as he chases Cole &/or Ava around the Family Room. He is also our biggest babbler...with the most variety of sounds. He's still sucking his thumb...either thumb will do.
Cole
34 inches long
28 lbs. 15 1/2 oz. (apparently the nurse didn't want to write 29#s)
85th Percentile
In two words: STEAM ROLLER. This little boy runs, rambles, and barrels over and through anything in his path. In the next breath, he's extremely sensitive. Simply saying "no" brings the boy to tears...no need to raise your voice, let alone holler. Cole is also very expressive. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and would make the world's WORST poker player.
As far as the Doctor's recommendations go, I did call The Center for Child Development out of Valley Hospital and made appointments with Susan Bell, RN, MSN, etc. She saw them way back when and assured me that I was not a terrible mother for not following up with them. It's not like they had any follow up action items from their last evaluation. I'll wait until after Nurse Bell sees the gang before I do anything with EI.
2 comments:
Amy - I wouldn't sweat the talking thing. My Nathan was 6 1/2 wks early and not saying ANYTHING at 18mos. My pediatrician said to wait until he was 2 - which we did. He had a few words, but we still had the eval done by EI. He didn't qualify with the testing, but they did recommend speech therapy due to his lack of vocab. That was back in late Nov. We've had 3 speech therapy sessions since Jan. and he's doing so well, the therapist wants to drop it to just a monthly visit. I truly believe it all just happens naturally in due time. Some kids I know didn't say a word until they were 3! You're NOT a bad mom ~ don't ever think that! :)
Awww....Dr. S obviously doesn't see how well your kids do on a daily basis. They are such wonderful kids!!! You're doing a great job!
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