Doctor's Visit

Karsten and Cooper had their 4 and 2 year well check appointments today. Yes, I realize we are 5 months behind on Karsten's and 2 months behind on Cooper's. Karsten's has been rescheduled twice and Cooper's once, so I was just glad to get it taken care of.

Cooper ended up at 31 lbs and 35 1/2 inches, with his height just below the 75th percentile and his weight just above the 75th percentile. He was solidly at the 50th percentile for the first year of his life, but has been inching up over the past year. He had 2 shots (flu and Hep A) and handled it like a champ. We still joke that Cooper is our little runt since neither Peyton nor Karsten have ever been near the 50th percentile.

Karsten was 42 lbs and 44 1/2 inches, making him well above the 97th percentile for height and at the 90th percentile for weight. That boy has shot up over this past year. He was at the 75th percentile for height at 2 years old and the 90th percentile at 3 years old and now he is well above the 97th percentile line. It is no wonder that for about 6 months of this past year he kept complaining that his legs hurt him all the time. I knew that he was starting to get taller than most of his friends, but I didn't expect him to be off the chart. He got 5 shots and a TB test and handled it terribly. It was awful. He screamed and wouldn't let the nurse get near him. Finally he held still long enough to do the shots, but he screamed the most guttural, awful scream you would ever want to hear from your child, all the while looking right into my eyes as if he was saying "why are you letting them do this to me?". The 4 year shots are the worst because they know it is coming and they are scared and have all this anxiety built up before they even walk in the door. And shots do hurt. I got my flu shot today and it did hurt.

Anyway, they nursed their poor sore legs with donuts afterwards and Karsten used his traumatic experience as a bargaining chip all day. If he wanted his way, he would just say to Peyton "I got 5 shots today. It really hurt. I screamed really loud and cried." Meanwhile, Peyton was upset that they got a sticker from the doctor's office and a donut and she didn't. I told her that I would stick her leg with a needle 5 times and she could have one too. She got pretty quiet after that...