Truman's Four Year appointment

This post is absolutely all for me, since I'm sure nobody else really cares about the details of a particular well-child appointment. But I must post Truman's four year visit lest I forget someday!

It's crazy to think that Truman used to have well-baby appointments every two months as an infant and now he just goes in yearly. Lucky for our first born, he still has to come along for the ride with his sister and eventually, his baby brother so T will surely get plenty of doctor's office experiences through the years. But still! Time flies. He has been to to the doctor once for an actual sickness in the past year but otherwise this was the first 'Truman' appointment since his three year visit. The big day was on April 15, in case I feel the need to remember the exact date.

The shots came at the very end of the visit, like always, but I will mention them first since they were such a HUGE part of the anticipation with this visit. The doctor had warned us that Truman would get three shots at his four year visit many months ago and ever since then I was sort of dreading it. I totally failed at getting my kids Flu shots this year, since every time we were going to go into the office, one of the two was sick (from about January through March). Nate and I always get our flu shots each year from our jobs but apparently making a separate appointment for the kids just didn't happen this year. Whoops! That probably would have helped Truman's nerves when it came to getting shots this time around.

We watched the Daniel Tiger episode ( end of season 1) about getting shots and we talked this thing to death before the appointment. Truman knows that we get shots to protect us from getting very, very sick. He decided that he would think happy thoughts and close his eyes during the injections, and he knew it would only hurt for a little bit. There were four vaccines rolled into three shots in the thighs: IPV (polio) with DTap, Varicella (chickenpox), and MMR. No more shots until he is 11, thank goodness! He laid down, held my hand, closed his eyes and thought about 'happy thoughts'. Later he told me the three things make him happy: Playing baseball with mommy and daddy outside, playing before bed inside, and sleeping really good until his clock turns yellow. Melt me now. He cried for 1 second, and I held his little hands as the nurses finished up. He wanted wanted to see the bandaids right away and they became the center of the universe for the next day or two (i.e. 'mommy, I want to check on my bandaids to see if they are still there). Then he said, 'That DID hurt a little bit, mommy.' MD was glad we had prepared him and I was so incredibly proud of my sensitive boy for making this visit as painless as possible.

His stats:
Height: 43.3" which is 97% (was 91% a year ago)
Weight: 41 lbs 6.4 oz which is 87% (was 86% in September)
BP: 104/63 (omg, the miniature BP cuff was adorable!)




The nurse did an eye exam with shapes and a hearing exam, where he had to say 'beep' whenever he heard the little probe make a noise. He passed both 'with flying colors' and seemed very proud during both exams.







Things they asked him to do/discussed with me:

-Hopping on each leg, high kicks, squats, duck walking. Did all really well and thought this part was hilarious.

-TV time? (I said about 1.5 hours per day and she said that was fine)

-Diet? (I said it's a big struggle to get the kid to eat anything new, but we have our tried and true favorites and I have very little energy to battle with him on diet. Both the resident and the doctor thought that was a very healthy approach--not to push it, because Truman WILL eat a variety of foods someday. Just not right now. And he is obviously growing well, so as long as I'm not making myself a 'made-to-order chef', making a bunch of things for him in one sitting after he refuses each option, then we are good. For the record, heck no! I make him dinner (usually not the dinner that Nate and I have in front of us) and he has to eat that or he gets nothing else. I wish he ate vegetables aside from potatoes but whatever. I was a picky eater as a kid and so was Nate, and now we both eat grown up things like salads and actually like them!

-Is he riding a bike yet?  (yes)

-Dress self? (yes)

-Sun burns? (no, hard to even imagine this being an issue anytime soon, but he's never had a bad sunburn. He's my child that tans easily like his mama)

I asked about booster seat readiness versus continuing to be in a 5 point harness seat. Apparently he is ready for a booster since he is now four and over forty pounds, plus he is really tall so the seat belt will likely be low enough on his shoulders/chest instead of his neck. I doubt we will put him in a booster just yet since we now have room for 3 seats in the van, but maybe we can put him in a booster in the third row while keeping his siblings together in the second row sooner than later?

The doctor listened to his heart and Truman continues to show a Stills Murmur. He might not grow out of it, or he might, but either way it's not causing him any problems and is fairly common so I'm not supposed to worry about it. The pediatrician had a Stills Murmur as a kid and never outgrew it so there were some jokes made about the doc and Truman 'never growing up.'  Listened to lungs. Checked neck glands. Looked at tonsils--said they were really big. Looked into ears--good but waxy, and into nose. Teeth. Spine. Reflexes at knees and achilles. Poked around on his tummy. Checked his privates--talked about who can look here. Said only mommy and daddy and the doctor can see his privates, and I thought that was both a fantastic and scary conversation that needs to happen at this age.



Talked about social skills (I think Truman excels in this!). Said the 'team concept' really starts to form at this age. Told me to continue asking Truman how he feels about certain things, what he thought about XX. This can help higher level reasoning as he matures.

All of the staff there asked about his baby brother, what we are naming him, and if Truman is going to be a big helper. Asked about school in the fall. Asked about wetting the bed which has pretty much never happened with Truman. The kid has never even worn a pull up in his life--something that I know makes him a rarity in the potty training world. He really just seemed to 'get it' when we potty trained him right before 2.5 years. And we switched to undies 100% of the time and never looked back. I doubt Cecelia will blow us away quite as much when it's her turn, but we will see.



Truman chose to bring both monkey and Teddy Bear---a stuffed animal he actually got from the doctor's office a few years ago. He got a green sucker and a Spiderman sticker afterwards from the nice nurses (Cecelia got her own, too). Then all three of us went to Starbucks! It was an extra special treat to get chocolate milk AND a brownie, since he usually 'only' gets a brownie. .



Baby book update:


CC kept wanting to get on T's table and wanted to show off her own socks, her own belly, etc as the staff asked Truman their questions. She even seemed to want a shot when T got them. Silly girl.

My big boy made me so proud this day! And we've been so lucky/blessed for Truman's health over the years. What a great thing for an annual well-child appointment to be the biggest 'health visit' he knows right now. We definitely don't take that for granted. We are also VERY happy to have medical insurance, as always. Apparently they didn't enter Truman's new insurance card information at the front desk after all (even though I did give it to them and spent time going through it with them, etc). Got the bill for the visit and hello, $750 scare! Ha, um, no. It was a good appointment and all but $750? Wow. Easy fix to give them the insurance information AGAIN on the phone, and preventative visits like this should be covered 100%. Ah, healthcare in the USA. So interesting.