Luke's 3 year well-check

At three years old, Roger weighed 37 pounds and was 37 1/2 inches tall. Luke, at three, weighs 29 pounds and stands 36 inches tall. Daddy was a BRICK! Granted, Roger's mom is 5'9'' whereas I'm a towering 5'3", but it does make you wonder if Luke would be a bit bigger with a 4-chambered heart.

I think we're out of the worst of the doctor-phobia phase (for now, right?). Luke was so cooperative at the appointment, saying "Aaah", giving his arm for blood pressure, letting the doc look in his eyes and ears, etc. Surprisingly cooperative. Up until the point they had to draw blood from a finger poke and then proceed to give him his 4th Hib booster. I haven't seen him cry that hard in a long time. But in the midst of his crying fit, as we're telling him "We're all done! Let's go home!" he kept saying, "I don't want to leave! I want to stay here!" Didn't I tell you this kid lives in the present?

Everything checked out great and we got quite a bit of time with the pediatrician to ask our questions. The only follow-up he recommended was with an eye doctor. They saw a slight astigmatism in his left eye and want us to get it checked out further. I was hoping we could add another doctor to our list.

Sarcasm aside, it hit me again yesterday how healthy Luke has been this past year and how thankful — incredibly thankful — we are for that. As the doc was skimming his chart, he noted aloud that it was pretty impressive Luke hadn't even been to the pediatrician since last winter, much less the E.R. or through a hospital admittance.

A few other take-aways:

• We're going to start giving Luke Vitamin D supplemental drops, since there is no way he gets enough in his diet. We can only get him to take 8-10 ounces of milk per day. Even though he loves cheese and yogurt, I'm pretty sure he still doesn't get the recommended amount. He also wouldn't mind seeing Luke take some sort of Omega-3 supplement.
• When Luke's Fontan was planned for this summer, Rog and I felt okay about letting Luke keep his mimi (pacifier) through the hospital stay. He only uses it in his bed right now, and we felt if it brought him any comfort at the hospital, we wanted that for him. Now that the Fontan has been pushed back a year, we don't really have a reason to keep it around anymore. I cannot tell you how sad this makes me! For some reason, I am having such a hard time thinking about taking it from Luke. Maybe I'm just too soft? I think more likely, it's that I hate the thought of taking something from him that he loves so much. He hasn't had a lot of say in what's been done to him in his short little life, and now we're going to take away one of his best buddies. "Is there really anything wrong with it if he just uses it at night?" I asked the pediatrician, praying he'd say, "No! Go ahead and let the little guy have it as long as he wants!" No such luck. He said it was time. This is one, like when we went through sleep training, where I am going to seriously need my husband's strength and reassurance Luke will come out mimi-less just fine.
• His teeth looked great! I have always worried about Luke's teeth because of his flavored medicine he's taken his whole life along with the severe reflux his first year. He still wants us to make Luke's first dental appointment, but he saw no sign of decay or cavities.

Our prayer last night was that we don't go back to that office until Luke's 4-year checkup!