Caleb's 6 Year Appointment

Bright and early this morning, I packed up the kids and drove to our beloved pediatrician for Caleb's 6 year well appointment.
I came armed with a few questions and some expectations of what our appointment would be like and, true to form, it was a great experience, for the most part.
Basically, this is what we found out:

• Caleb is growing and developing as he should. He is in the 73rd percentile for weight (a decrease from last year), but in the 99th percentile for height. This did not come as any sort of surprise to me as all his clothes are not getting tighter, just shorter. And really, his gene pool pretty much guaranteed his tall-ness.
• This visit, they did the hearing test where they put the probe in his ears to measure the movement of his eardrum. If you've been around here at all then you will remember that we went through a series of these tests a few years ago where he failed each and every one. Our NP and I decided that instead of wasting more money for him to fail another of these tests, I am going to try to get him in right away to see the audiologist. I do not think that he has any hearing loss, but we need to be sure and get it checked out.
• Caleb is right on where he needs to be developmentally, even ahead, for his age. As always, they were very impressed by how intelligent he is, which is always good for a Mama's heart!
  
• The last thing that we got today was an unofficial diagnosis of ADHD. This does not come as a surprise to me at all as this is something that we have thought was in play for many years now. Since Caleb is not in the school setting, we are able to be much more flexible in treatments and working with him. He does not have any disruptions in his everyday life (eating, sleeping, etc) like many kids, so his is deemed mild and we are able to monitor everything for now. One thing that I really appreciate about our doctors is that they are not over-medicators and don't jump right to that, so we are going to wait, watch and work with him as we have been.

So, all in all it was a good visit, other than having to literally lay on top of him during his one vaccination that was missed at his 4 year appointment, it was an easy appointment. It really is a joy to visit our pediatrician who care so much, not only for our kids but also the rest of the family!

Seriously?!? What Is Wrong With me???

For the last 2+ years, I've been totally open about the fact that I don't ever want to be pregnant or have another baby ever again. Ever.
Then I got cancer.
That changes/changed everything. Last summer, as soon as I got my diagnosis, I immediately started wanting to have another baby. I totally thought I was out of my mind and just reacting to this major life issue and thought it would pass.
It never did.
It, in fact, has gotten much, much worse. To the point where I have had a gut wrenching, visceral reaction when friends recently announced that they were pregnant.
I have 2 kids who are pretty much in the age where they are fairly easy to go and do things with, so why in the world would I want to start over?
What in the world is wrong with me?

Eye Update

For the last year, Caleb has been wearing glasses. Last February, we took him in for his 6 month visit, something we had been doing for a year previous to that. It was determined at that time that he needed some sort of corrective lens, but only for one eye that had an astigmatism.
The other treatment that we were working with was that he was wearing a patch for 3 hours a day.
Now I know that sounds like SO much fun, but believe me when I tell you that it was a battle every single day.
This morning we went back to visit our family eye doctor to see where he was. His last visit occurred while I was in the hospital in August during my radiation treatment. During that visit, he did not see his regular doctor and Jes took him, all of which threw him totally off and he was less than cooperative. So, to say that we didn't have the best picture of where he stood.
I'm thinking that he was starting to have difficulty seeing at this point, but just wasn't able to articulate that. He's been telling me the past few months that he can't see certain things, usually small print, so I had an idea that this time around would be different.
Caleb is a typical first born and would rather not do something or try to fix a situation if it isn't working out just the way he wants it to. This is also true when it comes to his vision. He often would refuse to complete a task when he was having trouble seeing it, so I knew that we were going to have to have a good screening this time to ensure that we got his prescription correct.
So, before we went to see the doctor this morning, I had a talk with Caleb and let him know that all he had to do was say that he couldn't see something if he couldn't see it. This seemed to be exactly what he needed to hear and probably was what he needed to hear last year too.
Being a mother makes me feel so dumb sometimes. It was just so simple and I made it so hard.
Anyway, his last glasses only had one corrective lens, the left one, because his right eye was just barely outside of normal, not enough for a corrective lens.
However, this time around, his left eye was worse and his astigmatism in the same eye was worse, as was his right eye that was barely out last time.
So, Caleb got new glasses today. They are blue and he loves them.
The best news is that he doesn't have to wear his patch anymore! That's the benefit, I supposed, of his eyes both getting worse.