Annie's Checkup at Nine Months

Today Annie had her nine month checkup with Dr. Stephens. And, of course, Annie was as happy as always. Gail (our nurse) weighed Annie and took all the measurements. Annie weighs 22 pounds and 6 ounces (95th percentile) and is 27 inches tall (15th percentile). Again, and I say this with all the love in the world, . . . short and fat. : )
While we were waiting for the doctor, Annie had fun playing with (and drooling on) the paper on the examining table. There were two main things I wanted to ask about today: Annie's rash and Annie's ears. You can't see it in the picture, but Annie has a red rash over most of her body, so I was wondering what Dr. Stephens would say about that. It started on Monday, and my first thought was that she had a reaction to the Coppertone sunscreen I put on her back (because that's where the rash started), but the second day it spread to her forehead (then I was suspecting heat rash), then to her front, and today to her extremeties. By this morning I had no idea what it was. Turns out that it's a viral rash. No other symptoms except a 99 temperature (which I thought was her ears) and a bit of disrupted sleep.

As for her ears, have you ever heard of a kid who simply lay happily against her mom's breast as the doctor took a long look inside her ears with an otoscope? That's Annie for ya'. Dr. Stephens said they didn't look bad, but again, not normal. She was glad Annie's having tubes put in. I was very glad to hear her say that! Just as Dr. Drake (the ENT) has great confidence in Dr. Stephens, Dr. Stephens has great confidence in Dr. Drake (because Dr. Stephens' second child had a cleft palate at birth and had to be operated on by Dr. Drake, . . . to great success). I couldn't feel more at ease with our decision for Annie. Prayers, please, for July 6.

Anyway, Dr. Stephens continued with the litany of questions as she examined Annie. I wondered if she would be concerned that, physically, Annie was simply sitting (and flopping back sometimes, at that). She wasn't. And, Lord knows, if the doctor isn't concerned, I'm not going to be encouraging much movement because crawling will be the next life-change for us all.