3 month check up

I got a very tired Keenan to bed early tonight and Sean is making me dinner so I have a bit of computer time this evening. Yippee!

I took Keenan in for his 3-month check up last Wednesday. The hospital was a mad house. It was so crazy busy that I had to use their tertiary parking lot down the street. We get in, I sign in and by the look on the nurses faces I can tell that I’ve already managed to do something wrong. So it comes down to…“What are you doing here?” … That’s busy nurse speak for “What’s the purpose of your visit today?” I point out that my mother/baby book states that I’m supposed to bring Keenan in for a check up between 3 to 4 months after he’s born. I figured 15 weeks was pretty much half way. Apparently I was supposed to make an appointment. Of course no body told me that last time and it says so nowhere in my book. I’ll just chalk that one up as “one of those things I should have been born knowing”. Needless to say everyone was once again extremely accommodating and they managed to fit us in.

Keenan has been doing this “wingey, I’m not gonna sleep thing” for almost 2 weeks and I was really worried he was gonna have a melt down in the waiting area. Didn’t happen. He was very curious about the other babies and really appeared to be enjoying himself looking around and taking in the sights. Within about 5 minutes the mid wives upstairs had been notified that we were on the premises and they started to file down to see us. It was great to see Sato-san again and she clearly enjoyed bouncing a much bigger Keenan on her lap. The first segment of the visit always consists of checking and logging Keenan’s stats. He was so amazing during this process. He actually smiled and looked about happy as a clam. I was so pleased!

His progress since birth is as follows…
Weight gain (since post birth weight loss)…1870 grams (4.12 lbs)
Head circumference growth…5.2 cm
Chest circumference growth…6.2 cm
Growth in length (funny how we don’t say length growth!) … 10.6 cm

Keenan’s current stats are…
Weight: 5800 grams (12.78 lbs)
Head: 40.5 cm
Chest: 41 cm
Length: 62 cm

Then I discussed vaccines with the nurses and asked that he get vaccinated in the backside instead of the triceps. A 9-point vaccine is used in Japan to ensure maximum exposure and it leaves a nasty scar about an inch square. They didn’t think it would be a problem but I needed to ask the pediatrician. We drew up a vaccine/booster schedule for the next year and I put in a request for a Hep B vaccine. Hep B is not part of the bundle of routine vaccines here but it is in Canada. It costs 6400 yen a shot and there are 3 shots in total. We are planning a trip to Thailand this Christmas so I want to make sure Keenan has that one before we return home. He will get the polio, DPT and Hep B at the hospital and we have to go to the Health Centre to get the BCG.

Next we were sent back out to the waiting area to wait to see the pediatrician. This is where you get to listen to all the other kids screaming while their vaccines are being administered, it’s bloody hell and I wasn’t looking forward to Keenan’s turn. Keenan fell asleep while we were waiting. Great, not only was he is line to get a needle in his ass, he was going to wake up to getting a needle in his ass. What an evil mom! The pediatrician completely checked Keenan over and was please with increase in length but said Keenan was still “smallish” read “not fat enough”! Arghhhhhh! By North American standards he’s doing just fine and I don’t think he needs to be a porker to be healthy. Now for the vaccines. It was pretty heartbreaking to watch Keenan naked and squirming around on the examining bench as he was getting a shot in the muscle above each bum cheek. He stopped crying as soon as he was dressed and in my arms and everything was a-ok again.

All in all I was pleased with how everything went and I’m happy with Keenan’s progress. It was great to see the mid wives again and Keenan did me proud by being such a tough and brave little guy. Hopefully I can be just as brave during the administering of the rest of his vaccines.