Reality Check (this will be long)

As many of you know (because I kept bragging about it) Ezra had no appointments of any kind in May! It was a wonderful month and a great break. However just three days into June reality came back with a vengeance, how dare we leave it for a month. Ezra had his follow up appointment with the Geneticist on Wednesday morning. They said that all of his blood work came back normal and that they saw no problems with his chromosomes. Then the Geneticist did an examination and came to the conclusions that Ezra had a heart murmur, that his head had dropped from the 75th percentile to the 30th, and that he had low muscle tone. Because Ezra was headed to his six month check up with his pediatrician next they said they wanted him to have a follow up with cardiology if the pediatrician also heard the murmur and that he would need some kind of head scan because of the drop in size and his soft spot is a bit small. I kind of thought that he was a little crazy because Ezra has had is heart thoroughly checked multiple times in utero and since he was born (thanks to the clefting). He had an EKG the day after he was born and has been on a heart monitor every time he has had surgery, not to mention his well baby appointments. No one has seemed to think there was a problem. Also this is the second time he had said that Ezra had low muscle tone, and no other person checking him out for all the million times he has gone to the doctor has ever said this. He is incredibly strong and very active, in my opinion definitely not low muscle tone. Anyways, he said that he would call the pediatrician and report everything to her.

A little spikey hair thanks to the ultrasound gel.

So we leave and head straight to see Dr. Potee. They brought us in a room and did Ezra's vitals. They said he was 27 inches long and that he was just under 13 pounds! WHAAAAT! You mean to tell me he fattened up a little, grew a couple inches and has NO weight gain to show for it. Crazy I know. When Dr. Potee came in I told her what the Geneticist said. She did not hear a murmur and was not concerned. She agreed with me that he has been thoroughly looked after over the last 6 months. She had noticed that his soft spot was a little tight last time and agreed that he would need some kind of head scan (she did not think that his head had dropped any percentiles). They were a little concerned because Ezra is not really rolling over anymore (if you remember he started just before he was two months old which is extremely early), and not as close to sitting unassisted as they would like, so they want to make sure that with the small fontanel that his brain has plenty of room to grow. When I asked her about the weight gain she insisted on weighing him herself because she just couldn't believe that he had lost .24 kilos. It turns out they had written down the wrong number. He really weighs 15 lbs. Whew! She ordered an ultrasound of his head and an appointment with a neurologist. She also got us hooked up with a program that will come and assess him to see if he needs a little physical therapy to help him with rolling over and sitting. She agreed that he did not have low muscle tone and left to go call the geneticist (he paged her while she was in with us). They had words, but kept it nice, according to Dr. Potee, and concluded that his heart was fine, but to go through with the head scan. So Ezra got his shots and we headed upstairs for an ultrasound.

I've been so busy with my feet, I forgot about my hands!

The lady in ultrasound was really nice. Ezra was really good for her and was such a little trooper. When she was done the Radiologist came in and said that there were some things that they saw that are not uncommon, but not "normal" and that she saw no reason for concern, however she admitted that she could not say what the doctors would take away from it. They couldn't get as good of pictures as they would like because his fontanel was so small. Anyways...Dr. Potee called us that night and said that you couldn't tell much from the ultrasound and that she was pretty sure the neurologist would order an MRI just to make sure that everything is okay. So it looks like Ezra will be sedated again next week for an MRI. Wahoo.

We got Ezra a bumbo chair to help him learn to sit up!

Bob and I are not too worried (I was a little freaked out and worried that night because I felt so confused trying to explain everything to Bob). All of Ezra's development is on track (babies normally sit up somewhere in the 6-8 month range) so we are just taking this as a precaution (which is what Dr. Potee told us to take it as). So much for having less doctors to see though. Oh well what can you do! We will keep you all informed as to the findings.