18 months old!

Where has the time gone?! I can't believe that my *babies* are now walking, talking toddlers. Time really does pass by too quickly, especially now that I have two lives against which to measure this passing of time!

The boys had their 18-month appointment yesterday and are doing great. Here are the stats:

Ben
Height: 31.5" (25th percentile)
Weight: 22lb, 11oz (12th percentile)
Ben gained almost a pound and a half since the 15 month appointment and grew 1 inch. Although he is still small for a child his age, his growth has been consistent, so no concerns.

Sam
Height: 32.5" (50th percentile)
Weight: 22lb, 15oz (17th percentile)
Sam grew 2 inches in the past 3 months, but gained only 6 ounces! This is not unexpected seeing he started walking during this time.

The boys ended up getting 3 shots at this appointment -- DpT, Hep A and seasonal flu. CT enacted new vaccination laws regarding Hep A for all children born after January 1, 2008 as a public health measure. Dr. Matt explained it to us that children who contract Hep A don't have any real health issues from the disease. Adults, however, get very, very sick -- so the state has decided that vaccinating children will help protect adults. Makes sense to me, and we don't have a choice about declining the vaccine (nor would we, we knew when we picked our pediatrician and enrolled the boys in daycare, we would be required to follow the state-mandated vaccination schedule). We did discuss swine flu, and the pediatrician did recommend it because of the boys' prematurity -- but it certainly was not a whole-hearted recommendation. He doesn't yet have the vaccination, so it wasn't a decision we had to make at this point, but we will likely decline.

The pediatrician was impressed with the boys' cognitive development and told us that they are both doing things that wouldn't be expected of them until at least 2 years of age, such as their knowledge of body parts, large vocabularies (both have well over 20 words), and the ability to string several words together (all gone, all done, hi daddy, ciao mama). We were pleased with this, obviously, especially because the boys' cognitive development is often measured against their adjusted age (they are 16 months adjusted), rather than actual age.

The pediatrician commented that the boys' smarts are probably due to all the breast milk -- and I think he was only half-kidding! He is a strong-supporter of breast-feeding, and was impressed with me that I managed to stick with the pumping for the full-year, and that my body produced enough milk to exclusively feed the boys breast milk (with the exception of the early bottles of NeoSure for preemie development). I don't know if the breast milk actually made any sort of difference -- but I hope it did, seeing I spent at least 50 days of my life hooked up to that breast pump (at least 6 pumpings a day, each lasting about 30 minutes, for over 365 days!).












** Pictures from Kid City Children's Museum! Smelled like the inside of a Diaper Genie (seriously, people, change your child's dirty diaper!), but the boys had a great time.