Our Perfect Boy!

Last week, we took Charlie to two doctor's visits and both proclaimed him an awesome kid.

We started with a dentist appointment to check a possible lip tie.  A lip tie is when the frenulum connecting the upper lip to the gum is too low.  It can make it difficult for them to latch correctly making nursing awkward for them and painful for mom.  Charlie has been a funny nurser from the get go and it is really uncomfortable for me.  Mom recently heard about this lip tie thing and I wanted to check it out.  Charlie hated the dentist experience!  His frenulum is low, but not something the dentist felt we should address.  I was a little disappointed hoping something would give me relief.  We do need to brush Charlie's teeth more thoroughly, but he is fine.  We also got a heads up that he is cutting three molars right now!  

Our next appointment was to see a geneticist.  We have been waiting for that appointment for nearly a year!  Charlie was born with an extra finger next to his pinky and his middle finger curves.  We saw a hand specialist last November who referred us to a geneticist as these hand abnormalities can be symptoms of several syndromes that are only diagnosed by the presence of a collection of symptoms that often include mental retardation.  I was scared to death to read about these when he was a tiny baby.  He quickly showed me eye contact and a beautiful smile that helped alleviate a lot of my fear.  The geneticist examined him and checked all sorts of reflexes and neural function while Charlie screamed and pushed her away.  She determined that he is a normal one year old and found it 

reassuring that he didn't want her bothering him.  She can't say for sure what is causing the curvature of the finger without extensive x-rays of his hands and arms that we elected not to do.  She did tell us it is a dominant genetic trait so Charlie's children will likely display it and SG carries it.  She said Aaron or I one likely have a deformity of the bones in a hand that would be visible on an x-ray.  There is no blood work today for identifying chromosomal abnormalities affecting the hand.  So, testing won't be very useful for anything other than putting a label on it.  We will pursue correcting the appearance of his hand and let him decide if labeling the reason for it is important.  It was a huge relief to have her say there is nothing else of concern!