Two Year Check

Popped along to the local SureStart Clinic today to complete Jamie's two year check. We had been sent a form to complete which highlighted any problems. The only ones that stood out were Jamie's tendency to sleep with us and his language skills. The Health Visitor was really encouraging. She weighed and measured Jamie. He is on the 91% centile for both. Weight is 14.8kg and Height 91.5cms. She said as far as the sleeping in our bed was concerned - if we weren't bothered by it then that was all that mattered. As she said; "He won't be in there when he's 19!" So I am happy to continue as we have been doing. It isn't every night he ends up in our bed and at least now he is getting into his own bed at bedtime some nights....

As for his language skills, the only concern was that he is not really putting two words together as yet. He has however, got a wide vocabulary and does understand most of what people say to him. He does point and indicate things that he wants, he does have ideas of concepts; such as hot and cold, and he is 'vocalising frequently' i.e. making sounds and chattering even though we don't necessarily know what he means!! She suggested writing down all the words he says in a day to get some sense of how many words he does actually know. She was pleased when I said I limited TV til 9am in the mornings and I told her how when reading not only do we say 'Point to' but we also now say 'Show me'. The Health Visitor commented on his prematurity (which I had forgotten) and said this could be a factor even at this age. She said to go back to the clinic in 3months if things had not improved. This is what they said to Nicola at Will's 2year check so am not too worried as yet!!

While we were talking, there was another little girl who was older than Jamie and she was playing with the toys in the middle of the room. The Health Visitor was able to see Jamie interacting. He came over a few times for reassurance from me. I said things like; "Its ok, you can play with the toys as well", so she saw Jamie was quite social. She highlighted that Nursery would help with his development and not to worry that I was not doing enough with him.

I got quite tearful at one stage and explained how I get so anxious about him. She said this was perfectly natural and if I still felt like this is a few weeks - after mine and Dale's jobs had settled down - I should go and see my GP and ask about some counselling.

I came away feeling better. I just need to just cut myself some slack, stop trying to live up to unreasonable, self imposed standards and just GET ON WITH IT!!