Clean bill of health

Well Brian and I experienced a first for ourselves today as parents (and hopefully no repeat visits are ever needed). At Eli's 18 month check-up, the doctor heard a heart murmur. It was the first time she had ever heard it, and she wasn't concerned at all. But, she did still have to have it documented that it was innocent and functional so she recommended us to a pediatric cardiologist. Our appoitment was today. We saw Dr. Mo (this isn't actually his full name, but that's what everyone calls him) out at Cypress Heart. We got there early like they asked and got all checked in and everything. I think Eli was liking the visit from the start because he was getting "special" stuff he doesn't usually get. He got to have a big sippie cup full of apple juice and Brian even shared his "waiting room" snack with him (this was something chocolate that our 1 year old definitely didn't need, but it was hard to deny him when Brian was sitting there eating it right in front of him. Oh....and handing him pieces:)). When the nurse came back to get us Eli was spralled out in the waiting room chair drinking his juice with one foot on the arm rest. Pretty stinking cute, I wish I had a picture of it. He had the look of pure contenment on his face:). We got back and they started doing all of their tests on him. He got some cool "stickers" stuck all over him so they could do an EKG and he loved playing with the blood pressure cuff. Next we went back for our echocardiagram. I didn't know what this was before, but it is a sonogram of his heart. It was very cool. They could see five sides of his heart and measure everything that they needed to see. This was probably the hardest part because Eli had to be fairly still for about 20 minutes. He wasn't too sure what the gel was all about that the guy kept putting on his chest, but he didn't seem to mind. They had a video playing that kept him occupied part of the time. I'm always amazed by all of the technology we have. It was pretty cool to see his heart and watch it pump and beat. Of course, I had no idea what I was really looking at, I don't know how those guys do it. It all just looks like black and white blobs to me. Anyways, after the echo we went back to the room to wait for the dr. He came in and told us that Eli looked great, his murmur was innocent and he shouldn't expect to see any problems from it. He told us that 5 kids out of 10 Eli's age will have a heart murmur and that probably 4 out of 5 are perfectly fine. He told us that kids' heart walls aren't are thick so a lot of times the heart just has that extra sound. I told Eli he just had a musical heart:) We don't have to go back unless for some reason his pediatrician thinks something about the sound of the murmur has changed or it gets worse. Eli did a great job, I was so proud of him for sitting so still and letting strangers mess with him. He even let the first nurse carry him when they went to get his weight. I was fairly shocked. He's never done that, especially not with me in the room. Brian and I weren't too worried about this visit in the first place because our doctor wasn't concerned, but it was very nice to hear that everything looks great with him. He just confirmed what we already knew, he's our crazy little man!