3T in a 5T World

So, here it is...

The Norditropin FlexPro Pen.  The pen is pre-filled with a month's worth of growth hormone fluid.  Apparently, it's very easy to use.  You snap on a new needle for each dose, turn the dial to the appropriate dose (the dose starts off very low and gradually increases), and give the injection.  No big deal, right?  Right!     Our wonderful Pediatric Endocrinologist even gave us a prescription for a tube of Lidocaine to numb up Jonah's leg before his first injection ( <---I have smart friends like Tammy and Gena who suggest brilliant things like this!).  Other growth-hormone-therapy-moms have said that the needle is so small that their kids don't use the Lidocaine.  A couple even do the injections while their kids are asleep!

The pen is sitting in the fridge waiting for a nurse to come to the house to teach us how to use it and supervise Jonah's first dose.

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I told Jonah earlier this week that his "growing medicine" is given by injection.  He quickly replied that he would rather just grow up "on my birthdays."  I was sitting with him while he was getting dressed, and he referred to the tag in his pj's that said that they're a size "5T" and explained that he wears 5T pajamas because he is five years old.  I sighed and showed him the tag in his jeans. 3T.  He looked at it and said, "Oh."  We talked about how he is still a big boy; a healthy five-year-old boy just like the other boys in his class.  His body just needs some help catching up.

In case you were wondering, this is what a box of one hundred disposable needles looks like!  To be honest, they make me a little queasy despite everything I've read about them being so small and nearly painless.  Matt thinks they should be kept in the refrigerator along side the pen.  

That's where we are right now.  I'm a queasy mom with a fridge full of needles and a five-year-old who looks three.  I'm a mom who is hopeful that her son won't be treated like a kindergartner when he's in second grade, and that maybe his days of being patted on the head or carried around by other children are numbered!  

I think he's ready to look as big as he feels!