A pediatrician's visit and our first huge scare:

Veronica is still not holding weight on her legs. If you hold her above a surface - any surface - she will not put her feet down, instead holding them up close to her torso as if something hot is underneath her. This is far from normal, especially for her age. Everything else about her is fine - in fact, her dexterity and verbal skills seemed to surprise the doctor, so I'm presuming she might be a little above the curve in those regards.

So now, we have an appointment on June 4 for a physical therapy evaluation regarding her legs. They're calling this something like "delay of gross motor development." Of course this is upsetting. Her doctor is also ordering up a visit to the neurology department at Children's Hospital as a precautionary measure - she said it will be at least six weeks until they can get her in, and we'll probably have to cancel at that point because everything will be fine by then. But Dr. Rogers wouldn't say what this was a precaution for, and I refuse to worry about it now.

The worst was the blood work. We had to take her to a children's outpatient facility today to have blood drawn to check if she has muscular dystrophy. We knew it was a worst-case scenario. We knew it was just to rule out the possibilty rather than to confirm it. We even knew that, statistically, more boys get it than girls ever do.

But I still looked at her for one moment and thought, it's still a disease that people get, and someone's child has to get it. Why would I think it couldn't be mine?

So a nurse pricked her finger and got enough blood to do the test. Veronica cried. We went home. We fed her, laid her down for a nap, played with her. And we waited.

Thank God someone at the pediatrician's had enough heart to call back at 4 p.m. today to tell us her blood work came back normal.

Do I hope she doesn't need physical therapy or any further follow-ups on this? Of course. But for now, this hurdle has been jumped, this fear abated. And that's all I can ask for right now.