Baby King

Archive for the ‘check-up’ Category

Darius and I have officially survived over half a year with a tiny human being in our care! While this beats my track record with plants (let’s not talk about my poor plants), it is not any where near our record with animals (the cats are over 7 years old!).

Our Little Prince continues to grow and develop in amazing ways. At his sixth month check-up last Monday he weighted in at 15.75 lbs and was 25.5″ tall. That’s in the 20% range for height and weight so he’s nice and proportional. His head is in the 10%, up from being in the 6%! The pediatrician said he looks “perfect.”

Lately he’s been flipping over from belly to back, sitting on his own for ages, and yesterday he pulled himself into standing at daycare when he was in his crib. This is his favorite game:

When we showed it to the pediatrician she said that he was “freakishly strong.” ~Big proud mama grin here.~ Our midwife said one of her sons was like that and became a light weight wrestling champion. I just tell LP that he can’t play for the Falcons.

He’s also babbling more and more. He’s started saying, “Dada da da da da.” Not a “ma ma” in sight. This makes Darius happy.

Over the weekend he enjoyed sucking on an apple that I was eating, so we decide to try solids.

We started with sweet potato on Sunday night. He was way more interested in putting his hands in the food than in trying to eat anything. When I tried to give him the spoon with some sweet potato on it, he kept his mouth mostly closed. When I did get him to try a bit, he made a funny face. He liked chomping on the spoon, though. We tried again on Monday and got pretty much the same result. Our verdict is that he’s not quite ready for solids yet and we’ll try again in a week or so.

It’s hard to believe it, but my little prince is already four months old. At his doctor’s appointment yesterday he was over 24″ long, weighted in at 13lbs 15oz (which is more than twice his birth weight), and has a head that is 40cm around. This puts him in the 30-something percentiles for height and weight and 6% for head size. Tiny heads run in my family, so I’m so not surprised by this. Also, he’s moving well on the chart curve, so that’s good.

He’s starting to get so big. He’s growing out of many of the onesies and pajamas that we have for him. He can still wear the infant cloth diapers, but he’s now in the size 2 disposables.

Little Prince’s newest tricks are grabbing his feet (and trying to suck on his toes), rolling from back to side, and the stealth pee on the changing table (which apparently he only does for me), all of which make it much harder to change him than it use to.

He also giggles and smiles and talks a lot. He’s also getting really good at grabbing things and putting them in his mouth. He loves to nom on his Elephant Mingo, balls, rattles, the Happy Apple, and our fingers, knees, and even feet.

He also will grab our hands or arms and try to eat them while we are changing his diaper… yet another thing that makes diaper changes take longer.

LP still loves tummy time and still really wants to crawl. He’s also getting better at sitting up (lately he’s been trying to pull himself into sitting from semi-reclining) and will stand if we balance him.

He’s been doing pretty well at daycare also. The teachers say that he is all smiles for them (most of the time). He was doing much better taking a bottle last week, but not as much this week. ~sigh~. Since I’m generally pumping more than he is eating in a day, I was able to donate a bunch of my “stash” to another mom in need and I still have a good deal in my freezer.

LP had a little cold the other week, but we got through it. Now we have a humidifier in the bedroom and saline for his nose. OMG, it’s amazing how a little baby can fight two adults when it comes to using saline solution!

Overall things are going well. Darius and I are still adjusting to being two working parents with a baby and housework and cooking and cleaning and two cats that also need attention. But I think we’re slowly getting there.

We brought LP to the pediatrician for the first time for his two month check-up yesterday. The visit went very well. He weighed in at 11lbs, 3.5 oz and measured 23.5″ long (or tall as Darius would say). His doctor pronounced him “perfect” and when she put him on his tummy and saw how well he held his head up, she said that he is displaying traits of a 4 month old! She also noticed (like everyone does) just how alert he is. He also had his hearing test and he has good hearing. He must have liked what he was listening to because he smiled toward the end of it both times.

The thing that LP didn’t like was getting his vaccinations. We’re doing an alternate immunization schedule so he’s going to get a vaccine every month for a while, instead of a bunch of vaccines every two months. The first one he got was a liquid one and about minute after it was administered he projectile spit up all over the exam table, the floor, and even hit the skirt of the dress I was wearing. Then he got a shot and his eyes opened really wide and he started crying again. So I picked him up and bounced him a bit and he calmed down. Then he had to take what was left of the liquid vaccine, just to make sure, but that wasn’t so bad. He also got a nice Garfield sticker, which made his father smile.

I was worried that LP would take after me and react badly to the vaccines (if a vaccine says 1% of people get this side effect, I get it). However, the only side effect seemed to be exhaustion and hunger. Even today he has no fever and I can’t even tell where on his leg they gave him his shot. He does seem to have a bit more and slightly more explosive poop today, but that could just be from eating a lot in the past 24 hours.

Happy Two Months my Little Prince!

Our Little Prince had his 6 weeks check-up on Monday. He weighed in at 10lbs 0.5 oz and almost 20″ long. He’s getting so big. The midwife who delivered him was the one who did our check-up. She commended on just how strong he is and how cute he is. She said that the noise he makes overnight are perfectly normal and healthy noises.

She also gave me a check-up. She said that my breast tissue is very healthy, that my abs only have a touch of separation, and that everything that should be together has come back together well. I had to give her a high-five for the last one since she was the one who stitched me up. I also got my blood drawn and tested. I am officially no longer anemic. Hurray! Which means that all of the exhaustion I’m feeling is normal new baby exhaustion. Hurray?

Last Saturday we had our official Centering reunion. While I’d seen some of the other babies already (either at a meet-up or over the internet), it was nice to see everyone again. I even made a cake while baby-wearing (my mom helped and Darius was on baby duty while we decorated it).

Darius and I got asked to come and talk to the August Centering group this week about our experiences at the Birthing Center with the L&D and about being new parents. I think it went pretty well. Our LP was asleep on Darius’s shoulder for most of it, which was really cute.

Pumping has been going well and Darius has even given the LP a few bottles. He’ll eat about 2oz and then about 30min or so later decide he’s hungry again, will refuse the bottle, and will do a long nursing session with me. But it’s a start, so that’s good.

Our Little Prince really likes to “talk” to us and things. His favorite “word” is “agoo.” When he talks, he talks to everything! He’s also starting to smile a lot. It’s so adorable. The other day he invented a game called “roll off of Daddy’s chest onto the edge of the couch.” He’s also getting amazingly good at holding his head up and kicking his legs like he wants to crawl. I have a feeling we’re going to be in big trouble sooner rather than later.

We’re also getting better at recognizing “I’m about to freak out” sounds from “I’m happy in my playpen” sounds and the “I need to nurse” vs. “I have a wet diaper” sounds. I’ve found out that when he’s overtired he’ll think he wants to nurse, start to scream, try to nurse again, and start to scream. When this happens, the best thing is to just stop trying to nurse him and walk him around until he falls asleep.

We’ve been developing a bedtime routine. Every other or third day it starts with a bath from both of us (which he LOVES). We then put him in a disposable diaper (because he hates being wet, so he sleeps longer in one) and put him in a pair of footie pajamas. I then nurse him and hopefully he falls asleep in my arms so I can transfer him to the bed. Sometimes he needs a bit of a walk and a side nurse to fall asleep. The other night he fell asleep in my arms in the “Magic Baby Hold.” Then we all fall asleep because Darius gets up super early for work and because I’m exhausted. Sometimes LP wakes up in the middle of the night and so one of us will do a diaper change and often take him out of his PJs. A lot of the time, he doesn’t quite wake up but sort of thrashes and if I nurse him he just falls back to sleep for a few hours, which I hear is the first step toward longer sleeping periods at night.

Had started putting LP in onesies every day, but he developed a heat rash (man is it hot in Texas!) so most of the time he’s just in his diaper covers. Sometimes I give him naked time on waterproof pads covered with cloth diapers. He seems to really like that time. We also got him some lightweight and/or sleeveless onesies and rompers (in size 0-3 as he is completely out of the newborn size now) for when we need to go out/because they are so cute.

In other news, my mother has been in town for a week and a half. It’s been fantastic having her here. She’s been a tremendous help, both in terms of housework and helping with the LP. It also means we’ve been getting out of the house more, which is tiring but good. I got to get a haircut and she even babysat LP for a few hours so Darius and I could go on a date to see the last Harry Potter movie (I cried a lot). I’m going to miss her so much when she is gone.

Week two was really hard for me. My postpartum anemia was worse than we were all prepared to deal with or aware of. I think that if we’d known just how bad it was, my mother probably would have stayed an extra week. But we made it through the week. There were really rough times, like Tuesday afternoon and Thursday night, when I almost called my mother and begged her to come back. But there were also great moments, like holding him and watching him sleep. And getting to start to know his myriad expressions. And we’ve been really lucky, most nights we can get at least one 4-5 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep.

My days mostly look like this: Wake up for a nurse when Darius leaves for work. Go back to sleep. Either wake up before or with/after the LP. If before, get a chance to eat breakfast first (hopefully…before he wakes up), then morning diaper change and nurse. If with/after, morning diaper change and nurse and then hopefully be able to put baby down long enough to get food myself. Hold the little prince while he sleeps for a few hours. Watch a movie or something on the DVR or On Demand. Midday diaper change and feed. Try to get lunch into my body (hopefully baby is asleep…otherwise use bouncing chair). Hold baby more. Watch more random stuff on tv or try to play with computer and/or phone. Afternoon diaper change. Side nurse turn into afternoon nap. Then Darius is hopefully home and the little prince can get some daddy time while mommy showers or gets some time to herself.

Nursing has been going well. For week two, we were mostly on the nipple shields the whole time. But after reading some articles written by other mothers who had to use them on the La Leche League site, I felt better about doing so myself. Also, he started taking to the left breast often without the shield. And in the cradle hold almost didn’t need it ever. This Tuesday evening, he started not wanting to use it with the right breast either and hasn’t wanted it since. But we’re still figuring out how to get a good latch on the right (the football hold seems to work somewhat), so it’s a work in progress, but a positive one.

Over the weekend we had our first trip to the grocery store and he slept through the entire thing!

We’re definitely into the “I’m in my 3rd week of life and I’ve learned how to cry loudly when I want things” stage. We had two nights earlier this week where it took me 2 hours of nursing and diaper changes and rocking before he finally fell asleep. Also, yesterday we had friends over for a bit and after they left I tried to nurse him a bit, but he started screaming. I put him down for a moment and he fell right asleep. It was amazing. Of course today we had some random screaming, but it didn’t last long. He has been staying awake in between some feedings. I’m not totally sure what to do with him in those cases, but we’re both learning.

Week three has also been about learning to ask friends for help. I think we’ve had someone over either at lunch or around/after dinner time almost every day. Just having someone else to talk to/help out around the house/hold the baby for a little bit has been great.

Lastly, I want to report that we had our two week check-up on Monday. DJ weighed in at 7lbs, 12.5oz. He’s up almost a whole pound from his birth weight, which is amazingly good progress. The midwife said that he was “perfect.” Also, she said that I look to be healing well. We took my blood and my iron count came back at 10.1 (up from 7.5!). I knew I was feeling somewhat better, and it was nice to have confirmation of it. So I’m still anemic and I still get tired a lot and have to take it slow, but I’m recovering.