1 Month Check-up

Today was Miss Lilly's one month check-up with her pediatrician.  I have been so excited about this appointment to see how much she's truly grown!  We can tell she's growing and changing every day, but today we got her official stats.

Backing up for a moment, I should tell you that getting to the pediatrician was quite an adventure.  I must have eaten something Lilly didn't like yesterday, because she was extra gassy last night - to the point where I was up for two hours at the 2:30 a.m. feeding because she was too gassy and fussy to go back to sleep easily.  I was planning to skip that pumping session - if I'm sleeping I can't feel my boobs hurting and letting me know it's time to pump - but since I was up with her for so long, I ended up needing to pump before I was able to go back to sleep.  So, she was extra tired this morning and slept until 7:30, when she woke up and we fed her.  Her appointment was at 10:30, and she's been eating every 3-4 hours during the day, so I just knew she was going to be hungry as soon as we got there and I didn't want her to be fussy.  I was trying to figure out whether to wake her up and feed her before we left, or what.  In the end, I let her sleep and just arrived at the pediatrician at 10:00.  I left the car on so we would be nice and toasty in the heat, took her out of her carseat, and prepared to change her.  I had a brief internal debate over whether to get the changing pad out because we were working with limited space since the carseat takes up half of the back seat and I was taking up the other half - praise the good Lord I did.  She was just wet, but the moment I started unfastening her diaper was the moment she choose to have a huge blowout.  I left the diaper on for a few minutes until I thought she was done, and it was a nasty one.  I started preparing to change her again, and then she decides she has to pee...three times.  It was a nightmare.  There was pee and poop everywhere.  The doctor doesn't like for you to throw away poop diapers in the office, so luckily I'd planned ahead and brought a plastic bag to store any poop diapers in until we could get home (it never fails that she poops at the doctor).  Even more lucky for me was the fact that I took several changes of clothes.  I ended up putting her clothes, the gross diaper, and the changing pad in the plastic bag to deal with when we got home.  After that was smooth sailing - we fed her in the car and by the time we went back to see the doctor she was happy as a lark:

Anyway, so the appointment was pretty standard.  They started out by taking her measurements, temperature and weight.  We have one chunky monkey on our hands!  She is up almost two pounds from her birth weight (7 lbs 6 oz), weighing in at 9 lbs 1.5 oz, which puts her in the 75th percentile.  The doctor said they expect a 2 lb gain in the first month, so that's perfectly normal.  Piggy!  Her height is 20 1/4 inches (up from 19 3/4 inches at birth), which is perfectly average - 50th percentile.  Her head is 14 inches.  I'm not sure what it was at birth, but she is in the 45th percentile (if you were to ask my lady parts whether her head was below average, I feel sure they would beg to differ, ha!).  I didn't think we were due for any shots until her 2-month check-up, but it turned out she was due for round 2 of Hepatitis B, so she got that.  She was laying on the table with her usual serious face on, behaving like an angel and taking it all in, even when they stuck her - for a second we thought she wasn't going to cry.  Then she let out the most heart-wrenching, pitiful cry you have ever heard.  It broke our hearts!  But the second I picked her up to love on her for a minute, she stopped.  Whew, crisis averted.  Here's her battle wound (and fat belly):

I had quite a few questions for the doctor, and then that was it.  They said that Lilly is "perfect" and that we're doing a "great job."  It's always so nice to get reassurance that we're doing okay, especially after I asked 23984723847 questions.

I will note that the doctor said (in response to my question) that it is for sure too early for her to be confused about day/night or to be in any kind of a routine.  When I followed up by asking why Lilly will sometimes sleep for 4-5 hours during the day but closer to 3 at night, she suggested that I not let Lilly sleep for more than 3 hours at a time during the day.  Wake her up after 3 hours and see how she does.  So, we'll try that tonight.  She also commended us for having Lilly in the crib already, and suggested that we also have her sleep in her crib for one nap per day - preferably the afternoon nap - so that when she is old enough to start recognizing routines she will know that's where she's supposed to sleep.

She has been a little fussier than normal this evening - not sure whether it's the after effects of the shot or she's just over-tired because she napped less than normal.  Probably it's a combination of both.  Anyway, all is well and our girl is perfect - but we already knew that.  ;-)

Hope everyone had a great Monday!

Sarah