Blog BlogLovin Instagram Pinterest

Monday, April 21, 2014

Craft's 2-Month Doctor Visit

Well, folks, we made it back from Charlotte in one piece barely.  We had a fun week and weekend with my family, which I'll post about soon, but we're all pretty happy to be home and are trying to get settled back into our normal routine.  Lilly started telling us she was tired and asking to go to bed at 6:00 pm last night, bless her - we were all pretty worn out.  

Anyway, I realized that Craft's 2-month appointment with Dr. V was last week and I posted his 2-month update but never posted his official stats since his appointment was a little off from his actual 2-month birthday.

Someone was pretty happy to be at the doctor, probably only because he was about to get shots and didn't even know.  :-(
I'll get right to the stats since I know you're all waiting with baited breath to see how big my sweet chunker is.  Drum roll, please...

Height:  23.5 inches, 50th percentile (up from 22 1/4 inches and 75% at one month old)
Weight:  16 lbs 14.5 oz, >97th percentile (up from 13 lbs 8.5 oz and same %)
Head:  16.5 inches, 85th percentile (up from 15 3/4 inches and 85%)

True story:  My little chunk weighs almost 17 lbs at 2 months old.  I was surprised to see that he's only in the 50th percentile for height because he looks long to me as well, but maybe it's all that meat on his little body.  Sweet boy!  To put this in perspective, my nephew Mason is a big boy as well, and at 9 months old weighed 22 lbs.  C is almost as big as Mase!

The doctor confirmed that all is well with our little man.  Most of our conversation revolved around sleep and getting him on a more normal sleep schedule during the day.  Dr. V said that at night, C is doing great and is actually above average - that the average 2-month-old still wakes up at 1, 4 and 7 (he has been all over the place the past week since we were visiting my parents, but the week or so prior to our trip he was up once sometime between 3-4 and up again sometime between 7-8 and then sleeping again until 9 or so).  The daytime naps, though, are cray with a capital "c."  Dr. V said that if C was sleeping in 45-minute intervals she'd be okay with it since that is a full sleep cycle, but the naps that are less than that (which are all of them, most days, except for the random one or two times a week when he'll give me a 3+-hour nap) are not good news and probably mean he's over-tired at night (trust  me doc, I know).  I also asked her why he wants to eat even when I know he isn't hungry, which causes him to spit up.  She said the reason he isn't following is cues is probably partially because he's still learning them but mostly because he's tired and is trying to use that to get to sleep, just as I suspected.  She followed that up by telling me that it's time to start putting Craft down awake and letting him cry a little so he gets the hang of self-soothing, and that she'd like for us to move his bedtime up to around 9:00 pm.  She made sure that I understood that by "cry it out" she doesn't mean she expects him to go from 6p-6a without a feeding, but that we can let him cry for a good 25-30 minutes if we need to.  My goal was to move bedtime up gradually - he's been going to bed between 10-11pm so I was going to try to move it up each night by 20-30 minutes, but he was exhausted tonight so we jumped in cold turkey, eek.  She also suggested that I try to hold him off so that there are at least 1.5 hours (preferably 2) between naps, which she told me will probably be rough for a few days but will hopefully help him to sleep longer when he gets to sleep. 

We did a modified Ferber method somewhere between 4-5 months with Lilly to transition her out of her swaddle, and I remember hating every second of it.  It worked for her, though, and took not quite even two days for her to get the hang of things, so that's where we're starting with C, too.  It may not work for him, I know that every child is different, but it's what I know so that's where we're starting (and it isn't going badly at all so far, knock on wood).  The difference is, with L I waited until a weekend so I could go drink and sob outside on the back porch where I couldn't hear her crying and let Dan deal with it.  This time around, though, I got brave and decided to start with naps today because I really need for C to start sleeping consistently during the day so that he's not a nightmare in the evenings.  Torture, I tell you.  I was contemplating whether it was wrong to pour myself a bottle glass of wine at 10:30 this morning.

Dr. V said that C will start to get on his own schedule/routine around 4 months, and until then to follow his cues.  He is so tired, and I know when he's tired, but this kid fights sleep like no other.  I've never seen anything like it.  I've had several folks recommend the "Moms on Call" program to me, so I asked the doctor about that as well.  She said that she's had several patients swear by it so she looked into it briefly, and from what she could glean from their website she thinks it's a good program, but that she's by no means an expert on it and has not read the book.  She told me that if I want to try it, I should try for a week and see how it goes and then reevaluate whether to continue.  I have done some research on the program on the internet and I'm just on the fence about it.  I am all for a routine, and would like for C to start getting into one because trust me, it would  make my life a lot easier, but the program just seems so...structured.  Those of you who know me, know that if I think it is very structured it has to be hardcore.  If anyone out there knows much about it or has tried it and has any thoughts, I'd love to hear.  

We didn't really discuss much other than naps.  I did ask when to stop swaddling and she said by 5 months.  We'll see if we make it that long, Craft is pretty strong so I'm wondering if he's going to bust out of the swaddle.  I'm anxious to see how he sleeps when he's not swaddled - whether he sleeps on his belly and sucks his thumb like big sister.  

Future Craft, if you grow up and decide to read this blog, I apologize in advance for the next paragraph because it will probably embarrass you.  

I asked the doc to look at C's pen15 to make sure the circumcision took because it looks kind of different, and she assured me that everything looks great, it's just that Craft is such a chunker that his little friend basically gets pushed inward so it looks inverted.  Not to worry, he'll grow out of it once he thins out.  Hilarious.

Other than that, all is well with little (big) man!  He got three shots (Pentacel, Prevnar and Rotateq) and they were just as horrible as I remember them being with Lilly.  Like his big sister, Craft was so happy and was smiling, cooing and giggling at the nurse when I laid him down on the table but was very pitiful after the shots.  He reacted to them similarly - slept a lot more than usual for the rest of the day but was more crabby than I remember L being when he was awake.  I know the shots are necessary and I'm fully supportive of vaccinating but good gosh it is pitiful. 

That's all for now, I suppose!  Here are a few pics I took of my sweet boy last night.  He is growing up so quickly already, it seems like he's getting bigger and doing fun, new things by the day.  Slow down, time!





Hope your week is off to a great start!  I'm off to finish out my Monday with another glass of wine and the addressing of birth announcements (so late, I know, but worth the wait for sure thanks to Deb Hall/Olive Paper!).

Sarah


3 comments:

  1. Sarah,
    He is so PRECIOUS! I love that he's so chunky! It makes me want to squeeze his little cheeks.
    Just when I think I'm ready for another baby, I read your post about him not napping and it all comes back...Aiden was and still is a HORRIBLE nap taker (I can promise you he did NOT get that from me). Even to this day at school they take one nap and sometimes he only sleeps for 20 minutes...20 minutes all day long... when he's been up since about 7. He goes down about 7 and sleeps for almost 12 hours, if not more somedays, but seriously? 20 minutes??? It's exhausting. I can remember one day in particular when he was about 3 weeks old and he WOULD.NOT.TAKE.A.NAP...as a new mom, I was so concerned about making sure he got fed every three hours like the doctor told me to do during the day and so he finally fell asleep about 20 minutes before his next "scheduled" feeding...I called the doctor and asked them what to do, the nurse told me to let him sleep. So I did and even tried to sleep myself...and he woke up about 15 minutes later screaming. I was a HOT MESS when I called the doctors office because he was so miserable and so was I. Turns out Aiden had reflux, but because he didn't spit up, it was hard to diagnose. I'm not saying that's what is going on with C, but it might be worth looking into. Does he snort at all? That's a sign of reflux and so is the cat napping because they can't get comfortable. I wish you luck, friend and sleep, lots of sleep:) Hope I wasn't pushy on my advice/suggestion...I hate that stuff!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh lawd, 20 minute naps! I feel your pain, sister. It wouldn't be so bad if C would entertain himself, but as a result of all of these short naps he is really overtired and therefore very clingy and just wants to be held, which means there is little I can get done unless I don't mind the screaming. Since we started a very gentle version of sleep training last week C has actually done MUCH better, thank the Lord, and he's like a new child. I have actually often wondered about reflux with C. He spits up some, but not all of the time, but he also exhibits other symptoms which I know are symptoms of "silent reflux." It is definitely worth asking the doctor next time we go, or maybe calling if I'm desperate. The night I wrote this, for example, he ate at 7:30p, was up for about 45 minutes and had a few good burps, I put him down at 8:15p and he slept until 7:15a. 11 hours! It was glorious! Last night, he ate at 6:30 and was ready to go to bed around 8:00 but I was worried he'd be hungry and was trying to get another full night so I fed him even though it wasn't time, burped him and he burped but not great and then he was up at 2:30a. Granted that is still a very long stretch, and after that he slept again until around 8:15a but I can't help but wonder if the force feed and not great burp caused him to wake with an upset tummy. Don't you sometimes wish they could just tell us when things are wrong and what to do?!

      Delete
    2. ALL.THE.TIME!!! Motherhood is so hard anyway, but even more so when they're like this and can't tell you what's wrong. Now, did you actually sleep when C slept the whole night? I had troubles with sleeping until Aiden was about 3 months old. Even now I still don't sleep as well. I'm glad he's been sleeping better for you. Hopefully it will stay that way!
      I just read your latest post and wanted to cry with you! I can't believe that woman was rude to you! Like you planned on having your child scream the whole time. Good luck finding a dress. You'll look beautiful no matter what!

      Delete

More from The Baum Squad:

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...