4 Years

Katherine had her 4 year old well visit. Even though she is the skinniest child I have seen and is shorter than most of her friends that are a year younger than her, she has actually gained in her growth percentages. Of course I can't find the paper with all of the exact numbers but I remember that she weighed 31 pounds (25%, up from 3%) and her height was 12%.

As a 4 year old she also got her blood pressure taken. Katherine has a toy doctor set so she knew exactly what this was.

She also had to do a urine test and she thought that was the silliest thing every. WHY in the world would you peepee in a cup and give it to someone. It was fun explaining the science lesson of how a doctor could tell if you were healthy inside by what comes outside.

I filled out her ASQ developmental questionnaire the night before. I always find those things so interesting. There are always some questions that amaze me that they are on there. And then there are some that I would have not thought she should be doing. For example, it asked if she could identify 5 colors and list 3 things in a category such as animals in a zoo. Those seemed easy. Then another question was if a child could list 4 of the following things first name, last name, home town, gender, age and phone number. I have not tried to teach her our phone number yet but she did know the rest.

Another thing we did this year was a hearing test. And, Katherine failed in both ears. After looking at her chart, Dr. H realized that she failed both ears last year and one ear at age 2. We discussed what this could mean. For one thing, since her birthday is in February, it will always come at a time where she is likely to have congestion. We felt that her speech was pretty articulate and did not indicate an actual hearing loss. She did not seem to have much fluid in her ears at this time.

I have a friend who is a Dr. of audiology who does home hearing tests. She came over to test both girls (Caroline failed at 18 months too but did have fluid at that time). It was very interesting and Katherine thought it was fun. She was able to do the entire adult test of pressing a button when she heard a beep and in repeating words when she heard them.

The result was that both girls have mild hearing loss in the middle ear. This is probably due to fluid in the middle ear but we will be referred to an ENT to see for sure why. Neither of the girls has had many ear infections so tubes are not really what I see in our future. Hopefully it is just that their hearing test was given when they have seasonal allergies and fluid in their ears.

I also ended up at the doctors office this week with Caroline. She has been having a rough time with sleep lately. She wakes up multiple times a night and pretty much just talks and yells for us. She is not really crying most of the time. I have let her cry and yell for a really long time hoping that she would give in and she does not. When I go to her, she wants to nurse and then she falls asleep. But, the moment I try to put her back in her crib, she wakes up, grabs me and says "no!". She even then will tell me to read or that she wants to eat. After a few days of this several people suggested that maybe she had an ear infection. One was even a friend who is in the medical field and she thought she had all the classic signs, especially since she was congested a week before.

So, we went to see the doctor. My intuition was that she is just a stubborn child but if she did in fact have an ear infection I thought I should know and treat it. Well, the ears were perfectly clear so I was right, I have a stubborn child who just wants to be with mom. So, this weekend we are having baby boot camp and letting her cry it out.

4.5 months

Yesterday I took Caroline to her 4 month doctor's appointment. We were 2 weeks late because Katherine had a school program at the same exact time that Caroline's appointment was scheduled and it was two weeks before they could reschedule.

Caroline's stats for the day:
Weight: 12 pounds 8 ounces (17%)
Height: 25 inches (60%)
Head circumference: 40.4 cm (25%).

You may notice that though she gained 2 pounds in 2.5 months, she dropped from the 47% to the 17%. So, it looks like Caroline is going to be a little thing just like her big sister. This time around it is not stressing me out that she is small because I have seen how Katherine thrives even though she is so petite. My pediatrician reminded me that as a mom who exclusively breastfeeds and does not start solids until 6 months I am more likely to have a skinny baby than babies who are on formula or are starting solids at 4 months.

What is interesting is that in my mind Caroline is bigger than Katherine was. She seems to move into the next size clothes sooner and just seems bigger. But, when I look at Katherine's 4 month stats (at 4 months, 5 days, compared to Caroline's 4 months 15 days), she weighed 12 pounds 1 ounce and measured 24.75 inches. She was 20% weight and 70% height so actually a tad bigger. That was a shocker to me.

I was a bad blog mommy and totally forgot my camera. So, there is no photo on the scale. But wait, I remembered that I had my small video camera so there is footage playing on the exam table. She also shows her rolling skills. She has mastered rolling from her tummy to her back, always to the right.

Average!

Today we had Caroline's 2 month appointment. I am happy to report that she is average. This is the most excited I will probably ever be to have an average child. Why? Because with Katherine she was and is way below average in height and weight and it always produced stress on my part trying to make sure she ate enough. Here are Caroline's stats for the day.
Height 22.75 inches (55%)
Weight 10 lb 7 oz (47%)
Head 38 cm (30%)
Dr. H said that she looked very healthy and perfect. I agree.

For comparison, at 2 months Katherine weighed 9 lb 9 oz (15%) was 22 in long (45%) and also had a 38cm head.

Doctors Visits

Since leaving the hospital we have been to 4 medical appointments. That seems like a lot for a perfectly healthy baby. The first was the day after we left the hospital. Because of the confusion in the billirubin test at the hospital the pediatrician on call wanted us to come in on Monday. Usually we would have waited another day or two. We met with the lactation consultant, got weighed and had the general look over by Dr. Y. Caroline weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces.



On Tuesday we had to go back up to the hospital for a hearing test. On Sunday they came by the room twice to take Caroline to do it and both times she was nursing. We kept asking about it since we wanted to leave but then they went home. So, we had to return to the hospital for a 5 minute test. She looks pretty funny with all of the wires hooked up.
Friday we went to my chiropractor/doula for my post-partum adjustment. Dr. Cindy specializes in pregnancy and pediatrics. I saw her at least every other week for the entire pregnancy. I will miss seeing her but not miss commuting 45 minutes each way to her office. She weighed Caroline on an old-school spring scale. According to that she weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces.

Yesterday we were back to the pediatrician for the 2 week check up. We went 2 days early because it was the only appointment time available with Dr. H who does not work full time. At this appointment Caroline weighed 7 pounds 5 ounces (25%) was 20 inches (50%) and I don't remember her head measurement but it was also 50%.
While there Katherine weighed herself too. It is her favorite part of going to the doctors office and she usually gets on that scale a number of times while waiting for the doctor to see us.
She is still a lightweight at only 25.6 pounds. But if I am charting it right it appears that she moved from the 5% to the 20% which actually kind of shocks me.
I did not photographed myself on the scale but I weighed myself as well. I gained a total of 28 pounds with Caroline. I started out lower than when I got pregnant with Katherine so the total that I weighed was only a pound more. As of right now I have lost 20 of those pounds so not too far to go to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I have decided that I am not going to worry about it at all or do anything to try to lose it until after Labor Day (and my birthday). So, for now, I am back in that awkward phase where maternity clothes are too big and regular clothes are too snug.

I was so glad that Sam was with me because Katherine was a hand full. Our appointment was at 2:40 which meant we picked her up from school and went straight there and had to push the nap back. While there she had 2 accidents which has not happened for a long time and it was a challenge to keep her in the room. I made sure that Caroline's next appointment was scheduled at a time that I would not have Katherine with me.