6 Month Pediatrician Appointment

I have a sappy post to write and some updates about Baby Boy's development as well as a post about Baby Girl....but this is an easy post to write, so I'm going to knock it out while my queries are running.

Stats:

16 lbs 14 oz (38th percentile)
26 inches long (25th percentile)
44 cm (86th percentile)

My chunky monkey little man has quickly become a not-so-big little boy (except his head...which would explain the 3rd degree tear...).  The pediatrician doesn't have any concerns because both his weight and height have a downward trend (in percentile, not the actual height or weight!), but I have a hard time not worrying, especially since until last Saturday I was his only source of nourishment.  I thought he was always going to be huge, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The doctor was happy with his development and said he was head of schedule for large motor since he's already army-crawling.  He also said that he doesn't expect babies to start using consonants until about seven months, which he's started to do a bit.  It always makes me feel happy when my kids are head of schedule for developmental milestones, even though I have very little to do with it.

At the appointment, Baby Girl also was getting her flu shot.  We had talked through what would happen and were reviewing it before the nurse came in.  The following conversation ensued:


Me: They're going to give you a little pinch, then put a bandage on it to help it feel better.
Baby Girl: Why does it need to feel better?  It won't hurt.
Me: You're right.  The bandage helps keep the medicine in your body.
Baby Girl: How does the medicine get in my body?  I have skin.
Me: Yep, but the shot makes a little tiny hole to help the medicine get inside.
Baby Girl: ......(you can see the wheels turning).....Will I have to wear the bandage forever?
Me: No, the skin closes up after a little bit of time.


The nurse gave her her shot and she just watched and was happy to get her star-shaped bandage (like below):

Next it was time for Baby Boy to get his shots.  We'd talked to the doctor about what vaccinations he needed at this appointment and the pediatrician was going to give him 4 injections (Hepatitis B, flu shot, TDAP (something like that, at least), and leading cause of meningitis) plus an oral vaccination for rotovirus.  I asked if there was anything we could delay for the month until we come back for his second flu shot and he said that the Hepatitis B could be delayed, so we did 3 shots plus the oral vaccination, then at the end of November need to go back for a second flu shot and the Hepatitis B shot.  Blech.

His sister held onto his arm while I held his hands and looked at his face.  I felt awful for him when his head turned bright red and he was screaming, but he stopped crying pretty quickly after I picked him up.  He whimpered a little, but was generally okay.  I took Baby Girl for her sticker (she chose Mickey Mouse) while The Hubby got Baby Boy dressed.  I then nursed Baby Boy in the car in the parking lot of the pediatrician's office because, as expected, he passed out on the way to the sitter.  We dropped off the kids and went to work.

Mobility

Baby Boy is trying SO hard to be mobile.  He lays on his belly and alternates between pushing up on his arms and laying on his belly flailing his arms and legs.  His preferred method of communication recently has been growling, so when he gets frustrated, that's what he starts to do.  The funny part is that he'll have a toy, then push it just out of his reach and get mad that he can't play with it anymore.  In the last couple of days, though, he's been able to get his right leg bent and push off with it.  He moves a bit crooked, of course, but he's getting there.  The sitter also told us that he's been doing downward-facing dog some, forming an upside-down V with his hands and feet on the ground.  He's SO close.  Even now, we can't put him on the floor and expect him to stay there.  He's a rolling and spinning fool.  He hasn't quite figured out that he could barrel roll to move across the floor, but does it inadvertently anyway.  The place he most commonly rolls, though, is in bed.  We put him down awake and then go downstairs to look at the video monitor to watch the show.  He rolls and spins and does a few laps of his crib until he just falls asleep.  It's so fun to watch!

I guess that means it's time to start thinking about baby proofing since I have a feeling he's going to be into everything.  The bookcase that has been in the living room since before Baby Girl was born might need to be anchored and/or emptied altogether.  It houses my cookbooks, so it wouldn't be a huge deal if it got emptied, but I don't want him to pull up on it.  Baby Girl left it alone in general and I have a feeling that Baby Boy is going to be an entirely different ballgame.  Here we go...

Old Friend

You know that old friend that you've got?  The one that was your BFF, maybe in high school or maybe college.  She knew everything about you.  And then life happened and you drifted apart.  You didn't make time for each other anymore.  Maybe you moved to separate states or even countries.  You saw each other's posts on Facebook, but didn't really know much about your friend's everyday life.  And then that friend comes to town for a visit.  While you're comfortable, you aren't sure what to talk about.

Do you tell her about how your parents are doing, how your work is going?  Or do you tell her about your crazy anxiety about having two kids, a job, a husband, a house, managing your finances, and still trying to foster your own relationship with yourself?

Do you talk about people that you used to know and what they're doing now?  Or do you admit to her everything you're struggling with, from your own weight issues to focusing at work to your lack of confidence because apparently you don't make children that know how to sleep?

I tend to try to do the former.  To talk about surface things.  Easy things.  To not get into the deep stuff, even though you really need to confess it all to that person that used to be your main confidante.

And when you start talking regularly again, how do you get to the place where you talk about The Real Stuff?  You don't want to jump right in.  You want to tiptoe, sticking one toe in the water, testing the waters to see if you can still relate to each other, to see if that friend can handle your new reality.

This blog has become that old friend.  I want to foster a relationship again, but I'm not sure how.  I'm going to try, but forgive me if I can't take the plunge just yet back to the place where we once were.

Update on the kids

I can't even take the time to tell you how incredibly busy I am.  Seriously, people.  I'm writing this on work time, which I shouldn't be doing, but I really want to write down a few things that are happening with the kids.

Baby Boy:

• Yesterday (October 2nd) we discovered that he has his first tooth!  He loves to chew on our hands (always had) and so I let him chew my fingers and then I felt it.  Crazy!  Baby Girl didn't get hers until she was over 9 months old.  Yet ANOTHER thing that shows that they're different kids.
• One thing they aren't so different about is their behavior when teething--you can't tell.  At least with this one (and I hope it continues for the others), we had no idea that Baby Boy was teething.  He's always put stuff in his mouth and drooled, so it wasn't much different.  Yay!
• Another cold has hit our house.  Blech.  Baby Girl started it, shared with her brother (it has been fairly mild for him so far), and just today, 1.5 weeks after Baby Girl first got sick, I'm feeling rough.  Not horrible, but not great, either.  Yesterday I had such a sore throat that it hurt to talk or swallow for a few hours.  Today I'm just a little stuffy and a little cough-y and just feeling sort of run down.  Nothing major, though.
• Sleep improved...for one or two nights.  Seriously, baby sleep is going to drive me insane.  We got through a stretch of waking 5-6 times per night and were down to 2-3.  I don't know why, but he continues to wake up right as we're going to bed, around 10:00 or a little before.  Sunday night he woke up at that time, then slept until 3.  Woo!  Monday night he went down at his normal time (7:30ish) and didn't wake up until 2:00.  Those were both really good.  He was back to waking at 10, 2, 5 last night, though.  So incredibly inconsistent.  His normal daytime sleep is: 15-30 minute nap in the morning (this is usually 45 minutes at home) and then 1.5-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon.  He sometimes will fall asleep in the car on the way home and if he doesn't, is pretty sleepy before 7:00.  We're still trying to figure him out, though.
• He can freely roll both directions at will.  He can get his butt up in the air and can push way up on his arms, but hasn't yet figure out how to combine the two.  I wouldn't be surprised to see him crawling in the next month.

Baby Girl:

• We've been having trouble with her not napping and peeing in her Pull Up on the weekends, so I bribed her with a marshmallow on Saturday.  One if she napped and one if she kept her Pull Up dry (I'd suspected that she was peeing right before we went and got her in the morning).  She did it!  So we did it again on Sunday and it worked again.  I told her that if she kept her Pull Up dry all night long Sunday night that she could have another marshmallow and you know what?  It worked Sunday and Monday nights.  She did pee in her Pull Up last night, but it was a very small amount.  We're finally getting somewhere with her overnight potty training!
• Her behavior has gotten a lot better.  We had an incident where she slapped a one year old on the cheeks at the sitter (she still says she was trying to make him laugh, which I believe) and we've had to be a lot more careful about her being alone with her brother, but she just wants to play.  We talk a lot about how strong she is compared to the baby.  I'm not looking forward to Baby Boy being mobile, but in this instance, it'll be nice when he can run away from her if she's bugging him.  Unfortunately (or fortunately?) he typically busts into belly laughs when she plays rough with him.
• Bedtime is still rough.  She wants snuggles and we end up spending far more time with her at bedtime than we'd prefer.  She only goes without crying at bedtime about half of the nights.  So frustrating!  Why don't my babies sleep???  I LOVE SLEEP!