9-month check-up today

[jojo2324]

Here are his stats:

Weight: 21.3 lbs. I don't know how that translates exactly into pounds. Puts him in the 70th %ile for weight.

Height: 29.5 inches (88th %ile for height)

No shots today, but we did have to do a finger prick to test for anemia and lead (required in NY). He was NOT a happy camper. But it hard to watch his little finger bleeding so much!

Got into a *small* debate about the necessity of the varicella vaccine with the ped. She kept talking about what a vaccine truly is, like I didn't understand. I do understand what a vaccine is! I just don't like the idea of this one! Of course, varicella is required by NY to start school, so he needs to get it by the age of 4 or 5 regardless of what I decide.

Asked her if permanent damage could be done to his brain due to the huge number of falls he is enduring on a daily basis. She humored me and said no.

Asked about different foods to try. She told me that at his age, mastering the art of utensil use might be a bit much. Just give him a spoon to play with and scoop what I can in.

Reassured me that not all babies are the cuddly type. I said that he was not overly communicative.

"Does he smile at you?"
"Yes."
"Does he hold out things for you, things he is interested in?"
"No. BUT he does grab things away from me that he wants!"
"Does he look at you when he's upset?"
"Yeah..."
"Does he hold his arms out to you?"
"Ummm, not really. Does the baton-twirl hand thing when he gets upset...And he doesn't kiss. Or blow kisses."
"Yeah, some babies are not cuddly. Breaks a mother's heart, but that's just the way it is sometimes."

:(

Also got into a small debate about breastfeeding. Basically, she started to do her usual rigmarole: checking eyes, ears, chest sounds and he freaked, probably because 1) she has a weird habit of kissing his tummy and boob before doing this; 2) the stethoscope is cold; and 3) he has not had a good nap in about 3 weeks. So he started to twist and turn and lunge for the boob, and I whipped it out. She voiced a little concern over that. A good point she made was that you don't usually see bottle-fed babies running around with bottles in their mouths all day, or being given a bottle when they get upset. Now, she is pro-BFing, so her argument was not against that, but just the way he has grown accustomed to having it wherever, whenever. Believe me, I wouldn't mind a break from that too!

Okay, sorry this got so long! Share your stats too!!

[nathansmom]

Sounds like Gannon is doing good. Monday Nathan has his check up and I'll share stats then. We do shots on Monday also, I'm not looking forward to that. Since we don't breastfeed I can't give any advice on that.

[brubeck]

FYI 21.3 lbs = 21 pounds, 5 ounces.

Sounds like he's doing just fine! I agree that it's easy to whip out the breast when they need comforting, but bottle-fed babies are often given the bottle when they are upset, or at least cuddled. I don't think it's a problem unless it's a problem for YOU and your lifestyle.

At this age many babies are not cuddly. They are just starting to move around and they want to explore, not sit on Mommy's lap. But if you want to feel how needed you are, experiment with hiding out of sight while he explores. Once he realizes you're gone he'll be wanting you back! :-)

[momathome]

Hi, Joanne!
It sounds like Gannon's check-up went reasonably well - what a big boy! As far as the breast-feeding thing goes, I don't think you are doing anything wrong. Breast-feeding is such a comforting thing for them, I know my girls would always zone out and look half-drugged when they were nursing. And more than once, I would nurse them if they were upset. Why not - it worked! I weaned Kasey when she was 13 months-old and she had problem giving it up them and going right to a cup. Whenever she would get upset after she was weaned, I had to resist the urge not to nurse her - she wasn't asking for it, but I swear it became almost a primal instinct - baby cry, NURSE BABY!!! Do what feels right to you - Gannon sounds like he is doing great! At Kasey's 2 year check-up in February, she was 32 inches tall (10%) and 24 1/2 pounds (25%). She's tiny - she didn't hit 20lbs until she was 18 months-old! Good luck!
-Lauren

[cara1]

DS (14 mos today) bumped his head yesterday and started bawling. Still screaming, he toddled towards me with outstretched arms and climbed into my life. Then, as if he was mad that it was my fault for allowing him to hurt he got up, and toddled away, still screaming, still arms outstretched. He toddled into the living room, climbed up onto the couch, and grabbed the nursing pillow. He isn't usually this dramatic, but he knew what he wanted. And lived happily ever after!

[Karenn]

"No shots today, but we did have to do a finger prick to test for anemia and lead (required in NY). He was NOT a happy camper. But it hard to watch his little finger bleeding so much!"

I'm so jealous! For Colin's anemia test, we had to drive halfway across town to the lab, and then they drew blood from him just like they would an adult! They strapped the rubber thing around his little arm and started prodding for a vein! Add this to the fact that I think this is where he caught the nasty virus that has him on a nebulizer (sp) right now, and I'm not a happy camper! (Sorry for the tangent, but we just got back from the doctor and I'm still a little wound up.)

Glad you asked about the brain damage :) Colin's taken a record number of falls too! For once I'm actually glad that I have ugly carpet instead of beautiful hardwood floors.

By the way, his stats were 17 lbs 4oz and 27.5 inches. I started to worry when they told me that he was in the 10-25th percentile for both of those, but the ped., and my friend who is also a ped. reassured me that as long as he's height/weight proportional, he's fine. Going to the doctor was never this stressful before I had a baby!

[candybomiller]

I have NEVER been so happy to not live in NY! Thank goodness we didn't have to go through the anemia/lead test at our 9 mo. appt. I think it would have required a nervous breakdown on Mommy's part!

Hope all the little bleeders are feeling better! :)

Candy
Mommy to Matt, 5/22/02

Joanne,
Sounds like little Gannon is doing wonderfully. What a big little man!

[Rachels]

The breastfeeding thing makes me want to scream. BF babies nurse for comfort as well as food. Good for you for comforting him when he needed it. It's none of your ped's business when and how you nurse. It drives me crazy the way there's such quiet undermining of nursing for older babies. It's ridiculous. Keep up the good work, I say.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[mamahill]

Yay Gannon - and such a wisp of a thing! ;)

Do NOT let the ped tell you what to do about bfing. While bfing, I would have done the same thing, especially in such a stressful place like the doctor's office! Now that Ainsleigh is weaned, if she started acting fussy, I'd probably offer her the sippy with milk or some kind of snack. Yay you for sticking up for yourself. See, you can do it!

Ainsleigh's 1-year is next Tuesday... My fingers are crossed, hoping for 18 pounds. We're buttering everything, and I'm considering just feeding her straight cream... (TOTALLY kidding!! well, MOSTLY kidding...;))

[Annette_C]

Way to go, G-man!:)
Joanne, sounds like he's growing well!
We have Sabrina's 9 mo. checkup on Monday so I'll post the stats then.
And, good for you for not letting your ped intimidate you about BF Gannon for comfort. As you know, Saby is on formula and I do take a bottle and a binkie along JIC!

Annette
SAHM to Sabrina 6/24/02

[blnony]

Gannon sounds like he is doing great. I wouldn't let your Ped. push you around on the breastfeeding thing. Just go with your instincts. You are his mother and you know him best. Audrey is bottle fed now, and sometimes I do give her a bottle to calm her.
Audrey's 9 mo check up isn't until May, but she is a chunk of thing. She has just now mastered sitting up and rolling to get to places, but shows no signs of crawling or pulling up.
Is the varicella vac. for chicken pox or am I confusing it with something else?

[mama2be]

Yeah Gannon Man!!!...Sounde like you are growing right along!!!

I snuck Tristan up to the peds office on his 5 week anniversary because I was curious about his weight he is 11 lbs 6 ounces 1/4 they said!!! They seemd to busy for me to ask for his height. This little guy eats and eats and eats!!!!

[nigele]

Joanne,

That breastfeeding thing is bugging me! What does your ped say when a Mom gives her baby a pacifier to comfort him? Arrgh...

We had our nine month visit on the same day but it really, really sucked. I left feeling horrible. Thomas has dropped off of the percentile chart for weight. He just does not want baby food and it is miserable trying to feed him. They did a finger prick to check for anemia but it turned out that he is getting plenty of iron from BM - yay! And his sleeping is back to a nightmare state since his surgery. And on, and on...

[Shirale]

Amira's 15 mo check up is this wed (missed it by a bit b/c of her being in the hospital and then us moving) and I too am crossing my fingers for 18 lbs...! She was down to 16 at the worst of the virus, but I have been feeding her non-stop now, I and I am pretty sure she has gained something...hopefully...maybe the butter and cream thing would work here too.....

[Shirale]

Lisa,
at around 10 months Amira refused baby food as well, and now still will not eat anything that is fed to her. Are there foods that he would be able to pick up and feed himself? I tried mashed potatos, not too wet, and she was abole to pick it up herself...can you ask your Ped for sugestions?? Poor little guy...I understand the off the charts thing though...we have the same prob. BTW- I just love the picture of him, he really is too cute for words!!!!

[nigele]

Shira,

Thanks for the compliment! As for food, Tom loves the Gerber Biter Biscuits. They are so messy, though! He doesn't love anything else. Every once in a while he will eat a Ritz cracker but mostly he just holds it and studies it. I went on a grocery shopping spree and got him a variety of things to try this week - bagels, zwieback toast, rice cakes, and baby nutri-grain bars. The doc also suggested bananas. Tom has not yet taken to tiny pieces of food like bits of potatoe, avocado and banana although he liked Cheerios the first time he had them. He just picks them up now but doesn't try very often to get them in his mouth!

[Shirale]

Lisa,
you just listed Amira's basic food repetiore (with the addition of string cheese and peices of chicken)I just keep offering her different types of things and figure that she knows what she needs...I can't exactly force her to eat....poor kids. Today we had a major development in that at lunch when she wouldn't eat anything on her tray I said in frusteration- fine, then what DO you want?? (rhetorically) and she answered "cheese!" and she ate a whole string cheese! Yay!

[nathansmom]

Nathan's 2 month checkup:

Weight: 11lbs 15 oz. 50% on the charts. This is good since only 3 weeks ago he was below his birthweight. He must be making up for the lost time.

Height: 22 inches 25% on the charts.

He had shots but they seemed to have bothered me more than him.

Off the subject I recieved another case of formula from the enfamil rep. again, if he keeps this up I'll never have to buy formula again.

[Rachels]

I have such a peanut! Took her in today at 10.5 months, and she was 17 pounds, 27 inches.

-Rachel
Mom to Abigail Rose
5/18/02

[Shirale]

Well she may be a peanut- but she is a really, really cute peanut!!!

[mamahill]

If yours is a peanut, is mine a sting bean? Ainsleigh was 16 lbs, 14 oz and 28 inches when I took her in to be measured at 10.5 months. Tomorrow is her one-year appointment. I've been giving her any and EVERYthing she will eat (buttering BOTH sides of her toast... lol!). I'm crossing all fingers and toes, hoping for 18 lbs...

[Annette_C]

Sabrina's 9 mo. check up was cancelled due to bad weather conditions. They rescheduled her for next week.
When we took her in a week ago for her cold, she weighed in at 21 lb, 8 1/2 oz. They didn't measure her lenght...they were saving that for the check up.

Lisa: please don't feel bad about Tommy's check up stats...the poor thing has been through so much it will take a little while to get back to normal and, I'm sure, he will. Babies are much stronger than we assume and they bounce back so, don't worry. You're doing a great job!

Annette
SAHM to Sabrina 6/24/02

[mamahill]

One year check-up today, and despite what my family, friends and DH thought, Ainsleigh is STILL small. Ho hum. Here are her stats:

Weight: 17 lbs, 15 oz
Height: 28 3/4 inches
Head: 17 inches

So it would appear that she has inherited DH's small head. But I suppose that is good since the rest of her is small, too. I sat there chanting, "18! 18!" hoping to break 18 lbs, but alas. In fact, she really weighed more like 17-14, and they "gave" me one more, but 18 even would have been too much.

Ainsleigh was a gem throughout the whole thing, though. She sat there babbling and pointing and laughing. Any concerns I may have had about her development were quickly calmed by my doctor when she answered, "She looks like a normal 1-year-old to me!" We were going through the various areas, and when she asked if Ainsleigh had any words, I was listing a few of them (good, no, dada, this), and Ainsleigh dropped her book and said, "Uh oh!" and pointed to the book. The ped said, "And uh-oh. That's great!"

Anyway, I feel MUCH better. I think my problem is that I've been comparing Ainsleigh to overacheivers and seeing what she ISN'T doing, that they are. I've barely noticed the things she's doing ahead of schedule.

And for what it's worth, Joanne (and any other bfing mommies who get "looks" for whipping "it" out), as soon as Ainsleigh's shots were finished, I whipped out her sippy cup of milk and let her go to town. A minute and 4 oz later, Ainsleigh was as good as new. So whip out whatever is comfort!

[COElizabeth]

Congratulations, Ainsleigh! Way to show off at the doctor's! I laughed at the 15 ounces. At his past 3 appointments, James has been x pounds, 15 ounces! Oh, and he has a very small head, too. His "big-headed" cousins' hats look so funny on him.

Elizabeth
Mom to James
9-20-02

[nigele]

Hurray for Ainsleigh! LOL - Thomas weighs 15 pounds, 15 ounces! (The nurse actually put it in the chart as 15 pounds, 15 3/4 ounces - so I am going to round up and call it 16 pounds!)

[mama2be]

Awesome news Ainsleigh!!! and mommy too...

and I agree whip out what works...that was weird that that ped said you don't see other moms pull out what works that ped was so wrong everywhere you go you see comfort measures of some kind offered to children...and it usually revolves around intake!!!

[Shirale]

Hi all,
We had Amira's 15 month app today with a new Ped (a little late at 16 months b/c of the move). (thanks Rachel for suggesting Dr. W- he is great!) and she is now 30 inches (50th%!!!) and 19 lbs 6 oz (a little below 5th%, oh well) but the Dr. isn't too worried, said she is quite healthy, thank G-d!!!! He also asked if she said at least 5 words and was quite happy when I told him that I lost count after 35! :-) She had to have shots :-( which is always so yucky...but she was a very good girl!
So she is still a peanut...or maybe more of a string bean actually!

[atlbaby]

Hooray for Amira on a great appointment!! Glad to hear you like Dr W as much as we do! I tend to go in with all of these paranoid-mommy questions. I always try not to, but always end up bringing my list of questions, much to DH's chagrin, and Dr W always puts me at ease (and humors me:) ).

Arielle goes for her 18(!)month appointment in a few weeks so I am sure we will be getting lots of bets on her ht/wt when we visit family for the holidays next week!

Rachel
Mom to Arielle Jill, 10/30/01
#2 EDD 10/24/03

[Annette_C]

We finally made it to the ped today (after last week's weather surprise, her appointment had to be rescheduled)!

Her weight is 21 1/2 lbs (75%ile)
Her height is 30" (90%ile)
Her head size measurements are off the charts!
The ped reassured me that that's a good thing plus, with all that hair , she's bound to have a bigger head than normal! LOL:)

She got 2 shots today but no anemia test (at 12 mo). She did very well overall. Ped said she's growing wonderfully and sees no problems.
I asked the ped if I should worry about Sabrina not crawling yet and she told me that a lot of babies don't crawl at all anymore but go right to walking (which I already knew but wanted to hear from her). Ped also said that Saby has strong legs and sits and holds herself up very well so there's no reason to be concerned.
That's our update. Thanks for allowing me to share it with you! :)

Annette
SAHM to Sabrina 6/24/02

[nigele]

Wonderful!! Good for Sabrina. I'm sure you are happy to have all of that great reassurance. Keep up the good work. :-)

[brubeck]

My little guy had his 4 month checkup today. He jumped from the 75th percentile in height to the 90th over the last 2 months. He is now 26 inches and almost 15 pounds. Scary! At least I know he's probably getting enough BM!

The good news is that he was a total trouper getting his four (count 'em FOUR) shots.