Flying Colors

Peeper had her six-month well(!)-baby check-up today, and the doctor said she looks great.

We'll start with the tale of the tape:

Current (Birth) / Percentile / Adjusted Percentile

Height: 24.25 inches (18 inches) / 5th / 10th - 25th
Weight: 12 lb 14 oz (4 lb 12 oz?) / 4th / 5th - 10th
Head Circumference: 15.9 inches (12 inches) / 8th / 5th - 10th

She's now just a hair more than triple her low weight (at 24 hours old) of 4 lb 4 oz!

Needless to say (and, yet, I will), the doctor was very pleased with her growth, and both he and the nurse who measured her remarked that, "She's on the chart now!" for all three measurements.

She got three shots, which she was not too happy about, although a little goody fixed her right up. (Eventually.)

We gave her some Tylenol right before the shots (she gets a full dropper now!), and another dose four hours later. She's probably feeling a bit ooky from the shots, because she's slept most of the afternoon.

The doctor also seemed happy with our answers to all his developmental questions - even though I felt it necessary to say things like,

"Why YES, she's been rolling front-to-back since SIX WEEKS, and she's really, really close to rolling back-to-front. She'd really like to. She's WORKING VERY HARD ON IT," and

"She sits GREAT with support, and, no she's not sitting unsupported yet, but she's doing MUCH BETTER at it, and staying upright for SEVERAL SECONDS and she's even RIGHTING HERSELF when she leans, well sometimes, but she's much steadier lately, and . . . ."

until he just looked at me and said, "It's okay. Most six-month olds don't do that yet."

Oh. Okay. Good to know.

I think I actually remembered to ask most of the questions on my checklist:

Percentiles
Check. See above.

Solid Readiness
He said that the gut closes when they've been eating for 4 - 6 months, so it's not something that needs to be adjusted for her prematurity. I didn't ask about her tongue-thrust reflex, but we'll just watch and see what happens with that.

He gave the go-ahead to start on solids. He referred to cereal, but based on the research that we've been doing lately (specifically looking at recommendations for breastfed babies), I think we're going to let her have a go at some fruits and veggies and see what happens. More on that in another post.

Teeth?
"No, I don't feel - oh wait, yeah, I think there's one getting ready to start to come through." He said he feels a bit of a "skin flap" that sometimes develops at the early stage of teething. I don't think we need to shop for a toothbrush any time soon.

Aw, shit. I meant to ask how we should go about cleaning her teeth when they do show up, and when we need to start that.

Spitting Up
Yeah, he doesn't know either. He said that she's likely to spit up less with solids, just because they are heavier and tend to stay put. Sounds delicious.

Coordination
He was watching her grab at her onesie (which Shrike was holding) and put it in her mouth, and he said that her movements look just fine to him, and that she's supposed to still be that jerky. I described the marked difference between even what she's doing now and what GirlW was doing three weeks ago (acknowledging that she's six weeks older), and he said that W "actually sounds a bit advance." (Note to self: Mention this to M!)

Sunscreen
Try to keep her in the shade or mostly clothed for now. A bit of sunscreen on face / arms / legs is okay, but don't slather her head-to-toe, because of the chemicals in it. They are all the same, any "Gentle for baby!" brand is just marketing.

Incision / Stitch
Looks great, the stitch will continue to work its way out. Leave it alone for now.

Swine Flu*
(yes I did feel like a big dorky-freak-out-about-nothing parent, asking about this)
He agreed that Anonydaddy is the best source to let us know if there's there have been any cases in their part of Texas between now and our trip. I'm betting this will all be a big nevermind by then.

Her next well-baby check-up will be at nine months, and she won't need more vaccines until her one-year(!) check-up.

He did ask whether we'd followed up on her metabolic testing with the Children's Hospital.

Whoops. After her tyrosine level was almost normal in December, they told us to check back in March, to make sure it was completely into the normal range. Yeah, we kind of had other plans in March, so that didn't happen.

We need to give them a call and set up an appointment, and get that done. At least the trip shouldn't be too bad this time - I'm thinking we'll blow off the whole stroller / carseat business, use a backpack for a diaper bag (I think we're going to buy a bigger one and just go that route fulltime. God, we are such dykes.) and commit to walking it when we get to BigCity.

Should be pretty doable, since it won't be snowing, like our last trip, nor will I be eleven days post-partum, like the first trip!

So, barring anything unforseen, it looks like we might be down to monthly doctor's appointments for a while: Children's Hospital in May (or whenever they can get us in), cardiologist June 29, well-baby July 29 - and then (dare I say it?) maybe nothing until she's a year old?!?!

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*And now, for something completely different:

Does anyone remember the swine flu scare of 1976? You know, the one that never materialized.

I was very young at the time but I remember hearing people talk about it alot, and I specifically remember a Saturday Night Live** sketch with Dan Akroyd as Jimmy Carter, doing a presidential debate with a big swine flu vaccine needle in his arm.

Oh, wait, Google tells me the Gerald Ford character had a vaccine too. I stand corrected.

Google also tells me that Michele Bachman is going around talking about "Have you noticed that swine flu only happens when Democrats are president?"

Wow. Just wow.

(Well, Wow - and Ford was president during the swine flu scare, not Carter. So, there's that.)

**Note to Anonymama: What the hell was I doing watching SNL when I was eight years old?!?