Wednesday, May 18, 2011

2 Month Check up

Stella had her 2 month checkup this morning and here are her stats:

Weight @ Birth: 7lbs 8oz
Current 2 month weight: 13lbs even!!!
Gain? 5lbs 5oz... our little chunk. She's in the 92nd percentile for weight, my girl likes to eat.

Height @ Birth: 21.5 inches... but 20.5 inches in the Dr's office at 5 days old...
Current 2 month height: 23 3/4
Gain? 3 1/4 inches... she's in the 76th percentile for height, and she's all torso.

Stella was all smiles for Dr. Archibald, her pediatrician. He was very impressed with her head control, her reaction to things, including the blood pressure meter mounted at the wall, at which she kept smiling the whole time, and her overall appearance. She is a SUPER healthy girl! yay!

We talked a lot about sleep. I guess i'm not doing the whole sleep thing right... She doesn't go down until about 11, and sleeps til about 4-5am, then nurses and sleeps for about 3 more hours. Apparently she's supposed to be going to be between 7 and 8pm... I don't know how I feel about this really. She's usually wide awake from 6pm til 10ish, so I have a really hard time believing she should be asleep and in bed by 8pm. I'd love it, really, if she was asleep by then, but she really doesn't follow that schedule. I'm sure when she's a bit older, say around 7 months, she'll hopefully be on more of a early schedule and will be sleeping through the night, but right now while were nursing, i'm not going to push the sleeping all night thing. She gets several wonderful naps during the day, and I know she's getting plenty of sleep, so I'm just going to follow her sleep cues and do what works for her. I am curious though, if you have a young baby (or remember your child's sleep patterns when they were 2 months old), do they sleep from 8pm til morning? I'd love to hear your sleep experiences.

Now for the part that scared me a little. Stella's left side of her head is flat. Really Flat. Like hold a book against it and it's perfectly flat. I hadn't noticed it, although I had noticed she likes to favor laying on that side. Dr. Archibald noticed right away, and wasn't super concerned, he just said we really need to start laying her on her right side to get the plates to even out, it's making her right side bulge into more of an oval rather than a circle like it's supposed to be. If it is worse or not any better at her 4 month appointment, we may end up having to get her a sweet helmet to wear that will even it out with built in plates. So we'll be doing some neck stretches and propping her on her right side to get things evened out, hopefully.

A little on Vaccines


Vaccines are something that I have been doing my research on since before Stella was born. We knew at birth we did not want to give her any of the shots, so we signed wavers against the Hep B shot, the erythromycin, and Vitamin K shot. No biggie. Now comes the big ones, her childhood vaccinations.

We've decided to wait until her 4 month appointment to start her vaccinations. Her pedi is very adamant about vaccinating, so I did a ton of research and was very prepared when he wanted to know why we're waiting. He's really only adamant about 3 of the required vaccines, HIB, DTaP, and Pc, the others he's not so pushy about, thankfully. I'm ok with the HIB (a strain of meningitis), it's essentially Glucose water, with a little bit of saline, and the dead virus/bacterium complex, and depending on the brand it has some tetanus or diphtheria virus in it. It's the least invasive of all the vaccines. DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussus) is the biggie that we want to avoid. I wish they made just the pertussus vaccine, it would be so much better to give it alone than to have it with two other vaccines that are meant to protect adults. The DTaP vaccine has aluminum, formaldehyde and/or mercury in it... depending on the brand/maker/mix. yes they are small amounts, but why even chance it? Pc (Pneumococcus/ Pneumococcal Disease) is supposed to protect kids from the common cold turning into Pneumonia, a blood stream infection, or meningitis. This one is a bit more scary, because it deals with lung diseases, which are much more transmittable than most of the other diseases there are vaccines for. I had bronchitis last year, which could easily have turned into Pneumonia, but i'm thankful it didn't, but it made me realize that it is very easy to get to the scary point that could land you in the hospital for treatment. I don't ever want to go through that with a baby, so we'll probably get this vaccine at the 4 month check up. Unfortunately, this shot also contains aluminum, so we'll be staggering the Pc and DTaP vaccines to be sure Stella does not get too much aluminum in her system at once, it's just not safe, and the side affects far outweigh the benefits for us at this point. We are healthy, i'm breastfeeding, she has no older siblings, she does not go to daycare, or really have much contact with older children in general, and we just don't agree with overloading her body with a vaccination that is the same amount given to children as is given to adults. Of course this is all just our opinion, and I do hope that each and every parent will fully research the vaccines that their child will be receiving, and make their own, informed decision on what is best for their child.

After all that fun info, I thought I'd throw in some cute pics from this week,

Hangin' out with daddy before he left for a week and a half for work. Shirt? 6 months, Pants? Newborn... yep, daddy dressed her :) 

Napping in the moby, her new daily napping spot. She will only sleep about a half hour laying on her own, so the moby is  where she will sleep for a good 2+ hours in the middle of the day, a much needed break for mommy to get some things done around the house.

Bath time! We bought Stella a baby bathtub last week so I wouldn't have trouble bathing her while Brent is gone. She loves it! She is so calm, and just hangs out and kicks her legs in the water.

She started crying when I pulled her out of the tub... I see a battle coming at bath time when she's older.

Baby Legs!! I love her face and hand placement! Stell has several pairs of babylegs that she has yet to be able to wear, they now fit her chubby little thighs, but are still too long. I just bunched them up and she loves them.

She's such a happy girl hangin' out in her fluff!!! her legs are blurry because she wouldn't stop kicking her legs! She's so cute!

This was part of a series of smiles that I was trying to catch, but kept getting sorta smiles, she's still adorable though.

11 comments:

The Sims II said...

Is your daughter wearing fuzzi bunz in one of the last photos? Im asking because we got these for our little guy and I am not sure when to start using them. He is 2 weeks old and about 9 lbs, but i feel like they're a little big on him. I would love to know when you started using them, and if you have any suggestions on the settings of the elastic. Thanks

Jeni said...

It's always a good rule of thumb to follow your gut instincts with your kiddo, you know them best. So don't worry too much about the sleep thing if it is working for you. Every child is different. One thing that did really help us with getting the kids down earlier (7-8) was just establishing a bedtime routine. We went through the first few months with Skyler going to sleep around 10-11 too until we thought to implement a bath/book/bed routine. Good luck!

GranGoddessa said...

Hi, hopping by on the Alexa hop and inviting you to visit my blog as well. Have a great day!

Love,
Me

Cher said...

SO cute! I am due with a girl in 2 months and cant' wait to dress her up! (I have two boys right now)


Stopping by from Spearmint Baby Alexa Blog Hop!


I hope you’ll visit me back at http://www.momandmore.com

Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, that last picture is adorable! "Put 'em up!" :D

Stopping by from the blog hop ^_^

UpperBottom said...

hi, first time visitor here! your daughter is adorable! my son is 13 months. it's cliche, but time really flies : (

nice meeting you.

cheers,
rachel
http://www.upperbottom.com

It's OK to be WEIRD! said...

2 months, and SO super cute! she's just gorgeous!

Found you on the Alexa Hop!

~ Raylene @ It's OK to be WEIRD!

Kristen said...

You're daughter is adorable! I have a chunky munkey too lol. Visiting from the Alexa hop! I’m also following via GFC. Would love if you could stop by and do the same :)

Kristen from http://wishfulthinking247.blogspot.com/

Pain SUX said...

Hello there, new follower here. I hope that when you get a chance, you'll stop by and follow me back.

~Steph
http://fortheluvofsanity.blogspot.com

Mme Wright said...

I don't think you are doing the sleep thing "wrong". Your babe is still figuring out her own "routine". Sure people start sleep training etc, but I say let her tell you what she needs. Things will fall into place. I'm surprised the doc said you were doing something wrong. My little guy is just over 3 months old. He usually falls asleep at about 830-9, wakes up to nurse at about 3-4 and then sleeps until 7 or so. (but not always!)

Anyways.. I LOVE my moby too - so amazing and i love the legwarmers.

(bringing you some alexa love and a new follower!)

Erika said...

Your daughter is adorable. I have 4 children and if I can give any advice, I would say trust your mommy instincts - it's almost always right.
You're doing an awesome job. :)

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