Rock-A-Bye Buggy: 4 month appt. update (a bit on the long side)

Tuesday the 17th was Buggy's 4 month "well baby" appointment and shots. I was pretty upset with myself for forgetting to grab the camera, so Dana let me use his Blackberry to take some pics to immortalize the visit.

Here is the Bug sitting nicely in the waiting room:

Some general info about the visit:

Length: 24 inches even (this puts her still in the same place she was 2 months ago: between the 25th and 50th percentiles - doc didn't get any more specific than that)

Head was 16 (cm?). whatever the measurement she's still rockin' the 50th-ish percentile here.

Weight is now 14 lbs, 11 oz. (well it says 10 oz on my paperwork, but it was really 10.8 ounces on the scale, so I am rounding up). This weight puts her in the 75th percentile. At her last visit 2 months ago, she was only at the 30th percentile. A huge increase. 45 percentiles worth. Our doc is happy with this and says she's growing just fine.

This made me happy because one of my concerns is if she's getting enough nutrition from me. Well, I should say "hanging onto" enough nutrition since she spits up SO MUCH. Seriously, she's been bad with the spitting up for over 2 months now. Sometimes it's thick and gooey, sometimes clear, or sometimes clear with milk curdles in it. But it's pretty constant. I talked to the doc about my concerns in this area, and she gave us a prescription for some reflux meds for the Buggy to take 2x's a day. Today was day #1 of reflux meds.... so far so good. Only 2 small instances of spit up. Nothing like the erupting volcano she usually is. Ahhhhhhh! Big sigh of relief.

The doc asked about Bug's sleeping habits. I mention that she doesn't nap, and until this past week she'd finally been sleeping through the night fine from about 10pm -7am. Doc said that's only 9 hours and she'd like to see her getting a total of 13-ish (including naps). I did mention that Bug dozes off for like 10-15 mins during a few feedings during the day. The doc mentioned that naps will probably come easier as she gets older. We did address the fact that starting about a week ago, Bug was waking at 4am for a couple days. Then it moved to 3:30am. All those times I could rock her back to sleep within 1/2 hour or so with no feeding. Now, the morning of our appt, she woke at 2am. I tried calming her, rocking her, singing to her for an hour. At 3am I finally gave in and nursed her. She was awake again after that at 6am for another feeding. Doc said it sounds like it's time to start her on solids (rice cereal). She said she's starting to need more to get through the night. She's probably waking hungry. She told us to feel free to start solids whenever we feel comfortable with it. I need to go buy food stuffs, baby spoons, and a high chair this weekend. We really had it in the back of our minds that we wouldn't be in need so soon.

After discussing all our concerns, the Doc examined Buggy. After seeing Buggy suck her fingers constantly while we were talking, she checked her gums for any sign that teeth are coming. She said she isn't seeing any yet, but that her lower gums are a bit swollen indicating that the teeth are probably starting to push up. So I guess that means they could come soon-ish? I wasn't too clear on that. After all her other checks, she once again declared her a perfect baby and says it looks like her eyes will most likely be staying that dark blue color.

After all that, the doc left (saying she doesn't like the babies associating her with the pain of the shots), and a nurse came in and administered all her vaccinations. Buggy was her best baby of the day with the oral one, just staring at the nurse and swallowing it down. Nurse said another baby screamed through that, and different one kept spitting it out. When it came to the actual shots, the nurse did them, Daddy held Buggy from squirming, Mommy was getting all in the way trying to take pics (LOL!), and Buggy screamed. She was very Mad!

Later, we head down to the pharmacy. Checked in letting them know we are there for the med the doc just put into the computer. They tell me it'll be a 15-20 min. wait. Fine. At around 10 mins, I notice the line to pick up the done meds is getting really really long. Our name was not yet on the "done" board. I decided to get in line and gamble that by the time I got the front, our name would be up. The line barely moved for about 10 mins, then suddenly it moved quite quickly and I was at the front - without our name showing on the board. All this time I had left Buggy with Daddy in the outer waiting room area and I could hear her just screaming the entire time (poor Bug. poor Daddy). So when a window opened, I went ahead and told the pharmacy lady that I had been told 15-20 and although my name wasn't on the board, it was now over 20 and the baby is screaming her head off, so could she just check to see how our prescription is doing. WooHoo Lucky me - it was Done! Yes! Gave them my $10 and got back to Buggy fast. Dana passed her to me and she immediately quieted. All the old folks in the waiting area laughed at Dana. Then it was off to dinner at the usual, Farmer Boys. Buggy finally fell asleep when we got there.

Here are some appt. pics.

Waiting for the Doc. Buggy loves looking at herself in the mirror. Her feet were kicking up a storm and completely thrashing the paper on the table.