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Maternity & Parenting Center

Spoke too soon….

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After Micah’s fussiness last night, I hastily declared Micah “asleep for the night” at 9:15. Apparently, I spoke too soon. Elliot and I were catching up on the DVR, reviewing the architectural plans and discussing child care challenges last night. Right around 2:30, I started to get a bit sleepy. I turned to Elliot and said “I think I’m going to call it a night after we finish watching this show.” About 3 minutes later, we heard this LOUD wailing over the monitor – yup, Micah woke up screaming. We gave him a minute to see if he would roll over and fall back to sleep, but no such luck. Elliot went upstairs and spent about 20 minutes cuddling with Micah and trying to coax him back to sleep. We tried a little more Tylenol, but Micah just needed to come downstairs and cuddle with his Mommy.

We sat with him for a while longer, and around 3:15 we tried to put him back in the crib so we could go to sleep. No such luck! Micah started screaming his head off again, so we brought him back out of the crib and into bed with us. For another hour, that boy was going! He did not want to nap or cuddle, he wanted to play. Poor Elliot – I could barely stay awake, and someone needed to make sure Micah did not dive off of the bed. Around 4:15, Elliot tried to put him in the crib one last time. Micah definitely cried and fussed, but he eventually fell asleep (I think, perhaps, after I dozed off). He slept until 10:00 this morning. All I can say is…I’m glad the grumpy baby had daycare today! I hope tonight gets easier. I’m sure the poor little guy didn’t feel well from the vaccinations…and his erupting teeth.

6 month checkup

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Micah had his 6 month appointment today (yes, I know it is nearly 2 weeks late!) and he did quite well. He was sitting in his diaper on the table ripping the paper cover to shreds when the doctor walked in – Micah flashed him a big grin then went back to his task of ultimate destruction. I probably should have taken a picture of our little guy – he was quite a sight. The doctor smiled, said that was a wonderful greeting (and the best he’d had all day), and then commented on Micah’s “mop of hair.”

Micah weighed in this morning at a whopping 15 lbs 8 ounces and measured 26 inches! My big boy is growing!! He is now in the 20th percentile for weight (making progress!) and about the same for height. Like his mommy, he has a tiny head – only the 10th percentile. We spent a long time talking to the doctor about food and eating, and I got answers to all 9 million of my questions. We were told he should not be eating any yogurt yet (or really any protein foods) until he is 9 months old because he just doesn’t need it yet. He said Micah should be at the lower end for formula/milk intake because he is small (big relief to hear!) and he thought 24-28 ounces a day should be more than enough (which is great, because that is about all he is getting). The doctor gave us estimates for about how many times a day and how much food he should be eating at each meal, and we are right in the target range. I have been so unsure as to whether I am feeding him the right amount, or too much, or not enough, but it seems I’ve been guessing correctly. We were told that most babies will take three meals a day by seven months, so we will watch and see when Micah is ready to add another meal each day.
The doctor increased Micah’s dosage of Zantac and checked out his congestion. Unfortunately, all of the congestion returned this week. The doctor seemed to think that kind of congestion is typical with infants, and unless it lasts more than a few weeks or he develops a cough/fever, he is not concerned at this time. It seems we are hitting all of the correct milestones, and we will go back again in three months for our next checkup and round of vaccinations.
The last part of our appointment was the immunizations – 2 shots and an oral vaccine. Micah LOVES the oral vaccine – he kept grabbing it and trying to guzzle it faster. Clearly, he has not developed good taste yet! I think Micah is like his Daddy – he’ll eat just about anything, with gusto. Micah did not even flinch for the first shot, but he started shrieking with the second shot – the nurse thinks maybe it burns since most babies cry when they get that shot. I immediately started nursing Micah, and he calmed back down again.

On a side note, there was a 2 week old baby at the doctor’s office today. I was a bit emotional – I looked at her, and I already felt a loss of sorts that Micah was no longer that little baby. I was nostalgic for the times he just curled up on my chest and slept all day and was such a tiny little thing. Of course, Elliot then reminded me how much more fun Micah is now that he has a personality and is gaining independence and how much easier things are now, and I know he is right. It is just hard to believe how quickly the time passed, and that I’m already missing my little baby.

He has been fine so far this afternoon. He took a nap and he was playful when he woke up. He did have a cranky patch, but I gave him a teething biscuit and that seemed to hit the spot and keep him quite busy.
In other news – Micah discovered his penis today! Yes, I did say penis, and I’m sure you did not see that announcement coming. We were changing his diaper at the doctor’s office, and Micah’s hands when straight on down there and grabbed a hold. That has to be some kind of male rite of passage, right? One day, when Micah can read and he reads this blog, I’m sure he will hate me for sharing this story.

4 month checkup

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Monday was our 4 month checkup – and Micah did really well! He weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 15 ounces, and he is 24 1/4 inches long. The doctor thought he was really strong and doing perfectly! He had his vaccinations (2 shots and an oral vaccine). He cried (but not as loudly as last time – this nurse was a bit more gentle administering the shot). I nursed him after the shot, and we came home. He napped on and off all afternoon, and we had one screaming session for about 2 hours, and then he slept from 5 until 9. I nursed him again, and he was happy and smiley again. We finally put him down for the night around 10 or 10:30, and he slept through until 8:00 this morning.

We talked to the doctor about the fact that Micah has been stuffy all week, and he was not concerned. We also discussed Micah’s reflux, and he increased the Zantac dosage, so hopefully that will help our little Micah feel better. We also discussed starting solid foods, and he said we can start him on cereal at any time! He suggests if we start early that we go slow – just work on cereal only for a while (at least a month) before introducing any other foods. I think in the next few weeks, we will try cereal. I’d like to work in one cereal feeding a day – I think it will help him get all the calories he needs during the day.

Belated post – 2 month appointment

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I either forgot to post an update a few weeks ago about Micah’s 2 month checkup . . . or I am so confused that I can’t find the post! We took him in on February 16 and he weighed 9 lbs 5 ozs!! He is getting so big. We showed the doctor how he rolled over, and he was impressed by how strong our little guy is. He increased his dosage of Zantac, and then my little guy had his shots. Luckily, it was only 2 shots and an oral vaccine. He SHRIEKED so loudly, and he had this horrible sobbing cry – I’ve never heard him cry so intensely. He has had other shots, but this one seemed to hurt more. I think this nurse was a little rough icon_sad.gif. Right after the shot, I nursed him, and he seemed to calm down almost immediately. He slept most of the day (right through our Baby & Me class), and when he did wake up, he just cranked and cried. I held him close and fed him and rocked him back to sleep. He woke up around 7 pm and he was smiling and happy again, and he ended up sleeping through the night that night. We had a rough day the next day (mostly because we got off our napping schedule), but he bounced back pretty quickly. I hated seeing him hurt, but we were lucky – no real bruising.