Another Flu Shot

Since all children 6 months through 8 years old have to get two doses of flu vaccine this year if they haven't had the flu shot before, today was Emily's appointment for the second half of the vaccine, one month after the first half.

We went in this morning and it was really quick--so quick, in fact, that Emily didn't cry at all! No bottom lip, no tears, no nothing. She was such a big girl--and got a pack of Goldfish crackers as a reward (those actually ended up being my reward!).

Hopefully the vaccine will help keep her safe this flu season!

Just in Case

Sunday, we decided to take Emily to the doctor because she continued to have diarrhea through Saturday and we wanted to confirm our feeling that she wasn't sick. She had no other symptoms at all, and was eating and drinking normally. Our pediatrician's office has sick appointments on Saturday and Sunday mornings, so we took her in on Sunday.

The doctor confirmed that she's fine--she said it might just take her little system longer to recover from the stomach virus that was going around in the last two weeks. She also said that her teething could have something to do with it. Not only are her two bottom teeth visibly coming in, but the doctor said her two top teeth are also getting ready to come through too! She showed us where to look for her swollen gums. The teething explains why everything goes straight to Emily's mouth these days, and why she kept chewing on Mick's chin when we were waiting to see the doctor!

6 Month Checkup

Today was Emily's 6 month checkup, and her first time with a new doctor. I did some research when we moved to Charlotte, and read great things (including parent reviews) about Providence Pediatrics . I called over a month ago, and today was the first availability with Dr. Miller--the timing turned out to be perfect since Emily just hit the 6 month mark. We really liked the doctor, and everyone at the practice was really nice. There are definitely some differences from Emily's former pediatrician, but nothing that bothered us, and a few things that we actually liked better here.

Emily is growing fast--she weighs 15 lbs. 3 oz. and is 26 1/4 inches long! Her weight is in the 45th percentile now, and her height is in the 75th. Developmentally, she's doing all the things she should be right now. She can almost sit up on her own, and does great with the slightest bit of support.

The worst part of the visit was, of course, the shots. We decided to go ahead and let her get the flu shot today, so there were three shots in her legs. When the first one went in, her eyes opened wide, her bottom lip came out, and she started crying. It got worse with #2 and #3, but once we picked her up and snuggled her, she recovered pretty quickly. It was time for her to eat by then, so we fed her in the exam room before taking her to school.

We'll have to come back next month for the 2nd part of the flu shot, and then not again until her 9 month appointment, which will already be after Christmas! Time is just flying by too quickly.

Perfect Hips

Today will definitely go down as one of the best days in Emily's first four months. She had her hip ultrasound yesterday (the first one in five weeks, since she's been in the harness), but her follow up with the orthopedic specialist wasn't until today. I had to be in New Orleans for work, so Mick came home early to take Emily to her appointment. The doctor looked at her ultrasound and examined her hips, and said they're perfect and she no longer needs to wear the harness! We are absolutely ecstatic!

It's so nice to hold her now and let her get all snuggly and close, and it's even nicer to see her kick those perfect little legs around! She seems very excited, because her legs haven't stopped moving yet. She looks so much bigger because she can stretch all the way out--we feel like she's grown 6 inches overnight!

It probably sounds funny, but one of the other things I'm most looking forward to is changing her clothes more often--she could only wear a onesie with the harness on, and she has so many sweet little girly clothes that she has almost outgrown :).

4 Month Checkup

Emily had her 4-month checkup today with Dr. Bramwell, her pediatrician. She weighs 12 lbs, 7.4 oz now--what a growth spurt she's had! She's 23 1/2 inches long, and all of her measurements are in the 25th percentile now. So she's still on the small side for infants her age, but she's staying on track with her growth and developing perfectly.

Dr. Bramwell asked about the latest tricks Emily had mastered, so she showed all of them off--sitting up (with assistance), lifting up at almost a 90 degree angle while on her tummy, and trying to roll over. She told us we can start to introduce rice cereal any time now--I'm not sure Emily is quite ready, but we'll be trying it in the next couple of weeks, just to see what happens. She does watch more intently now as we eat, but seems to be perfectly content with just milk right now.

She also told us we shouldn't be using the Woombie any more at this point--that Emily needs to be able to get to her hands at night and doesn't need to be swaddled at 4 months. We're a little nervous about how sleeping will go without it, but we're willing to give it a try.

And speaking of sleeping, the doctor said it's time to start sleep training, and letting Emily "cry it out" some. She said she shouldn't be needing to eat in the middle of the night--Emily is still waking up pretty consistently to eat, and we've been feeding her since it puts her back to sleep much more easily than just the pacifier. Again, this makes us nervous, especially when you think about the fact that we've been working on making her stop crying for the last 16 weeks...and now we're expected to sit back and let her cry herself to sleep! This is gonna be tough.

Lots of changes to come, and I'm not sure we're prepared for all of them at once--what a week to be moving, on top of everything else!

Three More Weeks

Monday was Emily's scheduled appointment with Dr. Schrader, the orthopedic specialist. He wants her to wear the hip harness for another three weeks at least--at that point, she'll have another ultrasound and he'll decide what to do from there. He said he thought her hip probably wouldn't be perfect by then--it's still a little immature--but that he's optimistic that she won't be in the harness long.

He did say it's okay that we're taking the harness off of her once a day to give her a bath and change her clothes. He also said it's okay for her to lie on her side long enough for me to continue breastfeeding her. This was really important to me, because Emily has refused to nurse since she was put in the harness on June 16. I was really excited to give it a try when we got home yesterday--unfortunately, she started off strong, but after about 10 minutes, she pulled away crying and wouldn't keep going. Her little leg was kicking the whole time, so I can't help but think she just can't get in a comfortable position.

The inability to nurse her has made me even sadder about returning to work--that was our special time together each day, and I was looking forward to still having it in the morning and at night. Instead, I'm usually hooked up to the breast pump while Emily drinks from a bottle now :(. We'll keep trying it though, and hopefully she will remember how much she enjoyed it just a couple of weeks ago! If not, we did have those two wonderful months when it sometimes seemed like she nursed nonstop, and I'm really grateful for that.

Hip Update

Today was Emily's follow up ultrasound on her hips, and we had gotten such great news last time, I guess we sort of expected the same thing today. Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as planned--Emily's ultrasound showed that her left hip is still shallow, meaning the ball isn't as deep in the socket as they'd like. The bone doesn't move any more when the doctor applies pressure, which is a good thing; however, they measure the angle of the hip bones and look for 60 degrees or greater--her right hip is over 70, but her left hip is between 56-58. That's the same angle it was a month ago, so there wasn't the continued improvement we were hoping for.

The doctor has put Emily in a Pavlik Harness for what we hope will turn out to only be a month or two. She'll have checkups every two weeks, and ultrasounds every four weeks until her hip is where it needs to be. This thing actually looks a little like a medieval torture device--I'm quite sure it hurts me more to see her in it than it does for her to wear it. She fights really hard as it's being fastened on, and seems a little uncomfortable, but I'm sure she'll get used to it. It makes it very difficult to breastfeed, since she cannot lie on her side (she has to stay in this position with her legs apart at all times). I've held her in my lap with her legs straddling me and that works okay, but she's obviously not nearly as comfortable, and I really miss that snuggle time we had together. It's also very difficult to change her diapers because the harness is supposed to stay on all the time.

As easy as it is to complain about this and wish she didn't have to wear it, we know it could be so much worse, and we really are grateful that she has two beautiful little legs, and this will help her hip grow perfectly. We know it's the best thing we can do for her right now, so the inconvenience seems a small price to pay.

Two Month Checkup

Emily had her two-month checkup with Dr. Bramwell today, and she's doing fantastic! She's up to 9 lbs, 9.6 oz and 21 1/4 inches. We can tell she's growing because she's actually fitting into some of her 3 month clothes now. She can still wear the newborn sizes, but they're getting a little snug. It's nice to be able to expand the choices a little since we received so many sweet little 3 month outfits at the baby shower! Emily looks so cute in all of these little girly dresses and sunsuits.

I've struggled a lot with the vaccination decision--we thought about an alternative schedule, and just didn't know what was the right thing to do. I've read a lot about it and seen a lot of different opinions on TV, but we ultimately decided to go with the doctor's recommended "normal" schedule. That meant that Emily got three shots in her thighs and one oral vaccine today (a combination of six different vaccines that she'll have to repeat at 4 and 6 months). It was hard to watch someone hurt this sweet little girl that we've done nothing but try to protect over the last two months! Definitely a lot more difficult than I expected--for Mick and me, not necessarily for her. She did turn bright red and cry, but was fine once we picked her up and held her. I, on the other hand, was still crying as I tried to get her dressed and buckled into the carseat! She slept all day long after we got home, which is expected, but far from our tyical day!

Good News

Most of you know that the pediatrician who saw Emily in the hospital felt a hip click, which he said could be an indicator of hip dysplasia. This would potentially turn into a significant problem as she got older and started to crawl and walk. They check the severity with ultrasounds, but like to wait to do them until babies are at least 6 weeks old, so we've been double diapering her since she was born, hoping to keep her legs in kind of a squat position, which helps her hips grow at the correct angles. Today was Emily's much anticipated hip ultrasound!

The great news is that her hips are showing a lot of improvement! The doctor said her right hip is perfectly normal, and her left is about 4 degrees from perfect. Rather than putting her in a harness that she'd have to wear 24 hours a day for the next 6-12 weeks, he said he recommended giving her another 4 weeks to see if they continued to improve. We'll go back for another ultrasound then, and will know the verdict! The cool thing is that two of the things she's been doing (and we've been trying to change) are turning out to be the most beneficial for her hips. Her position while she's sleeping (on my chest every night with her legs bent up under her), and her position in the Moby wrap have both been helping her over the past 7 weeks! So maybe everything really does happen for a reason :).

One Month Checkup

Emily had a visit with the pediatrician today for her one month checkup. It's truly unbelievable to think it's already been a month since she was born! This picture is her ready to go to the doctor--she's so much bigger and fills out that carseat so much more than she did four weeks ago!

The pediatrician said she's perfect! Her hips are actually feeling better and tighter, so we continue to be optimistic about the ultrasound on May 17. She's grown over an inch (is 21 inches now) and weighs 8 lbs, 6.5 oz.

She'll go back to the doctor in a month, and will have her first shot then :(. We are not looking forward to that visit.

Great News!

While we were in the hospital, the pediatrician who checked Emily out the morning after she was born told us that she had a hip click and he wanted us to make an appointment with an orthopedic specialist when we got home. Worst case, he said she would probably need to wear a brace for a couple of months or she might develop hip dysplasia, which would cause problems for her once she started to crawl and walk. Her pediatrician made us worry a little more on her first visit, when she told us she could easily dislocate Emily's hips during the exam. She referred us to a couple of places--one to see a specialist, and one to have an ultrasound.

Today, we went to see the orthopedic specialist and were shocked and thrilled when he told us he didn't feel anything other than a hip click, which was nothing to worry about! We're still keeping the ultrasound appointment, but we're very optimistic now that they'll find nothing abnormal when we go. That appointment will be May 17--after 6 weeks old, which means a more accurate image.

Two-Week Checkup

We went on Friday afternoon for Emily's 2-week checkup with Dr. Bramwell. We're really glad we chose her as our pediatrician--we like her more every time we see her, and Emily seems to feel at ease with her.

Everything is looking great--Emily has definitely put on some weight! She's up to 7 lbs, 6.4 oz and 19 3/4 inches already! Dr. Bramwell said she was just hoping she'd be back up to her birth weight, but she has exceeded expectations! We weren't that surprised--she's been eating so much we've changed her nickname from Wiggles to Wiglet the Piglet :). She is filling out a lot more, but still too small for most of her clothes.

We'll go back for another checkup in two weeks! Here's the picture of sweetness for today.

Week 38 Checkup

I went to see Dr. Graham today for my checkup, and things are looking good. My blood pressure is still fine, and I haven't gained any more weight since last week, so I'm at 24 pounds total for the whole pregnancy. Emily's heartbeat was in the 140s, and Dr. Graham said she has definitely dropped and is much lower in my pelvis. I could already tell that, since my heartburn has almost completely disappeared, and when I sit down, it feels like she's in my lap now.

My cervix isn't dilated yet, and is still about 50% effaced, so I haven't changed much in the last couple of weeks. Dr. Graham is on call on Wednesday the 31st, so my homework assignment is to go to Scalini's on Tuesday night to have eggplant parmesan. There's a local legend that if a pregant woman eats this, she'll go into labor within the next couple of days. Their website has a page for Eggplant Parmigiana Babies that's really cute.

I also told Dr. Graham that I've been having a lot more Braxton Hicks contractions--sometimes more than 4-5 in an hour. He said that's good, but I still need to be having more before we're ready.

So we'll see if the eggplant works...if not, my follow up appointment is next Thursday, April 1.