Four Month Checkup
Today was Colin's 4-month checkup with the pediatrician. My biggest question, aside from my paranoid and unfounded fear that he wasn't growing fast enough, was about his cold. He's better for the most part, but still has a little lingering congestion. Thankfully the doctor listened to his lungs and he's fine. We just have to wait it out and, and keep giving him steam baths to help loosen the phlegm.
Developmentally everything is right on track... he's rolling, looking around, holding up his head, and doing all the things that a 4 month old baby should do. And he's growing nicely. At his last two appointments he was in the 10th percentile for length and head circumference, and 50th percentile for weight. Now he's evened out... he's between the 25th and 50th percentile for all three categories! So we'll just keep doing what we've been doing... nursing, playing, tummy time, etc. While some kids can start on solids at four months, because of H's food allergies the doctor recommended that we stick to nursing exclusively until 6 months.
The doctor also examined his ears (fine), eyes (all good), hip joints (nice and flexible), and mouth. At which time he noticed... the early stages of teeth starting to bud on his bottom jaw. As we had guessed, it looks like Colin may be teething. This is a bit early, as the doctor said most kids don't start until 6-9 months, but it looks like his chompy chompy chomps are for real.
Then... vaccination time. The first was just a liquid taken orally. No problem. Then came the jabs: three of them in his teeny legs. Poor little guy! He turned red, then started to cry, and was so mad he progressed rapidly from red to a nice shade of almost-purple! As soon as he was done I picked him up and (magically!) the crying stopped. He may not have felt much better, but boy did that make ME feel good!!
Now he's just a little needy and fussy, but generally seems to be dealing well with the whole shebang. I'll give him a little infant Tylenol just before bed so he can sleep comfortably, and hopefully by tomorrow he'll be 100% again. Until then it will be hard-core cuddle time tonight, and hopefully he'll just go to sleep early and snooze through it all.
Developmentally everything is right on track... he's rolling, looking around, holding up his head, and doing all the things that a 4 month old baby should do. And he's growing nicely. At his last two appointments he was in the 10th percentile for length and head circumference, and 50th percentile for weight. Now he's evened out... he's between the 25th and 50th percentile for all three categories! So we'll just keep doing what we've been doing... nursing, playing, tummy time, etc. While some kids can start on solids at four months, because of H's food allergies the doctor recommended that we stick to nursing exclusively until 6 months.
The doctor also examined his ears (fine), eyes (all good), hip joints (nice and flexible), and mouth. At which time he noticed... the early stages of teeth starting to bud on his bottom jaw. As we had guessed, it looks like Colin may be teething. This is a bit early, as the doctor said most kids don't start until 6-9 months, but it looks like his chompy chompy chomps are for real.
Then... vaccination time. The first was just a liquid taken orally. No problem. Then came the jabs: three of them in his teeny legs. Poor little guy! He turned red, then started to cry, and was so mad he progressed rapidly from red to a nice shade of almost-purple! As soon as he was done I picked him up and (magically!) the crying stopped. He may not have felt much better, but boy did that make ME feel good!!
Now he's just a little needy and fussy, but generally seems to be dealing well with the whole shebang. I'll give him a little infant Tylenol just before bed so he can sleep comfortably, and hopefully by tomorrow he'll be 100% again. Until then it will be hard-core cuddle time tonight, and hopefully he'll just go to sleep early and snooze through it all.
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