Two Months!

Official doctor's visit report:

• Evie weighs 11 lbs., 13 oz., which puts her in the 75th percentile, which is where she was at 1 month. Yay for consistency!


• She is 22.5 inches long, which puts her in the 50th percentile, which is also consistent with how she's measured in the past.


• Her head circumference is in the 95th percentile (don't remember the number, just the percentile). The only thing I have to say about this is that she fits right into our partly Norwegian family because a large Norwegian head has been passed down from my great-grandfather to my grandpa to my mother. I don't have an overly large head, but the trait is skipping a generation and being passed on through adoption. Cool! I have no idea why they measure her head size. I can see where a small head would be worrisome because I've heard that linked to syndromes, but is there any other significance to head size? I just don't know.


• She received the rotavirus oral vaccination and the Pediarix combo vaccine (DTaP, hep B and polio). Our pediatrician convinced me this was better than just getting the DTaP today. She was especially eager to give Evie the hep B, I think because she's adopted? I have no idea how that would impact her exposure to hep B at this point in her life. She convinced me with the "it's only one shot today..." and I thought I remembered reading about this combo shot not being reactive like the MMR so I said yes. Then I came home and reread parts of Dr. Sears (why didn't I take the book to the appt.?) and realized that the shot he'd recommended (just DTap) would have had less aluminum than Pediarix. Well, what's done is done. I'll bring the book along next time to defend myself. We'll go back in a month for HIB and Pc. And yes, eventually we will be doing the M, M and R separately.


• Evie loved the rotavirus oral vaccine and looked at the nurse like "can I have some more, please?" but screamed from the shot, of course. I knew she would, after yesterday accidentally pinching a bit of skin on her back as I was snapping up an outfit. She screamed as if I'd stabbed her with a knife...little drama queen :) It is so sad after one of her screaming fits how she keeps producing those little shuddering sobs every few seconds....sad and yet adorable. Seeing her eyelashes wet with tears breaks my heart, but it darkens her lashes and makes them stand out against her pink skin...beautiful.


• The pediatrician praised her up and down for meeting and exceeding her milestones. She asked me how much tummy time we're doing and I said, "well, she doesn't like it much, but we try to do it on our chests and on her changing table..." and she said "keep it up! Her head shape is perfect and she's exceeding her milestones!" So that made me feel great. I have to say though, she was showing off like crazy for her doctor. I don't think I've ever seen her head get that close to 90 degrees before...she was saving the good stuff for an audience. She even did a push-up with her forearms supporting her and her entire chest off the examining table and our pediatrician kept cooing at her, "you're so strong for your age!" Where did that push-up come from, I ask you? I don't think I've ever seen her do that! She also demonstrated her full 180 degree head rotation and cooing, and brought her hands together before sucking on them. It was like I'd coached her or something. She was in a great mood, though, since she'd eaten just an hour before, and was happy staring around at all of the new scenery and faces.


• The pediatrician examined her rash and wasn't concerned (it is less now than it was). She said to just keep bathing her every other day and changing her bib when it gets damp at the neck. She also examined her birth mark and says that it is growing at a normal rate and should be the type that disappears eventually (i.e. it will almost certainly be gone by the time she's old enough to wear a 2-piece bathing suit or a midriff-baring shirt.


• The doctor was also interested in Evie's cloth diaper (for those who care, she was in a caramel serged OBV Goodmama and an aqua Thirsties cover). She asked me to show her how it snaps up and was interested in how many of them we have and how I wash them.

Remember Evie's newborn photo shoot at 2 weeks old? Here is one of the shots I haven't shared yet: Just had to give you a chuckle. Here she is in the same cloth diaper at 1 month old (not much change in 2 weeks):


And here are a few shots of her in the same diaper at 2 months old (whoa, baby!):

Shiny Happy Baby:



"What's that thing attached to my leg? Can I grab it and put it in my mouth?"





She looks vaguely like Buddha here, doesn't she? It's the chubby lotus pose.





"Mom, I still can't seem to control my arms!"



See J's hand a the top right, about to prop her back up? She doesn't seem to mind. I love the fat rolls on her tummy in this one:

• This month, Evie transitioned from drinking 4 oz. of formula at a time to 5 oz. at a time. She let us know she was ready by giving us hunger cues and fussing on our shoulders during after-feeding burps. The pediatrician thinks it's too much to give her and suggested cutting back down to 4, but I know my baby and I am not giving in. Evie wants 5, she gets 5.
• Tragically, in the past couple of weeks we've caught Evie looking at the TV and at the computer screen. She's still a little Luddite who protests whenever J and I try to enjoy these things, but the hypnotic glow of electronic media has worked its magic on her to some extent, if she's in a good mood. This means that we now have to be careful about how much we use the TV and computer when she's awake because my goal is to keep her away from TV and computers until she's two (i.e. no Baby Einstein; it doesn't actually make babies smarter, said an article in the NYT I read awhile back).
• Happily, it seems that Evie sleeping through the night (between 7.5 and 9 hours) is now something we can count on, temporarily at least. Because she is sleeping in her miracle blanket, with her arms tucked securely at her sides, the first thing she does each morning after she's been unwrapped is fling both arms high and straight over her head in a big stretch (just like the first picture above). She scrunches up her face (just like above) and doesn't open her eyes until she's on the changing table. Then she opens them up and flashes a smile at us. She might just turn me into a morning person yet, with those offerings.
• I really, truly thought I was a demand feeding mom. Turns out I'm not! Something about the combination of feeding formula (so we know how much she's getting) and our logical personalities just fits better with scheduling. We don't schedule as strictly as some baby "training" books recommend, but we know our baby and we know that if she eats more often than every three hours, she will have a major spewage event on our shirts. If she sleeps at the beginning of the cycle and is awake at the end of the cycle, she gets cranky about 30-45 minutes before the 3 hours is up. It would be tempting to go ahead and just feed her, but wiping up formula from the floor, cleaning it from between the couch cushions, suctioning it out of her nose, wiping it out of her ears and washing three bibs and four burp cloths for one feeding...it gets old. So we hold her off for a few minutes and then only have to clean 1-2 bibs and 1-2 burp cloths per feeding. Maybe we could even reduce the spitting up further by feeding her 4 oz. or by stretching her schedule a few minutes longer, but at a certain point the crying jags negate the laundry savings. We have found equilibrium, Evie is thriving, we are happy. We don't schedule anything else about her day (like naps, play time, changes) and we definitely never wake her up to feed her, but we do schedule bedtime. Around dinner time we discuss when her bedtime feeding will be (between 8 and 11 depending on the timing of her feedings that day, since she wakes up at different times in the morning) and before that feeding we put her in a super-absorbent nighttime diaper and her miracle blanket. In the blanket it's usually a cinch to rock her to sleep for the night after she's eaten.
• Cloth diapering is going great, but we do have a huge box of Costco brand disposables sitting in her closet, for traveling to grandparents' houses over Thanksgiving and Christmas. I freely admit that I am going to enjoy the laundry holidays. They are like extra birthday and Christmas presents (my birthday is right after Thanksgiving: Dec 1). I know I will also be glad to get back home and put her in cloth again.
• What I'm looking forward to in her third month: laughing! Bring it on, I can't wait to hear the giggles.
• A question for the upcoming holiday season: should we call up R and G and invite them to a get-together? I'm conflicted because the season is hard on many people who don't have intact families, for whatever reason, and I don't want to add to their sadness by asking them to see Evie during that time. I predict that if I issued an invitation, they might feel conflicted for the same reason. It might be similar to the way I used to feel about baby showers; I was happy for the couple and excited to buy a present and eat cake, but the whole premise of the event made me generally sad for a few days before and afterward. Any advice for me on this? It's a tough one, I think.