Thursday, September 18, 2008

Little weed
Since Carter's birth, I have so much to write about - more than just "what we did today" & stats stuff. I have some pretty interesting introspective posts that I'll try to write up this weekend, but today is all about Carter (go figure!).

This morning he had his first pediatric appointment & everything checked out OK. Since I wanted to get in sometime by the end of the week, it wasn't that important to me to see the same Doctor that has been treating Logan. The first appointment is all bout weight checks & a physical exam & I was fine with seeing whomever was available. Dr. G, a bent over old man with a very dry personality came in & went over Carter's delivery first. Even though we haven't had any issues, he wanted to let me know how serious Carter's Apgar scores were. Because of him swallowing the meconium with the combination of the cord wrapped around his neck, his first score was 1. I was told this in the hospital, but the nurses were great in staying calm & reassuring me that he was fine. I guess having scored a 1 was pretty serious. Dr. G said that we were very lucky that his next score was a 9, otherwise he could have had some long-term neurological damage. Why he decided to tell me this after Carter is perfectly healthy, I couldn't tell you.

Next, Carter was measured & weighed. At birth he weighted 6 pounds, 10 ounces & was 19 inches long. At discharge he weighed 6.3. After his weight check earlier this week, he dropped a little more to about 6.2ish. Well - nursing has done this boy good because in only two days, he's gone up to 6 pounds, 7 ounces (10%). He's 19 1/2 inches (25%) & his head was 13 1/2 (15%). We'll go back for a weight check in 3 to 4 days to make sure he gets to his birth weight before we go in for the second PKU blood testing.

After that I had Dr. G check out Carter's neck for tightness & range of motion because he has a more difficult time latching on to the left side - he was just fine. He also has a large dimple that looks like a second "exit hole" (if you know what I mean). Bill noticed this after he was born & the pediatric team was checking him out/resuscitating him. Apparently it's common, but Bill wanted me to make sure. I was also given the raised eye-brow when Dr. G brought up that I refused the Hep B shot for Carter at the hospital. After talking about Logan's vaccination reactions, he had a better understanding of why & said that he encourages Carter to get vaccinated but doesn't blame me for not following protocol.

So, Carter is as healthy as they come & growing like a little weed. I probably wouldn't see Dr. G again & would make sure to schedule with a different Doctor if our regular pediatrician isn't available, but it was still a good check-up.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nicky has a little dimple like that back there, too. It really concerned me when I first noticed it, but, like you, the doctors reassured me it was normal.

Odd looking, but normal :-)

Smurfette said...

living in an area where lots of people don't get vaccines, it's so very strange to hear about doctors who don't like it when you don't get vaccines. I'm glad he only gave you some raised eyebrows!

Eriness said...

COlin has that too, it looks like that is where his "tail" came off in utero. That is my theory anyway.

Anonymous said...

Tristin has it too.lol I agree with Erin it looks like wre he lost his tail.Glad you guys are doing so great.