Thursday, November 20, 2008

2 months old and checked out just fine

This morning Carter had his 2 month check-up. My little baby isn't so little anymore! In fact, yesterday at playgroup, one of the moms who just had her second baby a couple of weeks ago made it out since being home from the hospital. We sat next to each other and I kept looking at her baby boy and then at Carter in absolute amazement. Her little baby (who was born at almost nine pounds and much bigger than Carter was at that age) looked so small next to my giant baby in my arms. Carter is no longer a newborn, but a full fledged growing infant.

He checked out just fine at his appointment. He is 23 1/2 inches long (55%), weighs 11 pounds, 3 ounces (25%) and his head is 15 inches around (8%). Just to compare in size, Logan's stats at 2 months: 11.1 lbs (24%), 23 in. (51%), 15 in. circumference (12%). So, they are pretty similar in size at this age -although Carter is already wearing a size bigger (3-6 months clothes) in shirts than Logan was for some odd reason, but he still is in newborn to 0-3 month pants (like Logan was too). Both boys are built exactly like Bill. It's weird.
We talked about his eating habits which are still every 2-3 hours. At night he does have one long stretch of 5-6 hours (usually from 7 or 8pm to 1 or 2am). He doesn't spit up much in volume, but it is pretty frequent (not abnormal). The Doctor ruled out reflux (yea!). He is definitely getting enough to eat since he's growing like a weed.

We talked about his sleeping habits, which are a little unpredictable. He wakes up at 6 or 7am to nurse and goes back to sleep for about an hour. It's a bit interrupted if we have to drive Bill to work. Once we are home, he sleeps some more before we head out the door to do our activities at 10am. He's in and out of consciousness after he nurses again, never really sleeping solidly. Sometimes he's wide awake at this time. We come home for lunch and after nursing again, I put him in his crib for a good afternoon nap. He sleeps for about 30-45 minutes. Only a handful of times have been longer stretches. He has another good stretch of awake time and I try to get him to sleep again before we pick up Bill from work. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. But he's almost always in bed between 7 and 8pm - never later. Once he's in bed, he sleeps well (usually) until he wakes up to eat. Getting him back to sleep in the middle of the night is a bit challenging though. I'm often up three or four more times to get him to relax back to sleep.

He is developing right on track, smiling, cooing, squealing, being social and lifting his head very well. He can track objects and turns his head towards sounds. He seems to be a really social and vocal baby who smiles a lot (so cute!). We have "conversations" together where he is very responsive, he recognizes me and smiles these huge, bright, eye-squinting smiles for me. It's freakin' adorable. he is just beginning to learn about his hands and arms and has started reaching out for some of his toys while in the bouncer (which at first was by accident, but the look on his face was hilarious when he got the connection).

We don't do tummy time nearly as much as we did with Logan, but it's more of a safety issue. With an energetic preschooler running around who tends to be disobedient, Carter is either in my lap or his his swing more than on the floor so he doesn't get trampled over. In the afternoon we do have playtime all together where Carter is on his blanket doing tummy time on the floor and Logan gets to choose what baby toys we play with. He also loves to line up all of his cars along the edge of the blanket so Carter can see them which really helps with Carter's head control. Carter loves this time and is completely infatuated with Logan, carefully watching him and smiling at him.

We also talked about a couple of minor health issues, like his night/morning congestion, which is apparently normal for our climate in Colorado. As long as he can breath while nursing, he's fine. His left tear duct is blocked again, but it's not bad and I may have to continually massage it to re-open it and maintain it for a few months. As long as his eye isn't completely crusted over or swollen red, he's fine. He has a moderate case of eczema, but we've got that under control considering that we've been doing this whole treatment routine with Logan since the beginning of his breakouts.

At the end we talked about vaccinations, which I declined. With Logan's adverse reaction history (that started at his 2 month check-up), I was very wary about them. I truly believe that there's a genetic component in our family that makes us super sensitive and reactive to substances and irritants. Since Carter has the same type of symptoms that Logan had at that age (skin sensitivities, eczema and nasal congestion) I fear that he may be in the same boat with vaccination reactions. I explained this to our pediatrician who understood where I was coming from, but still had to cover her bases and explain why it was important that Carter get vaccinated at an early age (meningitis) and that the adults in the house should get vaccinated for pertussis again (we're not going to). But it wasn't something that I felt pressured into doing and she knew that it wasn't an issue that I was going to change my mind on.

So, Carter is a healthy, happy, growing baby!

9 comments:

Joanna said...

I am glad to hear that all checked out with his check up. He has gotten big since he was born. (they just grow too fast) They are both super cute!

Elisabeth said...

What brothers! They really do look so much a like.

Anonymous said...

You truly have the most gorgeous boys ever!! And I just love that you're able to get pictures of Carter smiling - it seems like your kids smile soooo easily; mine always make me work for it :\

Unknown said...

awww they are the cutest little boys ever...thanks for sharing

Unknown said...

They are so sweet together! I love the last two pictures of the two of them, that made me smile.

In other random news- this is the first time I've been able to comment on your site this week. I tried over & Over & over to comment last week but the page would never load. Weird. Basically I was just wanting to extend my sympathy with the crazy family drama you are going through (never a dull moment!). You are handling it so well and I'm glad you have such a terrific support group to lean on!

Eriness said...

Hey I agree about the vaccination issue for you that you have sensitivities but please be careful with illnesses going around! My friend's infant got meningitis when he was six months old and he was one of the few that had severe brain damage. And it was just being around someone who had a cold. Just makes me nervous because an adult was a carrier and this little guy now is blind and severely handicapped and toddlers are such incubators for germs.

They are beautiful boys!

Ashley said...

So so so cute!!!

Kristin said...

Thanks Erin :)

It's definitely not an easy decision, especially since there are regular outbreaks of pertussis in Colorado. So, I absolutely see the need for vaccinations in certain areas.

It's a shame that there is so much money being spent on marketing & advertising for the CDC in regards to vaccinations - that money could be put to much better use in research & development. There is genetic testing available now that will look at your genome to see what disorders you may be more likely to develop. If this was available as part of a newborn screening process, it would allow Doctors to recommend individual treatment plans rather than the one-size fits all that we have now. This alone would greatly reduce the amount of adverse reactions, plus it would help calm the fears of those parents concerned about Autism.

Sorry for the rant, but it's a passionate issue for me.

Anyway, with our crappy genetics it makes more sense to me to forgo vaccinations. Carter would be knowingly exposed to a possible adverse reaction every 2 months for an entire year. The chance of him being exposed to a vaccine preventable disease isn't as high.

It stinks that we have to gamble with our kids health like this, but I'm confident in my bet.

Eriness said...

I know what you mean with it being a hard decision. The autism epidemic is terrifying, especially for boys. I vaccinated my kids, but I was terrified! Genetics is such a crap shoot. I am allergic to penicillin and guess what I passed along to my son? Yikes!