What's up Doc!

Lauren went to the Docs (plural because it's a father/son practice) on Wednesday without me. I think it's the first time I've missed out on an appointment. Daddy and Grandma went and the Doc reassured Grandma that Lauren was healthy and right on track. She also got part two of her H1N1 vaccination (never too late, says the doc!).

A pleasant surprise in the local paper was this nice article about her doctors. The story printed on the day before her appt, so Peter brought it in for Doc's autograph. Heh.

I'm glad we're in as patients because after this article, I'm sure they'll be bombarded with new ones. I really like her doctors and even though it would save us a lot of money to switch health plans, we decided to stick with what we've got so that Lauren could keep the doctor that's taken such good care of her since day 1. I like the idea of her growing up with the same doctor who checked her out on the morning she was born.

What's up Doc? 18 month Appointment

I swear Lauren remembers what happens to her when she visits her pediatrician. As soon as the nurse pokes her head out into the waiting room and calls out her name, she runs for the door. No joke!

This time, when her name was called, Lauren ran for the glass doors, banging on them for dear life to strangers walking by as if to say "Help me, please! Save me from what torture lies behind these doors!"

I took her hand and led her to the office, she started crying once we entered the hallway. Even getting to stand on cool 'big girl' scale didn't lift her spirits. She clung to me in the exam room when the younger Dr. Wang came in, the wailing began.

He tried his best to "examine" her. He checked her heart and lung sounds, her ears and eyes. From what he saw, he declared her in wonderful health! The only issues I had were her weight (still in 25th percentile but she looks perfectly healthy and active so not to worry) and her lack of teeth (she only has eight but they should all come in by age 2 so not to worry). When the elder Dr. Wang came into the room, Lauren's cries increased in volume. Dr. remarked how smart she was to remember him...not necessarily a good thing though, since she grabbed my neck and refused to let go. I had to put her down on the table and her two doctors had to work together to administer her shots. After a couple of quiet screams she was back in my arms again, poor thing.

The bad news is that she had 4 shots. The good news is that there will be NO MORE SHOTS until her next appointment in 6 months!

Her stats:
Weight: 22 lbs
Height: 32 inches

She didn't have any reaction to the shots but still points to the little round bandaids on her legs and says a sad face, "Hotch." (Hurts). Not surprisingly, it only hurts when she's not wearing pants and the bandaids are in plain sight. What a drama queen!

Sick Mama

I think all the running around of the last 3 weeks has finally caught up with me. (Or is it "caught up to me?" they both sound weird to me right now) What started out yesterday as a seemingly innocent sinus headache accompanied with a slight tickle in my throat developed into a full blown cold/sorethroat/cough/fever overnight. I stayed home from work today to get some much needed rest. Unfortunately Lauren's already got a leaky nose so I'm afraid she's caught it, but hopefully her symptoms won't be as bad.

I'm going to sleep downstairs for the 2nd night in a row to avoid exposing her to my germiness...I miss cuddling with her at night. She's been waking up a lot night...either from having a stuffed up nose or from teething. Poor Peter has to deal with it by himself.

Excuse me, I need to cough and blow my nose. I'll be back tomorrow.

To Vitamin or Not to Vitamin

I just got off the phone with Mom P. She just reminded me to give Lauren her vitamins. I heard that giving babies vitamins is an old school Filipino thing, is this true? Did any moms out there give their babies vitamins? Is it really necessary? At the request of the grandmas, i asked her doc for a Rx since I was concerned she wasn't eating enough. If she's drinking a lot of milk and eating pretty healthy snacks throughout the day should i be concerned? She doesn't eat much at mealtimes but she does eat small meals throughout the day. It's just that during mealtimes she tends to play with her food.

Her Doc says she's a little underweight but doesn't think I need to worry. If I give her vitamins, the excess will just be peed out anyway so he left it up to me and I can give them if it gives me peace of mind. Am I overthinking this?

Mmmmilk

Lauren loves milk! Ever since her Doc gave us the OK to feed her regular milk, she can't get enough of the stuff! I recently discovered Straus Family Creamery milk. I bought a couple of containers because they were on sale, normally they're pretty expensive. Now I'm not one of those extremely crunchy earth moms that needs to buy organic everything and insists on preservative free, hormone free, artificial free everything, but I do try to minimize the amount of that stuff that Lauren ingests and try to keep things as natural as possible. I know all about BPA, dioxins, pthalates, hormones, and pesticides. I try to be green. I use BPA free baby bottles and chlorine free "environmentally responsible" diapers. You would think that the reason I like this milk is that it's organic and all that good stuff. But you know why I love this milk? It comes in cool glass bottles!!!

I brought a bottle to my mom's this morning and warned her that if the milk's clumpy, it's not curdled...it's just the cream that's risen to the top. She looked at me and in her "I know more than you cause I'm your mom" voice she said, "That's how milk used to be all the time...I know how to use it."

What's up Doc, 1 year appt.

I swear this girl has a good memory! As soon as we walked into the exam room started crying. That place does not carry good memories for her. They are mostly of her being poked, weighed, stripped nekkid, and almost always ended with shots or a prick on the finger.

Her poor doc could not console her and she clung to me the whole time. She screamed while being weighed and screamed louder after getting her shots. Her doc says she's progressing along her curve...but the curve at the 25th percentile. He says she looks great, just on the small side. He suggested giving her Pediasure to supplement and give her extra calories. He wants to keep an eye on her legs though because I have a history of having leg and foot problems (I was severely pigeon-toed as a child and had to have my legs in casts and slept in a leg brace until I was 3 or 4). So far she's not exhibiting any signs and he says her walking/running looks normal. Also, the synnovial cyst on her wrist is gone..or at least it is a lot smaller.

Her stats:
Weight: 18 lbs
Head Circumference: 43.5
Length: 26 inches
Vaccinations: HIB, Chicken Pox, TB

I carried her while he gave her shots so after a couple of screams she was quiet again and sniffling in my arms. She was fine the rest of the day and showed no signs of fever or irritability.

Oh, and I can feed her regular milk now...no more 25$ per can formula! She only wants to nurse once a day, right before bed or if she wakes up in the middle of the night so formula has gotten to be a big chunk of our grocery budget.

No more shots for another 3 months!

Got Adobo?

Mmmm. Pork Adobo and rice.

I have this cool little gadget for grinding up baby food. My sis-in-law used it to feed all 3 of her babies and even though it's low-tech, it works just as well as a food processor. You basically put bits of food in there and turn the crank until it oozes out into baby friendly pieces. It's nice because she gets to eat whatever we're eating and is starting to get little tastes of different kinds of foods.

I think she likes it!!!!

What's up Doc? Nine Month Appt.

I took Lauren for her 9 month check up today. I thought she was going to get more vaccinations but turns out she only had to get a blood test. There was still poking involved, but at least I won't have to worry about fevers or anything for the next 24 hours.

Lauren started crying as soon as her doc walked into the room. Her poor doc...he's very gentle and mild mannered so I don't know how she could be scared of him, he tried hard to console her but after no success he ended up doing her checkup with her in my harms. He was generally pleased with her health, although he did note that she was a little underweight, plus she was sick so she's still recovering from that. He said we could give her vitamins but thinks she's just so active and that could explain why she isn't gaining so much. The rest of her growth is on track though so he says not to worry. She's also developed a small lump on her wrist that he says is a synovial cyst (collection of fluid in the joints) that should go away on its own unless it impedes the range of motion of her wrist or causes pain. In that case, it will have to be removed.
Her stats:
Head: 42.1 cm
Length: 26 Inches
Weight 16 lbs. 7 ounces

Fever and blisters and HERPES, OH MY!!

Well...it's been a long week. I've been home all week nursing a poor, sick, baby. Lauren started to feel bad on Tuesday and by Wednesday she had a fever of 103.9 and was vomiting. We were able to control her fever with Tylenol and when her fever was down she was in generally good spirits...just not eating or nursing. We went to her doctor and he diagnosed her with Herpangina, which is basically a viral infection that is a variant of Hand Foot and Mouth Disease. She had blisters in her mouth and the back of her throat (HFMD causes the blisters on hands and feet as well). It is NOT related to Herpes..and NOT related to hoof and mouth disease that animals get. Because of her mouth sores, it was very hard for her to swallow so she refused to eat. Now, when babygirl refuses cheerios, you know there's something wrong!

She would not take a bottle because it rubbed against the sores in her mouth and she only nursed occasionally. I think she lost about 1 lb in 2 days, poor thing, and I was worried she'd get dehydrated. She would look up at me with the saddest eyes and I knew she was hungry but just could not eat. I felt so helpless, it's really the worst when you can't do anything to help except give a little Tylenol and extra hugs.

She seemed better on Friday but then she started developing sores on the OUTSIDE of her mouth...Mom P. took one look at them and said "Herpes!" and that's what it was. She's got coldsores (which IS related to herpes...but not the genital kind). Mom P. gets coldsores too so she recognized them right away.

So, my poor baby is still a little sick. Good news is that she's eating now..and she's got a big appetite to make up for the 3 or 4 days when she couldn't eat. Bad news is that she's got a couple of gnarly looking sores on her bottom lip and near her chin...

What's up doc?

At what was supposed to be her 6 month checkup (somehow we're a month behind as tomorrow she'll be 7 months old) Lauren got another round of shots and a thumbs up from her doc.

Her stats:
Weight: 15 lbs 14 ounces (50th percentile)
Height 25.5 inches (25th)
Head: 41.1 cm (bet. 10th and 25th)

Her Doc was a little concerned that she did not gain as much as weight as she should have since her last appt., but he said it could be the teething (no teeth yet, but he says any day now!) or that she's gotten more active so not gaining as much...plus breastfed babies slow down their weight gain at about this time. Looking at her thighs and her round belly, there's no way that this baby is underfed! She's got a small head though... she gets that from her Daddy.

He said she seemed to right on track in terms of her development and skills and didn't even bat an eyelash when she peed on his exam table. She was in a good mood...that is, until it was time for the shots. As expected, she screamed immediately after the first shot. You know how babies sometimes hold their breath in between cries, like their building up enough energy to let out an even louder cry? Well, she paused a looooong time before letting another wail out. The nurse started rubbing her tummy, kinda half joking, and saying "breathe, breathe.." but then when a few more seconds passed nurse started rubbing her tummy harder and her voice became more anxious. Finally, after almost 20 seconds, Lauren let out a wail so loud they must have heard her in the parking lot, boy was she MAD! My mom was with us and that really freaked her out. She told me later that Lauren started turning blue while she held her breath and that's why she got so scared. I didn't see her turning blue because the nurse was in my way so maybe that was a good thing or I would've freaked out too.

Thirty seconds later she was fine and sniffling in my arms and we even went out to eat afterwards and she was feeling really good. Later that evening though she was fussy, feverish, and cranky with the after effects of the vaccinations. I ended up staying home from work the next day and she spent her 7 month birthday hot and miserable.

Luckily no vaccinations for another 3 months.

Sick Baby

Awww, poor baby. Lauren's been sick for a couple of days now. I'm hoping she didn't catch what Auntie Sarah had. I've stayed home for the last two days with her trying to keep her comfy and happy. Still has a fever but this morning she woke up with two red bumps on her face. Hopefully it's nothing (bug bite? zits?) but if they don't diminish today and her fever is still hanging around, I might have to taker her to the Doctor.

Oh, and she's teething too...She's chewing on a couple of facecloths that I've put in the freezer overnight and it's doing the trick...for now.

Gerber Baby

Last Saturday, we excitedly prepared Lauren's first bowl of "solid" food. It was more soupy than solid and her first spoonful illicited a gag and a look of "what the heck was that?!"


She gradually learned to slurp up the rice cereal/soup and willingly opened her mouth wide to accept more. We visited her cousins on Sunday and they got in on the fun.


We were warned that her poops were going to change...but luckily so far, there hasn't been that much of a difference...ooh, just wait until we introduce peas into her diet!

Teething troubles...

Whoooo boy, last night was a doozy. Lauren would not go to sleep at her usual bedtime. When she FINALLY went down at 1:00 AM, she was up within an hour howling and crying. Rookie mistake, I thought that teething pains were always accompanied by fever and since she had none, I thought she might just be super tired or something so I tried everything and she wouldn't even nurse (or take a bottle). I did a little research and learned that not wanting to nurse was another sign of teething and we gave her some baby tylenol. Relief finally came at 3:00 A.M.

Please tell me it won't be this bad ALL the time....

Vax Day 2

Time for Lauren's second set of vaccinations and whooooboy she didn't like it one bit (as expected). Grandma and Grandpa P. brought Lauren to the Dr's office where I met them on a rain-soaked afternoon and Lauren was already grumpy/hungry/sleepy when they arrived so that didn't help (note Lauren and Grandma dressed in coordinating pink outfits). Grandma P, a retired doctor, went into the exam room with me so she could check out Lauren's Pediatrician and I think she was happy with him and his father (they have a father/son practice). I really like them too...we get two doctors for the price of one and we get the both of both worlds, the younger, more technically savvy doctor and the old school doc with all the experience.

Her Dr. was pretty pleased with her overall health, though. Her stats:

Height: 24 Inches (90th percentile..woah!)
Weight 14 Lbs. 11 ounces (50th)
Head Circumference: 39.5 cm (between 25 and 50th percentile)

He also said her diaper rash wasn't too bad and could be set off by the slightest change in her poop. He suggested blowdrying her butt in between diaper changes (on low or cold setting of course). He actually suggested using Boudreaux's Buttpaste which I was already using. It's funny to hear a Doctor say Buttpaste. heh.

Lauren was already crying during the examination so you can imagine the commotion she caused when he actually administered the shots. I haven't heard her scream like that since the early days. She got six shots, 3 in each leg (IPV, DTap/DTP, HIB, Hepatitis B and PCV) She cried while at the office but once she was in the car she was fine. She was talking to her froggy friend that hangs from her carseat and she was asleep within minutes. She had the usual reactions of fever and fussiness but was all good by the following afternoon. She can relax for now...no more shots for another two months.

I hab a code

Lauren got her first cold! She woke up Friday morning after a very restless night (poor thing was all stuffed up) with a drippy nose and a slight fever. She's ok now, but her eyes fill with terror every time I whip out the big green nasal aspirator. Now that she's feeling better, Peter and I are sick, but we seem to have it worse! We've been down and out with runny noses, sore throats, and muscle aches for the last two days. Poor Peter had to work today and Lauren's at Grandma's. I'm supposed to be taking a nap but thought I'd catch up on some posts.

Vax Day

Lauren got her first round of vaccinations today (polio, DTap/DT, HIB, Hep B). With much skill and experience her pediatrician gave her 5 shots in what seemed like less than 10 seconds. Besides the initial scream from the shock of the needles and about 2 minutes of almost breathless wailing, she didn't cry much at all. I gave her a big hug when it was over to quiet her and she was fine after that. She whimpered a little on the way out of the office and 5 minutes later she was asleep in her carseat. Good girl! So far she hasn't had any reactions but we're watching her temperature closely.

She got 3 injections on one leg and 2 on the other.

Update (7 a.m. Friday): I spoke too soon. Lauren was pretty miserable last night and had to be carried while she slept. She's got a fever right now and is sleeping on Peter's chest. Poor baby (and poor daddy's tired too, he's been up all night).

Baby Zits!

About 3 weeks ago, little bumps starting popping up all over Lauren's face. Nothing to worry about, just a case of baby acne, a sneak peak of what's to come 13 years from now when puberty hits. Her cheeks, forehead and chin were covered in whiteheads and felt like sandpaper. Apparently, mommy's hormones that are still swirling around her bloodstream causes this and it bothers the parents more than it does the baby. We had to hold off on taking baby portraits but now that it's cleared up we can go to Sears to take a cheesy portrait and get our free 8x10.

Before and After (All clear!)

The Joys (and Pains) of Breastfeeding

Yesterday I found myself hoping that Lauren's feedings would soon be further apart. Nursing every two or three hours was starting to wear me out and my nippies screamed in agony when she latched on. "Hurry up and grow up!" I found myself thinking...but then I stopped myself and realized that I shouldn't be rushing her to do anything! She's only going to be this little for such a short time and I should just sit back inhale every moment. How much longer would I be able to stroke her hairy ears while she nurses? When will she stop making her piggy snorts when she stops for a breath of air? Or grasp my thumb and dig her toenails into my side while she's suckling away? So i decided to take it like a woman, slap on some lanolin and nurse to my baby's heart's content.

Drunk on mother's milk

What's Up Doc?

Lauren had a follow-up appointment with her pediatrician on Tuesday and he gave her a clean bill of health! She's gained her weight back and now weighs in at a whopping 9 lbs 15 ounces. Everything looks good and hopefully the next time we see the Dr. will be in two months for her first vaccinations.

Even though her pediatrician is the best EVER, I wouldn't mind not having to see him again anytime soon.

Oh. I had a Dr. Appt yesterday and the infection on my incision has pretty much gone away so I don't have to keep draining it. YAY! We're on our way to recovery!

To Add Insult to Injury...

Well, if you didn't think recovery was difficult enough, add this to the mix...my C-section incision is now infected. Doc says it's common in emergency C's since they probably didn't have enough time to sterilize everything or prep me for surgery. Doc instructed my own personal Dr. (Sarah) how to drain the incision 4 times a day. Yuck. and Ow! Now Lauren and I are on the same antibiotic (Keflex) except hers is strawberry flavored and mine is a big horse pill.

But...other than that, everything's going well. Lauren's doing great. She's nursing as well as taking a bottle without problems. The Grandmas (and Grandpa) come visit almost everyday to play with her and give us some nap time. Yay for Grandparents!