My Journal:

Amelia's stats:
Length: 26-1/2 inches (97th percentile)
Weight: 17 lbs 14 oz (97th percentile)

Five vaccinations:
- Rotavirus
- DTaP (Diptheria, Tetanus, Pertussis)
- H influenzae type B
- Inactivated polio
- Pneumonococcal conjugate

Milestones:
- She sits well, with assistance
- She babbles
- She laughs and squeals
- She smiles in response to others, and also spontaneously

But she has not reliably rolled over yet.

Pediatrician and I discussed the usual:
Is she sleeping well? Yes. (She wakes every two hours, but she's breastfed, and I don't mind waking with her, and don't need advice to the contrary to try and get her to STTN)
Is she nursing well? Yes. (7 - 9 times a day)
Do you want to start solids? No. (Aiming for 6 months, when I return to work)

Yesterday, we brought both Erika and Amelia to the pediatrician's for their well visit check-ups.

Erika's 4 year old visit went well.
They asked her about her name, her sister's name, the preschool she attends, and several other questions. They asked her how old she was, and she volunteered her birth date too. Then she said she knew her home address and recited that too.
They checked her muscles, her body movements, her spine curvature, and several other indicators. Everything looks great.
She's currently 39 lbs (75th percentile) and 42-1/4 inches (90th percentile).
She received two shots: for the MMR booster and the Varicella booster.
She tried to be brave, but then started shrinking away once she saw the needle, and she tried not to cry but it hurt a lot, and Daddy said "it's okay to cry" and then she burst into sobs.

Amelia's 3-week old visit went well too.
She's currently 10 lbs 11 oz. (90th percentile) and 22 inches long (90th percentile).
She has gained 2 lbs. since her last pediatrician visit, two weeks ago. That's some big gains!
She was supplemented for 9 days, but has since been supplement-free for the past 10 days... and still showing tremendous gains. So hurray!

And because you know I can't get enough of my two girls...

Erika (4 years old) and Amelia (2 weeks old)
Taken April 13, 2014

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Then in bad news, Brian and I have been feeling really crummy for the past 48 hours. Sore throat, aching bodies, fever... so we went to the walk-in clinic and we both tested positive for strep throat. Yuck!

I'm on Amoxicilin 500 mcg (three times a day) and Brian is on Augmention 875 mcg (twice a day). Different meds because mine is supposed to be safe for breastfeeding??

Just returned from her week-old check up at Amelia's pediatrician. She's been diagnosed with infant dehydration - while the pediatrician said she's an otherwise healthy looking baby (pink coloration with no jaundice, no sunken eyes or frontanel), she is displaying some other worrying symptoms, namely red urine crystals in her diaper and significant weight loss.

The red crystals are due to uric acid, which is common 24 - 48 hours after birth because they are only feeding on colustrum, but once your milk comes in (I was engorged on days 3 - 4, and I have hand-expressed and there is definitely milk), the urine output should be clear. She is also making fewer than expected stools/poopy diapers. And she's dropping a lot of weight, fast.

Her birth weight was 9 lb. 10 oz.
At discharge (day 2) her weight was 9 lb. 3 oz.
Her weight today (day 5) at the check-up (on two different scales, for verification) was 8 lb. 3 oz.

(Other vital statistics: 20-1/2 inches in length, and 37 cm head circumference. I highly doubt she grew 3/4-inches in 5 days, so there's some measurement inaccuracy there...)

Newborn babies are expected to lose 5 - 7% of their birth weight in the first week. Then once your breastmilk comes in, to start gaining 1 oz. a day.
Amelia has already lost 1 lb. 7 oz in 5 days, a whopping 15% of her birth weight.

The pediatrician is hoping this is her low point in weight loss, and maybe we'll start to see an upswing over the next few days (next appointment on Monday, Amelia's day 9), but she said medically at this point, we have to supplement, which makes me feel like a failure of a mother, ugh. My boobs are not working! And I know we can recover and get her back on the breast (Erika was 100% exclusively breastfed for a year! And now I'm 5 days in and I've failed already!) if we work at it, and I know formula-fed babies turn out just fine (I was one!), but I wanted to do this, I thought I could do this, I thought I was doing well, and now I feel a little like a disappointment? Failure? Worried about Amelia getting more dehydrated and possibly needing the ICU?

I'm nursing her 10 - 12 times a day for the past 5 days, and I thought I was doing a good job, letting her nurse for 30 minutes sometimes, letting her comfort suck, letting her nurse to sleep, letting her nurse when she's upset... essentially I've got my boobs hanging out so much, my mother-in-law commented not just twice but three times in a day to say "wow that baby nurses a lot".

The problem (self-diagnosing here) is she's a very sleepy nurser compared to Erika. Erika would vigorously suck, and I'm noticing Amelia will nurse for 5 - 10 minutes and then fall asleep at the breast. I tickle her cheek, chin, rub her back, change her diaper, take her blanket off so she's really awake, but she still falls asleep.

So the bottom line recommendation-- no, firm instructions--- from the pediatrician is to put her on the breast often (continue 10 - 12 times a day) for only 15 minutes a side, offer her both sides, and when she is done, make her drink another 1 oz. of formula after each nursing. She said no more expending energy suckling at the breast for longer than 15 min because she'll empty it in that amount of time if she is vigorously sucking, and continued suckling will expend too much energy. We are to continue this from now until first thing Monday morning, and then we'll reevaluate her then.

ERIKA'S 9-MONTH WELL VISIT
She's been awful sick with a cold/cough for a month now, but the pediatrician said her lungs are clear, and to keep doing the steam bath, humidifier in the bedroom, nasal spray, and aspirating her nose.

Height: 30-inches (18-month clothing)
Weight: 21 lbs. 13 oz.

Still in the 95th percentile for height and weight, but that's a drastic drop-off when you look at it on the curves. In essence, she's gained only 24 oz. and 1/2-inch in 2 months. The weight is fine; the height a little strange. But she's still extremely tall for her height, so the pediatrician is not worried.

Erika is refusing pureed foods completely.
My mom is putting the blame squarely on me: she says it's because I probably hurt her with the spoon once, and now she's afraid of the spoon.

She's also blaming Erika's cough/cold on me: that I don't bundle her up warm enough, and that I keep picking up these germs from school.

ANNIVERSARY
January 10th marked the 10th anniversary of Brian and I meeting!
Anything I write will sound mushy or cheesy or sentimental, so I'll skip that.
I love you, Brian.
Life is good GREAT and I've never felt so content with what I have.

CHRISTMAS 2010 BLIZZARD
Erika and Daddy brushing the car off. This is 4 hours into the snowstorm.


Erika and I after the snowstorm had passed (24 hours later). You can see that we have over 24+ inches of snow as the rear lights on the car are covered with snow.


Our other car:

Last week, Erika was mistaken for a boy in this outfit. I got a "what a handsome son!" comment and I replied with a polite smile, "thank you, her name's Erika and she's going to be 5 months old soon". To which the woman looked at her again, and said "Oh. She needs a pink bow or something."
Okay, then I might as well dress her up in a sparkly bubblegum pink Barbie ballerina tutu, no. I didn't say that, though. I just smiled and pushed my stroller away.

Erika turns 5 months old tomorrow. She had her well-visit pediatrician check-up on Tuesday.

Statistics:
Height: 27-3/4" (99th percentile)
Weight: 18 lbs. 13 oz. (99th percentile)

Got her vaccinations:
* Pneumococcal
* Haemophilus Influenzae Type b (Hib)
* Polio
* Diphtheria Tetanus & Pertussis (DTaP)
* Rotavirus (oral)

She shrieked in pain while the nurse was jabbing her, but within 1 minute of me picking her up and bouncing her around, she'd calmed down. She didn't even need to nurse. It's terrible, but she cries more when I try to convince her she needs to sleep at night.

Sleeping has been a nightmare the last three days. She does the equivalent of a "I dont wanna! Mommy, I dont wanna! I don't wanna!" cry for 20 minutes while I hold her, bounce her, nurse her, cuddle her, stroke her hair, and do everything possible to soothe her. The whole time her eyes are closed or she's rubbing them; and sometimes she'll drowsily doze off and then wake up with an angry start and start crying again. I'm not sure if it's correlated with an increased frequency of "nightmares" (I can't ask her if that's what is waking her, but she's been screaming in her sleep a lot and then waking herself, and upon waking, is angry and tearfully cries some more) which makes her wary of sleep.

The average babies' age given her current height and weight is about 9 months according to CDC Guidelines. Which means a lot of people are wondering why our baby doesn't sit up unsupported, crawl, or vocalize very well.

We saw a new pediatrician in the practice today. I mentioned that I had returned to work on Sept 1, and the pediatrician assumed, perhaps also looking at Erika's size and not realizing that she's always been large, that I had started supplementing with formula and was overfeeding her. So she asked Brian what brand of formula we were feeding her while I was at work, Similac, Enfamil, something else? No, we told her, still exclusively breastfeeding! She gave me a shocked expression, caught herself, and then with a big smile, congratulated me for raising such a wonderful and healthy baby on breastmilk alone.

Erika says: "Oh, I'm NOT supposed to grow this much on breastmilk?!"

Can I say it's HOT today in New Jersey!? My car's thermometer confirms it.


Erika's 7-week pediatrician well-visit check up today!
Everything is great, she got her second Hep B shot, and her first Rotovirus drops.

Erika's 7-Week Measurements
Age: 7 weeks 5 days
Weight: 13 lbs 0 oz (95th percentile)
Height: 25 inches (OFF THE CHARTS)

No, seriously. The pediatrician looked at her data, and said: "Umm, your daughter went off the chart. Look here--" and showed it to me. I recreated it here for you to see; it's below the LJ-cut. In essence, for her current height at 25 inches, she's about the same size as your average 5 month old baby. And Erika is not even 2 months old.

Erika and I went to Target today, and I was so amused by today's height/weight measurements that I snapped the following photos. Here's one of those helpful "what size should you buy" charts in the Infants clothing section.


A closer look at the chart. Erika, at 25 inches, is going to be busting out of the 6M sizes in no time.


We actually passed a senior citizen with her grandchild, who was happily sitting up in the shopping cart, and he was about the same size as Erika. So the grandma happily chatted me up, with "oh, what a cute one! How old is she?"

I said "7 weeks" and the grandma gave me this horrified/confused/puzzled/I-think-you-dont-know-how-old-your-child-is look, and responded "oh. My grandson's going to be six months this weekend" and we both looked back and forth between the two children. Ah, my little Peanut!! She loves Mommy's breastmilk!

( CDC Growth Charts with Erika's Progress Plotted On Them )

Vital statistics:
Birth weight (Apr 10): 9 lbs. 8 oz.
Discharge weight (Apr 12): 8 lbs. 8 oz.
1-week pediatrician appointment weight (Apr 16): 8 lbs. 15 oz.

For non-parents out there:
Did you know babies lose up to 10% of their weight in the first 4 days of life? I didn't know that before I got pregnant, and my mom had no idea when she had me, so she freaked out when the doctors would give her weight updates while she was in the hospital, thinking her baby was wasting away.

Erika has gained 7 oz. from Day 2 to Day 6, and she's producing 7 - 9 soiled diapers a day (they say to look for 3 soiled diapers a day), so it's a good sign she's getting her nutrition via breastmilk. She's the type that poops almost every nursing (the moment she latches on, she grimaces, then poops!), so I'm having a hard time recording any wet diapers (maybe 2 - 3 a day, instead of the 5 they say to look out for)-- moms out there, I read that if they don't have enough wet diapers, it could be a sign of dehydration and to call the doctor? But do you think I'm OK in that I'm not noticing any wet diapers because she has so many soiled diapers? Please weigh in!

1-week pediatrician appointment:
I like the pediatrician's office. They have a separate waiting room for sick children from well children. The halls are decorated with colorful murals. It's a practice with 6 doctors, and seems to be well-run.

Erika was given the first dose of the Hep B vaccine. She took it like a champ. Shrieked when the needle went in, then gave two sobbing howls, then when I hugged her close to me, she stopped and settled down. I took the good advice of nursing her within minutes prior to her getting the vaccine, so I think that helped keep her very mellow.

More photos of Erika because she's so stinkin' cute:




Brian wants to know why I'm dressing his daughter like a boy.
I'll admit-- the outfit was from the "Newborn Boys" section, but I think there is nothing wrong with primary colors and lions for a little girl!