Four Month Checkup
Once again, Master G is doing great! Stats:
16 pounds, 6 ounces
25 1/2 inches long
Head circumference 42 centimeters
So he's still in the 75th percentile on everything, which is consistent with all his past check-ups! He's such a kraken!
The doctor is very impressed with him, glad that he is chatty and can sit up for short bursts without help, and can even turn onto his side from his back. She told us not to do rice cereal yet because there's no need, but I think we might try it when we get back from Florida next week. Feeding him has become such a hassle that it's worth a shot. We were told, too, that we don't have to use bottled water with him anymore, which is a huge relief as that was a pain in the ass, to always have to make sure we had some in the house. (Carlos and I drink good ol' NYC tap straight from the sink.) We asked about his "night terrors," how since he was two months old he seems to have these terrible nightmares. One time he shrieked so suddenly and loudly that he woke himself up, completely disoriented and confused and terrified, and it took me several minutes of soothing to get him back to sleep. But several times now he's been sound asleep, sometimes for several hours in the evening after he goes down for the night, and will suddenly scream out like he's in pain and then wail away. We always rush in, and he's always still asleep. The only thing that calms him down is if we wake him up, soothe him for a while in our arms, then put him back to bed. We told all of this to the doctor today and she said that while he's a little young for night terrors, those seem to be what's happening to him, and that we should not wake him up when they occur since they are only happening in his sleep. (Yeah, well, we do try to soothe him in his sleep and it doesn't work.) So we'll see. Poor little guy. I can't possibly imagine what a four-month old is dreaming about to cause this kind of reaction in his sleep!
And of course, he got injections today. We're not sure he noticed them, though. By the time the doctor came in to see him he had been awake half an hour longer than he's used to, and the texture of the exam paper on the table on his bare skin, plus the sound of it crinkling under him, drove him into an absolute fit. He's always been averse to the sound of crinkling paper (aluminum bags of chips, or just any kind of plastic or paper bags), but I guess today, having it all over his nearly-naked body and right under his head, while he was overtired already, was too much. By the time the nurse stuck him with the needles it was just the cherry on top of his uber-craptacular morning. He was in such fits that I almost cried. I actually started to choke up while trying to soothe him. He just stared at me through mostly-closed eyelids like, "How could you let them DO this to me?" Ugh. Heartbreak. :-( But then he fell asleep on the way home, and slept for a full hour and a half. When he woke up I immediately gave him some Tylenol as a preventive, then fed him, then read to him, then put him in his bouncy seat and he seemed a-ok. But last time he got injections he had a delayed reaction and didn't get cranky until the afternoon, so we'll see how it goes after this nap. My poor, sweet little angel!
16 pounds, 6 ounces
25 1/2 inches long
Head circumference 42 centimeters
So he's still in the 75th percentile on everything, which is consistent with all his past check-ups! He's such a kraken!
The doctor is very impressed with him, glad that he is chatty and can sit up for short bursts without help, and can even turn onto his side from his back. She told us not to do rice cereal yet because there's no need, but I think we might try it when we get back from Florida next week. Feeding him has become such a hassle that it's worth a shot. We were told, too, that we don't have to use bottled water with him anymore, which is a huge relief as that was a pain in the ass, to always have to make sure we had some in the house. (Carlos and I drink good ol' NYC tap straight from the sink.) We asked about his "night terrors," how since he was two months old he seems to have these terrible nightmares. One time he shrieked so suddenly and loudly that he woke himself up, completely disoriented and confused and terrified, and it took me several minutes of soothing to get him back to sleep. But several times now he's been sound asleep, sometimes for several hours in the evening after he goes down for the night, and will suddenly scream out like he's in pain and then wail away. We always rush in, and he's always still asleep. The only thing that calms him down is if we wake him up, soothe him for a while in our arms, then put him back to bed. We told all of this to the doctor today and she said that while he's a little young for night terrors, those seem to be what's happening to him, and that we should not wake him up when they occur since they are only happening in his sleep. (Yeah, well, we do try to soothe him in his sleep and it doesn't work.) So we'll see. Poor little guy. I can't possibly imagine what a four-month old is dreaming about to cause this kind of reaction in his sleep!
And of course, he got injections today. We're not sure he noticed them, though. By the time the doctor came in to see him he had been awake half an hour longer than he's used to, and the texture of the exam paper on the table on his bare skin, plus the sound of it crinkling under him, drove him into an absolute fit. He's always been averse to the sound of crinkling paper (aluminum bags of chips, or just any kind of plastic or paper bags), but I guess today, having it all over his nearly-naked body and right under his head, while he was overtired already, was too much. By the time the nurse stuck him with the needles it was just the cherry on top of his uber-craptacular morning. He was in such fits that I almost cried. I actually started to choke up while trying to soothe him. He just stared at me through mostly-closed eyelids like, "How could you let them DO this to me?" Ugh. Heartbreak. :-( But then he fell asleep on the way home, and slept for a full hour and a half. When he woke up I immediately gave him some Tylenol as a preventive, then fed him, then read to him, then put him in his bouncy seat and he seemed a-ok. But last time he got injections he had a delayed reaction and didn't get cranky until the afternoon, so we'll see how it goes after this nap. My poor, sweet little angel!