Thursday, January 17, 2013

Cooper's 6 Month Well-Baby Check-Up

Just like at Cooper's 4 month check-up, we're a little off on our dates for this visit.  We took him to the doctor on January 15 - just ten days shy of his 7 month birthday.  :)

One of the things that I look forward to the most with well-baby visits is learning the stats!  So here we go:
Weight: 20lbs even - 78%  +2 lbs 11 oz from 4 months  (80%)
Height: 28 1/2 inches - 92% + 1 3/4 inches from 4 months (84%)
Head Circumference: 17 3/4 inches - 75% + 1/2 inches from 4 months (75%)

Here's how he compares with LL's stats at 6 months:
LL was 16 lbs 1 oz - so he's 3 lbs 15 oz heavier
LL was 27 1/4 inches long - so he's 1 1/4 inches longer.
LL's head circumference was 16 1/2 - so his head is 1 1/4 inches bigger.

It's so funny to me to see how different they are - yet they both were/are extremely healthy babies!!  It's so amazing to see how God can make two completely different babies from the same parents - and both of them are perfectly and wonderfully made.  The good thing from looking at his stats is that he continues to be longer than he is heavy, and his weight is not quite topping the scales like it used to be.  


Here's what we talked about at his appointment:

-She asked us about all of the appropriate developmental questions for his age, and he was doing everything she asked about (sitting with minimal support, "talking", passing objects from one hand to another)

-He has had a cough since the new year.  He has no other symptoms, and it hasn't gotten any worse.  We called last week and asked them about it, and they said it just sounded like drainage because he has no fever, no runny nose, is acting fine, and is eating fine.  They told us to give him 1/4 tsp of benadryl to help dry him up.  It didn't work, so we stopped giving it to him.  Turns out - it's not drainage at all.  He has bronchilitis.  Yay!  Mommy fail.  He's on an antibiotic and steroid for the next five days.

-We talked about his spitting up.  It's not really getting worse, but it's for sure not getting better.  He has some days where he rarely spits up at all, and some days where it seems like he's projecting a fountain every 5 minutes.  She said that he is FOR SURE eating too much at ever feeding.  Right now, he eats 4 times a day between 6-8 oz each feeding (usually 7 or 8).  She wants us to give him no more than 6 oz.  She said the goal is for him to be under 24 oz of formula by the time he is 1 year.  This REALLY surprised me, but I'll go for it.  I asked her what to do if he was still hungry after his 6 oz, and she said to just up his solid intake.  Obviously, he's not hurting in the food department, so I'm willing to give it a try!

-She also asked about his night sleeping.  I told her that he was sleeping through the night about 50% of the time.  I also told her that we had been weaning down his night feedings (if he does happen to wake up) from 5 oz to 3 (or less) oz.  Basically, she said we needed to nip that in the bud.  He was old enough and big enough - so we needed to get him to stop.  She said we can either continue to wean him down or just cut it out cold turkey (basically let him Cry It Out).  We're going to try to just keep weaning him down right now (but at a faster pace), and then we'll do CIO if that doesn't work.

-She listened to his heart murmur that they found at his 4 month check-up and she couldn't find it.  So it's gone - yay!  It kind of makes me think it wasn't a real issue since they only ever heard it at that one appointment??

-She looked at the "bruise" on his arm.  While it looks MUCH better than it did when he was born, it's still there.  We've noticed that when he is warm, it fades to where you almost can't see it.  When he's cooler, it's a purplish color and much darker.  It is also dented in.  I've been watching to see if he uses that arm any less (due to the indentation), but he doesn't.  She said the dent doesn't seem muscular (meaning: just on his skin), but the big question is WHY is it there??  She's referred us to a pediatric dermatologist in Thomasville and we're going to go there and get it checked out.  She's not really concerned with it being something to worry about, she just has no clue what it is and wants some answers.  That's fine with me.  I'd rather have as much information on it as possible.  After dealing with our loss in the summer of 2011, and then having Cooper's previous brain health scares when I was pregnant with him, I'm all about knowing every bit of information about my baby that I can get!

He got one oral vaccine, two shot vaccines, and the first round of the flu vaccine.  I know that this is kind of "late" in the flu season, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.  The flu is TERRIBLE in our area (I know several people who have gotten it TWICE), so I want him to be as protected as possible - especially considering the fact that all of us (Daddy, Mommy, and LL) are around lots of people every day.  Those are lots of germs to bring home!

I have to call back in a week and let them know how his cough is doing.  Then, we take LL February 6 for her 4 year appointment (dreading it).  Cooper goes back on February 20 for the second part of his flu vaccine.  Then, he goes back in April for his 9 month appointment.  It seems like we'll be there a lot in the next month or so!  

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1 comment:

Anna & Kirby said...

Yay for good check-ups! Hopefully the cough will stop soon. Our boys are growing so quickly... Almost 7 months, really?