Two Month Check Up

I'm a big, fat liar. And I think I'm good at it, too.

Baby had her two month check up appointment today. I was dreading it because this is the appointment where she is supposed to get her shots. This is a huge, gigantic, major, extreme, and all the other adjectives you can think of, controversial issue. To vaccinate or not vaccinate? Well, it depends who you talk to, and of course they can all give you the reasons why. But that's another post altogether.

I was so torn and dreading today because I hadn't made up my mind as to what I wanted to do about her shots. I had been putting off doing the research and by the time I remembered, it was ten minutes before we had to leave for her appointment. So here I was on the computer googling everything I could about two month baby vaccinations until Husband pulled me away.

On the car ride there I talked it over with him, and he basically said it was in my hands. Thanks. Now if I choose to vaccinate, I can be blamed if she reacts to the shots. Or I can be blamed if she comes down with Polio because I decided not to vaccinate. Too much pressure.

We got to the hospital and checked in. The nurse led us to the exam room where we undressed Baby and weighed her on the little baby scale. She is now a full 11.5 pounds. I actually thought she would weigh more, but I'm ok with 11.5. It's hard to carry the carseat with her in it.

The the nurse stretched Baby out and measured her at 22.5 inches long. She's definitely growing. The doctor came in and asked us about her habits. How often does she eat (every three to four hours, which is normal for a breastfed baby), when does she go to bed (around nine is what we aim for), and how often does she wake up during the night (every three to four hours). When we talked about times that she wakes up during the night, the doctor was very sympathetic to me. I liked that.

Here comes the part where I'm a liar.

The doctor then asked if she slept in a crib or a bassinet. Last appointment I said that she sometimes slept in the bed with me and got a huge lecture on not having the baby sleep with me for various reasons. I was guilted into saying I would put her in the bassinet or crib from then on.

Well, if you've read my previous posts you would know that Baby still sleeps in the bed with me. Did I tell that to the doctor? Oh no. I told her she sleeps in the bassinet in our bedroom. Then we moved on.

I asked about her elf ears and the doctor just said it is because her cartilage is soft. The ears are already formed and will not grow into a point. I hope she's right. I'm going to be keeping an eye on them anyway.

The doctor then listened to her heartbeat, checked out her limbs and her head, put her on her tummy, and declared her perfect. I already knew that.

The doctor noted her head control and was very impressed. Baby has been holding her head on her own for a while, but I guess it's not that common. Yes, she's advanced for her age and I'm proud.

We also got to see the little growth charts for her height, weight, and head circumference. So far she has stayed pretty much on the same curve, except for her head, which jumped to a higher percentile. She has her daddy's head.

We then talked about the immunizations. I asked which ones she was scheduled to get, and if she could tell us about them. She was actually a lot better than I thought she would be with my questions. She showed us out and then we either went to get shots and then went home, or we went home.

Because this is a public blog and I don't want a lot of judgment about my choice, I'm not going to say what I did at this point in time. However, I can say that I am happy with the choice I did make and feel at peace with myself about it. Hopefully all will be well with Baby because of it.