4 month pedi appnmnt

Ellie had her 4 month wellness check up. She was laughing and cooing and carrying on in the waiting room but silent as a charlie chaplin film by the time we got back to an exam room. This actually worked to our advantage as you'll read in a second. I need to skip ahead so this will not be chronological. Long story short, she's doing great. She is still way ahead in her motor skills- she sat up to a 45 degree angle while we were there (I am convinced she'll be pulling up to sitting before 6 months), exhibited excellent head control, watched everyone move around and talk. I told him we let her drink like a big girl (from a tiny bottle without a nipple- only 10 ml) and when we put her in the high chair she sits like a big girl, and when we fed her cereal from the spoon she gladly grabbed it to help me guide it into her mouth. The doctor decided he wanted to hear her cry because she had never done so at our previous appointments, so her previous giggles that had been stifled worked to our advantage. Of course after she began to cry (it was her, "this is annoying please stop" cry) he decided he liked it better when she cooed and giggled. Well, duh. She took her shots like a champ- she screamed at first (which in my opinion she has every right on earth to do) but after I held her and kissed her we were all back to normal. Even cooing a bit.

Here's where it gets out of order- her weight. Usually they do this in the very beginning but in my story its got a life of its own and deserves a separate paragraph at the least lol. At 4 months of age my dainty darling weighed in at 9 pounds, 6.5 ozs. I was heartbroken. I was hoping for at least 10 lbs. I felt guilty. Logically and rationally I realize I did indeed do all I could- I added rice cereal thinking it would plump her up. I was in constant contact with our feeding and nutrition team at CHOA. I fed her a bit more than she probably would have liked to consume in hopes of stretching her stomach. I tried to feed her every 3 hours. I often did not take "no" for an answer when offering her a bottle. We tried polycose even tho it didnt work. When she had a bad case of vomiting last week (I assumed it was reflux since she had no other symptoms of anything else, unless it was teething but it seemed more formula than spit) I immediately called the pediatrician (who told me to wait until our appnmnt today). But being a mom, I was consumed with a mother's guilt. Especially when he said take the rice cereal out as it wasnt helping. I was devastated. I thought I was helping. I honestly did. And now to hear that I wasn't... like a punch to the gut. So she COULD have weighed more if I had just not been retarded and added rice cereal... at least in theory. She probably lost a bit in all the vomit last week but probably not half a pound. At any rate, he wants out of the loop, so to speak, on her feeding and diet. We already have CHOA and tomorrow we'll have the GI doctor so he feels that's too many cooks. He did give us Enfamil AR to hopefully help control her currently out of control reflux. He gave me 2 samples, I thanked him and put them away. I got home and made her 4 bottles with it, fed her one of them to see her reaction. She seemed fine with it. I read the label: dairy based. Now, it seems to me we were fairly certain that Ellie had issues with milk and thats why we switched to soy. Although to be honest, her first few months on formula she was on soooo many it was hard to keep track of which made her happy, which didnt, whether it was reflux or bad formula, etc. Her vomit this evening did seem to be a lesser amount, but maybe that's because its more like cottage cheese than formula. In which, by the way, I am covered. Anyway, I emailed the nutritionist at CHOA asking her if we need to change our ration of formula to water (its 3 scoops to 5 ozs right now). Another special needs mommy said she's on the same formula and was told to keep the same ratio *Shrugs*.