Friday, August 13, 2010

Four Month Dr. Sharpie Appointment

Today was Cash's four month check-up.

I've been having some pretty high anxiety regarding his vaccines, but my mama's group gals said the four month shots were better than the two month ones. So I sucked it up and decided to be a brave mama and go with Cash and Buttin.

When I went to pick up the little Cash cub from daycare I noticed on his "report card" that he hadn't slept or eaten in about two hours (he can only go about 2 hours without a nap before the cranky monster pays us a visit). I thought, oh great . . .sleepy and hungry and now I'm going to stick him with needles . . . gosh, I'm a good mom.

Buttin met us at the office and Graby was super happy when Daddy walked through the waiting room door. They spent the five minutes in the office laughing at each other - it was pretty freaking cute.

When we got into the room, Cash was all smiles for the nurse. I didn't give her smiles. Instead I played 20 questions with her about how good (gentle and fast) she was at giving shots. When I was convinced of her competence - I smiled, a little.

Here are the stats:
  • Height : 26.5 inches - 92nd percentile
  • Weight: 15 lbs 13 oz - 70th percentile
  • His head circumference was in the 45th percentile, so I wonder if that means he's going to be like one of those large people with tiny heads. I hope not.
When Dr. Sharpie came in we talked briefly about what to expect at this age. She mentioned that we could start rice cereal whenever we wanted, but I think we'll wait till about 6 months. We can also start giving Graby a little water (up to 2 oz) everyday so that he gets used to the taste. We'll probably wait a little while on this too. I guess there are some parents who are very anxious to start doing these things - but I'm in no hurry.

Next she examined Graby. She put her little doctoring tool to his chest and he started crying. I'm thinking, oh shitsville if he's already this grumpy with a smiling doctor putting a cold object on his chest, what is he going to do with needles???!!!

He calmed down quickly when Buttin and I started making fools of ourselves for his benefit. Everything checked out great - ears, nose, eyes, chest and penis!

Dr. Sharpie said she would see us at the 6 month visit. Now we just had to wait for the nurse to come back in to give Graby his shots.

Tick-tock . . . the nurse was taking what seemed like forever to come back in the office. I impatiently decided to go looking for her - well, not really but I did stick my head out the door (I think Buttin was a little mortified) and asked Dr. Sharpie how long the nurse will be (because Graby is getting VERY hungry at this point). She said the nurse would be back in about seven minutes - SEVEN MINUTES - Graby could eat two meals in seven minutes. I decided to feed him a snack. He ate and burped before the nurse came back in - even though it was less than seven minutes.

First she gives him the oral crap, which must taste gross because Graby didn't seem to like it and it took her a few times to get all of it in his mouth. Next, two shots . . . one in each leg. Buttin laid Graby down and made silly faces at him. The first one was over without a peep and he just started fussing when shot two went in his leg. By the time shot two was finished he was making small, "eh, eh, eh" noises, but Buttin picked him up and he startsed to smile within about five seconds. No tears, no turning purple, no nothing! Sweet precious baby - he must have known his mama really couldn't take too much this afternoon.

He fell asleep the instant the car started moving.

Now we're just waiting at home for Gigi and Nana to get here.

1 comment:

  1. You go Cash! That's the best report yet on the after-cries. He can roll with the punches, that one. Hopefully he'll get some really good naps in the next couple of days.

    So he's a fast nurser too? We're down to a four minute max meal for my guy. I thought that was way rare.

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