Two month check up

Yesterday, October 5, Evan turned two months old.  As a result we took him to the pediatrician for his two month check up today.  He weighed in at 11 lbs 7 oz!  Thus he's still kept up the 1 oz a day weight gain.  This landed him in the 43rd percentile for weight.  He was also in the 43rd percentile for height/length at 22 3/4 inches.  His head circumference is now 39 cm, which is the 27th percentile.   All of his growth is right on track, and his head growth has actually picked up more recently (as he used to be in the 9th and then 14th percentiles at 2 weeks and one month old).  His length didn't change much from his one month check up (which was 22 inches), but the doctor thinks that his length may have been overestimated last month, given how it was way off the growth curve he's on.

He's also starting to push himself up on his arms too, which hadn't happened before the doctor appointment.  She placed him on his tummy and I warned her that he doesn't like tummy time, but low and behold he didn't fuss and when she placed his hands just in front of his head he pushed up!  I couldn't believe my eyes...my baby was developing great and showing off perfectly for the doctor!  

The one thing the doctor wants us to work on with him is to alternate which way we lay him on the changing table so that he starts laying/moving his head to the left more.  Right now, he has a preference to look toward the right.  Actually, he's always had this preference since we brought him home, as it's the side he preferentially lays his head in the car seat and when laying down in his bassinet.  Anyway, the direction we lay him on the changing table now only reinforces that preference since to look at us he keeps his head to the right, so the doctor suggested we lay him the other way so he stretches and uses his neck muscles on the other side too.  She even suggested that we hold his head and do neck stretches for him.  Other than that, Evan's in great shape!

He was in such a great mood the whole appointment, showing off his smiles and coos and everything.  Nonetheless, all great things must come to an end and this appointment ended with the shots!  He got two pokes and one oral vaccine.  The oral medicine upset him, but it was the shots that got him really riled up.  Poor guy!  After he calmed down though, he fell fast asleep and has been sleeping peacefully in his car seat since (allowing me some time to write this article!). 

We made a pit stop at the store on the way home from the doctor to pick up some children's tylenol in case he gets fussy, irritable, or a mild fever from the shots.  Guess we'll see how it goes when he wakes up!

The dawn of a new age (and more sleep for us!)

Just one week ago I was starting to worry if Evan would ever start to get into more of a daily sleeping routine, especially one in which he slept longer at night.  However, this past weekend (while his Grammy, my mom Marta, was here) he started sleeping longer stretches and has kept it up for the past five nights!  His first ever seven hour stretch between feedings occurred this past Sunday night from 6pm to 1am.  Saturday night he went from 7pm to 1am, and most nights this week he's gone to bed around 8pm and not woken up until 2am, so we're finally starting to see a pattern of longer breaks between feedings in the nighttime hours!  A few of those nights he went back to sleep for another 4-5 hours, leaving us with only one overnight feeding, however, he sometimes still wakes again around 4am for second overnight feeding before his morning feeding around 7-8am.  After talking with the doctor today about this, she suggested that we try not to feed him if he does wake up in shorter intervals now that he's established this pattern for several nights to help keep him on it.  Let's hope we can keep this up!