Fiona is Thriving... Sam Too!

On Friday, Sam and Fiona both had check-ups, three year and two week, respectively. Overall, the appointment went well, though Sam had a bit of a freakout when it came time to measure his height. I'm not sure what he thought we were trying to do to him, but he wouldn't stand upright to be measured and ended up having to be held down on the table so the nurse could mark his height on the paper sheet. Thankfully, that was the end of the drama for him, and the doctor was very patient and kind with him, allowing time for Sam to get comfortable with her before trying to do things like look in his ears, listen to his heart, etc. Sam got a clean bill of health and appears to have filled out a bit. In the past, he tracked at the 25th percentile for weight, but now, at 31 pounds, he's up to the 50th percentile. We're less sure about height, since it was so hard to get him measured, though he has always tended to track high for height.

Fiona did very well with her checkup. She now weights 8 pounds, 11 ounces, which is almost a pound more than she weighed at birth, and more than a pound up from her first appointment as a four-day-old--she weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces that day.* The doctor was very impressed with her weight gain, particularly given the fact that she has pretty much been exclusively breastfed.** Breastfed babies don't usually gain weight as quickly as formula fed babies.

Fiona's steady weight gain and sucess at breastfeeding has been a huge relief to me. I really struggled with Sam. He never took to nursing the way I had hoped, and actually lost more than 10% of his birthweight by the time he had his first pediatric appointment as a 5-day-old. As a result, his first couple of weeks home from the hospital were marked by numerous trips to the doctor to have his weight checked, all manner of conflicting advice from the doctors about how to improve his weight (supplement with formula, trust my nursing abilities, etc). It was one of the most stressful periods I've experienced as a parent, and one that I would have handled much differently in retrospect.

In any event, Fiona has been a strong, steady nurser from day one, latching on with gusto within an hour of her birth and never looking back. In fact, there are some days when I feel like she enjoys nursing just a bit TOO much, since she has periods where she wants to nurse almost constantly. She is settling into a routine now though, so these periods are becoming shorter and more manageable. Her love of nursing did come in handy at the appointment too. Fiona was due to get her hepatitis vaccine, which we had opted to hold off on a the time of birth. The shot goes straight into the thigh muscle, and is painful. The nurse had me feed Fiona while the shot was administered. Fiona immediately screamed and turned bright red, but within 10 seconds, had latched back on and resumed nursing again.

One thing that was really good about the appointments was that it appears to have served as a bonding experience for Sam and Fiona. For one thing, Sam hadn't really ridden in the car with Fiona before, aside from a very short drive earlier in the week. He was very interested in having her in the car with us, and commented repeatedly that Fiona was looking out the window. He was also intrigued that she also got examined by the doctor. In fact, in the past few days since the appointment, Sam seems to feel more warmly inclined towards Fiona. Later in the day on Friday, Chris took Sam shopping for Valentine's Day, including card shopping. When Chris went to pay, Sam pointed out to Chris that they hadn't gotten a card for Fiona. Thanks to Sam, Fiona got both a card and a Valentine's beanie baby bear. Sam has been slow to show interest in Fiona, aside from diaper changing time, which he seems to find fascinating, but I do think there's hope for a warm sibling relationship!

*Babies tend to lose a little weight immediately after birth.

**She DID have 2 ounces of formula when she was 3 days old--she was insatiable and my milk hadn't come in yet.

We had to trick Sam into taking this picture with Fiona when she was just a few days old. Katy got him to build something with his Legos right next to the baby, then told him she was taking a picture of of what he'd build, rather than a picture of him and the baby.