Two month check up
Sophia went in for her two-month check up today. She is now eleven pounds and one ounce and she is twenty-three and three quarters tall/long. Her weight and head circumference, which I didn’t get numbers for, are in the fiftieth percentile and her height/length is in the ninetieth percentile. She’s going to be tall and skinny – go figure. 
The only question I had for the doctor was about her toes. The little toe on both of her feet lay hidden under the toe next to it. The nurse that took her footprints at the hospital made us aware of this right away. She handed us a copy of the footprints saying, “I swear she really does have five toes on each foot, but I couldn’t get them all flat on the paper.” The doctor says that it’s fine and won’t cause any problems with her walking because it’s not “fixed” in that place, as in he can move it out. I have noticed that when she flexes her toes that little one does come out from under its hiding place, but I was still concerned.
Sophia got her first round of shots today (second for Hepatitis B). She shrieked with each shot. Actually, she wasn’t too thrilled laid out on the paper covered doctor chair either, even though she was on top of her blanket. After the three pokes, she got a band-aid on each thigh and I picked her up and hugged her. She stopped crying immediately. According to the nurse, Sophia shot her a look that said, “You can’t hurt me now, I have my mommy!” Sophia was a little fussier than usual tonight, but that’s understandable.
Related posts:
Baby Squeezins: Diaper of the Month
Before Sophia was born Kurt and I joked about posting a diaper of the month. I intended to post the first one on Sophia’s one-month birthday, but when the first month came and went, I gave up on the idea. Kurt however never forgot about it. He has been bugging me about it and won’t let it die.
So without further adieu, I present to you the baby squeezins diaper of the month for last month. Day three of her meconium diapers. Taken 9/28/07.
This month’s diaper of the month had poo front to back and a little seeping out the edge. Taken 11/17/07.
Related posts:
Wordless Wednesday: Who, me?
The note I never thought I would write
I got married when I was nineteen and a half and after tying the knot I assumed that children would be the next step. I wasn’t in a hurry for children necessarily, but I did want something to baby, so in the mean time I got a dog instead. My ex and I didn’t last long together and despite a lack of birth control children never happened in that relationship. In my next relationship we had an “oops” that became a miscarriage. Despite the fact that relationship was on the rocks when the “oops” happened and the absolutely horrible timing of it all, there wasn’t anything I ever wanted more. After that relationship, I dated for a while and then met Kurt who after four months told me he didn’t want children. I stuck with him anyway. I got another dog, then a cat, and a parrot. It took six years of nagging the man before he finally broke down and then it took another year and a half to actually conceive our little pumpkin. It took so long to get to motherhood that I thought I’d never ever get a chance to leave a love note for Kurt outside the bedroom door of our daughter like the one I left today…
Unfortunately she woke up AGAIN before he got home.
Related posts:
Sophia’s two month milestones
- Sophia responded to sounds right from birth as her father can attest. As they carried her to me for the first time Kurt said something and she very clearly recognized her daddy’s voice and seemed to be trying to find him. It must have been all his yelling into my belly while I was pregnant.
- At two to three weeks of age I swear she had authentic smiles, not just the gas induced type.
- Somewhere between three and four weeks Sophia could hold her head up for quite a while. We never timed it but it seemed like a long time for a baby that age. She could also turn her head from side to side when on her belly or back.
- Five to six weeks she “discovered her hands”. She will now suck on her fist, wrist, and thumb (I think that one time I saw her with her thumb stuck out was probably just coincidence that her thumb was sticking out).
- Around six weeks she began spinning around in her bed. No, I’m not talking Exorcist like spinning. I mean that if I lay her parallel to the long side of the crib she will migrate and might be parallel to the short side of the crib. She also learned to push herself up from a sitting to a standing position, lock her knees and hold her weight in a standing position for a few seconds while we hold her by the armpits to keep her upright. She’s a strong little girl!
- At seven weeks she began her baby babel with, “ngun” and “agah”. She smiles a lot more (she’s awake more) and will smile when playing peek-a-boo. I have also heard her laugh in her sleep on two occasions. She has yet to laugh while awake though, so I’m not sure that she’s actually laughing.
Related posts:
Colic Relief
Eleven days ago I wrote a post about Sophia’s colic, and despite the more medically sound site saying not to limit the foods I eat because I’ll find myself eating nothing but white rice, I chose to cut my intake of all dairy (again*). Most of the sites said it would take seven to ten days for the cow’s milk proteins to leave my milk, so I was mentally prepared to not see any results for a while, but it made an immediate and complete change with her! The first day I thought it was just a fluke and maybe she was just having a good day, but it has lasted.
The reason I chose to cut off my dairy intake as opposed to the other possible allergy causing foods is because I think dairy is the worst offender for baby allergies and I’ve heard that children under one year cannot digest the protein in cow’s milk.
When Sophia is three or four months old, that’s how long the ‘colicky’ stage usually lasts, I can start to introduce dairy into my diet again. We will see how it takes for the both of us. For now, I’m just enjoying the fact that she only cries when she’s overly tired and that doesn’t last nearly as long.
*Before Kurt went to Spain in 2005 I started having stomach problems and I discovered it had to do with dairy. My mom and one of her sisters also have the problem. When I was pregnant, my dairy problem magically went away so I ate and drank every dairy thing I could get my hands on. After delivery dairy is still good with me. Yay!
Related posts:
Dairy chicken eggs
Today Kurt and I were talking about the reaction I had to the flu shot when Kurt announced that I must be allergic to eggs because the viruses used in the influenza vaccine are grown in hens’ eggs (as opposed to a cock’s eggs). I reminded him the only thing other than greasy foods I’ve EVER had a problem with is dairy to which he replied, “Well eggs are kind of dairy.” I’m not kidding, he really said that. I was so shocked I didn’t even have a come back other than, “What the fuck, since when have eggs been any kind of dairy?” I suppose that’s why he’s an engineer and not a farmer, but that ranks right up there with my supervisor that wasn’t sure if New Jersey was a state and my friend/coworker that didn’t know what time zone we live in. We’re right next to the PACIFIC ocean! There must be mercury in the water or something.
Related posts:
Vaccinate or jail?
What the hell is up with this?
Md. schools get tough on vaccinations
By STEPHEN MANNING, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 16, 5:56 PM ET
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. – Two months into the school year, more than 2,000 students in this suburban county outside the nation’s capital had yet to get the shots they needed to attend class. So the school system decided it was through playing nice.
Big deal? What’s the problem? I don’t get it.
Parents in Prince George’s County have been ordered to appear at a special court hearing Saturday where they will be given a choice: Get their children vaccinated on the spot or risk up to 10 days in jail and fines.
How exactly did a school district get the court involved in parents vaccinating their kids? Don’t we have options as parents anymore?
It is one of the strongest efforts made by a U.S. school system to ensure its youngsters receive their shots.
Prince George’s County school officials and prosecutors said parents have been duly warned about the need for vaccinations over the past year. They said the goal isn’t to throw parents in jail but to protect public health and get kids who have been barred from school back to class.
Isn’t it the parent’s right to decide what’s right for their children? I mean we have parents that for religious reasons will pray rather than seek medical attention for their dying children and that’s somehow acceptable, but not getting shots means jail time? How exactly does putting parents in jail help the kids? And why aren’t they allowed in school just because they haven’t had their shots? If their is an outbreak of smallpox, mumps, measles, whatever it’s the kids whose parent’s opted out that will get it not the vaccinated ones (for the most part). There used to be some waiver that parent’s could sign at the school saying that if their child came down with one of those diseases you have to pull them out so it’s not passed around – duh they’re sick.
“How can you in good conscience allow your child to miss school and their education for no particular reason?” said John White, spokesman for the 132,000-student school system.
And how can Mr. John White be such a pompous fucking ass? My question is, what if you fear what’s in the vaccines. Vaccines for children used to contain thimerosal as a preservative and in the 90′s when there was an increase on vaccines for kids there was also an increase in autism, attention deficit hyperactive disorder, and speech/language delay. I ask Mr. John White how many ADHD and autistic children does he want in each classroom? Ok, asking that question is a logical fallacy. Yes, they’ve removed all thimerosal from vaccines for children under the age of six, but I can totally understand some parents being nervous about giving their children shots. The school district has 132,000 students, and about 2,000 don’t have their shots? Dude that’s only 1.52%. Give it up you jackass!
At the courthouse, the health department will have a makeshift clinic to administer vaccines. Parents will be given the chance to offer the judge an excuse for why they didn’t get their kids vaccinated. Under Maryland law, parents can obtain exemptions for religious or medical reasons.
Whether justified or not, does fear of causing neurodevelopmental disorders qualify under “medical reason”? If not that’s just fucked up. Thanks so much for removing all of the parenting from being a parent.
Those who fail to show up — and those who fail to offer a valid excuse and still refuse the shots — could be prosecuted under truancy laws and face possible jail time and fines of $50 per day. Prosecutors do not expect to actually charge anyone on Saturday.
May I have a list of “valid” excuses? Just make it a multiple choice test.
“The message is get your kids vaccinated or get an exemption,” said Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey. “You can’t just sit on the fence.”
Fair enough I guess.
Barbara Loe Fisher, head of National Vaccine Information Center, a vaccine skeptic group, complained: “It is terrorizing parents. When you have the threat of going to jail, it is hard to make an informed decision.”
UUmmm honestly hon – it’s hard to make an informed decision about vaccinating even without the threat of jail. Just knowing that people claimed to get polio from polio vaccines in the past makes me leery. Without advanced knowledge of chemistry and/or biology a parent is just weighing on whether they think it’s more risky to vaccinate and get a known or unknown side effect from it or come down with some disease that hasn’t made much of an appearance for years.
Even the judge who opened his court is somewhat skeptical about hauling parents into court.
William Missouri, administrative judge for the county circuit court, agreed to the Saturday session and said it would probably prod some parents to comply. But the problem “may have been ratcheted up to a level it should not have been at this time.”
School officials said that it is not clear why parents are not complying, but that some may have religious or medical objections, while others may have failed to turn in the paperwork, or their kids’ addresses were outdated.
The prospect of stiff penalties appears to have worked already. Last week, when the court notices were sent to parents, 2,300 students had not been properly immunized. As of Friday afternoon, only about 1,100 remained on the list.
Maryland, like all states, requires children to be immunized against several childhood illnesses, including polio, mumps and measles. In recent years, it has required that students up to high-school age be vaccinated against hepatitis B and chicken pox.
Chicken pox? Really? What if they already had Chicken pox?
Chicken pox isn’t that bad – as long as you get it as a kid. Chicken pox used to be a time of great social gatherings. “My child has chicken pox” “Really? We’ll be right over so our kids can get it too!”
After that, thousands of students — most of them high schoolers — were found to lack the required immunizations. Parents were sent letters and visited at home, and the school system even offered free vaccinations.
“Once the word gets out, it will definitely work,” Bob Ross, head of the parent-teachers association at Surrattsville High School in Clinton, said of the new get-tough approach. “Parents are going to have to set aside some time. Parents have a responsibility to help protect the public health.”
I have a responsibility to protect public health? Since when?! Besides if my kid catches something because I chose not vaccinate her it’s mostly the 1.52% whose parents didn’t get the memo that will be affected. It won’t be like black plague. Besides you can get vaccinated as an adult too.
Related posts:
Flu Shot
Our doctor told us that Kurt and I should get out flu shots so that we don’t bring the flu home to Sophia, so on Tuesday when I had my six weeks check up (seven weeks) I also received my flu shot. My appointment was late in the day so that Kurt would be home and could watch baby squishy pants, so I didn’t feel any affects that day. Wednesday however was completely different. Most of the day I just felt very tired. Sophia and I took a nap from one to three. When Kurt got home I went to the store to get a few things and by the time I got home all of my joints were aching. I felt like I had arthritis in my fingers, the house felt like an ice box and I had a headache. Kurt made dinner and afterwards I asked him to watch the baby. I just didn’t feel good at all. I tired to take a nap but fuss budget just would cooperate with dad and kept wanting to eat. At nine Kurt brought her up AGAIN to eat. I told him to wait a minute while I went to the bathroom. Dinner came up soon after. – That’s not on the list of flu shot side effects. Last night I was so cold I used an extra blanket and woke up in a puddle of sweat (attractive eh?), and today I’m not feeling much better.
The CDC says you can actually get the flu from the flu shot, but then again they don’t list throwing up as a symptom either. From the CDC:
- Soreness, redness, or swelling where the shot was given
- Fever (low grade)
- Aches
I hope this can’t be passed on to Sophia. It’s painful not being able to kiss my baby for fear of passing this on. 
For those with a twisted curiosity last night for dinner we had ham, green beans, and rice – none of which was fully digested. I also drank a lot of the best Martinelli apple juice in the world, so when it came up I had a bit of a hard cider after taste. – Your Welcome.