The Conrow Family Blog: Four-month Doctor Visit

Today was Evelyn's 4-month doctor appointment. We found out...

She is 24" long - 30%
Her head is 15.8" around - 20%
She weighs 10 lbs. 7 oz. - 1%!!

The doctor expressed some concern with Evelyn's weight plateau. She's only gained 7 ounces in the last two months bringing her down to the first percentile from the 21st. We talked about her eating habits, etc. Then, once I started to explain a little more about Evelyn's daily activities, it made more sense to the pediatrician. Evelyn already rolls from front to back AND back to front. She is able to push her chest up completely off the floor. She sits with some support. She holds her head upright and still, focusing on objects in front of and around her. She is also able to bring her knees up under her occasionally while squirming on the floor, and tries to push off with her feet. She also puts her weight on her legs for moments at a time when being held upright. Once I described this, the doctor told me that it was no wonder she's no longer sleeping through the night, wanting to eat all the time and has gone down 20 percentiles - she has the gross motor skills of a 6-month-old! She's burning a lot more calories than your average 4-month old. Trying to keep up with big sister already, I imagine. When I first heard Evelyn's stats I was worried the doctor was going to give me a lecture or make me start feeding her formula. I was thrilled when she said, "Time for solids!" I can't believe my baby is already ready for cereal. I was really hoping this would come much later (around 6 months), but Evelyn's metabolism just won't let it wait. The doctor would still like to see her for a 5-month weight check, which works out fine because we have to go back then anyway to get the DTaP vaccine which they didn't have in stock today.

My only other concern for Evelyn was that she seems to sweat a lot and often has clammy hands and feet. Of course none of those symptoms manifested themselves at the doctor's office - the only place symptoms never show up! Combined with the low weight I could tell this information sent up a little yellow flag for the pediatrician, so if the weight isn't following the new growth curve on the chart she'll have Evelyn's thyroid checked next month.

Today Evelyn also had two vaccines: Prevnar (pneumococcal; shot) and Rotateq (rotavirus; oral). She did such a good job. She cried for just a moment after her shot, quickly distracted by the little plastic purple dinosaur they gave her afterward :).

All in all it was actually some really nice mommie-baby time :).

Taking my Rotateq