CORA'S 1-YEAR WELL BABY

As we soared towards Cora's 1st birthday, I realized I didn't have a 1-year well baby exam on the books for her. When I called the doc, the earliest they could get her in was today. So, here are her 1-year stats, about 1.5 months late...

Weight: 19.5 lbs
Height: 29.25 inches
Head Circumference: 44 cm

(Eating yogurt in the waiting room before her appointment. Pretty dress courtesy of her Paw-Paw.)

We love Dr. Smith. We really do. She is good at what she does, and she has done a fabulous job taking care of our kids from their well baby exams to their hospitalizations. She is definitely on the old-fashioned end of things though, which doesn't always mesh well with our natural parenting tendencies. If I didn't do my own research and simply followed what she said, we'd have given cereal at 2-months, stopped nursing at 1-year, done cry-it-out early and repeatedly, never co-slept, given juice before 1-year, and measured calories by the number of baby food jars consumed each day. Although she sometimes recommends things that I don't agree with, she is more than willing to "agree to disagree". Because of our "disagreements", I was especially happy to hear her tell me this morning that we need to keep Cora rear-facing until she turns 2-years-old. She pointed at the notice taped to the exam room door, which has been there since James turned 9-months-old, but which she has never so much as acknowledged before today. I know it is partly because Cora is currently under the 20 lb "minimum" for turning forward-facing, but none-the-less, I was really glad to see her be proactive about the "new" AAP recommendation to keep kids rear-facing until 2-years-old. Not that their old recommendation of keeping kids rear-facing as long as the limits of their carseat allows has changed, because it hasn't, but the old "minimum" of 1-year and 20 lbs was worded in a way that made many people think they were "suppose" to flip their kids forward-facing on their first birthday. I'm glad to see they've clarified their statement, and I personally hope to see many more kids kept rear-facing long past their first birthday. In fact, I bet it won't be long before the law changes to a minimum of 2-years-old. And I have to say, I was even more pleased at the smile the good doc gave me when I replied that BOTH my babies are still rear-facing, at 13-months and 29-months!

In other appointment news, Cora is still not fond of the doctor. Or the nurses. Or the scale. Or the exam table. She was extremely offended, and cried profusely throughout her exam...

(Yup, I'm THAT mom. The one that takes pictures of her crying baby rather than scoop her up immediately. Gotta learn to buck-up little one!)

Luckily, she got over it quickly.

Doc Smith ran through the gamut of questions. Yes, Cora has 3 words or more (she's up to 8 right now, though most are used only occasionally - "up" is her latest word, and is used often already). Yes, she can sleep through the night and is no longer waking to eat (not that she actually DOES sleep through the night consistently - we're still lucky to get 2 uninterrupted nights per week). Yes, she is walking (faster every day). Between her increased mobility and the fever virus (and resulting poor appetite) she had last week, she's actually lost weight in the past month. She's now right back where she was at 11-months. Doc Smith encouraged me to feed her more (um, she already eats more than James...) and supplement with milk (which we already do - she gets a full 8 oz sippy of calorie-rich coconut milk each day). She's actually drinking plenty of milk (the "recommendation" for her age is 3 full cups per day, and with the sippy cup plus 2 bottles and 3 nursing sessions, she's likely getting more than 24 oz), so I suppose we'll start letting her wander around with a sippy more during the day and try and get more snacks into her (since she already eats 3 square meals each day). I don't think the Doc's charts are correct though. I saw her little circles. And when I compare them to the ones I've made, based on charts designed specifically for breastfed babies, they show a weight drop, but not nearly the percentage drop that the good doc's charts showed. And her weight-by-length is still right around average, so I'd say she's doing pretty darn well. I do wonder whether her head circumference was measured incorrectly though, this time or last, because it seems weird to me that she moved around on that growth curve so much. Of course, the good doc didn't even mention that one...

(Just for comparison's sake, James was 22.8 lbs and 30.5 inches at 13-months, so Cora is approximately 3 lbs and 1 inch smaller than her big bro was at this age)

She also received 2 vaccinations today: Varicella and Prevnar. Hopefully she'll be like her big bro and not have a reaction to the chicken pox vaccine, and not like her cousin Eli who had a relatively strong, negative reaction to it. We're holding off on Pentacel until her 15-month well baby, at which point she'll also get Hep A again. She won't get the MMR until 18-months. We still like spreading them out. Makes us feel better. Poor kid was furious with the nurse who stuck her today. When I put her in the car to take her to daycare, she reached down and pointed at her 2 Tazmanian Devil bandaids and whined. Hope the ibuprofen is helping to keep away any pain from the shots!

In closing, while I disagree with the good doc that breastfeeding should stop just after 12-months because "breastmilk calories start to decrease" (um, breastmilk actually has a higher fat content than whole cow's milk...), I do plan to start the weaning process. Slowly. I am in no hurry to wean Cora. But realistically, I am not pumping as much as I used to (my guess as to why is that while Cora's NUMBER of nursing sessions has stayed the same over the past 2 months, perhaps the AMOUNT of milk she's drinking at each session has decreased, since she's taking in so many calories elsewhere from her solids, and since demand = supply...), I need to reduce the number of interruptions to my labwork (now that we are in our new building, I have to drive back to my office, schlep upstairs, pump, then drive back to the lab, so the process that used to take me 15-20 minutes now takes me 30), and eventually I'll need to travel again for work (conferences and field work, and I have no interest in toting my trusty pump along with me). Everything I've been reading lately says that after 15-months, babies have a harder time giving up nursing. Just as they do giving up the bottle. Or the paci. Since I do not want to be nursing a 2-year-old (I have no qualms about others doing it, I just cannot picture myself nursing a child with the size and abilities and wits of James), I plan to start the process now. I am dropping down to 2 pumping sessions at work this week. In another week or two, I'll drop down to one. At that point, nursing throughout the day would be more for comfort than nutrition for Cora (since my supply will decrease), so I will probably limit her to morning, naptime, and bedtime, giving her sippy cups in between. And while we start to wean from the breast, she also needs to be weaning from the bottle. Pumped milk for 2 bottles/day will be impossible for me to produce in another 2 weeks, and when she moves up to the K1 room at daycare at that time, she can't take her bottles with her anyway. Not to mention the paci, which is already becoming an addiction, and which is already getting on our nerves. So, what to do?... We're limiting her to using it in the crib and car. Except today, of course. Did I mention that the doc found another molar broken through, with the 4th right behind it? 10 teeth going on 11 (no idea where that other bottom incisor is hiding)... Poor girl needs SOMETHING to help with the pain and discomfort of teething! Jeesh. Why can't my Baby Doll just stay my baby forever?...