Parenthood - 2009-07-10 Four month checkup

July 10, 2009

Elizabeth had her four month checkup with the pediatrician today. It was much less traumatic for mom and baby this time, but Brendan still got to be the bad guy while I cowered in the corner.

We got to hang out in the cute princess room this time. Elizabeth weighs 5350 grams, and officially measures 60cm long. This puts her at the 10th percentile for weight and the 25th percentile for height, and means that she is maintaining a consistent growth curve. We are highly skeptical of the height measurement because they measured her lying down, while wearing her cloth diaper. Elizabeth spent the time wiggling and frankly I'm not sure that the nurse tugging on her leg to stretch it out resulted in an accurate number at all. My last measure of a standing, naked Elizabeth was 63cm. In any case, Elizabeth is somewhere between the 25th and 75th percentile for height, so is growing well.

We put Elizabeth down on her back on the examining table while the nurse was asking us questions to determine whether Elizabeth's physical development is on track. "Does she smile and laugh? Does she coo? Does she blow bubbles?" We were particularly amused when the nurse asked up whether she is able to hold up her head. We just looked at Elizabeth, who had flipped herself over onto her stomach and was holding up her head and looking around proudly. "I guess she can roll" said the nurse. "Tummy to back?" she asked. "All directions" we answered.

Last time they took off her diaper before giving her shots, which resulted in terrified screaming baby at every diaper change for the next 24 hours. This time they let us keep it on. Elizabeth didn't react too much to the first needle, but the second one was obviously unappreciated. She cried only a few minutes though and then listened to Daddy read a story about a curious monkey getting a needle too ("Curious George goes to Hospital").

The pediatrician saw her and declared her healthy. After admiring her and commenting on her beautiful blue eyes, Dr. Russell finished her examination and tried to put Elizabeth's diaper back on. Elizabeth, obviously having decided that the doctor needed to see first hand just how clever a baby she is, promptly demonstrated her exceptional ability to wiggle and roll. Dr. Russell did an admirable job of getting the diaper on despite all the wiggliness. She commented that Elizabeth moves like an 18 month old and that we would have our hands full when she learns to walk. I can just hear Grandma H laughing now...

She was pretty content for the rest of the afternoon.