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Yes… she is 4 months old already (almost). She will be 4 months on the 29th, but she had her dr.’s appointment today (Oct. 20th). I can’t say it went really well. James was working today so I took her myself.

The first thing they do at the appointment is weigh her and check her height. She weighed in at 10 pounds (yes, she is small) and 23.25 inches in length. Maddie was just in one of those moods. She was as stiff as a board when I was attempting to put her in the seat to get weighed. I had to chuckle. She is SO strong that it actually took two of us to calm her down and bend her little body into the seat! So yes, 10 pounds. For those of you keeping track, that is one pound more than she weighed at her two month check up.

I went into the examining room and waited for the doc to come in. She came, looked at her height and weight, measured her head circumfrence, and looked up her stats on a little chart. She is the 23rd percentile for length, about the 25th percentile for head circumfrance, and she fell off the charts for the weight. Yes… she is not even in the 1 percentile for weight. Of course the doc was concerned about this. She ordered a bunch of lab tests for her and wants James and I to take her down to Childrens Hospital to get tested for cystic fibrosis. I know that I was a wee little things as a baby, but the doc still wanted to run the tests just to be sure.

Maddie also received a shot in each leg for her vaccines! She was so excited about that!

After the appointment I headed up stairs to the lab. They put a little needle in her arm that was connected to this small little tube. The tube then went into the seperate vials. Yes, seperate vials. There were five vials of blood taken alltogether. I didn’t even know she had that much blood in her body. Of course she cried her way through that but was fine as soon as I picked her up. She really can turn on and off the waterworks in a second. So much drama! (Of course I would have been crying too if they had just given me a vaccine in each leg and then pumped 4 vials of blood from my arm). I have to admit, the little bandages she had on were pretty darn cute.

I received the results of the lab tests the other day. All her bloodwork came back normal except she does have elevated liver enzymes. The doc thinks this might be a result of her low weight. We have an appointment on the first of November to take her down to Childrens to get tested for cystic fibrosis. I am really not all that concerned that she has it. The only symptom she is showing is the low weight. Another symptom is greasy poop. For those of you who aren’t parents, you have no idea how much a parent looks at and analyzes poop! The doc suggested putting some poop in the toilet to see if it floats. If it does, then that is a sign it could be greasy poop. I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long for Maddie to poop. She rarely skips a day! Of course this day she pooped twice! The poop sank!

I also read that a symptom is an overly salty taste to the skin. In fact, the test that is done at the hospital is a sweat test. They measure the sodium chloride level in the sweat. So what did I do? The only thing I could do to see if she was salty… I licked Maddie all over! Nope… no salt detected!

I found out yesterday that Anne (James’ mom) had only gained 3 pounds in 4 months when she is a baby, and she had been eating solid foods for awhile. Maddie just started rice cereal a few days ago, and boy, is that a chore! I also found out that our neighbor is just starting their daughter on rice cereal and she is 6 months old. She also weghs in at about 12 pounds at six months and never once has her doc been concerned. Hmmm… The doc had suggested starting Maddie on solids just to help get her weight up.

Yes, I am feeding my daughter. No, I don’t starve her. No, I have not been dieting. (That is for all those people out there that think she is too small as a result of not getting enough food).

She has always been an interesting eater. I was accused of not feeding her enough when she was really tiny (8-10 feedings a day) because we were only feeding her 7 times a day. We couldn’t get her to eat any more than that. And we were blessed if she ate for 10 minutes at each feeding. She is a REALLY fast eater and definitely lets you know when she is hungry and when she is done.

Anyway, that is the latest with Maddie. Kind of interesting how we panic because she isn’t fat enough and then she will spend the rest of her life trying to be skinny. We help them learn how to walk and talk, then we tell them to sit down and be quiet. Hmmm…

Oh yes… about that rice cereal. The doc suggested we start her on the rice cereal (the first stage of solids) to help get her weight up. Oh my gosh is that a nightmare! Maddie does not want to eat it. I only give her about 2oz of the stuff. She screams so loud while “eating” it. She doesn’t quite yet understand how to eat from a spoon so a lot of it comes out of her mouth… and ends up on me as well. I don’t mind that she doesn’t have the technique down… it is the screaming that I can’t handle. I don’t sleep well at night (not because of Maddie) and as a result I am tired during the day and find I have very little patience. Little patience and a baby screaming probably isn’t the best combination. I have decided that for everyone’s sanity that I should stop feeding her the rice cereal. It turns me into a vicious fire breathing dragon and I find I want my husband to walk through the door just then so I can yell at someone (and kick if he comes close enough). It takes roughly 1 hour to feed her 2oz since she is crying the whole time. Tears even come out of her eyes! Maybe she is too young. I didn’t start eating rice cereal until I was 7-8 months old.

On a different note but still connected in an obscure way, I wish that people would just let parents be parents. I went through my whole pregnancy getting advice (wanted or not) about how to be pregnant and how to raise a child. “You are too small”, “you have gained too much weight”, “you should be reading this book”. “you should burn that book you are reading”, “you should follow this parenting technique or else your kids will be stupid and will probably end up in prison.” Now the advise I get is “you need to fatten your kid up”, “she should be eating solids because other kids started at 1 month of age”, “she shouldn’t be eating solids because she is too young and too small”, “she is too young and too small to sleep through the night”, “that is great that she is sleeping through the night”. You name it… we get every angle. Everybody else seems to know what is best for our child and our family and thinks we want more advise. Interesting. I think that is what stresses me out the most… other people telling me that I am doing it “wrong” because it doesn’t fit their mold. I say that every child and every parent is different. What works for one does not work for another. I say let parents raise their children and be happy doing it. Ok… that is my little soap box. Didn’t mean to go on like that, but you all know I speak what is on my mind! James calls me dramatic, but I think he is way off.

PS-Stay tuned! I promise I am nice!