Tuesday, August 23, 2005

The Doctor Visit's Stats



As many of you know, today was Aveline's 4 month check up. Along with the immunizations, we had a well baby examination.

First off, I love our pediatrician. He is about 5'4" tall, barely 140 lbs on a good day, young with semi-mad scientist styled dark hair. He wears brown courderoys and striped shirts on both our appointments with him. He smiles when he greets Aveline, calling her "Superstar," "Stinkarino" or "Buttercup." He always explains each action and detail very clearly to us. He listens to our concerns, answers questions and never makes us feel rushed. In fact, the only flaw I have found so far is that he did his undergrad work at That School Up North.

The first action of the visit is the strip down and weigh in. Dressed only in her diaper, we carry Aveline through the maze of halls in the doctor's office. We encounter other parents with their scantilly clad children as we go. The nurse leads us to the height/weight room. Once there, we immediately put our child on a scale that looks like a changing table. We remove the diaper and observe the weight on the digital scale. It had been awhile since Aveline had eaten, so she weighed in at 13lbs 4oz. Not bad. They told me that this was the 75th percentile for weight. It seemed kind of small to me.

Next, while I am putting a new diaper on the squirmy worm, the nurse measures her head circumference. This has been a minor concern of mine. At her first visit, she checked in at the 10th and 20th percentile in weight and height respectively, but in the 75th percentile in head circumference. The girl had a big ole noggin. Today, she was still 75th percentile, but it was in line with her weight. After the diaper was fastened, the nurse gently slid her to the left end of the changing table-scale, being careful to place her head in contact with the side. She measured 24 and a half inches in length. This, I was told, was the 90th percentile for height. Again, I didn't think that they had their growth chart right. She had been slowly climbing from the 25th percentile at the first visit, but this was quite a jump. I am going to check their math next time we go.

Once the stat portion of the visit was through, I swaddled her in a blanket and took her back to the exam room. I settled into a chair and fed her a bottle. She was hungry and quickly took in 5 ounces while we waited for Dr. Hein. Too bad she didn't finish that bottle before she got weighed...she could have used the extra weight!

Dr. Hein came in and gave her an exam. He said everything looked normal and good. He wasn't concerned with the dry skin at all. He asked about her developmental milestones and was very impressed she was already rolling and airplaning. He gave us some highlights to look forward to in the next two months. He also advised us about starting foods. Yipes. I didn't think she was getting that old! I think we are going to wait until she is 6 months old to start real food. We might try some rice cereal before that, but not too much.

After Dr. Hein left, the nurse came in to give her the shots. I think the nurse was in the room for maybe 2 minutes at most. I would hate to have her job. She has to make kids scream and cry all day long. Yuck.

4 comments:

Laura said...

Wow... what a big girl! Glad to hear the appointment went well. I'm glad her body weight caught up to that noggin'. Isaac's got a big one already, too. LOL

Beth said...

So nice to see a blog about a baby. Brings back warm memories. I'm glad the check-up went well.

Also, thanks for stopping by my blog with the book review. I really appreciate it a lot!

Anonymous said...

I can only imagine how it feels as a mother to watch your baby scream and cry during shots. Give her an extra hug and kiss from Aunt Kelly!

Anonymous said...

I am glad she is doing well. The only reason she seems so little is because Owen was so BIG!!! I started Owen on cereal at 31/2 mo. and fruit at 4mo. but go with what your ped says. Talk to you later.