well baby
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The “well-baby” exam is sort of a misnomer. Sure, you visit the doctor to see if your baby is doing “well” and thriving and all that jazz, but they’re mainly about shots. Icky horrible shots… that put Mom or Dad in a position they never want to repeat… holding their baby’s legs still with all their might while someone else stabs them repeatedly with injections. You won’t find me hating on what’s inside those vials, as I’m personally very adamantly pro-vaccine and will go out of my way to avoid visiting any anti-vaccination enclaves with Baby M (that means you Marin!). But, just like knowing you’re doing good things for your body while chomping down your veggies, it’s a difficult task to endure even when you know the benefits outweigh the tears.
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Other than answering your general questions of the moment at these appointments, the nurses take the time to measure three critical components of growth: length/height, weight and head circumference. These soon become the 3 stats any mom can shout about their baby in an instant… all the way from birth. And they’re how babies compete in the “How big is your baby” Olympics. You see, these magical stats get placed into percentiles that should rank them against every other baby in the country. Sickly perfect for those competitive types, no?
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So Baby M’s 6 month percentiles? 90th in weight, 95th in length/height, 100+ for head circumference. I’m not trying to win any sort of battle over the big babies…. but I assume she’s going to be trucking it in the high stats for quite awhile. That’s what happens when Mom was always the tallest kid in the class, and hit 5’11 at age 12. Sorry sweetie. The conondrum that we haven’t solved yet, though, is how in the heck her 6 month clothes still fit her. In fact, we just took out the last of the 3-6 month outfits that she’s finally moved past, but for the most part, she’s still fitting things just fine. Weird. Very weird.
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So when you hear moms spouting new percentiles here and there, just know it’s part of the mommy drill. Our new stats pop in at the 2/4/6/9/12/18 /24 month marks… and most kids are on a similar schedule as well. Sometimes it’s just safer to go with the doctor’s scale… or else we’d have the believe we have a 20.1 lb baby on our hands as of this morning’s home scale… WOAH!
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6 Comments
StefanieK
Aww, I love that pic. So cute. Shots have got to be miserable for mom :( …I just had to get an updated MMR shot (I discovered I had lost my measles immunity…which sort of scared me, given all the info about parents choosing not to vaccinate their babies these days)…anyway, that shot was no fun for ME, and I later told my husband that I’m hoping to quickly forget it so as not to make my (way) future well baby appts even more miserable then they’re bound to already be. Anyway, glad she got through at least some of them already! And hope it wasn’t too too hard on you. :)
Kristin ~ Bien Living Design
Oh baby L, you are so precious!! :)
EP
Well, once you have a baby (or two) that always falls in the
“30 percentile and under” category, consistently, you stop worrying about the competition. Unless it’s for smallest baby! :)
She looks absolutely precious, and reminds me of my little L with that expression!
I think I have told your husband, but I get the worst parent in the world award, because I always laugh when C and L get their shots…and the nurse has to remind me to pick up them up to comfort them. I’m so terrible, but those beet red faces and open mouths with zero noise coming out of them just makes me laugh… Oh well. :)
Julie
She is so stinkin’ cute.
I hate “well” baby shots, because Brayden is always so sad and in pain. It is awful. My husband refuses to go- he is deathly afraid of needles- so it is always up to be to be SuperMom on shot day.
tracey
i’ve got a kid in the 98th for height (no shock there) and 67th for weight, noggen 100 — her duds .. still include some 3 month dresses that make the cutest flowy tops for summer and 3m jeans that make the cutest capris. even at 14M some of those outgrown 6-9-12 month dresses make cute tunic tops w/ those 6-9M capri leggings.
the shots kill me … last time for her 12M SIX shots !
JennyJ
sooo cute!