2 &1/2 Months Wellness Visit

Today I took Reed to see Dr. Garrison for his 2 month checkup. Last night I was looking over his discharge papers from the hospital and found his begining stats amusing. His height and weight started out near the 75th percentile. However, his head circumference was at 9%!! I actually had never noticed that before but then I started thinking about it and realized that he does have a tiny head. The bottom 10%, crazy. I just thought everyone else's babies had giant heads. Come to find out, my baby just has a miniature head!

He was in such a good mood this morning and I was dreading taking him in. Even when we were in the exam room waiting for Dr. Garrison, Reed was so playful. He was smiling and kicking all over the place. He has recently became pretty vocal, which is very exciting for Mike and me, and he was cooing and ahhing away. What I enjoy about his doctor appointments is I get a chance to ask all the questions that have been bothering me. Reed's tear duct clogs off and on and right now it's a mucus machine, which is gross. He gets little bumps on his tiny little chest and tummy, which we found out were normal/common and just from irritants on clothes. His toes are fused and Dr Garrison said it's a simple orthopedic procedure if we wanted to fix them when he gets a little older. He started spitting up a lot more than normal the last couple days and come to find out 4 to 6 months is pretty much a peak for that, but he also said Dad could be feeding him too much. His tummy only holds about 4 or 5 ounces so it will expand to hold more but it won't like it and will push it back out if he's uncomfortably full.

His height is still in the 75th percentile and his weight is down in the 50th, so he's completely average there. His head has gained 6 cm since birth- he is now in the 15th percentile. I don't think it means much right now as long as he stays along the same pattern for his growth chart. Any big changes from how he is currently growing would be worrisome.

So the nurse comes in to do the shots and Reed is lying in my arms. He played his little heart out while waiting so he's a little tuckered out and is sucking my thumb. She gives him a little dose of liquid tylenol in a syringe and he slurpes it up. He knows "the birdie" and is really good at drinking from a syringe since this is how he learned to breastfeed. Then he's up on the table and I'm leaning over him, talking to him and letting him suck on my thumb. She says, "Are you ready, Mom?" and I said, "No." and she stickes the effing needle in his leg- his eyes POP open and he starts screaming- then goes to silent mode. She sticks the other two needles in and he still hasn't taken a breath. His face is dark red and frozen in a scream and thats when I notice a tiny stream of bright red blood under his curled tongue. I say outloud, "why are you bleeding? Did you bite your tongue?" Because in all the comotion I forgot that my 2 month old son doesn't have teeth and therefore cannot bite his own tongue. The only explanation is my thumbnail, I suppose, but it's pretty short so I'm still confused about the blood in his mouth. I'm actually thinking about blaming the nurse for poking him while giving him the tylenol.

After I pick him up and swaddle him up, I plug my thumb in again and he falls swiftly to sleep. Great, because he's still only wearing a diaper and I have to get him dressed in order to leave!

He slept for about 30 minutes and woke up mid-Lowes shopping. Content in his car-seat (for once) he lets me finish and when we got home I laid him down on his "gym" and he starts batting the toys around and smiling just like before. So all my guilt washed away and he didn't hate me after all!

I'm trying to work on his mobile to hang above the crib. This project started about two weeks ago but I never have the hands to do it. While I was at Lowes today I bought the rest of the supplies and could finish it if I just had a couple hours. And I'm talking about a couple hours straight, not in 5 minute segments. It's going to be really cool. I'm not going to describe it here just so the anticipation is at the highest possible level when I finally post pictures.

Last weekend we had a few generations of Franklins in the house. This was the first time Reed met his Great Grandpa Malcom and Great Grandma Jan. They came with Mke's parents, Danny and Connie and just stayed a couple days. It was a really nice weekend- sunny, breezy, and fun! We went to Braum's for ice-cream and Malcolm took my suggestion and got the butter brickle. He said something really funny about how awesome the ice-cream was but I don't remember exactly what it was. I do however remember exactly another funny thing that he did say that day. We were at Ross and he said, "put a cart in front of her in this store and she's like a blind dog in a meat plant!" Mike's dad could NOT stop laughing. I would look over at him every once in a while and notice him rubbing his eyes, laughing, shaking his head and saying, "a blind dog in a meat plant!"

And then they were on their way and we were alone again. It was a whirlwind trip and much too short. They were on their way to Vegas for the week but we were grateful that they made the stop here in OKC. Then I started thinking about Connie's face as they were getting ready to leave. She was tearing up and getting emotional about leaving Reed, I understand how hard it is, he's freaking awesome, and I asked if she wanted to hold him one last time. She wiped her eyes and said, "no, it will just make it harder to leave." Mike's legal first name is Danny (for those of you who don't know this, he goes by his middle name) which is the same as his dad's and I share the same name as his mom. I think we should have just traded them places and gone to Vegas with Mike's grandparents and let his mom and dad stay here with Reed! It's a perfect plan!

Apparently I was the only one who thought so.

Oh well, I enjoy putting my tiny man-baby to bed in his crib each night and I'm definitely not ready to skip town without him yet.