6 month well-baby visit

Punk had her 6 month WBV today, even though she'll be 7 months in a week and a half or so. Oops. We got a little behind.

She is BIG. She weighs 18 lbs even, although she kept picking her head up (she does that) so it might have been a little off.



She is TALL. She was 27.9 inches today. Which means we have 1.1 inches until she has met the length limit on her infant car seat. Clearly she does not get this from me.



Dr. K and I talked for quite a bit about how high needs she is, especially WRT how she needs to have things a certain way to eat or sleep, how she is still swaddled at almost 7 months, and how she seems to require constant stimulation and entertainment. She proved this to him by doing her screaming thing throughout the visit when no one was looking at/talking to her. I told him I was concerned about her inevitable enrollment into child care because she is so specific about things and he said, "Well, she will be a challenge for any caregiver, certainly." Heh.

We also talked again about her increased muscle tone, especially in the legs. It's making it hard for her to learn to sit because she doesn't/can't relax her legs enough to make a nice wide base for herself, and while she certainly has the trunk strength, she can't do it on trunk alone. He asked if I was concerned and I said I thought she would work it out, and he agreed. I told him that Shriner's said not to worry unless she wasn't meeting milestones or developed a weird gait or something. We talked a little more and both thought she was likely on the high end of normal for tone, probably because she's a ridiculously strong beefcake, but then he asked me if I was familiar with the local Early Intervention program. I told him I was an EI worker for 3 years and have BIG LOVE for the EI, and he said he'd like to put through a referral for them just to check out her tone. Dude, really? I get to have an OT and/or PT come to my house FOR FREE so I can pick their brains about my kid's tone and sensory needs? OKAY! (And heh, now that she has "hypertonia" in her chart, she's an automatic qualifier for services if we want them.)

Basically he said he thought that she was ridiculously bright and that was what was causing her to need so much stimulation. She was SO focused on everything he was doing and he got such a big kick out of her, which is nice because umm, I get such a big kick out of her. We talked a bit about foods and he said we could start meats at 7mo if we wanted to, and could start combining ingredients which is good. He also is a flouride-pusher and wants her to take flouride supplements, but I told him I would talk to Jen about it and decide later. (Which probably means no.) He also agreed with me that she will likely chill out with the stressful screaming and frustration when she learns to crawl and pull up, because she has somewhere to go.

So once again, I leave the pedi with a referral, but this time it's not for anything weird and/or scary. Yay!

Also, she is the cutest baby ever: