Taylor had her sixth month check-up today. She is sleeping so well in her crib right now, because of the shots. Poor girl.
She weighs 11 lbs 1. oz. And is 23 inches long. All along the Pediatrician has told me that we will compare Taylor two months behind since she was two months early. So, since it was her 6 month check-up, they compare her to a 4 month old. Today, she was where a 3 month old would be at as far as weight and height. SHe isn't even on the charts! 0 percentile!! Her motor skills are fine, she is developing fine, her weight is proportion with her length, but she is still small. We are going to check her weight again at 9 months and go from there. The dr may decide to do testing between 9 months and 12 months depending on her weight gain.
My pediatrician also made me feel good about Taylor's sleeping habits at night. I've always thought Taylor has done a great job with sleeping at night considering she is so small. However, I think we as mom's anticipate that special night when we can put our babies down to sleep and not hear a peep out of them until morning. I think when that doesn't happen, we second guess ourselves and what we are doing. I have been anyways. I have been debating on the cry it out method and even tried it a couple of nights. I've ended up getting her to sleep by rocking her or picking her up briefly. I trust my doctor's opinion. I asked her if I should let Taylor "cry it out" at night. She quickly said no way!!! The Dr. told me if Taylor was the "normal" 6 month old, she'd lecture me on letting her get to sleep on her own, don't go in in the middle of the night if she wakes up, etc, etc. But she told me not to do that until Taylor weighs about 14 - 15 lbs. (I instantly thought, "Taylor will be two before that happens!) She kept stressing to me she is fine, etc, but at the same time, not the normal 6 month old because of her weight. The Dr. made me feel so much better about the fact that its okay Taylor wakes up halfway in the night and needs me to put her pacifier back in to get her to sleep.
The Dr told me to no longer let her go more than 6 hours without eating at night. She needs those calories! She normally does anywhere from 6-8 at night. But I need to be more strict and feed her every 6 hours. That's fine with me.
As far as baby food, I can give her rice, veggies and even try oatmeal if I want. But I can't give her too much of it. The Dr told me that Taylor gets most of her calories from her formula. So, she can't be getting so full off baby food that she won't take a bottle. So as I feed her and try to give her baby food and she stops taking her bottles, then I need to stop the baby food and do only bottles.
All in all, bottom line.... I love my little peanut! My one sister calls her a "puffle". A puffle is from that online penguin game. A puffle is a big, little person. Haha.
Here is what I learned today:
*I have no clue how people did it back in the day without Dr's. I sure do love ours and she makes me feel better about everything.
*I'm learning that it really doesn't matter either...in that every baby is different. ESPECIALLY PREEMIES! ;-)
*And I need to just let it go...sleep that is... I need to deal with getting 6 hours of sleep and just know I will always be tired.
*My dr told me that the "Baby Wise" Book works for one child, but not the other. There is no such thing as one book that works for every baby. So when the time comes and Taylor can go more than 6 hours in the night, it will be trial and error.
