I've been to the pediatrician so much in the past few months that an official, pre-scheduled visit doesn't seem all that special. Not like they used to. Anyway...Noah's growing just fine. He seems to have lost 4 oz in the past two weeks though, going down to 18 lbs 6 oz. He only grew a half inch in 3 months. Hmmmm...guess I don't need to worry about getting a forward-facing carseat anytime soon, huh? Although they didn't tell me where this puts him on those guilt-inspiring growth charts, I did take a peek and notice that he is now charted below the actual printed lines...and below his previous marks...which means he's now BELOW the 5th-10th percentile. (Does that make you feel better, Jen?) When I asked the doctor about it, he said he's completely "proportional" and has fallen to that point before so it's not an issue.
What is an issue to me is the fact that he has 1 1/2 ear infections, which puts us at our fourth and fifth ear infections since the beginning of December. I'm starting to be able to recognize the signs, FINALLY. Those signs seem to be sucking his thumb all day long (instead of just when he's tired), waking up from his nap, waking up and crying for a few minutes at night and early in the morning, crying and hanging on me all...day...long. I've been getting frustrated with feeling like he's such a needy, clingy baby, but now I'm starting to wonder if his neediness has more to do with constant ear infections and less to do with his actual personality. If we can get past the ear infections (and constant antibiotics), I wonder if he will be a more pleasant child.
And speaking of constant antibiotics, I've had the dilemma of wondering when you reach that point of over-using antibiotics. Also, the dilemma of bringing that up without seeming to question an extremely experienced doctor's judgment. I did ask if there was a way to tell if an infection was viral or bacterial (because antibiotics won't affect a viral infection). I had always thought that you couldn't tell, but he said that it's a matter of what the fluid build-up in the ear looks like. If it's just plain fluid, then antibiotics probably aren't needed. If the fluid looks more like pus and red, then it's time for antibiotics. So, basically, he knows when to prescribe antibiotics and when not to. Good.
After all that, Noah got three shots...the "dreaded" MMR vaccine, the chickenpox vaccine and his fourth dose of pneumococcol vaccine (which, ironically, can prevent a certain type of ear infection, apparently not the kind he's been getting). No more checkups until 15 months, but we'll be back in two weeks for another ear check.
I also got 4 boxes of Kashi cereal (1.25 each), organic steel cut oats (.74), organic peanut butter (1.14), organic canned soup (.44 each), organic juice and Starkist tuna on clearance (.92). I have to admit that I'm not too sure what to do with the steel cut oats so if anyone has knowledge in this realm, let me know. It was just too cheap to pass up.
Ok, that's it for this week. Off to fry up the sausage and hard-boil some cage-free vegetarian fed chicken eggs (yes, of course I bought them with a coupon!)
And then Daddy the Tunnel Monster attacked. 
