Well-Baby Appointment

Yesterday afternoon was Grace's well-baby appointment. We again left right after co-op to trek on over to Bethesda. Once again we discovered that Grace is a very light-weight child. In other shocking news, the earth is round, and the sun is hot. So she weighs all of 19 pounds and 3 ounces at 20 months. This is not a completely accurate picture, though, as she was all the way up to 21 pounds before Christmas. I knew she had lost a few pounds with all this sickness and her not really eating much. She is slowly picking her pace back up, as far as how much she eats, but for awhile there, especially after the night of vomiting, she really could not have cared any less if she ate anything at all.

So the doctor was mildly concerned. Grace has been in the 5th percentile, and now she's pretty much not on the charts. This is where I am so glad we're at Bethesda, instead of the Fairfax Clinic. I really, really, really have liked all the pediatricians we've seen here, and the one we saw yesterday was actually our primary care manager, who we've seen before, and in fact just saw last week for Anna's appointment. Some continuity in care! What a concept! The doctor said she knew how skinny all my kids were, so she wasn't really worried, but she just wants to make sure that Grace starts gaining back again, and doesn't get any smaller. This is also my concern, especially since we're right in the middle of winter, and she could get sick again. Sickness is what really takes it out of a skinny baby.

So the doctor gave us some ideas to help her gain. Grace gets heavy cream on her cereal instead of whole milk, she gets cups of chocolate Carnation breakfast mix with her snacks, and we're supposed to put butter or olive oil on everything we can. Unfortunately (and ironically, given my diabetes), Grace doesn't really LIKE breads and things that you would put butter and olive oil on. Sigh. She's more of a protein/vegetables/fruit girl. Combine her lack of love for carbs with her high metabolism . . . I am extremely jealous, shall we say, LOL. I guess she'll never get gestational diabetes!

I am supposed to make an appointment to bring Grace back in for a weight check in a few weeks, when the new baby has her 2 week well-baby check. In the meantime, we've been pushing food on Grace like you wouldn't believe. She had two bowls of ice cream last night, and two bowls of cereal this morning, as well as a cup of yogurt between breakfast and lunch. We have been to Walmart and gotten the breakfast mix, as well as half-n-half (no heavy cream there, so that will have to wait), so we're set for a few days. The good news is that she has actually been eating what we've been pushing. The past week she has mainly been turning up her nose and saying, "Nooooooo" at everything. She really is feeling better finally. I am just praying that she won't get sick again from being in the nursery at co-op yesterday!!