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| Just got back from the doctor. I'm so glad I went. He agrees with me that Hannah's weight gain (or lack thereof) is definitely a concern. She weighed 15 pounds, 2 ounces at 6 months old and at 9 months she is still only 15 pounds, 15.5 ounces. That's a drop from the 40th percentile to below the 10th percentile. For length, she was 26.5 inches at 6 months and is now 27.5 inches, which drops her from the 75th percentile to the 50th percentile. Up until now, she had been consistently in the 40th and 75th percentiles for weight and height. In other words, she is not growing at a consistent rate, which only makes sense now that she refuses to eat!
The doctor was impressed at everything we've tried (because we've tried everything). For now, since Hannah seems happy and healthy (other than not gaining enough), he told me to just keep feeding her whatever and whenever she wants, even if that means nighttime feedings. He said it could be a texture issue, so I guess I'm on a mission to find fruits and veggies with the same texture as Cheerios, haha. We are taking her in for her 9 month checkup in January (even though she'll be 10 months, since that's when our preventative care allowance renews), and they'll check her growth again then. If she isn't gaining weight, they might have to do some lab work to make sure all of her organs are functioning properly.
So, all of that sounds a little scary, but at the same time I feel better. Yes, I may be overreacting because she's my firstborn, but I'm not completely crazy! She really isn't gaining weight like she should and it's not just my imagination/overreaction! | | |
| They say that just when you think you finally have your baby figured out, s/he changes all the rules. I think that's an understatement with Hannah. Between the night-time wakings/feedings and refusing to eat more than three bites of anything other than Cheerios, I am at my wits end. I finally called my nurse today after Hannah refused to eat breakfast AND lunch, and explained that we can't afford her 9 month check up because we've maxed out our preventative care allowance. But, because I want to bring her in for something outside of a normal checkup, it shouldn't count as preventative care, and insurance should cover it (just as if I brought her in for an ear infection).
I weighed myself on my Wii Fit today and then weighed myself holding Hannah. It asked me if I was carrying something that weighed 16 pounds. The last time I did this, it was pretty accurate at guessing Hannah's weight, as confirmed by my doctor's scale a few days later. So I guess we'll see if I take her in this week. I hope the Wii was wrong. If she is only 16 pounds, that puts her in only the 10th percentile (or there around). That's quite a drop from the 40th percentile. But again, that's why I want to take her in. She hardly eats (although she'd be happy nursing all day long). It's possible that her weight has slowed down because she is so insanely active. But shouldn't she be eating more now that she's always on the go? Oh, I don't know. I dunno nothing 'bout no babies.
So I'll take her in to the doctor and let them tell me whether I should worry or not. I wonder if "my" doctor is back from maternity leave yet? | | |
| Thanksgiving has come and gone. Whoa. Hannah turned 9 months old ON Thanksgiving. I'm very thankful for that beautiful baby (although I wasn't thankful for the 45 minutes of uninterrupted screaming on the drive home from Thanksgiving dinner). I'm extremely thankful for my little (and big) family. And even more thankful for an amazing job that I love!
I'm still a little frustrated with Hannah's night wakings. I keep getting a mixed bag of advice. Some say it's separation anxiety so I shouldn't feed her or it will become a habit, other say it's a growth spurt so of course I should feed her. But a growth spurt doesn't last more a couple of days (I thought) and this has been going on for 2 weeks or more. And if it were separation anxiety, then how is she still able to fall back asleep on her own after I lay her down? I don't think she's feeding merely for comfort, since she takes 4-6 ounces and would probably take more if I had more. I think she is downright HUNGRY. Maybe it's a mistake to feed her because this is clearly becoming a habit, but am I really supposed to NOT FEED a hungry baby? That doesn't make sense to me. I'll just work harder at filling that belly before bed. Whenever she eats a ton before bed, she does sleep through the night. She just doesn't seem to want to eat a lot of solids. It's weird. I guess she's petite enough that I can probably afford to add some cereal into a bottle of breast milk before bed instead of nursing, just to sneak in some extra calories.
Hannah's getting pretty speedy at the "military crawl," as my father-in-law calls it. I think she'll probably figure out how to crawl the "right" way pretty soon. She still can't figure out how to get up to or down from a sitting position though. So I think she's technically a little slower than average on the mobility front, but she's ahead of schedule when it comes to that mouth, haha. Go figure.  | | |
| So, life is good again. We're still having one money problem after another (now the unemployment office is trying to say that I didn't qualify for benefits and will possibly make me pay back double what they gave me). But I'm feeling a lot more at ease about it. We're just doing the best we can with what we've got and that's really okay. I'm a little bummed because I think that means that Chris and I really won't be doing anything for our 3rd anniversary this year, but I guess that's life.
My biggest complaint right now is that Hannah has started waking up again sometime between 3:00-5:00am looking for an early breakfast. I've tried ignoring her, hoping she'd go back to sleep, but she works herself into a frenzy until I nurse her. And it's obvious that she is famished. I think it's because she is suddenly uninterested in solids (unless they're cheerios and she can feed herself). So she goes to bed with only milk in that tummy, which obviously isn't enough to keep her full until morning. Maybe I need to nurse her less in order to get more solids in there. I guess I just thought that nursing was more important and that the purpose of solids at this point is just to LEARN how to eat. But maybe she's old enough that quantity is more important now that it was at first. I don't know, we need to experiment, I think.
She officially has 5 teeth now. That's weird. I am pretty sure she will start crawling in the next week or two, and then my life as I know it will officially be over, haha. She has started to push up onto her knees, but she hasn't figured out what to do from there yet. For now she pulls herself everywhere with her arms, but I think she is frustrated with how slow-moving that technique is.
I've decided that I'm not going to consider Baby #2 until I get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight. That means -23 pounds. I'd better get cracking. | | |
| So, the bad news is that we owe my doctor $1,100 for Hannah's shots because we maxed out her $500 preventative care allowance back in April. The good news is that, after a few tears (ha!), I'm getting over it.
Mostly, I just feel humiliated. How did we not see this coming? Chris and I are used to being strapped for cash, but we have been responsible in paying our bills and I feel like we have a good grasp of what to expect financially (unlike plenty of newlyweds I know). Sometimes there are surprises that we can't foresee, like when the State of Michigan decided to suck $800 dollars in back taxes from 2005. But Blue Cross and Blue Shield supposedly sent us a letter back in April when we maxed out Hannah's preventative care allowance. We never saw that notice. We would have done things very differently if we had known that this limit existed. How did we not know? I just feel so stupid.
Oh well. What's done is done. Now we know. We'll do things differently next time around. And actually, we're in an okay position to pay these bills right now since we're still not accustomed to the fact that we get an additional paycheck each month now that I'm working, so that's a huge blessing. God has been good to us. | | |
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