Jane had her two month check a few days early since we’ll be out of town for the next few weeks. The most exciting news was that I talked with Dr Vallance about my dairy experiments (two weeks off, no notable improvement, two weeks lightly back on, no change), and she is pretty certain that we had a bunch of things converging to give her eczema/rash looking skin, gas, and mucusy diapers. Just cutting beans out of my diet has totally solved her upset tummy, and the other things seemed within the realm of normal to Dr Vallance. She agreed with Laura’s assessment that Janie just gets overstimulated by the end of the day, leading to her evening fussiness, and she recommended a noise machine/fan to help soothe her at bedtime. And she told me to go eat ice cream–doctor’s orders! Hurray! If Janie seems really bad again in a few weeks, we’ll reassess, but for now, I can return to a normal diet (still no beans). I am suddenly looking forward to our Midwest trip a lot more.
Back to Jane, she’s growing well. Her weight has slowed down a bit, so that explains why she’s not giving me more than the one six hour stretch at night. Now that I know she’s still over a pound shy of the magic 12 pound mark (when my kids start sleeping through the night), I’m less frustrated. Jane was super smiley during her exam, and that is of course another developmental milestone to celebrate.
Jane’s Stats:
Height: 23 inches (81%) (Susanna was also 23 in; Elizabeth was 22 1/4 in; Tommy was 24 1/4 in)
Weight: 10 lbs 14 oz (44%) (Susanna was 10 lbs 3 oz ; Elizabeth was 11 lbs 7 oz; Tommy was 13 lbs 5 oz)
Head: 15 inches (52%)
She had the whole battery of two month vaccines and is doing the Muller vax reaction of sleeping a lot. (Yes, we have another tummy sleeper…with doctor approval.)
Great news! Although I did buy some coconut sorbet yesterday 🙂
So all my kids prefer their tummies but my doctor and my brother (a pediatrician) make me paranoid about letting them sleep that way. What did your doctor say? Philippa sleeps so much better on her stomach (almost twice as long a stretch at night).
All seven of our pediatricians (we’ve moved a lot!) have basically said, yeah, they don’t have any of the other big risk factors for SIDS (soft mattress, blankets in bed, smokers in the house), and once they’re able to push their head up and move it (which Janie has been doing for a while now), they are probably fine. In fact, our first (and all-time favorite) pediatrician in South Bend pointed out that Tommy was sleeping no more than 20 feet away from me at any given time in our tiny apartment–I could see and/or hear him all day long. They sleep so much sounder on their tummies than their backs, and once they can roll onto their tummies (which obviously our baby girls can’t do yet but will be doing before too long), there’s nothing you can do about it, anyway. I feel pretty safe having tummy sleepers.
Thanks for the response. I have pretty much let our three sleep on their tummies once they can lift their heads, but I still feel guilty about it. But at some point I need to sleep. Glad to know there is at least some medical support for my decision.