Dr. D 1 month

Babe is officially 1 month old today. (it's so funny, i call her Sabine in real life, but when i sit down to type, she's always babe)

so we went to the pediatrician. actually, first she woke up ready to party at 5 am which NEVER happens, then she didn't go back to sleep and barely nursed. i was worried about how she'd behave at the pediatrician's office but she's always a good girl for the most part.

we're seeing Dr. D at st. mary's at the recommendations of several friends. this was the first time we met her because last time she was out for the day when we took sabine in. i liked her just fine. my only complaint was that she isn't nancy and we didn't get an hour to sit and chat, hear her opinions, ask lots of questions, and have her drool over sabine. oh well... i guess it's back to reality with dr. visits now. (so i guess the medical update posts will be a lot shorter now too)

Here's the info: Sabine has grown 1/2 inch since birth, now 19.5 inches. Sabine has gained 2lbs 6 ozs since birth ... which is 2 lbs 11 ozs since the last pediatric appointment and 1 lb 2 ozs in the last two weeks. (she now weighs 8 lbs) Eyes, Ears, Throat, Lymph nodes, belly, back, heart, lungs, and hips are all in excellent condition. and she is ahead of the curve on her tummy time. she lifted head and chest off the table which dr. day said she usually sees in 3 month olds. also, ahead of the curve in sleeping at night time in that some nights she sleeps 5 to 6 hours at a stretch... also usually not until much later.

Dr. d was a proponent of breastfeeding and of allowing on-demand feeding, not scheduled. and she said with sabine's weight gain i don't have to worry about waking her to eat. she said i should put off peanut butter as long as i could stand it ... but it doesn't have to be for the duration of nursing (THANK GOD!! the last pediatrician said no peanuts until nursing was finished). she also recommended max giving a bottle once in a while so that sabine knows what to do with it if i'm ever needing to be away from her for a while.

and finally we talked shots. american academy of pediatrics recommends infants get vaccinated for Hepatitis B beginning at birth now. dr d said it's because babies born to women who area positive for hep B can get really sick and die... so 'they ruin it for the rest of us' but according to the dr. sears book a healthy baby is highly unlikely to contract hep B. i mean, i don't think Sabine's going to disappear in the night to go get a tatoo from a dirty needle. she would have gotten hep B vaccine in the hospital, but we weren't in the hospital. so we're delaying ( i personally got the hep B vaccine when i was 15 and i survived).

dr. d just asked us... 'are we doing shots?' which i think was actually really cool. she didn't say SHOTS are mandatory. or try to scare us into vaccinating or make us feel bad if we weren't going to do it. it was very clear that it was our choice. she did just say that she has concern about whooping cough because it is in VA and could be contracted if she was out in public.
i told her we would be doing shots but were considering the dr. sears alternative schedule. she then took a look at the schedule, said she liked it A LOT and made a copy of it. she said she actually liked it a bit better than the alternative schedule they had at the office. SO, that's good. no complaints there. now i'll actually read the book and decide if it is truly the way we want to go or if we'll just follow the normal schedule. at least i know our options and it won't be a fight to get our pediatrician to cooperate.

and that's it. next appointment will be at 2 months on dec 16th. she'll get her first round of shots : (