Leah had her 1 month checkup today. She's huge! She's now 8 pounds 8 ounces - that's a gain of almost 2 pounds in just over 2 weeks (16 days to be exact). And she's 21.5 inches long now - which is also a lot of growth. She's in the 70th percentile in height, 30th in weight, and 50th in head circumfrence. The doctor was really pleased with her growth.
She's healthy overall. She does have an umbilical hernia, which sounds worse than it is. Basically her belly button sticks out sometimes, especially when she cries. That will probably go away on it's own by 18 months. And it doesn't hurt her or anything. But we won't know until then whether she's got an innie or an outie.
I also discussed with the doctor that Leah has been really fussy the last few days, getting worse yesterday and today. And she seems to spit up a lot. I tried a pacifier the last couple days, but while she takes it for a few minutes, she doesn't seem all that interested in it. It definitely doesn't calm her for very long, if at all. Based on my description, the doctor said it sounds like she could have reflux. She said to try a 1/4 teaspoon of maalox or mylanta and see if that helps. If it seems to continue or get worse then we can talk about zantac or something stronger. Obviously it's not stopping her from gaining weight, but it is making her uncomfortable. She has fussy periods where she'll calm down and go to sleep for about 10 minutes, but then she wakes up crying. And during this time she arches her back a lot and spits up a lot - both signs of reflux. She also gets hiccups a lot - another possible sign. The other possibility is that she's overeating, but that's not common in breastfed babies.
I hate to think that she's getting painful heartburn and gas. She seems so unhappy when she has these episodes. I'm trying some simple remedies like holding her more upright during feedings and holding her somewhat upright after feedings. I just read that she should be on her stomach at about a 30 degree angle for about 30 minutes after a feeding. So I'll try that and see if it helps.
Otherwise, there wasn't really anything noteworthy from the doctor's appointment. She said I can feed her on demand, which is what I've been doing the last couple of days. She seems to wake to eat every couple hours during the day and every 3 hours at night - pretty much the schedule I had her on anyway. And she said that if she's happy being swaddled it's fine to keep her swaddled pretty much all the time. We should keep doing what we're doing, which is unswaddling her for feedings and when she has active awake periods - which she really only has for about an hour a day.
We go back in a month for the next checkup and the first set of vaccinations. If possible, we'll schedule that one so that Shafi can join. I think it's going to be rough to watch her get shots.
After a fussy morning, Leah has been great since we got back from the doctor. I fed her and she wasn't spitting up after. And then I put her in the bouncer for a bit. She seemed to really like it for a few minutes - but then she started to cry - seems like 10 minutes is about her limit there. Then I put her in the sling and she's been sleeping soundly for about an hour and a half. I think it'll be a bit too tiring to wear her in the sling all day, but seems wortwhile when she's fussy and I need to get things done - like the laundry I put in a few minutes ago.
She's just starting to wake up now, which probably means she's hungry. It's about that time.
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