Two-Month Checkup

Disclaimer: This post is a couple weeks old. I wrote it a couple weeks back, but didn't want to publish it without pictures. So I had to wait until my laptop was fixed to publish it :)

My baby boy is two months old! I can't believe how fast that went by. I feel like they barely let him come home yesterday. We had his two-month checkup the other day and we got to see where he lies on the growth chart. So without further ado:

Skylar's Two-Month Stats:

Height: 20 inches (5th percentile)

Weight: 9 lbs 1/2 oz (5th percentile)

Head: 40 cm (50th percentile)

No that is NOT a typo. This kid has a stinkin' monstrous head! Apparently we have a baby Einstein on our hands here :) After seeing that his head is so disproportionate, I've decided to cut him some slack on the fact that his neck is still floppy. That thing is huge! "Its like a toothpick attached to an orange!" (Say that with an Scottish accent, and points if you can tell me what movie it is from).

I feel like to truly appreciate how Skylar has changed over the past few months you need to compare his birth statistics.

Skylar's Birth Stats:

Height: 18 3/4 in (75th percentile)

Weight: 4 lbs 11 oz (50th percentile)

Head: 30.5 cm (50th percentile)

In the past two months, my baby has grown a little more than an inch and almost doubled his weight. Atta-boy kid :) I'm pretty sure that those percentiles were based on his gestational age rather than his calendar age, unlike his two-month percentiles. If you account for the fact that he was 5 weeks premature he is right on schedule and about 50th percentile for everything, but since he is being ranked against kids that had an extra 5 week head start on him it is no wonder he seems so small.

It is funny, everybody keeps remarking on how small and tiny he is, but to me he is HUGE! Seriously, compared to the baby they handed me in the NICU, this thing is a chunk. And boy do I love him :) I do realize that he is small for his calendar age, and I think that is what most people remark about. It is even hard for me because I never know when to treat him like a one-month-old, and when to treat him like a two-month-old. In a lot of ways he is right on track for his calendar age, and in other ways he is blissfully behind. We're not concerned about this though because the pediatrician and neonatologists all said that by about a year he will be caught up and on track with other kids his age.

Proof that he is in fact gaining weight!

Skylar's new favorite trick is grabbing. Grabbing shirts, grabbing fingers, and most of all grabbing hair. I'm definitely glad that I cut 14 inches off my hair last March (even though I still kind of miss it a little bit). He hasn't quite settled into a sleep pattern yet, but he has gotten the message that there are certain times of the day when Mama isn't quite as pleased to see him as others (re: 2:30 in the morning, especially if it is followed by 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, etc.). He even had one night where he slept five hours uninterrupted! Even though he hasn't repeated that glorious performance, he has settled in for a solid 3-4 hours of sleep at a time during the night. This has helped sooo much since now I only have to get up with him 2-3 times a night rather than 5-6.

He is working on the Anderson cheeks :)

In other news, we're heading out to New York for Thanksgiving since Ryan's mom was diagnosed with Stage IV lymphoma. Normally, I'm a big fan of travel, but I'm super nervous to try it with a baby. I think if we were headed to my family's house I would be a little less nervous since I already know where to find things, and I'm not shy about asking for help or asking for favors. However, I have no idea how I'm going to keep Skylar on a normal schedule and keep him healthy. His doctor is still somewhat concerned about his weight since we're headed into flu season, so she doesn't want him being passed around a lot. Is there a polite way to keep a baby protected around family? I'm not sure how to say, "No, he needs his sleep." or "No, he has had a little bit much today and just needs to be left alone for awhile." Is that rude?

I'm sure we'll figure it out, but if anybody has suggestions for keeping a baby happy and content while flying and being away from home I would appreciate the advice!