Sun Nov 13th Rachel turned 13 months old. We had planned to go skiing again. But high winds combined with snow didn't sound appealing for skiing or driving, so we decided instead to go check out the free day at the Denver Museum of Science and Nature. We went to space, saw a T-Rex, and played with some toys before we all ran out of energy and came home. Meggan and Rachel have head colds, so we saved the rest of the place for another time. When Rachel is a little older, she'll get to do the 'Astro-tot Training Program' in space, and that looks really fun.
Some of Rachel's favorite things these days include:
- unloading the dishwasher
- unpacking and re-packing boxes, such as the recycling bin
- breaking her crayons and drawing on any surface
-opening ziplock bags, which has made baby proofing more of a challenge
- signing 'more' for anything and everything, meaning 'I want that!'
- also signing 'milk', 'book', 'all done', 'food', and 'more please'
- saying 'all done', 'daddy', 'mama', 'bye bye'
- blowing kisses, which she will do at anyone she sees and also when she thinks it's time to go
- taking off her shoes and socks
- she now has 6 teeth! 2 below and 4 appearing up top.
On Tues, Nov 15th, we went to Children's Hospital in Denver for Rachel's anticipated nutrition appointment. We were there for over 2 hours, but the short summary is that Rachel is just fine. Lots of little things were discussed at this appointment, mostly all just reassuring that Rachel is healthy and thriving.
Good things:
- Rachel has gained 14 oz in the last month (this is more than she gained in the 4 months previous)
- When Rachel's weight, height, head circ. are plotted on the hospital charts, she now comes out with 15th percentile for weight and height, and 50th percentile for head size. It's interesting to me how much her height measurements have varied over the last year (apparently not a very accurate measure). It's also interesting that the charts used there (the more modern charts used for breast-fed children) place her in a much better light than the charts we had been using from Penticton (the older chart, based on information from formula-fed children).
- These doctors were not the slightest bit concerned about her protein or enzyme levels previously reported as a concern from her bloodwork.
- Rachel made $40 for allowing her blood to be part of a research study today! Bonus.
Things to note/work on:
- Rachel had more blood work done to rule out a few things and look more closely at her iron stores
- We do not need to focus on protein or calories or break our backs trying to get her to eat all the time
- Rachel can go back to nursing three times a day instead of six (hallelujah!)
- We must continue to offer Rachel whole milk at every meal
- We should feed Rachel in her high chair every 2-3 hours and offer her 3-4 foods. If she doesn't eat something or throws it off her chair, we don't have to spend 30 min offering her 10 more things until she gets all the required protein/calories/etc.
- We will follow up in one month's time to check Rachel's weight again.
- Rachel's nap schedule is off again and she's only napping for 30 min in the morning and 60 min in the afternoon... so we're missing those beautiful long two hours naps she started doing a month ago.
What this means practically for us...
- we can work on eliminating the 4:30am wake up time!!!! YAY!
- less nursing throughout the day means way more freedom for Meggan
- we can relax about food and just trust that Rachel is growing enough
- we might be drinking left over whole milk for a while until Rachel will take it
No comments:
Post a Comment