Six month check up...

I couldn't believe it when it was already time for his six month check-up. Other than those 2 weeks of him being sick, my son was very healthy. We had only been to the doctor for his well checks.

I LOVE his pediatrician. She is young but she is a mom and she is great with him. He loves her too. He was weighed and was only 14lbs 4oz and 25 inches long. He fell on his curve. He was now in the 5th percentile. I was concerned. But the pediatrician said that since he was gaining weight that he was probably fine. She asked what I was feeding him. To this point he was getting lots of fruits and veggies. But he was only taking 22-24oz of formula per day. I would feed him a bottle with his solids and a couple other times throughout the day. He wouldn't take any more than 4oz at a time and most times it was way less than that. It was a struggle to get him to take his bottle. By now I had gotten his bedtime to about 8 or 8:30 which was a real improvement over the 11pm bedtime he had since he was a newborn. I had been giving him a bottle at around 11:30 before I went to bed because he would take a full 4oz and sometimes even 6oz when he was half asleep. I thought that getting him the formula was more important than letting him sleep. He was still getting up about 3am for another bottle. My friends' babies were sleeping through the night and I was so jealous. But those babies were also much bigger so I figured my little guy still needed the nutrients.

The pediatrician said to stop waking him to feed. She said it was interrupting his sleep. If I let him go through the night, then he would probably take a bigger bottel in the morning. She also said to stop giving him a bottle and solids in the same feeding. She said that was great practice for meals when he is off the bottle but more important now to get him to take more formula. She said a bottle in the morning, solids a couple hours later, bottle a couple of hours after that, solids, then bottle, solids, then bedtime bottle. The solids in between bottles could stretch the amount of time before he was hungry again so he might take more ounces at the next feeding.

I tried it that night. I put him to bed and at 11:30 I went to bed without waking him. I woke at about 5:30am and realized I had not heard him get up at all. I was sick with fear. Was something wrong? I jumped out of bed and creeped into his room. There he was, sleeping soundly, like an angel. I snuck back to bed and fell asleep for another hour before my alarm went off. He still hadn't woken up. I took the monitor into the bathroom with me and as I was getting out of the shower, I heard him stirring. I ran upstairs and scooped him up. He was bright and happy. I decided to try a 6oz bottle. He sucked the whole thing down. So I added 2 more ounces and he finished it. I added another 2 but he was finally done. I couldn't believe. The first night of following the doctor's advice and he had slept through the night and taken a full 8oz in one sitting. There was no looking back after that. He started to take four 8oz bottles a day. Sure there were times when he only took 6oz or less but on average he was up to 28oz per day, sometimes the whole 32oz. It was a miracle.

Back to the doctor appointment. So I was a little embarrassed that I had been feeding him incorrectly but was anxious to try it. After talking about his progress and milestones, the doctor did the examination. She listened to his heart. Then she listened again. I could tell by the furrow in her brow that something wasn't right. She said she heard a heart murmur. There was some irregularity in his heartbeat. My heart stopped. I told her that both my parents had heart murmurs and asked if it was genetic. She said it could be but it could also indicate a structural problem with the heart that could correct itself or could require surgery. The thought of my son having to have heart surgery was crushing. At this point she wasn't concerned but would like to keep an eye on it.

He had his vaccinations as well. He screamed and cried. The past two times he was fine afterwards, no fever, no irritability. I expected the same this time.

I got home and felt like all of the air had been let out of me. I was scared and worried about his heart murmur. My husband hadn't been at the appointment so when I told him about it, I broke down. I hate when doctors tell you something so frightening and then tell you not to worry. Now I had to wait until his 9-month checkup to see if it had worsened. And this time he did get a fever. I had such good luck with his health and now I felt like everything was crashing down around me. But at this point, there was nothing I could do. I just had to wait and hope for the best. I hate waiting!