Baby fat shaming

Chumbercules and I went to the Baby Vet (aka Pediatrician) on Friday.  Throughout all the pediatricians I interviewed when I was pregnant, I got the impression that they all think parents are stupid.  And we probably all are.  (Or you can read this one.)  And I'm okay with that.

But I was a bit bemused when I left Dr. Soulpatch's office on Friday.  Hamburglar is growing well and weighs 22 pounds and is 28 inches or something tall.  He's in the 80th percentile for weight, the 75th for head circumference and right in the middle (55%) for height.  Because I have hypothyroidism and take synthetic thyroid and I am still breastfeeding and the thyroid is the hub of the endocrine system, I asked about the babe's height and my hypothyroidism.  Dr. Soulpatch said it's all good and that we shouldn't worry unless he stops growing and he is still progressing and blah blah blah.  He then said that the thing we want to keep an eye on is his weight.  Since a baby's food for the first year is predominately milk, he said after 12 months we may want to monitor what Chumbercules eats a bit more closely.  Which I read as putting fatty on a diet.

I know his heart was in the right place.  He was telling me about the increase in really young children being diagnosed with diabetes and how that should be an adult disease, which I get.  But the punchline to the whole visit was on my exit paperwork.  It listed the baby's stats and his Body Mass Index (BMI).  I don't know what the BMI scale is for baby's, but I checked it on the normal adult BMI chart thing, and he's on the low end of normal.  But you know, that baby does have some serious thigh rolls.  It's probably because he's stopped spitting up all the time.  Most likely due to his baby bulimia support group.

I also asked the Doc about sleeping.  Because my favorite baby hasn't been sleeping lately and the doc recommended the book "Good Night, Sleep Tight" by Kim West.  For those of you familiar with popular baby sleep training trends (Cry it out, the Ferber Method, the suggestions from attachment parenting), Good Night, Sleep Tight is a kinder version of the Ferber Method and something I'm more willing to try.  Though, I haven't read the book yet.  I got home on Friday and told Mr. Adventure that the wee babe should be sleeping 8-9 hours a night straight.  So, that night, he swaddled him and Chumbercules slept for 8 hours.  I swaddled him with an arm out on both Saturday and Sunday nights and he slept for 8 hours both nights.  I was looking into whether it was okay to swaddle a baby that can roll over, and I mentioned it to the pediatrician.  He didn't tell me not to and we aren't using a crib bumper, so I feel okay about doing an arm out swaddle.  I would feel less comfortable if we had a crib bumper on.  Hopefully he grows out of it.  I didn't swaddle him for naps over the weekend and he slept for about 2 hours for each nap.  I guess we won't really know until I get a phone call from college, asking me to come out and swaddle him.

Other than that, dude has been super active.  I'm doing research and planning a trip to South Korea and Cambodia for next year to visit friends.  Mr. Adventure is in school, so it may just be me and the babe.  We don't know yet.  I've never been to Asia, so I'm kind of excited at the prospect.  It will be my first international trip since I moved back to the States from Nicaragua in 2010.

And in nursery news, we got the baseboards put in on three walls!  Mr. Adventure is working on patching the hole for the old heating vent then we're going to put casings on the doors and windows and get everything moved in.  The idea of this room being finished is becoming a reality!  Yay!

Lullaby

We are all incredibly sleepy over here in the House of Adventure.  Hamburglar gave up sleeping for more than 2-3 hours at a time for Lent, and it appears he may have given it up for good.  So, Mr. Adventure and I are working on learning this song by Tim Minchin.  Once I figure out the piano part for it, we will be wheeling the piano into the babe's room (if it is ever finished) and will play it for him every night.

Also, we are done painting and we bought baseboards yesterday!

Now, for your enjoyment: