Doctor's Appointment

Dr. Hirsch is very happy with Justin's weight gain (from 8lbs 7 ozs to 9 lbs 13 ozs in 4 weeks). When she walked into the exam room she smiled and said "someones getting fat", lol. She didn't get a chance to plot his growth on the chart but she mentioned that at this point (almost 4 months adjusted) babies growth tends to slow down and they no longer expect them to gain between 1/2 oz - 1 oz per day, so his 22 oz gain was more than sufficient.

We discussed my concerns about Justin's eating habits. Normally she would be concerned but since he gained really well and it's been less than a week since I noticed a change she didn't see the need to switch things up just yet. But she did give me a few tricks to try so we'll see if those help. She was concerned about his infrequent stools and thinks this may be contributing to his eating problems. Sometimes Justin will go 5 or 6 days without a poopy diaper and she'd like to see them at a minimum every other day. So Justin will get 2 ozs of apple juice daily to help regulate him.

She was also concerned about his daytime sleeping habits. In short, he sleeps too much. I know some of you will say "well look at his parents", lol, but how do you keep a baby up? He falls asleep during tummy time, playing on his activity mat, in the bumbo, in his swing, in our arms. And don't even think about waking him up, he gets really cranky. So we'll have to work on keeping him up and active.

But I am so happy we switched pediatricians. His previous pediatrician was very dismissive when I voiced concerns and offered no advice or guidance whatsoever. And when she did answer questions it would be something idiotic like, "He won't eat, well what are you going to do". What do you mean, that's your job to tell me what to do and offer suggestions/tricks.

This is only Dr. Hirsch's 2nd time seeing Justin but she was very impressed with his progress. She said that at this visit he seemed more like a baby than a fragile preemie, and she was pleasantly surprised at how alert and responsive he was. His personality is definitely starting to show. I think he's going to be a flirt with the ladies, lol.