It's Raining Percentiles

This morning I woke up, listened to the patter of raindrops, and thought, How weird for Karston, it's raining. Then I remembered that we've been in a severe drought since he was born, so he really has very little experience with rain. (Not that we would leave him out in the rain, I mean that he hasn't seen much rain through a window.)

I notice that people often ask for a relative measure of Karston's size. The fact that he weighs about 14 pounds at 20 weeks old now is one thing, but how that compares interests more people. The CDC provides growth charts so you can compare to the U.S. distribution. You could download the PDFs to print and then plot by hand, but there's free software for Macintosh OS X called Growth Charts that does it for you. (Don't ask: I don't do Windows, so I don't know.) Eyeballing those charts leads me to guess at these percentiles for weight, length, and weight-to-length ratio from his pediatrician visits:

	birth	3 days	2 weeks	1 month	2 months	4 months
weight	12	7	25	38	25	15
length	75	75	50	45	18	25
W:L	x	x	10	25	50	25

So he's small, with a tendency to be taller than his weight by percentile comparison. Since he prefers to be carried rather than pushed in his stroller or set on his play yard, and he is healthy, and I end up carrying him a lot, I think I like having the skinny baby. Plus his happy smiles and flirty eyes really brighten a dreary overcast rainy day like today!

Teething

Well, we knew it was coming: Karston's first tooth poked through yesterday evening. Lately, he's been enjoying chewing on everyone else's fingers. He knows if he bites down on his finger, it hurts; so if he gets close to someone else's finger, well that's much better for chewing. Same great finger taste without the pain! Last night while we were trying to convince him to go to sleep (setting him down caused constant shrieks), he started to chew on Daddy's finger. Only this time, Daddy reported that it wasn't just toothless gum! We didn't get much sleep last night, either. I got about an hour in bed without baby, but the quietest times were when I snuggled up to Karston and let him nurse and doze. Hopefully we won't have too many nights like that ...

At the conference I attended in Boston, I heard a glowing recommendation for Hyland's Teething Tabs. We were a little nervous about the story where the teething baby slept for 36 hours straight after taking it, though. That sounds wonderful, but suspicious. After some research, I don't think I'll give any to Karston because belladonna, one of the ingredients, can be fatal, and sleep is one of the signs of overdose.

Karston hasn't napped well today, so teething may be incompatible with sleep. I'll miss my sleep too, but not enough to poison him.

Pacifier

After months of rejecting a pacifier, I thought Karston might never use one. But I still tried every once in a while, including this morning. He started to cry during his regular morning nap, but his eyes were still shut. I raced to get a pacifier. I had to hold it in his mouth for about twenty seconds, and then he went to town sucking on it. He never opened his eyes, but he did stop fussing. Whew, morning nap saved!


I got a late start on lunch this afternoon, so Karston and I were both hungry at 1:30 PM. I wanted him to wait to nurse long enough for me to fix a quick sandwich, and then we could both eat at the same time (seems fair to me!). I put him in the high chair we got for him this weekend, and I tried a pacifier again. It worked, but I felt guilty for playing such a dirty trick on him! He sucked on his pacifier for all he was worth, and he stared at me the whole time. Wherever I went in the kitchen, he looked at me intently and sucked intently. It was only a few minutes until we both had lunch, and he didn't fuss about being hungry (whew!), but that was still a dirty trick. And so convenient that I hope he continues to accept his pacifier now!

Pediatrician: Four Months

We went to the pediatrician this afternoon for his four month checkup with the same four vaccinations as the second month. Karston weighs 13 pounds 0.6 ounces, is 24.25 inches long, and has 16.25 inches head circumference. We went for an afternoon appointment, during afternoon nap time, so that the pediatrician would have to believe us when we tell him that Karston can really holler. Yes, he let the pediatrician have it! His doctor's ear drums reverberated! However, Karston mostly calmed down when I bounced him on my shoulder. We had to wait in the exam room longer than usual, but Karston decided to fill the time and his diaper. The pediatrician says he should start sleeping through the night soon. (Did he say that just so we can stand another fractured night?) He also said we can try rice cereal any time now, and that success with rice cereal means that half of it ends up inside. Anyway, Karston's healthy, he's awfully cute especially when he smiles, and we're happy about that.


I had a meeting at work this morning, and it wasn't worth driving to work, driving home to pick him up, and then driving most of the way back to work to go to the pediatrician. So I took Karston in to work with me. He got to meet my boss' boss, and he was enjoying the attention before he noticed the motorcycle helmet. Remember how Karston didn't like Halloween costumes? Well, when he saw a head shape under an arm, he flipped! He was sure that I work for Ichabod Crane, and he wanted the world to know that people shouldn't carry heads under their arms! I had to rush outside because his baby siren was so loud! I've heard several comments to the tune of, "Did all that noise come from such a small baby?" and his yelling even stymied a professional nanny. The only trick I've found is to place his chest on my shoulder, drape his arms down my back, and bounce, preferably by walking outside. For some reason, being outside calms him down. Luckily he's happy most of the time, but when he's not you'd better have hearing protection.

Four Months

Karston's four months old now. What's new?


I still call helping Karston stand "Elvis time," but he's much more stable now. His hips don't wobble, so he's not really a baby Elvis anymore: he's just ready to stand. The stationary activity center is very popular with him, particularly when the adults are boring. (If there's something going on, he doesn't want to miss that.) He often does baby push-ups, where he straightens his legs and pushes his body up. He will do that push-up in his walker (excuse me, stationary activity center) and hold his arms up, just asking to be picked up.


In addition to push-ups, he also does baby sit-ups, where he concentrates, and leans forward, lifting his head, neck, and shoulders off of his chair. I think he'll be ready for a high chair very soon! He already watches us intently when we sit at the dining table.


We've started a bedtime routine for Karston starting with a bedtime story. He calms down from pre-bed fussiness and pays careful attention to his story. I'm glad he associates his bedtime story with calming down! Next we swaddle him, rolling him over the blanket instead of rolling the blanket over him. That usually makes him smile, and sometimes laugh! We still swaddle him for bed because he doesn't even sleep an hour otherwise. (Although he sometimes sleeps longer, he usually sleeps two hours between night-time feedings. The few times he does sleep longer, I wake up every half an hour wondering why he's not awake.) Finally I let him nurse himself silly before putting him to bed. On the good nights (less fussy), he gives me a sleepy half-smile when I set him down in his bassinet.



His average nursing session lasts about twice as long as his first month. Back then, he would nurse for 4 to 9 minutes; now it's more like 7 to 18 minutes. About a month ago, he started playing when he's not very hungry, where he takes one suck and then pulls back to move around. He doesn't make angry face anymore, but sometimes he does wrinkle his nose while playing when he should be nursing.


My mother stopped by yesterday afternoon (I got a break to take a shower! it was wonderful!), and she figured out what his new face meant. Karston started making this funny face the day before (November 1st), where he sucks in his lower lip and brings his upper lip over to cover it. (I'll take a picture and add it here.) You can't see his lips, just puffiness. She says he's teething! Now it makes sense! He bit me during his before-bed nursing on October 30th, and several times since, but he stopped that bad habit ever since I've given him a teething ring to chew. He'll even hold on to his teething ring, which is new. Usually he drops what he's holding when he catches your eye, since eye contact is so exciting. He drools more too, and has a sad teething whine too.