Doctor's Report

Reed visited Dr. Thackrey's office on Monday morning for his 4-month checkup, where we checked his height and weight. And drumroll please....

He now weighs 18 pounds and 15 ounces and is 27 inches in height. I'm actually glad he wasn't a full 20 pounds. I'm kind of hoping the growth will slow down a little and even out. He is in the 96th percentile for weight and 97th for height, so even if his growth does slow a little we will still be in the big boy category.

Everything looks great, and he is progressing well. He was able to do all of the things the nurse practitioner asked us about (i.e. holding his head up, reaching for items, etc.). The only one he was missing was rolling from front to back. Reed doesn't even seem like he is close to rolling yet, probably because he doesn't spend much time on his tummy. The doctor said the fact that he isn't rolling isn't cause for concern, but that we should encourage him to spend more time on his tummy if possible. We can get him on his stomach for short bursts but then he usually gets cranky.

He is still getting over a cold and has a really awful cough right now. You can hear him coughing through his phlegm, his face gets all red, and his little eyes start to water. It breaks your heart! The doctor said this is the lingering effects of a cold, and there's really not much we can do for him other than let him tough it out and try to make it as comfortable for him as possible by running a humidifer, propping his mattress up and perhaps using some Vick's in his bath. (all of which we are doing). She also mentioned that although the actual cold has passed, we should expect that he will probably catch another one in the next few weeks since the mucus in his lungs will make him that much more susceptible to the next virus. So basically she told us to prepare for another month or so of cold symptoms. Yuck!

She advised us to keep up with feeding Reed rice cereal, and that once he got used to that we could start trying vegetables. I can hardly believe it...that seems like such a big boy thing to do.