Twelve Month Check-up

Yesterday we took the babies to a new pediatrician. We loved our first pediatrician and I was sad to change. I liked the idea of having one pediatrician from birth to...whenever children stop seeing pediatricians. But, our first pediatrician went to working a half day a week and we were having some scheduling problems (like not being able to see her for our twelve month check-up until the babies were almost fourteen months), so we switched.

The babies had their twelve month shots and check-up yesterday at thirteen and a half months old, and just a few days shy of the first anniversary of their full term due date.

We liked our new doctor and her nurse. Our doctor made us feel good about where the babies are developmentally and about their diet. She did suggest we make a few changes. One, which H has been suggesting for a while now, is to switch from bottles to sippee cups. The more teeth the babies get, the more the nipples can mess with their teeth. Also, I am feeding them Way too much milk. They need to be getting more of their calories from food. The babies each get about 30 ounces of milk a day, Elliott a little more, Mazie a little less. She said they need to be consuming 16-24 ounces a day. We will make both these changes slowly. Since they are no longer taking formula we are going to put them on vitamins.

Here are their measurements and percentiles:
The percentiles are for full-term babies.
Lucia:
Weight--19#11oz (25%)
Height--29 1/2 in (50%)
Head Circumference--47 1/2 cm (90%)

Elliott:
Weight--21#14oz (25%)
Height--30 1/2 in (50%)
Head Circumference--48 1/2 cm (90%)

Mazie:
Weight--16#13oz (<5%)
Height--28 1/2 in (25%)
Head Circumference--47 cm (90%)

H and I are a little concerned about Mazie's weight. She is just so small still. She still mostly wears 3-6 month clothing. The doctor just said she has not done the catching up that the other two have done. When I looked online at a growth chart for premature babies, it said she was at about 10% for weight. (Lucia was just under 50% and Elliott was just over 50% for weight on the premature baby growth chart I looked up.)

One other issue is that our first pediatrician did not approve us for a second season of Synergis shots. We are working on at least getting Mazie approved for a second season. We feel like the babies did so well last winter with not getting very sick and we hope this coming winter goes as well. We will see what happens.

Due to the shots, today we are having a feverish and fussy day. I think I am going to take the babies to a town thirty minutes from us and pick up some dry cleaning in order to get us out of the house a little more today. I thought a ride might be relaxing for them.

The photo is of Elliott playing the piano in the middle of a diaper change.