June 15 - Mid-Week Update - The Doctors Visit

Emily had her second visit with the Doctor this week. This was her 6 week update visit for additional routine checks, and then some more vaccinations.

The Dr. was very pleased with Emily's weight gain. She has put on 2.5 lbs in the 6 weeks since her first visit, so he was very pleased to see her move well into the middle of normal distribution for her age. Emily eats just about anything we give her these days, and lots of it. Milk consumption (from the bottle) of course has dropped as we introduce more baby foods, with an average now of 18-20 oz per day spread over 3 feedings. We do however continue to include Similac powder in her morning cereal, and afternoon meal, so net intake of Similac remains roughly constant at equivalent of 32 oz. So a full day meal set will typically be 3 milk feedings, and 2 (or 3) solid food feedings.

Overall Emily took everything in Dr's office in stride until the Dr wanted to stick the little ear light into her ears and check for wax (she had a wax build-up on her first visit so he wanted to see if this was a continuing thing, or just something accumulated over the months in China). Well, let's just say that Emily objected to this action and promptly stuck both feet up to the Drs chest and gave him a good shove followed by her faux crying (lots of noise, no tears... or as one of her aunts in China would say... "look! thunder but no rain" :) ) The Dr laughed and then persisted until he got to see what he wanted to see [I cheered her on, yelling "kick him again.. he's getting up!!" .. well not really.. but in my "inside talk" of course :) ]. Happily both ears were clear, so no lingering wax problem.

Then of course it was time for a couple of vaccinations, at which point Dr does a "stage-right" exit and in comes a nurse to do the less friendly work. Since the antibody tests for all of Emilys prior vaccinations showed normal, the Dr said there was no need to re-vaccinate. So the days vaccinations consisted only of a second set of PCV and HIB (she got her first round back in May), which are not given in China at this time. This brings Emily current on all her vaccinations now and she enters the regular vaccination intervals from this point forward.

And the data recorded in this visit:

Weight: 18lbs 6 oz (without clothing)
Height: 28 in
Chest: 19 in (without clothing)
Head: 18 in
Foot: 4.75 in (have I commented before how cute these little feet are??!!)

And..... if you have been reading my blogs for some time now, you will recall in my travel blog I remarked about what a tiny little bottom Emily had..... that also has filled in nicely so she actually has two sets of chubby cheeks now :P You won't get to see photos of the bottom set of course, but trust me on the claims of chubby now *wink*

By comparison, Emily's last data recorded in May was:

Weight: 15 lbs 15 oz
Height: 27.5 in
Chest: 17 in
Head: 17 in
Foot: 4.5 in
Bottom: just plain "skinny"

Next Dr visit in early August after she turns 1 year old.