The Good, The Bad, and The Sad

The Good: We started rice cereal today.

The Bad: I missed Tavius' appointment this morning.

The Sad: He got shots today.

I know, I know, that is very confusing, so let me explain...

I missed his appointment this morning at 8 and was freaking out because he has a case worker who called to make sure I was taking him to his appointments and said she would be calling the doctor's office to make sure I really did have an appointment scheduled for his check up and said she would be calling after the appointment to make sure I really took him. Hence, "the bad".

So I called the doctor's office at 8:30 and they had an opening at 10. I took him in and they gave him his 4 month vaccines. So sad. But he was so brave and only cried for about 5 minutes, but it is the saddest cry I have ever heard. He never cries like that except when getting his shots. He started feeling feverish about an hour to an hour and a half later so I have been keeping him on Tylenol. Poor little guy.

On an exciting note, we came home and gave him rice cereal at one of his feedings, which he seemed to like! He figured out pretty quickly that he needed to open his mouth when I got close with the spoon. He liked it as long as I was quick enough. I tried taking pictures but it really does take 2 hands to feed him effectively. Thank goodness I was smart enough to give him his own spoon to play with.

4 Month Stats:

Weight: 16 lbs 7 oz (he has doubled his birth weight, what a crazy thought!)

Length: 26 1/4 inches

Head Circumference: 42 centimeters

Percentiles for the above are:

55th, 97th, 75th

Funny side note. So I started noticing that all of his 3-6 month clothes (especially the footie jammies) are a little too short, so I looked at the labels and noticed that most of them say "up to 26 inches". He is 26 1/4 so I don't think I should be having such a difficult time.

Physical Therapy

This morning I took Tavius to his physical therapy evaluation. His doctor recommended it because she suspected he might have torticollis, which is where the something or other (SMT?) muscle in his neck is tight, so it is not as strong as the other side. He has an arm preference and he prefers rolling to one side over the other among other things.

The PT he saw agreed with the doctor and wants me to take him in for weekly visits. Only problem is that they are closing their Mesa office in 3 weeks and I can't drive to Phoenix once a week. She also gave me a paper that shows how to do different stretches with him to loosen it up. It is not really bad so she is hopeful that I can do most of it at home.

She recommended not putting him in a highchair, bumbo, or his jumpy toy because being in an upright sitting position can make it worse. She explained that gravity makes his tendency to tip his head to one side even worse. So we are back to the basics; laying on a blanket to play. The trick is to keep him entertained playing on a blanket.

His development is really great though. He rolls well (and a lot today all of a sudden), his neck muscles are getting really strong, he has excellent hand-eye coordination. Next week is his 4 month check-up and shots so we will see what his doctor thinks about giving him rice cereal.