Four Months!

On July 4th, Caleb turned 4 months old. And this afternoon I took him to the doctor for what they call his "well baby" checkup. He's 24.75" long and weighs 15 lb 8 oz. He's in the 50th percentile for his age, which means half of other kids his age are bigger than him and half are smaller. He's right where he should be, in my opinion.

Then he had to get some shots--not the highlight of either of our days. Caleb is a huge charmer--he smiles at just about everybody he meets. The nurse comes in and he flashes one of his killer smiles and she says "aaaw...I'm so sorry hunny...I really don't want to do this". Then she pulls out the needle and says "1,2,3 I love you" and in it goes. He whimpered a little bit and looked at his mamma with those precious pleading eyes and I held his hand and then the nurse grabs the second needle. Thankfully 4 shots can be injected with just two needles but man, that was two too many! Again the countdown: "1,2,3 I love you"...and then, the screams. This time Caleb man was PISSED (can I say that? cuz it's true). He screamed REALLY loud...and the nurse flinched...and I picked him up off the table and held him close and he gave the nurse a look of disdain (poor lady) and he calmed down a little bit. She left the room so I could get us all ready to leave. I put Caleb in his seat and he started crying so hard that no sound would come out. The poor kid, all I could do was "shhh" him and tell him it would be okay, and hold a pacifier in his mouth so he might find some level of comfort. This is the second time he's had shots. I definitely cried the first time, and this time I was pretty close to tears. It's those helpless pleading eyes that really grab me. Usually mom can make it better, but for this the only thing mom can do is hold him and tell him it will be okay. That's really hard on a mamma's heart!

The doctor is really close to my house, only a couple of blocks away. Usually when Caleb sleeps in the car it takes at least a 20 minute drive to knock him out. Not this time. Pretty much as soon as we hit the road, he was out. And usually Caleb wakes up shortly after we get home. Not this time. He napped in his car seat for about a half hour after I got back. This was blissful. I got to eat some lunch and talk to a friend on the phone and not have to worry about tending to my little one.

Then he woke up, still feeling pretty sleepy. I fed him and he went back to sleep and has been asleep now for about 2 hours. I think part of his screaming at the doctor was because he was so tired. He tends to be less tolerant when he's tired (sounds like most of the rest of us!).

Soon my husband will be home from work and I will be leaving to teach a couple of piano lessons. Then we will have our evening together with our little man, we'll go to bed and tomorrow will be a new day. Should be fun! Until next time.