1 Year Check up

Holidays are a lot of work...I love them, but I seriously can't wait until they are over!!  Work is busy, home is busy, and I am tired.  Twice this week I have fallen asleep when Cooper goes to bed at 7 pm!  I feel like a zombie.  I've decided to take a few days off around the holidays because I am feeling a little spent.

We had Charlotte's 1 year check up today.  She weighs 21 lbs and was 29.5 inches long...still in the 50-75th percentile for both weight and height.  And she still has a big head in the greater than 95th percentile.  (We already guessed that nothing had changed since we still have to buy shirts with snaps at the neck to be able to get things over her head...and anything with a collar seems to make it very obvious!)  She got three shots...the MMR, chicken pox, and her third Hep B (this is really her 4th Hep B, but the timing was off).  She cried really hard, but calmed down quickly.  Daddy seems to have some sort of magic with her.

We asked about her eating habits, because really, this girl can eat!!  I swear she eats more food than I do!!  I'm convinced she has a bottomless stomach.  The doctor says feed when she is hungry and consider giving her a 3rd snack, but don't worry about over-feeding.  She'll stop when she's full.  I guess she doesn't get full because she will eat when we offer it to her.

We also asked about the fact that she still doesn't crawl.  The doctor says that crawling is important for balance and the alternating arm/leg coordination.  If she is doing it for army crawling then she is likely okay.  We will have to continue to watch her when she starts walking to make sure she gets the coordination down.

We asked about her tantrums, lack of patience and extreme frustration.  She lashes out very easily when she is tired, hungry or doesn't get her way.  She has also started purposely hurting Cooper (although I don't think she actually  knows that she causes pain...just that she gets her way).  She will pinch him, hit him (with hands and toys), pulls his hands off things so he falls, or knocks him down when he is standing, sits on him, kicks him, and steals toys (he holds his own pretty well and seems to fight back okay or not seem to mind all that much).  The doctor says that she may likely deal with self control for many years and that we are doing the right thing by making her wait a little bit for things (teaches patience), staying calm, and doing time out (1 minute for every year of age).

We also asked about her strange behavior when holding her.  She doesn't 'grab' onto us when we hold her, not with her legs, not with her hands.  She stays pretty limp.  Even when we loosen our grip a little, she allows herself to sort of fling all over instead of having the instinct to grab on.  We're concerned because it could be a sign of her not bonding with us.  The doctor says it is a little strange, but since she is showing affection and developing otherwise, that it could be that she isn't a very clingy baby.  It still bothers me...plus she is super difficult to hold because of it.

We had tentatively planned to go have the developmental screening done.  This is something we have to get done for the adoption, but the doctor is glad we are having it done as well.  We decided with the shots and being past naptime that we will go another time.  The next screening happens early January.

I posted the Christmas photo shoot and birthday pictures on the Shutterfly site.