9 month Check-up

Kendall had her 9 month wellness check-up appointment today with her pediatrician, Dr. Benzick. (This is a bit of a long posting ... sorry for all the detail, but I use this blog as my scrapbooking info, so I don't want to forget anything for that or her baby book!)

January was our first time to not go to a Dr. appointment ... we've been going each month, since we left the NICU, but we got to skip coming in January because Kendall is doing so well. So, we've been very excited about what Dr. Benzick would think at this visit ... since it's been 2 whole months since he's seen her. (She's 9 months old, but her growth & development is corrected to a 6 1/2 month old adjusted age.)

The appointment went very well ... and here's all of her stats from today: (The charts they use to determine what percentile she is at compare her to the other kids born mid July, her original due date. She's nowhere near the charts for her true birth date (May 1st) ... but that is why we have to go by the "adjusted age" (or "corrected age") until she is 2 years old.

She gained 2 lbs over these past 2 months, which is good for her (slow and steady)
- Weight: 14 lbs 9 oz ... putting her in the 18th percentile (dropping down from the 40th percentile back in December) ... she is just really small, but at least she is still on the charts!
- Height: 26 inches ... putting her in the 55th percentile (dropping down from the 75th percentile back in December).

Other good news ...
- She is now officially off of the acid reflux medication that she's been on since she left the NICU ... yay! (2 days of no medication, and so far so good!) We are sooo thankful that she has outgrown the acid reflux!

- She is now able to change formulas ... she's been on Similac NeoSure (for premature babies) and now gets to move to normal, full-term formula ... so we are hoping that she will like it! (Plus, the formula is a bit cheaper and you can buy it in bulk at Sam's, so we're really liking that! Of course, I never dreamed we'd ever use formula in the first place ... but that's a different post, for a different day ... and something I don't think I will ever fully get over!)

- She's been using the "Level 3 Dr. Brown's bottle nipple" since Friday night 01.22.2010 (when we got the okay from her Speech Language Therapist) and this has made feeding time a much faster experience! She's gone from 30-45 minutes (or sometimes, even as long as an hour) down to 15-25 minutes ... drinking the entire 5 1/2 oz! That's huge for us and we are sooo happy about that!

- She's lovin' those green beans (and my cooking, as well, hopefully! ha!) and we are ready to take the next food item, starting tomorrow. We've moved to eating 3 times a day in conjuction with the bottle 5 times a day ... and feedings are going much better than last week. Over the past weekend, she turned a corner feeding-wise and I hope we never look back! She'd found her tongue about 2 weeks ago and was amazed by what her tongue could do with the rice cereal and sweet potatoes and nothing was getting down her throat, as she enjoyed ooozing and spitting it back out ... not in a "I don't like the taste of this stuff" kind of way, but just a "Ohhh, this is a different texture and it's so fun to do this" way ... and she was doing it with her bottle when she'd had most of it done and was just playing ... until this weekend ... and now I think we have it figured out ... I truly hope! But, I know if it's not one thing, it's another! All in all, she's doing great ... especially from some of the horror stories I've heard about preemies & feeding ... I am soooo thankful she's doing so well! (She is consuming about 1/2 of a ice cube size each feeding, so about 1 1/2 cubes a day.)


Every month I forget to take the camera with me when we go to the Dr.'s office (probably because I always have so much other stuff to bring with us), but I remembered this time, so I finally took pictures of Dr. Benzick and our 2 sweet, sweet Nurses that always help us ...

Dr. Benzick holding Kendall ... He's a great doctor! He is very thorough, high tech with his laptop & up-to-date info, doesn't forget a thing that we've discussed in the past, and patient in answering all of our questions and getting us ready for her next parts of development ... and Kendall always smiles at him.

Kendall's sweet Nurses ... Nurse Renee and Nurse Judy ... they are truly 2 of the sweetest ladies I have ever met ... I really don't know how they do it! They just ooohh & aaahh over Kendall, her outfit and of course, her bows, every time they see her ... which I'm sure they do that to every kid they see, but it sure makes Kendall (and me) love them ... she is always super smiley at them! They are also the ones that take turns administering those mean vaccine shots ... which is all of our least favorite part of the visit ... and poor Kendall usually gets a shot or 2 each visit, as we are spreading out her vaccines since she is so premature. (This visit she got the normal 9 month test to see if she's anemic ... we will find out the results on Thursday. Unfortunately, to her, that finger prick was nearly as bad as the vaccine shots ... and she cried quite a bit.)


Dr. Benzick is happy with her growth and development and so, we won't be needing to come in for monthly appointments at this time ... we'll be back in 3 months, for her 12 month well-check appointment! Yay for Kendall!