Seven Needles

Lily, Gwen, and I each received our own batch of immunizations this past weekend. Lily was due for her 2 month shots, Gwen was due for her 18 month shots + varicella (chicken pox), and apparently my prenatal blood work showed I was in need of the MMR and  Tetanus vaccine. Hence, the title of this post: Seven Needles. And because the nurse has to explain the symptoms and side effects of EACH. AND. EVERY. VACCINE. we were at the clinic for 1h 25 minutes.  It was a good thing that Gwen was in an amazing mood and that Tanner was able to keep her in that amazing mood (Thanks Honey!). Gwen and Lily were also weighed and measured. Here are their stats:

               Weight       Height       Head Circ.   
Gwen -    30 lbs         34.5"            n/a
Lily -      13.8 lbs       23.3"         39.7 cm

What the most interesting thing about these weights and heights is that Gwen, who was 9 lbs 2 oz and 20" at birth only weighed 12lbs at her two month shots. As a reminder, Lily was 7lbs 11oz and 20" at birth, which means that Lily has gained almost double what Gwen gained in the first two months! This made me VERY happy and relieved to hear. For those of you who don't know, breastfeeding Gwen didn't work out very well. It was only until she was almost 2 months old that I realized that the reason Gwen was such a cranky baby was not because she was just.....cranky, but because she wasn't getting enough milk from breast feeding. I remember that January, when I gave Gwen formula for the first time, she slept like, well, a baby!When Lily was born, I was determined to do every thing I could to make breastfeeding work. There was a minor bump in the road when we found out Lily had to stay in the hospital when I had to be discharged. The second I got home I left to rent a pump from our local pharmacy. The next 9 days I set an alarm for every three hours so that I could pump, just as if Lily was actually there to nurse. By the time Lily was ready to come home from the hospital, my milk had come in and I was able to breastfeed Lily exclusively. It has been wonderful. And it's great to learn that Lily is gaining weight and growing because of it.

Happy baby. Happy momma.

**Post Update** I just realized that I wrote "n/a" for Gwen's head circumfrence. Just to let you know, this measurement was not applicaple to Gwen not because Gwen doesn't have a head (which she does) but because this measurement was not taken. Just FYI. Maybe I should have simply put "data not available" and saved everyone all the confusion.