07 June 2012

4 Month Check-Up

So a week ago today we went in for Sam's 4 month check-up.  It went really well!  But let me give you some background before talking about the actual check-up.

We had decided to switch pediatricians.  Sam just really needed a doctor that understands the prematurity side of things (oh and one that would actually address his oxygen needs!).  So we switched to a doctor that saw Sam in the NICU a few times and also happens to be a pediatrician.  He's a great doctor, which means we had to ask special permission to be a patient of his and had to find times to squeeze us into his schedule.

We had our first visit with him 3 weeks ago.  At that point we had already had his 4 month visit scheduled, but his office called wanting to schedule a special appointment just to address his oxygen needs!  That made me really happy, because I did not believe Samuel actually NEEDED to be on oxygen, but we were left having him on oxygen because we didn't want to fully take him off without having confirmation of what we thought.

So we went in for that check-up.  Ben and I explained to him what had been going on and got the green light to take Sam off the oxygen, but keep him on the monitor.  Oh and we also got to change his O2 parameters on the monitor.  They were originally set at 95-100 and now they are set 90-100.  He's still supposed to be in the upper end of the range, but as he was already declared ROP free weeks before that appointment it's fine when his O2 is a little lower than 95 (higher O2=lower ROP according to some studies).

That gave us a lot more freedom in our lives.  I didn't really want to take him to Church, but now that his parameters were different I felt more comfortable (otherwise off O2 he would do this thing where he'd go to 94 just long enough for it to alarm and then right back up, I really didn't want to go to Church and beep the whole service...).  So now I have been able to bring Sam with to Church for the past 3 weekends.

Now zoom forward again to the 4 month check-up.  This is one where they get immunizations.  Because he reacted so poorly to the first round at 2 months (remember, we ended up staying in the NICU over the weekend instead of leaving just before the weekend) our doctor decided to split them up.  He also decided it would be good to keep the oxygen stuff around just in case he reacts poorly.  He asked us to monitor his oxygen for a day or 2 and then we could take him off the monitor until we go in to get the rest of the immunizations (later today actually).

Samuel also weighed in at 9# 3oz and is 21.75 inches in length.  So he's growing great!  He's actually starting to grow out of newborn more and more.  We have him primarily in 0-3 mo clothes now as he is too long for most of our newborn stuff.  The doctor also said that Samuel is a perfectly normal 1 month old baby now and that if he didn't know Sam previously and I had told him he was 1 month old, he would not have questioned the age at all!  We are excited to start seeing more full-term baby milestones (not that the preemie milestones weren't great and hugely important!).

Sam did just fine with the first part of the 4 month immunizations and we pray that he does just as well with the last of it today.  He will be going on his first overnight trip tomorrow, so we are really hoping he does well!

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