Arthur and I took Turner to Dr. Shearer today for his 2 month check-up and shots. As suspected, Dr. S advised us to put him on cereal. And as suspected, Dr. S confirmed that Turner has an umbilical hernia. Several people had already commented on Turner's outie of a belly button in some of his bath pics and it has been protruding more and more in the last few weeks. With this thing called the internet, my research had led me to the conclusion that he had a hernia but I waited to say anything until I knew for sure. Everything they say on the internet is not true after all, and that crazy nurse we had for childbirth education class thought the internet was of the devil with all of us self-diagnosing now. And as the internet predicted, Dr. S said there is nothing we should do about his hernia for now. It should heal itself in the next year or so, and if it hasn't healed by age 3/4 then we could consider surgery. He said that as he felt around the hole in the wall didn't feel like it was that big. And he said not to tape a quarter on it like my mom kept wanting to do. It was an old wives tale that my grandmother believed that you should tape a quarter or silver dollar over an outie to keep it in. Now, for the cereal....It has been killing my mother that we hadn't started the poor boy on cereal yet so she is ecstatic that we have now been given the go-ahead for a 2 month old to have more than just formula. Dr. Shearer said that 6 oz every 3 hours is more than enough for a 15 lb 9 week old and that if we tried to give him any more, then we'd need to have the Enfamil truck back up to our door with deliveries. So, tonight we added 2 tbsp to his bottle for the first time to see how he does. He said we could try feeding him with a spoon but that he might not be developmentally ready for it yet (which I had also suspected from my readings) and that if it didn't work, give it another month and try again with the spoon. So, I'll have to keep you posted on how well the cereal feedings are going. So, Turner was one oz shy today of being 15 lbs. Dr. Shearer said he had been in the other room with a 14 lb 9 week old and that today was the day for big babies, cuz Turner even beat that kid out. I told him we grew 'em big in Clarke Co.! But he was 24 1/2 in long (2 in more than last month) and his head was 2 cm larger as well. When Dr. S showed us his growth chart it was shooting straight up! But he said as long as everything was going up then he knew we weren't overfeeding him. Turner got 2 shots today filled with all kinds of vaccines and an oral dose of the rotovirus. I had given him .6 ml of Tylenol right before his visit, which Dr. S said I now needed to bump up to .8 since he's a 15 pounder, and we've kept him full of Tylenol ever since. He's had the usual fussiness, tenderness at the sight of injection, and low fever since the shots so we'll see how tonight and tomorrow go. The lady who gives his shots apologized to me and said that this boy looks exactly like his daddy and that we'd have to try again if I wanted one of our children to look like me. She also commented on how strong he was. Did you know that if you're a chemo or AIDS patient you can't change Turner's diaper (esp poopy ones) for the next 6 weeks? And he gets the Roto virus vaccine again at 4 and 6 months, so basically you're looking at 6 months worth of not being able to touch him. He'll be 8 months old by then. But I don't know of anyone on chemo right now that would want to be changing him anyway, so I guess we're safe. So, as the doctor told me at the last visit, today's appointment was a big one. He just didn't know it would be 15 lbs big!
