Our Baby Is Two Months Old
I can’t believe our little baby boy is two months old already! Time is flying by and I am absolutely enjoying all the moments this time around. The girls are still completely amazing helpers and in love with their baby brother. (And we love saying “Meet your new baby brother” like they do in The Boss Baby movie.) We just finished having all the two month check ups with the pediatrician, gynecologist, breastfeeding consultant, midwife, acupuncture and dermatologist (the last two are slightly unrelated). A month filled with doctor visits. Liam is amazing and doing well.
Pediatrician
So I went back to the pediatrician for Liam’s two month check up. You can read all about what happened at our visit last month in my one month recap. I was so stressed out at the thought of going back there after our last visit. We arrived and Liam was weighed immediately. He weighed 4.5kg at two months. At one month she weighed him at 3kg but he was really 3.2kg, which is above birth weight. But she kept her incorrect weighing of him on her growth chart record. Even though the hospital called her and told her the scale she weighed him on was inaccurate. Should I ask her to remove the incorrect weight from his growth chart? Does it matter? Not really right? So he is back on the growth chart, although at the very first line, so he is not huge, but who cares? He has chubby cheeks and is a happy growing boy.
The pediatrician said his weight was good now. Then she asked what I thought the problem was with his weight at his one month check up. Totally caught off guard and shocked, I wanted to say her scale was the problem, but of course I didn’t. She still had the inaccurate weight from our one month check up plotted on the growth chart. I said that I had mastitis early on and that my breast milk wasn’t sufficient, therefore the low weight initially. She responded by saying that my mastitis was the first week of his life and that couldn’t be the reason. If I had been able to pick my jaw up off the floor, dumbfounded, I would have said it is exactly the reason as he weighed his lowest at 12 days after birth (as recorded by the midwife) and before we started him on formula along with breastfeeding. But, as happens so often when shocked, I couldn’t respond quick enough so just let her continue judging me and kept the incorrect weight on her chart. Oh well. First world problems.
Vaccines
We left the hospital without any vaccines given. The next medical appointment standard was his one month check up where he also did not get vaccines. Only during his two month check up did he get two shots, one in each thigh. Poor thing was a bit unsettled and was crying for a few hours after the shots. For pain relief we were given Paracetamol suppositories. Poor Liam, after he was crying for an hour or so I gave him his (and my first experience with) suppository. It seemed so big for his tiny bottom! I don’t know if his pain was worse before or after! Poor thing.
The next pediatrician appointment is when he is 4 months old, for more vaccines. I don’t remember what the standard vaccination program is for the USA and for the UK. We just follow the normal routine in each country, as we are doing here as well.
Gynecologist
Birth control time! I went and got a Mirena IUD put in, just like I had in between my second and third child. Mirena has to be replaced every five years and I have noticed absolutely no side effects, bleeding, periods, or weight gain during those five years I used it (just regular weight gain caused by too many almond croissants and chocolate). I actually love it since I had such miserable periods that not to have it at all makes me so happy. I had Liam in the Ergobaby carrier and my big puffy winter jacket on and my wonderful doctor just had me sit in the chair and he put the Mirena in with no problem. Leave it to a pro to work around a newborn baby.
Breastfeeding Consultant
I love my breastfeeding consultant. We had met socially once or twice before I came to see her as my breastfeeding consultant. My midwife suggested I go see her to continue getting breastfeeding help after the mastitis and to figure out ways to increase my milk supply. She is absolutely fabulous, non-judgemental, and I believe at least two visits are included in the basic Swiss healthcare (please correct me if I’m wrong) so of course I went to go see what all the fuss was about. First of all her office is absolutely beautiful in a very old timber-framed house and the room is filled with light. She gave me great new ways to breastfeed and feel relaxed at the same time. I might have to go visit her one last time just to be in that gorgeous room again.
Midwife
Oh my wonderful midwife. I think 10 appointments are included in basic Swiss healthcare where the midwife actually came to my house! It’s a wonderful thing for someone like me without any family around and a newborn baby to have that support. When my pediatrician sent us to the hospital, my midwife asked for her to write a prescription that my midwife could keep coming to check Liam’s weight. She continued to come to our house to confirm he was gaining weight just fine. After two months, she is finished coming to our house and I do miss her. But I’m so grateful for all her help. I did not think I would need a midwife as they are not given this easily in the USA. But I would recommend her to all my expecting friends as it was wonderful to have an extra set of eyes on our sweet baby (and me) after delivery.
Acupuncture
My friend has been going on and on about her amazing acupunturist for the three years I’ve known her. So after the stress of the pediatrician and a bit of stress from my oldest struggling with her homework, I finally went to see her. I had never been for acupuncture. Aside from my aunt giving me acupuncture once while in Lake Como on holiday and once having it for my placenta to come out after Liam’s birth, I had never tried it. Liam and I showed up, with him sleeping away in his car seat. For about an hour she asked me all sorts of questions from my children’s birth dates to where my stress is coming from. I asked if she could try increasing my breast milk and reduce stress as the reasons I was seeking her treatment. After I hopped up on her table to begin, Liam started crying, so I had him snuggled on my side as she took my pulses and began her needle work on my body. It was so relaxing and I drove home feeling so relaxed. I will see her weekly for a bit.
Dermatologist
Unrelated to the second month of Liam’s life, I went for my yearly mole check up at my dermatologist. Liam was asleep so I laid him on my doctor’s huge desk and she scanned away at my body. She told me how she had four children of her own and all about their birth order. It was so cool to hear about her personal life as up until then we had a very serious doctor patient relationship. Nothing like a sleeping newborn on her desk to open her up to chatting. She was concerned with one spot and took a biopsy which luckily ended up being nothing.
One strange thing I showed her was two of my fingernails are falling off. Seriously, so horrible and gross. I hope it has never happened to you. It’s the worst. I showed her and she immediately said it is eczema. I was like, no, it’s a vitamin deficiency right? But no. So strange as I don’t have eczema anywhere else on my body. Just my nails. Has that happened to you? I don’t know if it’s birth related or not, but it’s definitely very weird and I’m a bit shocked by it. She gave me special soap, hand lotion and two nail treatments to use daily. But it’s a long road as my nails grow really slowly. So no manicures in my near future…
Reading
My neighbor gave me her copy of Gina Ford’s The New Contented Little Baby Book. Then, just as the universe always works, my friends started mentioning and recommending the book. So after letting it sit on my night stand for months, I finally opened it to the 6-8 weeks schedule. Have you read this book? It’s a crazy schedule book. I thought I would have to read this whole book and seriously who has time for the right now? But it’s a great book for me to keep Liam on a schedule for feeding and sleeping. I never had a schedule of any sort with the girls so it’s actually quite fun to follow it and Liam seems to be naturally following this plan. There is no crying it out or whatever. It’s basically times to feed, sleep, and bathe him. And to be honest, I never forced him to modify his routine, he actually seems to just fit right into the schedule. Otherwise I probably wouldn’t use it at all!
The Holidays
We are now looking forward to the Christmas holidays and being a family of five traveling together. We got Liam’s passport from Bern a few days ago, just under the wire. We are excited to travel with him for the first time as a little two month old. We went to the Bern embassy as they can get a USA passport finished in 5 days whereas the Zürich consulate takes 25 days. As we only had a couple of weeks between getting his birth certificate and our flight, we had to take the train to Bern to get his passport with enough time to make our flight. My husband, Liam and I had to be at the appointment in Bern to get the passport application completed. It’s really quite a process.
I really can’t believe how quickly these two months have gone by with our new baby boy. It’s wonderful to have the girls as my biggest helpers. I’m so thankful this time around being able to watch him grow up without having the stress of working full-time and the rat race of dropping him off. It’s amazing to see all the moments that I was too busy to see with the girls. We are all looking forward to escaping the snow for a nice warm Christmas and New Year’s. Merry Christmas to you and yours.
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