If He Weren't So Cute, I'd Be Concerned

LL's appointment with the pediatric gastroenterologist (GI) was this morning (finally). We had to wait almost three weeks for the appointment. Our pediatrician had given us a series of things to try to help to relieve LL's symptoms, so we've been trying each one for several days, then trying something new, then trying combinations of them... and today we reported the results to the pediatric GI doctor. Based on LL's responses, he was able to rule out several things, and he ruled out some more things during his exam. He thinks that it's a minor problem that LL will just grow out of, but he wasn't able to rule out several more serious problems quite yet. But for now, it probably doesn't matter. One of the things that we've been trying seems to have eliminated the symptoms, which is all that really matters right now. (The doctor said that he could do a bunch of ugly invasive tests to try to pinpoint the problem, but if we're able to eliminate the symptoms without it, there's nothing to gain.) So, for the next few months, we just continue what we've been doing, and hope that LL continues to feel good. Since this is a GI problem, the doctor pointed out that LL's entire gastro-world is going to be thrown into disarray in a few weeks when he starts solid food, so we may need to reevaluate at some point soon, anyway.

The only big concern that I still have is that LL is growing soooo slowly. He started out huge (around the 90th percentile for height and weight) and at each appointment, he has dropped percentiles, so that at his appointment today, he's at the 25th percentile for both. Back at his first pediatrician appointment, Dr. K told us that the percentile doesn't matter, as long as he more or less stays along the same growth curve. But at 2 months and again at 4 months, he dropped curves. And it certainly looks like his 6 month appointment later this month is going to show that he has dropped curves yet again. I asked the GI doctor about it today, since I thought that it might be a food issue, but he was unconcerned. He looked at LL's birth statistics (big) and then looked at me and S (both more on the short side). His theory: LL was born big, then looked at his parents and recalculated how big he was "supposed" to be. He made his entrance into the world, and then said, "Those are my parents? Whoops! Um, I'd better adjust my expectations...." He said that LL is showing all the signs of growing just fine, at his own rate -- he's hitting developmental milestones, he's happy, and he's cute. (GI doctor: "If he weren't so cute, I'd be concerned. But he's very cute.")

Moving on.... LL's bottom two teeth have finally stopped causing him pain. He had several days of renewed normal eating, which was great. (His latch had been horrible for the last week or two before the teeth erupted, as he tried to soothe his gums using my breasts.) Then, at his middle-of-the-night feeding last night, he bit me, hard. And now his latch sucks again. I have a sinking feeling that he's working on two more teeth. Teething sucks.

In better news, LL returns to Natasha's daycare tomorrow. Yay! I'm at home with LL today because of his doctor's appointment, but I'll be going into work for the rest of the week. LL is feeling better, daycare has reopened, I'll be back at work, S's work has eased up some.... It finally feels like things are settling down into a good groove. I'm not sure how long it's going to last, but I'm going to try to enjoy it while it's here.