The Loveland Girls Are Tipping The Charts At Both Ends.

I am so grateful for irreplaceable doctors. The first couple weeks Aoife was home, she never cried. I thought I was so blessed to have such a content baby. It was short lived. Once Aoife learned how to cry, she never stopped. She loves to be held ALL the time and will wake up the second we set her down. I was getting anywhere from 1-3 hours of sleep a night and naps were nonexistent. This little gal is awake all the time and cries most of the time.

Yesterday I took both girls to the doctor for their well child visits. Claire is still a monster and coming in at the 99.98 percentiles. He said she's the size of a three year old and looks great. He is always impressed by her. Aoife is tipping the charts in the other direction. When we first brought her to the doctor, she was in the 0.15th percentile. Didn't even make it to a whole percent. She's been below 1% until this last check up where she came in at 7% Finally on the charts! She is 9 pounds 10 ounces and I was shocked to see she weighed that much! She's doing great and making wonderful progress, though still wearing newborn clothes.

Everyone tells me how tiny she is, though she seems huge to me. She's almost twice her birth weight now and I can't believe how quickly she's growing.

I love how the girls' doctor is not only concerned with the girls' health, but he always is sure to check on how I'm doing. My health is always just as important to him as my kids. About this point, Claire was sleeping in her own room and it was just a couple weeks until she was sleeping thirteen hours a night. Aoife is no where near that and it's overwhelming to realize I'm going to be a zombie for a few more months. After spending the weekend with Aoife, Ross completely understands why I spend the entire day on my rear and why the house is rarely clean when he gets home.

I was talking to Dr. Later about how fussy Aoife was and her sleeping habits. (Or rather, lack thereof.) He told me a story about a couple who showed up at his house in the middle of the night with their baby, saying they couldn't handle it anymore. And what did he do? He actually took the child for the night and took care of her. He monitored the baby to make sure nothing was actually wrong with her. At the end of every appointment he always tells me to call him immediately if I'm struggling or need help. He didn't seem alarmed or disturbed when I asked if I could start leaving Aoife in another room and ignoring her to get her to sleep or if I absolutely had to feed her every time she wanted it.

He determined that Aoife is probably having really bad heartburn and put her on some medication. He thinks she's probably crying all the time because she's uncomfortable and eating so often just to comfort feed, which actually makes it worse. She was a champ with her shots. With the help of some tylenol and the new medication, I only had to get up with Aoife twice last night. we're giving the medication ten days to see an improvement before we try something else, but so far I think it's helping.

I am so grateful to have two healthy girls, even with all of the crying and tantrums. I'm incredibly grateful to Ross who handles my breakdown when I'm feeling overwhelmed. And I'm so grateful for dedicated doctors who really care about their patients.