Two Months...

I'm going to be cliche and say that I don't know where the time has gone. Even the nurse yesterday at LD's appointment said the last two months have flown by. LD's two month appointment went well. He now weighs 11 pounds 4 ounces(23rd percentile), he's 23 1/4 inches long(41st percentile), and his head is 16 inches around(49th percentile). After talking to the pediatrician we decided to split LD's shots up. Our pedi gives a combination DTap, Polio, Hep B vaccine. It wasn't exactly what I wanted but the DTap vaccine is so incredibly important, 9 babies have died in CA from whooping cough(although they were all too young to be fully vaccinated yet) so we did get that one yesterday. He also got the oral Rotovirus vaccine. In about two weeks we go back for the Pc and Hib vaccines. Our pedi said he's never had a child have a bad reaction when given all the vaccines at once but if it gave us peace of mind there was no reason not to space them out a little. LD took his vaccines much better than I did. The nurse gave him the oral first saying babies usually aren't bothered by that one. LD was. He screamed and cried when she put the oral in his mouth. He was so upset that he didn't even notice being stuck by the needle with the other vaccine. I lost it somewhere between the oral and injection. When he was finished I held him and sobbed while he collected himself. My DH was pretty embarrassed by me I think. So far LD has shown no effects from being vaccinated. He's completely himself. No extra fussiness and he doesn't appear to have any pain at the injection site.

On the topic of vaccines I'm going to do a little PSA here and ask everyone to please get their TDap booster. I got mine a little over a week ago and yes my arm hurt for a few days afterward but knowing that I'm less likely to get whooping cough and pass it to an unvaccinated little one, my own or someone else's, feels good.

We've gotten tired of carting his heavy infant carseat around with him in it so we bought his new convertible carseat this week. During pregnancy I did a lot of research on carseats and learned so much that I never would have considered had I not done the research. The AAP now recommends that children stay rear facing until 2 years old or they outgrow their seat. Rear facing is something like 700% safer than forward facing for children. In the Scandinavian countries they rear face their children in small vehicles to 55 pounds. If you doubt how much safer rear facing is go to Youtube and search for the videos. It's shocking. So we bought the only seat in the US market so far that rear faces to 45 pounds. When I tell people we plan to do extended rear facing with him I get all sorts of reactions. Mostly people tell me how uncomfortable he'll be. My DH & I laugh at that. First of all he'll never know what it's like to forward face, until he's old enough and big enough, and you can't long for what you've never done. Secondly people think his legs will be squished and likely to be broken, to which I answer there's never been a documented case of legs being broken due to extended rear facing, and I'll take a broken leg to internal decapitation anyday. OK I'll get off my soapbox now and share with you the picture of Little Dude in his Big Boy carseat...