Nine Month Well Baby Visit

We switched doctors once again, this time to the shiny new practice in my neighborhood that's connected to a whole network of shiny practices. I don't forsee switching again. Let's hope.

Anyway, I dragged both girls in together so the new guy could meet Calliope and discuss her asthma management. But mostly we focused on Amelie... who grew! She grew another 1.7 inches in two months (and grew an inch in the month before that), so she went from 1% at 6 months to a whopping 14% (26.7 inches)! Phew!

Strangely, she only gained 10 ounces in the past two months, despite a voracious appetite, so she's exactly 14% for weight too, tipping the scales at 16 lb 2 oz. She still looks deliciously chubby to me but I guess she's more proportional now.

The only slightly worrisome thing is that her gluteal folds were not symmetrical -- when the doctor squished her thighs together, the rolls of baby fat don't line up evenly, so I have to take her for an x-ray to make sure she doesn't have hip dysplasia, when the ball of the joint doesn't sit right in the socket. He said it wouldn't be a big deal now but would cause arthritis in her fifties. I'm trying not to worry yet about how I would keep a crawling baby in a hip harness for a few months. He said he hasn't picked up an actual case of dysplasia now despite sending a number of babies for x-rays, so hopefully we are one more case of his being abundantly cautious.

"So much exam paper to crumple and eat, so little time!"

A surefire way to get a preschooler to smile and even request to be photographed is to take
lots of photos of her younger sibling.