Abbie's 4 month update

Abigail had her 4 month doctor's appointment this morning and I am happy to report that she has more than doubled her birth weight! She weighs 17 lbs and 9 ozs, and is 17.5 inches long now, which puts her in the 95th percentile for both weight and length.

(beaming) :-) :-) :-)

I'm proud of Abbie and myself for feeding her so well. Dr. Coburn told us that I can exclusively breastfeed her until she's 9 months old! That's the longest I've heard from a doctor, which makes me really happy. The longer I can fill her up with breastmilk, the better! Of course, when she starts waking up in the middle of the night to eat, we may start her on solid food at least before bed. Matt and I have REALLY been enjoying our 8 hours of completely undisturbed sleep, and I don't think we're going to give that up easily.

We also began her immunizations today, after LOTS of research, taking with each other, taking with other parents, and praying. We got the Hib vaccine and PCV because both those diseases are hard to treat, easily communicable, and can lead to meningitis, and also the Polio vaccine. There are some studies that have linked the DTaP vaccine with SIDS in 2-4 month olds, so we are waiting to start that one until she is 6 months old. Unfortunately, we can't get those three vaccines separate without spending lots of money. Since Hepatitis is so rare in infants and the Roto Virus is virtually harmless (leading only to diarrhea that,at worst, leads to dehydration requiring hospitalization), we decided to forgo both of those. The real issue will come in a few months when we need to make a decision about the MMR vaccine. Measles, mumps, and rubella are all pretty bad illnesses, but they are treatable and very very rarely (if ever) life-threatening. The real problem is that the vaccine itself has been and continues to be tested and developed on aborted human fetal tissue (as is the chickenpox vaccine). So, in an indirect way, getting the MMR is supporting not only abortion, but also government funding for stem cell research. It will really suck if Abbie gets any of these illnesses, but I can't get around my conscience, especially now that I can't claim ignorance. Most people think that children have to get the MMR to attend public school, but this isn't the case. Parents can get religious exemptions for any or all of the vaccines and those exemptions must be honored by the government. It's such a relief to know that we as parents can make those decisions and do what we think is best!

Abbie did great, though, getting the three shots. I breastfed her the whole time and although she cried out momentarily while getting each of the shots, she went right back to eating each time and calmed down right away. After the nurse left the room, we heard her bragging about how well Abbie did to one of the other nurses in the hallway :-) It's times like this morning that I am soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo glad we decided to breastfeed Abbie. It's not just food...it's comfort PLUS food!

That's all for now :-) Have a great day!