First trip to the ER

and hopefully the last....

So the last 2 weeks Penelope has been spitting up an awful lot and her dirty diapers have changed.  Last week I called the clinic back home and they said to keep an eye on her and if doesn't go away to call and they would set me up with a referal since I'm still in Ohio.  They said it sounded like she has a tummy bug.  That wouldn't surprise me with all the people she has been around lately.

Well she doesn't seem sick really but still spits up a lot more than usual.  She can take a 3 hour naps and spit up as soon as she wakes up.  Yesterday she spit up 7 times in 3 hours.  So I try to take her to a walk-in clinic but they don't see babies so I just went to the ER and told them everything that has been going on with her.

I weighed her on the scale last week by holding her and it said 14.5 pounds, but I didn't know if that was accurate or not.  At the hospital she weighed about 13.5 pounds so I was worried she was losing weight from spitting up. 

So finally the doctor came back.  The first thing he said was, "She's almost double her birthweight!"  (7 lbs, 2 oz.)  Is that a lot?  "Yeah, babies aren't supposed to double their birth weight until they are 6 months and she is only 3 months."  (She will be 4 months in a week).  So automatically I didn't like him.  He checked her over and said she was healthy and that I'm feeding her way too much.  And that's what is causing her to spit up.  He said she was healthy, "a little too healthy."

So we left and I was happy there wasn't anything really wrong with her but boy was I fired up.  He basically said she was fat.  She has been drinking 4 onces about every three hours since she was 2 months old.  I thought her stomach would get bigger as she grew.  I was actually thinking of upping her meals to 5 or 6 onces since she is getting bigger and she would sleep for more than 6 hours a night.  But since she has been spitting up, I didn't want to change anything because she might spit up more.  He suggested I feed her less.  I can't give her 3 onces!  She hasn't has that little since she was a newborn!  And when you have a crying baby screaming for food, you can't say, "sorry kid, doc says you gotta cut back on the bottle." 

I have never thought that she was a "big" baby.  I know that formula fed babies are typically bigger than breastfed babies.  She can still wear some 0-3 clothes!  She seems to be very on-track.  When she turned 1 month, she moved out of newborn clothes and into 0-3, when she turned 3 months, she moved into 3-6 month clothes and they are still a little big on her.  She isn't wearing 6-9 month clothes!  She is almost 4 months and just moved to size 2 diapers and 3-6 month clothes. 

I went home and googled "average weight of 4 month old baby"  Guess what the average weight was..... 13.5 pounds!   I also learned that if a baby hasn't doubled their birth weight by 6 months, that's a concern and the baby is underweight.

Needless to say, I am still upset at the stupid doctor calling my baby overweight when she is completely healthy and in the normal range for her age. 

So I'm glad that she is healthy and doesn't have an ear infection or fever or have to take medicine or anything like that.  But I still have no idea why she is spitting up so much all of the sudden.  Hopefully we will be back home in less than 2 weeks.  Then I can make her 4 month appointment and get advice from someone who has seen her before and knows what they are talking about because they didn't graduate med school in the 50s.