Last Thursday, Kennedy had her 2 month appointment with her pediatrician. She loved staring at herself in the large mirror next to the table! We were excited to get an update on how she was growing and the doc's comment to us was "she's growing like a weed!" They gave us a print out of her exact weight - 10.8lbs and height - 22.87" but unfortunately it didn't include the percentiles. He did show us the charts while we were there and if I can remember correctly, Kennedy increased a good amount in weight (now around the 55th percentile) and jumped quite a bit in height (close to the 70th percentile)! She received three shots (a total of 6 vaccines) and took them like a champ!
The pediatrician was also very encouraging and insightful about her sleeping habits. We've worked so hard to establish a good routine over the last 10 weeks and the doc was extremely happy with her progress. As of last Thursday, Kennedy was averaging anywhere from 5-8 hours between feedings. Of course, as you know, every baby is different and every family has a unique success story (or lack there of) about sleeping through the night. Because Nick and I are surrounded by so many friends with HAPPY babies and GREAT sleepers, we were sure to take notes early on. Over the last two months, I've also spent hours reading blogs and books on how to help a baby sleep well. I won't say we are in the clear yet but I do feel like we've learned a lot and if our future nights are anything like last night, Kennedy will have two happy parents! We've generally followed what is called PDF - a parent directed feeding approach. I think of it as a happy medium between child centered feeding (feed baby every time they cry) and clock feeding (feed baby when the clock tells you it's time). Why did we choose this approach? For us, it makes sense and fits into our lifestyle and has a 96% success rate of babies sleeping through the night by 12 weeks! There are a few main concepts of PDF...
- Full Feedings - teach baby from day 1 to eat full meals and not just snack throughout the day
- Routine - Eat, Play, Sleep in that order...which leads to...
- Sleep - Babies like and need lots of sleep but for us, we didn't want Kennedy to have to eat to fall asleep. We put her down awake and she happily falls asleep on her own.
- Needs - Respond to a baby based on their needs. For example, feeding a baby will not help a baby crying simply because they need a diaper change. Seems obvious but can be very difficult when Kennedy is crying and she can't tell us why!
All in all, this approach has worked great for us. Our focus on a routine early on now gives us flexibility throughout the day because we (and Kennedy too!) know when it's time to eat, play and sleep! She continues to nap well and as of last night, we eliminated our late night feeding and she slept from 8:45pm-6am! YAY! We are hoping this is our new routine! We will keep you posted :)
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| Enjoying a walk and some patio time at Arsagas coffee house on Sunday afternoon! |
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