I took Max to his first check-up appointment with the pediatrician since we left the hospital yesterday.
Max was very healthy.
The nurse said that he had a big head, as the doctors told us at the hospital where he was born. While they measured his head circumference as 12 3/4 inches at the hospital, the nurse today measured it as almost 14 inches.
Obviously his head didn't shrink so I'm guessing it's hard for them to get exact measurements of a baby's head and limbs as you try to stretch them out and keep them still, after the baby has been in a curled up fetal position for several months in the mom's belly.
At the hospital, they measured his length as 22 inches. Today, they measure Max's length as 21 inches, putting him in the 90th percentile. So whether he's 21 or 22 inches, he's a "long baby" like the ultrasound technicians kept telling us as we saw him on the ultrasound machine these past few months.
At the hospital, Max weighed 8.0 pounds when we was born, and then went down to 7 pounds and 13 ounces the second day. Today, the nurse measured him weighing 7 pounds and 13 ounces again. That puts him in the 60th percentile. Max returns this Saturday for a weight check-up appointment.
The doctor said that Max's circumcision was healing nicely. That was the thing that both David and I were anxious about because we didn't need to think about that with Reagan, and we didn't want to do anything to cause pain or infection to Max while we changed his diapers in these first weeks after the circumcision. So, that was a relief to hear!
The doctor today noticed that the tissue of skin below Max's tongue was connected to almost the full length of the tongue, thus preventing Max from being able to stick his tongue past his lips. I didn't know this yet, but the doctor showed me, and said that this might make Max more aggressive with his breast-feeding. I'm not going to lie.... I'm very sore just after 2 days and almost thought that Max had teeth already because of his breast-feeding aggressiveness.
The doctor said that David and I could go ahead and have the doctor clip this skin tissue under the tongue today or let it be, but he highly suggested that we do it to make life easier for both Max and me. While it sounds scary to cut skin under a baby's tongue, the doctor said that it was a mild procedure in which he numbs the skin tissue with novocaine and quickly clips the tissue with minimal blood. I asked at what age he clips this tissue with babies, and he said at anytime under three months and said he could even do it during today's appointment.
I remember the doctor telling us that Reagan had this extra skin tissue connected under her tongue, too, when she was a newborn, but it must not have been as bad, because the doctor didn't push as much to clip her tissue, and she's been fine since.
The doctor said that he has done this particular tissue clipping once every two weeks for the past 22 years and only had one baby who didn't stop bleeding, so he sent the baby to an ear, eyes and throat clinic for extra care, where the bleeding stopped in the baby when he arrived at the clinic.
Therefore, I called David, and we decided to go ahead and do it. Max was a champ. He hardly cried, and there was not much blood at all. It looked like he would be able to move his tongue a lot easier, so we're glad we did it, as anxious as I was to already have Max undergo numbing and clipping in the third day of his life.
The doctor ended with telling us to keep an extra layer of clothing on Max, one more layer than what we think, and to have him wear a hat often.
Max's finger nails are extremely long, and I can't wait to clip them because he already scratched his face, so we are supposed to file them in these first few weeks before we can use baby clippers later.
He's a pooping machine! Max has had 7 poops in the first three days of his life outside of the womb! Granted, they're the liquid, black meconium poops that newborns have in the beginning, but 7 messy diapers nonetheless! That includes one stinky diaper that he did at the pediatrician's office today, so he could show the doctor that his bodily functions are working just fine.
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