Big Little Girl

The little girl is not so little. At her doctor's appointment on
Monday, she weighed 14 pounds and was just shy of 24 inches long.
This is "off the charts" for 2 months. The weight is fine in
proportion to her height and head size. The doctor was pleased with
her growth. Some of her size 3 month clothing is too small for her
already! I have her in some 6 month things. But then again there are
a few newborn things that still fit. Just depends on the sizing.

(BTW for all [MOM] who thought that she would NEVER fit in size
newborn and would be born huge, you were WRONG, she was doing just
fine in that size for the first 6 weeks)

She got her first shots. There were 3 of them, but one was 3 shots in
one. For polio, hepatitus B, tetanus?? and I forgot the rest. But
she CRIED loudly and furiously. She did NOT like it one bit. Before
the shots, the funny part was when the doctor asked us if she smiled
yet. We told her yes, and sure enough Lauren did smile when the
doctor was looking away writing on her clipboard. As soon as she
looked up, Lauren stopped.

Per the doctor's advice, we are supposed to be washing her gums with a
wet washcloth after she eats, and putting her to bed in her own
basinette, not with us, and while she is awake, so that she learns to
put herself to sleep. The obvious problem with this is the CRYING
factor. Is this Ferber-izing? I don't know. All I know is I tried
it on Monday night and the crying and fussing were too much. I kept
getting up to put her pacifier back in her mouth and rub her back, and
I think this was defeating the purpose, but I couldn't NOT do it. I
determined *I* would never get to sleep and this would not make me a
nice person at work the next day, so I decided to try it again on the
weekend. According to our doctor, before 4 months is a critical
window of development for infant sleep patterns and we need to make
sure she can "self-soothe" and not depend on us for that, which will
establish lifelong habits and help her development. What do you
think? Comment please...