Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Two Months

Bobo is two months old.

Back in the prehistoric times of the 1970s, my little baby would already be eating baby food (and would have been doing so for some time).

My "little" baby weighs 14 lbs, 1 ounce. And is 24" long. With a 40 cm head circumference.
At birth, Bobo was 90th percentile for length and 50-75th for weight.
At two months, length is 50-75th percentile, weight is 75-90th percentile and head is 25-50th, which is surprising because his head is HUGE.
Overall, he is doing great with his cooing and whatnot.

Chuckles is 40" tall and weighs 37-1/4 lbs.

My baby got three shots and some liquid drops to protect winter babies from rotavirus. I waffled on that one. Rotavirus is not usually fatal but can cause hospitalization and dehydration. We've already had a kid in the hospital for dehydration and I know that's not fun but I'm totally able to handle it. Ultimately, we went with the pediatrician's recommendation (which is immunize kids who are babies during rotavirus season...kids like ours).

I also relented on the Hep B vaccine which I did not permit at birth. I didn't want to, but again, I deferred to the ped who said it was up to us but he got it for his kids "just in case". I have no idea what the in case is, but he mentioned blood transfusions. OK, then. We're all up-to-date then.

Sensitive Topic:
A toddler was murdered in a day care in suburban Chicago last week. By his caregiver. In a big center. I always thought center care would be safer because there is always someone around watching you and you're never alone with a child. Apparently, I had deluded myself and given myself false-security. These are the primary reasons I sent (and will send) my kids to a big center with a large staff. I cannot talk about this with real people in my real life because everyone keeps cutting me off. My husband said, "We will never speak of this again." And my BFF said, "No. Stop. We can't talk about it. Ever."
The details are unspeakably horrible. There are a few details that really knock the wind out of me. The first is that the murderer was not alone in the toddler room at the time but the other girl in the room says she didn't see/hear anything. Next is that the murderer was frustrated by some of the other kids. She just took it out on this totally other kid. NOt that it matters because you don't kill even misbehaving kids, but it just makes it that much sadder for me. THirdly, she dropped him on his head or threw him down on his head or something and (here's the really sad part) he crawled over to get his blankie and curled up in his favorite vibrating bouncy chair where he slipped into unconsciousness and never woke up again (I guess, at least he had his comfort objects or something with him but now I'm tearing up again and oh, it's just so horrible).

I hate that. We've all had bad days with toddlers. Trust me. I have lost my patience, and I have put myself in time out to cool down before. I have never never ever hit my child (or anyone else's) in anger. I swatted a hand away from the stove once, and I swatted a rear end that ran away from me in a parking lot once, but I have never hit in anger. I have yelled in anger. I have walked away and ignored bad bahavior (which made my kid cry). You don't hit kids. You don't shake babies. You do not throw children to the ground. Give yourself a time out. Take a breather. It's fine. Did this center allow employees that kind of flexibility to take 5 minutes (outside, in the office, in the bathroom) to regroup? Does my center allow that?

2 comments:

  1. This broke my heart when I first heard about it (this si not far from me) and with each subsequent story I read, I get progressively more sad. Did you know he was a twin? Breaks my heart into tiny pieces for his whole family...

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  2. I know you from Ask Moxie, and as you know I live in the Chicago area. That daycare story has haunted me like you wouldn't believe. And it made my husband cry, which is rare. I want to talk about it with people, but it's like you said, nobody wants to hear about it.

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