Baby Dal is still huge

(Originally posted on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 by Tim)

I?ve figured out the way to quickly get a doctor?s appointment. All you need is a infant. You make the appointment for the baby for some panicky parent thing, and then you plop yourself on top of it. ?I?d like to see the doctor too. I?m not feeling well and I?m afraid I?m going to give it to the baby.?

We?ve actually all been sick the last two weeks. It?s my fault. Well, actually, it?s the students fault. They come to school each fall and bringing Dog knows what with them and spread it around. This year, they managed to infect everyone with a Y chromosome and a Ph.D. in Chemistry at Radford. In turn, I brought my cold home and gave it to Cat and Baby Dal. Since Cat and Baby Dal don?t get out much, it?s been hard for me to shirk the blame this year.

Now we wouldn?t have been all that worried about a cold. However, one of my co-workers was diagnosed with pertussis (Whooping cough) this fall. It turns out that she had it all summer and the stuff isn?t contagious after a few weeks, but we didn?t have all that information at the time. It?s highly contagious and has a 50% infant hospitalization rate so we were quite worried. As a result, all three of us piled into the doctor?s office for Baby Dal?s two month appointment.

Cat and I both got a one shot vaccine for pertussis, diptheria, tetanus. Baby Dal got four shots covering nine diseases. Our shots hurt and his were given with the same 1 cm long needles (different needles, same length). He took two in the pudge of each leg. With the first one, he demonstrated his chameleon like ability to turn beet red in milliseconds. His legs did swell up a bit and we had a higher incidence of Dalzilla for the next two days.

A big part of going to the doctor is getting Dalton measured and weighed. I?m happy to report that he is still huge. At two months, his weight was 13 pounds 4 ounces. His length was 24 and a quarter inches and his head circumference was 16 and three quarters inches. That put him in the 80th, 90th, and 95th percentiles for weight, length, and noggin respectively. I was surprised that he?s longer than heavy. We might have to stop calling him pudge all the time.

Today?s picture is from last Friday. Baby Dal has been full of smiles lately and we?ve been trying to get a picture of one. As you can see from the picture, he?s clearly forgotten the immunizations from earlier in the week.