Today was a dash through the rain so Allie could meet her personal pediatrician for the first time. He was impressed with how well her belly button’s healed, how much weight she’d gained (she’s at 9lbs 7oz now, well past her 8lb 2oz birth weight), how well her sleeping/feeding patterns have been established. Allie goes 4-4.5 hours between feedings between 12am and 9am, and only yesterday started shortening her daytime feedings to every 2-3 hours. The doctor said this is setting her up to have longer nighttime naps and more active day, which is exactly the ideal. He said some babies are flip-flopped and are more active at night, and the parents have to switch the baby’s clock. I said Allie’s pretty much doing this herself, and he said there are likely subtle things we do to help her along, such as
* keeping nighttime feedings boring and unstimulating: yes, we keep the lights low, we don’t play with her, it’s pretty much change diaper, feed, burp, swaddle, put her back down to sleep. He said some parents sing to their kids and entertain them at night feedings, and the baby will get used to and wake up just for that, even if it’s not that hungry.
* not co-sleeping with her: she’s right next to us, either in the separate cosleeper unit on her playard by me, or in her rocker cradle next to Mr. W, and we only pick her up if she starts crying. If she coos or makes other noises, we wait to see if she’ll go back to sleep first, and most of the time, she does. The doctor said co-sleeping tends to make the babies wake up more often, and keep the parent more interactive, either as a pacifier or as entertainment.
* not letting her stay latched when she’s not actively feeding: I’ve been following the lactation nurse’s advice and breaking the latch as soon as she goes into half-asleep light sucking mode. According to the doctor, this teaches her that I’m not a pacifier available for comfort at all hours of the night. If she still wants to suckle, she’s given a pacifier in her co-sleeper or cradle, or she’s rocked to sleep in my/Mr. W’s arms with a pacifier and then placed in bed.
* keeping it lit, noisy, busy in the day: the TV’s on, a light’s on, the tree’s on, her lullaby music’s on. She sleeps through it all, and as she’s increasingly interactive, Mr. W has been laying her on a play gym to look at all the colorful noise-making animals. We’ve taken her on occasional short walks in the stroller just around the block or up to the next shopping center, and the doctor said babies love that, the change in the looks and feel of the environment, and they knock out quickly from the new experience. (My mom would kill me if she knew.)
* letting her feed on demand every 2-3 hours in the day: according to the doctor, if we were to stretch out the time in between her feedings in the day, she’d still make sure she gets the correct number of calories she needs so she’ll just be up more often at night to demand it. Making sure she’s able to eat when she’s hungry in the day, even if it were every 2 hours like it was yesterday, keeps her on her 4-hour sleeping track through the night. He said we could coax her to eat semi-regularly but not to stretch it out unnecessarily at this age. Later on toward a year old when we are establishing specific feeding times, she could be kept on a schedule, such as eating at 2pm daily. He looked at our feeding chart on the iPad app and said that it’s great that these patterns (sleeping long at night, eating more often in the day, feedings dropping down to 10-12 mins each) are emerging early, and the way things are going, we’re quickly approaching the eating every 5 hours at night mark. YAY!

I had some concerns, and the doctor alleviated them all.
Q: Her growth has been rapid, should I be concerned how much milk she’s taking in and maybe control that a little?
A: No, babies (especially breastfed babies because bottles dispense much faster than babies’ sensory mechanisms can register fullness) don’t typically overeat their first year of life. They’ll know when to stop, and they’ll pull off or stop drinking. Her growth is great — she gained weight but her height and head circumference also grew proportionately to her weight so she’s fine. [I think she only gained 1/2 inch in height, though, and I don’t remember what her head circumference is; the nurse forgot to bring us the printout with the information.]
Q: She’s REALLY gassy; how much is TOO gassy?
A: [laughs] There’s a really wide range of normal gassiness in newborns. Allie’s stomach feels soft and not hard and distended, so that’s a good sign. She’ll learn to swallow less air with her feedings as she learns to be a more efficient feeder around the 6-week point. Although, because she’s early in reaching her developmental goals, maybe she’ll get there in one month. Plus right now, she’s not used to how her gas feels so she’ll fuss. As babies get older, we think they’re less gassy but it’s often because they’re used to the feel of it and so they don’t fuss and you don’t know about the gas. Remember, all these sensations of digestion are still new to her.
Q: She still has inexplicable crying after feedings especially at night, but we’ve changed her, burped her, swaddled her, given her a pacifier, what else could be wrong?
A: To babies this young, because they’re not used to the feelings of digestion, being full feels like how it feels to us when we’ve overeaten — sort of uncomfortable and “ugh.” But it’s normal because her stomach’s supposed to be filled, she’s just not used to the sensation. As she gets older, she’ll be used to it and stop fussing. Meanwhile, you can distract her from focusing on her stomach if she’s fussing too much. Sing to her, show her toys, something to get her mind off her fullness. [This explains why she fusses more at night; nothing to distract her from overfocusing on her stomach.]
Q: She’s also started spitting up more in the last few days, especially if she has to be on her back after a feeding so we can swaddle or change her; is that all right?
A: Perfectly normal; her stomach’s not strong enough yet to hold in all the food. As she grows and the stomach strengthens, it won’t happen as much. And it’s NOT a sign of overeating. [He read my mind.]

So basically, she’s doing great and she’ll just outgrow a lot of this stuff. He checked her and said she’s doing well, taught us how to bicycle-leg her while she’s on her back and then bring up her knees so she learns to feel and use her bowel muscles instead of her ab muscles when working on pooping. He said babies often get all red-faced and strain with their hands tucked in trying to work out a fart or poopie, and he demonstrated EXACTLY what she looks like sometimes as she does this straining; it was hilarious. It’ll get better once she realizes how to use the right muscles. She laid there good-naturedly waving her arms around and bringing her legs in and out watching us and the doctor talk, and the doctor said this is a healthy awake state; if she’s lethargic during awake times we should bring her in because it means she’s sick. I said she’s in that active mode for an hour or more at a time now in the day between feedings and he said, “Really? Already?” I had him approve of the all-natural Gripe Water to alleviate gas symptoms (basically sugar water with ginger and fennel seed extract) and the multi-vitamin drops, he said the Gripe Water only works sometimes but it’s totally safe and harmless, and to dispense 1oz of the vitamins once a day but not before a feeding because babies don’t tend to like the taste and they may refuse to feed afterwards, and we were on our way.