Seeking volunteers...

... to take Patrick to his 6-month pediatrician's appointment. We had his 4-month well-baby visit this morning, and it was a debacle.

I fed Patrick shortly before we left the house, and packed a 2 oz bottle to help settle him down after his vaccinations.

We get to the appointment, check in, and go to the exam room. Patrick gets naked and we toss him on the scale. He gets measured, then the nurse leaves us to wait for the doctor. In the meantime, Patrick decides that he's starving. This is about an hour after he last stopped eating. He devours the 2 oz bottle.

Then, he sucks down the 4.5 oz "emergency" bottle that I had stashed in the diaper bag - all before we even see the doctor!

When we see the number on the scale, I realize why the little guy has been eating so much. He's put on 23 ounces in 14 days - and now weighs 11.5 lbs! He is now 23 1/2 inches long. That puts him on the growth curve for his actual age. He's in the 3rd percentile for weight and 5th for height for a 4 month old. I think he's still in the 50th percentile for both weight and height for his adjusted age - 2 months. Pretty exciting news.

Look at my big cheeks and humongous belly!

As the doctor starts reviewing all of Patrick's info with me, he decides that he's starving again. And freezing. So, he screams throughout the entire exam. It sounds like someone's pulling out his toenails. And we haven't even gotten to the shots yet. Ugh.

The vaccinations were every bit as horrible as I had expected. The nurse, seeing how tiny Patrick is, went back out and got smaller needles. She made me hold down his arms while she gave him a shot in each thigh. He cried so hard that he turned purple. I cried, too. It was terrible. It took me ten minutes until I could calm him down enough to strap him into the car seat.

So, if any Patrick's fans out there could step up to take him to the next round of shots, I'd be ever so grateful.