Rylan's First Doctor's Appointment

Rylan went to the pediatrician the day after we got discharged from the hospital for his first checkup (he did get seen by a pediatrician every day we were in the hospital too). Our normal doctor was out of the office that day so we say another doctor in the practice. We really liked her so we were okay with seeing someone different this time.

Rylan's weight took the normal dip while we were at the hospital. He was born weighing 9 lbs. On Tuesday morning he was down to 8 lbs, 11 oz and on Wednesday morning down to 8 lbs, 5 oz. Rylan was approaching the 10% loss that seems to be the cutoff for acceptable weight loss so they weighed him again in the afternoon. He had dropped to 8 lbs, 3 oz so we had to start supplementing with formula. My milk took a little longer to come in this time, most likely because of the c-section. We fed Rylan up to an ounce of formula after I nursed him. Hungry boy gobbled up that formula! By Thursday morning, Rylan was up to 8 lbs, 7 oz so were able to stop the supplementing.

At the pediatrician's office on Friday, Rylan weighed 8 lbs, 6.5 oz. So he was holding steady without any more supplementing. Rylan also "shrank" just like Carter and measured only 20 5/8" long (instead of 21.5"). We were told they measure to the toes at the hospital instead of the heal.

So here are Rylan's percentiles as a newborn:

• Weight: 8 lbs, 6.5 oz (62nd percentile)
• Length: 20 5/8 inches (72nd percentile)
• Head Circumference: 36 cm (47th percentile)

Rylan also had slightly elevated bilirubin levels in the hospital. I think it got as high as 9.1 (which is low enough not to require any treatment). The pediatrician thought his coloring looked good at his appointment so we didn't have to worry about it.

Everything else during the exam was normal and Rylan will be going back for his next checkup when he is 3 weeks old.