4 months old!

Maggie turned 4 months on Friday! So yes, she is one day shy of 4 months and a week but I didn't want to post until we saw the pediatrician. My appointment was Monday but due to inclement weather, the office was closed for two days. So we went yesterday for Maggie's 4 month and Will's 3 year check-up. We received a perfect report for both kids!!!! Thank you for your committment to prayer and praise God for answering!
We saw the nurse practitioner first and then the doctor and both said she is doing great and exactly where she should be at 4 months old. She's rolling (from belly to back and oh so close from back to belly), lifting her head, lifting  up on her arms when on her belly, grabbing things, gaining weight well, 'talking' very well and bearing weight when standing. I have to say I was very relieved to get this report! I was more concerned about her check-up this time than our other visits, not because I think she's behind, but because 4-6 months was when all the doctors said would be our jumping off point to know whether or not Maggie would require early intervention. But they said she's great!

When the doctor came in, I had Maggie pulled up into a standing position and the doctor said right away, "she's doing great keeping her feet down and holding her weight." She still said there's no way to know anything for sure and maybe Maggie will have a learning disability or speech delay but right now it looks like we're gonna get out of all this with no serious problems! She can't guarantee Maggie will get straight A's in kindergarten but she's right on par with where she should be and there's no reason to send her to a neurologist. She's still in the 25% for weight at 12pounds, 11 ounces and 75% for height at 24 3/4 inches. Will was 25% across the board- much smaller percentage for height than where we began in the 90's- he is 28 pounds and 36 inches. Both children got immunizations and neither were happy about it. 

And now for the knock-down-drag out-fight I had at the pediatrician's office: First I pulled into the parking lot to only 3 other vehicles. Great! I'm gonna get in and out quickly. Wrong. 30 minutes after my appt. was scheduled to start, they call us back. Of course getting weight and height take longer because there's two children to document. But seeing a nurse, nurse practitioner and pediatrican is bound to make this a longer ordeal than necessary. While I'm talking to the NP about Maggie, Will crawled under the table to hide from the bad guy. *Sigh, here we go. He didn't want to come out and when he finally did, he hit me! This has not happened in a LONG time, I almost didn't know how to react. Corner time is even worse in public than at home-- I was grateful for the NP's compliment-- she said he went into time-out well but it sure didn't feel like a compliment-worthy moment to me. She told me to hang in there, it gets better. 

After we finish with Maggie's exam, she checks him and I pick up baby girl. Then he uncharacteristically decided to be jealous of Maggie and very clingy; he wanted me to put sister down and pick him up. Gotta love the timing. When the doc left it felt like FOREVER before the nurse came back with the shots-- probably didn't help that both the kids were crying-- both tired and hungry. We had been there about two hours by this point, prime sleeping time for Maggie and Will was awoken early from his nap. Maggie was also quickly approaching her next feeding time but I was trying to hold off so she wouldn't be eating when the nurse came back with shots. I finally had all I could take of both kids crying and needing to be held, so I set Will down and got Maggie a bottle. Whew, at least one was calm. But then 'ol Murphy's Law kicks in and the nurse arrives minutes later. It gets worse: the nurse asks me to set Maggie in her car seat because I needed to hold Will for his shot. So what's harder, holding off a baby's meal or stop feeding in the middle of a meal? Will's shot must have been a tough one because he actually cried. A lot. The nurse took care of Maggie by herself and I couldn't console her since I was still holding Will but the nurse had work to do so I had to set sobbing Will down to pick up sobbing Maggie. I finish feeding her and listened to Will cry until we got a sucker which apparently provides much medicinal relief. This has probably been my most difficult mother-of-two-in action moment. It was a doozy!

More 4 month pics (all taken on the 7th):

 there she goes

 rollin'

 and rollin'

 and rolled but then I picked her up

because she looked terribly uncomfortable