Delilah’s 15 Month Checkup

Delilah is now 15 months old and I feel like we have had leaps and bounds in her development since her last checkup. I was so excited about this appointment. I was excited to tell Delilah’s doctor about how she’s growing and some of the goals that I had set that we finally reached, like with bottles and co-sleeping. Before her appointment, Delilah’s doctor’s office sent us the next Ages and Stages Questionnaire to fill out. There were a few sections this time when I filled out that Delilah was only sometimes doing the action or not at all yet. I wasn’t worried at all though. I feel like development is so varied at this point that there is probably a lot of variation between children.

Delilah’s appointment ended up being pushed back due to being rescheduled. I was a little bummed as well because this meant that we also wouldn’t be seeing her regular doctor, but I haven’t met a doctor in her office that I didn’t like. When it came to the ASQ, I even noticed that within the week of pushing back her appointment, Delilah was doing an activity that I had marked only sometimes the week before.

For a while now, I have had the goals of eventually getting Delilah sleeping in her own bed and of exchanging the baby bottles for sippy cups. I am proud to say that since her last appointment we have reached one of these goals and made huge progress in the other.

I wouldn’t say I was actively trying to get rid of the bottles when it happened. Of course, I always offer her sippy cups, but previously she would only use them for water and still preferred her milk from a bottle. I don’t remember why I ended up giving her milk in a cup that morning. I was either in a hurry or didn’t want to wash bottles, but she ran with it. She drank the whole cup with no complaints. Later in the day, we were out grocery shopping and I only had a cup with me when she wanted milk, so I gave her a sippy cup again and she went with it. It wasn’t until I was driving home that I fully realized “hey, she hasn’t had a bottle all day today,”. I told Joshua I wanted to try going the evening without a bottle, which is usually when she wanted one the most. She had a big cup of milk with dinner and when bedtime came around she did just fine. I quickly hid all of the bottles we had up in the cupboard so she wouldn’t see them and I haven’t brought them out since.

As someone who didn’t want to co-sleep at first, I’ve always had a hard time with that becoming what we ended up doing. When we were sleeping better because of it I knew it was best for us, but I always had a hard time accepting it as “okay” because I had planned for something else. I also worried about Delilah not being able to fall asleep on her own. I feel like, with a lot of these goals I’ve had, it doesn’t matter what I want, she tells me when she’s ready and that’s okay. Since the weather’s been warmer I noticed Delilah wanting her own space at night in the bed rather than sleeping in my arm like usual. I decided to try again by putting her in her crib after she fell asleep. We’ve rearranged the furniture so the front of her crib is open but still pushed up against our bed.  So, after she falls asleep, I just move her over to her bed but it’s easy to get her if she wakes up. Honestly, we should have just done it like this from the start. The first night or two she only lasted about 4 hours in her bed, but as she got used to it she’d sleep longer and longer. Now she usually sleeps in her bed until about 5 or 6 am until she crawls into the bed with me for a few more hours. Which is totally fine with me because I don’t want to get up that early. It’s not what my original goal was, but I can still feel really good about this. She’s sleeping more independently and we’re all sleeping better for it. There’s still always hope. Even since her appointment, she’s even started falling asleep on her own, without being held in the living room and I move her to her bed. Who knows, maybe soon she’ll learn to fall asleep in her bed!

Overall her appointment went really well. She had just woken up so she wasn’t too happy about being put on the scale and weighed. She liked the new doctor we saw instead of her regular doctor too. She was being friendly during the appointment. As always, Delilah was more than excited to get her new book at her appointment and wanted me to read it to her immediately, (I usually try to use the book to distract her when it’s time for immunizations,).

This time the doctor did say that her weight hasn’t caught up with her height. She jumped up to the 80th percentile for height but her weight was in the 50th. They didn’t say she was underweight but they wanted to see her again in a month just to make sure she catches up. I was a little disappointed to hear this because I feel like she eats very well. It’s hard not to worry about it but I’m trying not to fixate on it. At mealtimes, I try to let Delilah be the guide on how much she wants to eat of the foods I offer her. We’re just going to try bumping up her nutrition a bit and I’m sure everything will be fine!