Crawling, "walking", and no doctor's visit

Emmalee has actually been crawling for a while now. She started trying at 3 months and finally mastered it a couple of weeks ago. The day after she mastered crawling, she decided it was time to move on to walking. Luckily her muscles aren't strong enough to hold herself up yet, but she sure does try. First it was using my pant legs to pull herself into a standing position, then anything she could get her hands on. Then the problem was that she seemed to think that since she could "stand" she could walk. I watch my nephew (who is almost 2) during the week so I blame him for her trying to grow up too fast :) She sees him walking so she wants to (he's also the one who taught her to crawl). So she would pull herself up to standing, then try to turn around and walk. This always ends in tears! Poor thing, she just can't get all of the muscles to work together yet. Now she has discovered that if she holds onto something that she can move, then she can go almost anywhere she wants to. Joel and I had left her alone in the living room the other night and when we came back in she was in the middle of the living room pushing a box accross the flooor. She is so cute! We put her toys in old diaper boxes because we're too cheap to get a toy box so she goes over to her toys, empties the box, and then pushes it around the room so she has something to hold on to while she walks! We are in big trouble once she starts walking because I think running won't be too far behind. She's not even seven months old yet! This is how we found her in the living room the other night.

I am also very happy to say that we have only seen our pediatrician once in the last month, and that was for her 6 month well child check. She responded to her shots better than ever (no fever and very little crankiness). Right after her check-up with the shots we brought her to her chiropractor for an adjustment which probably helped. Just a plug, I highly reccommend chiropractic for children. I was EXTREEMLY skeptical at first, but it has helped her SOO much. We have not been to the doctors office for a sick visit since she started going to the chiropractor. The crying stopped (she still crys when she's tired, doesn't feel well, etc but it's not all the time anymore), she's eating and sleeping well, she doesn't scream when she's in her car seat anymore, it's just wonderful. We did start an appetite stimulant at the same time, but I don't think it would have had these good of results before the chiropractor. I wish I had done this sooner! I would suggest chiropractic for anyone with a colicky baby. Joel also notice that she always seems to be starving after getting adjusted. She's actually EXCITED to see the bottle now. Which is so awesome.

I wish we had done this sooner because everything else we did seemed to help some, for a little while, but nothing seemed to really help that much. I wonder if we had done this from the beginning if I would have been able to keep breast-feeding instead of having to switch to the bottle. It's definitly something to keep in mind for next time (which won't be for a very long time).

So that's my plug for chiropractic, take it or leave it. I still immunize. This last time was a nice surprise because my doctor said since they don't get any shots at nine months he likes to spread the six month shots between the two visits so that they don't get as many at once. I like that a lot. He also suggested giving her a flu shot which I politely refused. We have had members in our family who have had negative reactions to the flu shot (including Joel), and I just don't think it's that necessary. His comment was that with how sick she's been the flu could be very dangerous. Which is why I got my flu shot and try to keep her away from sick people. But in the end the flu shot doesn't really make it so that you don't get the flu, it just lessens the symptoms. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the flu shot entirely (H1N1, maybe) I just don't want to give it to my six month old. I told him I would reconsider at one year. I also still love our pediatrician and hope to continue seeing him for a long time. I still consult with her GI doctor some, I trust him and know that he has a lot of knowledge, but I'm grateful that we don't have to talk as much anymore. But I am happy to have added chiropractic to her health care repertoire.