Dear Charlotte,
Your Mama has a confession this month.  I’m having a hard time with you turning 5 months.  I feel like it’s too close to 6 months, halfway through your first year.  Your young infancy is flying by.  Where has the time gone?!

Okay, I got that out of my system.  I promise to be a little more celebratory because we have so many little milestones to celebrate!  Your development has been amazing this month.  You rolled over.  You’re doing some serious tummy time everyday.  You transitioned from swaddle to Sleep Sack and are doing beautifully!  We think you’re going to be a side sleeper.  You’re loving your toys more.  If it was even possible you laugh and smile at us more.

You’re 13 pounds now. (Still small, only in the 17th percentile, but the doctor is thrilled with your rate of growth.)  It seems like you’ve grown a foot!  You haven’t.  But, you’ve begun a serious love affair with your feet.  You stare at them for absurdly extended periods of time, that is when they’re not in your mouth.

Yum!

Love,
Mama

This weekend was my Grandma’s 80th birthday party.  Charlotte donned her adorable spring party clothes.  She charmed everyone with her smiles and giggles.  She was exhausted after being passed around for hours.  Before the party kicked off I took her over to my grandparents house to visit with them alone for a little while.

When the whole, loud family is not there, my grandparents house is quiet and peaceful like no other place. You can hear the clock on the mantle ticking.  Grandma hasn’t been in the best health in recent years, but she couldn’t wait to see Charlotte. We sat, listening to the clock as she smiled and played with Charlotte, always adjusting her little outfit.

I remember the last time I went to the pediatrician’s office as a patient.  I was 19.  I had come home from college for fall break and I was sick as a dog.  Like most college students I was too lazy and hungover focused on my studies to take the time to switch to a grown-up doctor.  At school I relied on the University Student Health Center.  But, since they typically just prescribed Valtrex and the morning-after-pill for every affliction, I knew I needed a better diagnostician for this illness.

I sat in the waiting room wrapped up in two North Face fleeces as I fought a fever.  Three snot-nosed-brats screamed as they raced by me, hitting one another.  A receptionist said, “Excuse me ma’m, we ask that you control your children.”  What?! Yeah, if they thought I was a parent and not a patient, it was time to leave the pediatrician.  I got my Tamiflu and got out of there.

Ten years later as a pregnant woman, I took time finding the right peds office for my baby.  We got recommendations from friends and took the prenatal tour.  Have I told you I love Charlotte’s doctors’ office?  I do.  I love them.  I’m really glad we chose the practice we did for the following reasons…

1. They have two offices.  Our house is smack-dab in between, five minutes from either location.
2. They quickly arrange same-day appointments.  Sometimes they can see your kid within an hour. 
3. They have a group of doctors ranging from young and right out of med school all the way to doctors who have practiced pediatric medicine for 35 years.  It’s the best of both worlds, experienced doctors with tried-and-true methods, collaborating with young doctors learning the latest methods and using the newest technologies. 
4. They have nurses who are lactation conslultants.  I had NO IDEA this was a feature I would need and apprecitate so much.  It was incredibly convienent in Charlotte’s first few weeks to have the lactation consultant right there to help me when we took her in for those early appointments.  One new mother told me recently she left a practice because they didn’t have any lactation consultants and a nurse just told her to give her baby formula.  I’ve said before, I have no problem with formula, I just appreciated having breastfeeding help right there at the pediatrician’s office. 
5. They don’t make me feel stupid when I call the help line with things like “I think my baby got poop in her eye.”  or “My baby’s poop looks a little off.”  They asked me to bring in her latest “sample” during that appointment.  I of course, brought in a Ziploc storage bag of 4 of the day’s diapers labeled sequentially. 

They see teenagers at this office, but I’ll advise Charlotte to get to a General Practioner before she heads off to college. 

Why and how did you choose your pediatrician?  What features do you like best? 

Greyson puts the fan in fanatic.  As a former sportscaster, he truly knows sports.  Before I met him, I knew a football was shaped differently than the other balls, but that was about the extent of my athletic knowledge.

One sport is the exception.  I grew up in North Carolina, so I know college basketball.

In this part of the country you pick your team and swear your lifetime allegiance to one shade of blue or red.  We speak names like Dean Smith and Jim Valvano with reverence.  Chicago can claim Michael Jordan all they want, but we know his Tar Heel roots.  (My Grandma taught him at Laney High School in Wilmington, NC.  True story.)  Coach K is loved or hated.  I’ve heard it said that “To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever.”

March is about brackets and bets.  March means taking days off for tournament games.  March is marvelous.

We think baby’s first basketball season went reasonably well.  Our beloved Tar Heels were regular season ACC champs and made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament. Charlotte showed her fandom by donning Carolina blue and getting fussy when the Heels were down to Duke in the ACC Tournament.

Welcome to the madness, Baby.