Benjamin's Two-month Health Check Visit

  Benjamin turned two months old last week (on June 17th).

  Yesterday we went to his pediatrician's office for his two-month health check visit.  

  After all the checking, the doctor reassured us that Benjamin is in a great shape: he even said to Benjamin, "Today I can give you A+. Well done, boy!"

  His weight, length, and head circumference were, respectively, 14lb. (=6.3kg), 23,1/4" (=60cm), and 39.5cm.  According to the U.S. baby's growth chart, his weight is located at 95%growth  (i.e. if there are 100 baby boys in the room, Benjamin is most likely among top 5), his length at 75% (i.e. he is most likely among top 25 out of 100 babies), and his head at 25% (i.e. he is among 25 babies with the smallest head size out of 100 babies).

  Benjamin's weight gain is quite impressive also in that he doubled his birth weight (=3.03kg) in just two months, whereas most babies double their birth weight toward the end of their third months.  This is most probably because Benjamin is Amar's son (Amar is a big guy, you know), and yet he was born from my body (I am quite petite by the U.S. standard, and very much so compared to Amar's size!).  So, Benjamin was born small and now he is doing his best and using all the resource (=my breast milk) to catch up with his full-potential growth.

  Other developmental milestones in the past month:

1) He started cooing a lot since 3 weeks ago.

2) He started smiling a lot since 1o days ago, and he started smiling responding to his parents' (or other adults') smiles since 3 days ago.

3) He has always had quite a strong neck (=head control), but now he is getting even stronger --- it is not before long when he has a full head control, we believe.

4) He seems to be able to see and focus much better these days --- he is always studying the room or the space around him, usually looking at things around him intently.  He especially likes looking at the blue sky and the trees --- so he loves to go outside.  He often stops crying or fussing when we bring him outside.

5) His eyes can now follow moving objects and people from one side to the other side of his head.  He also follows Mom's movement and voice a lot. (He looks at me intently and follows my movement if I move.)

6) He seems to have already mastered two consonants (!) at 2 months old.  According to Dr. William Sears' "The Baby Book", babies generally start babbling (=speaking/pronouncing consonants combined with vowels, like "ba-ba-ba", "da-da-da" and "ma-ma-ma") at 4 months old at the earliest, most seen from 6 to 9 months old.  However, Benjamin seems to have already started combining two particular consonants ("n"and "m") with vowels, like "ne" and "ma".

  

About 3 weeks ago (on his 6th week) Benjamin started crying in a unique way, sounding like "Ne---n, nen, nen, ne---n!"  I am guessing that he learned this sound "ne" from me speaking to him in Japanese, using this particular sound a lot: many sentences finishes with "ne", like "Mama to asobo-ne! (=Let's play with Mom, hey!)" or "Oppai nomo-ne! (= You want to eat, don't you!)".  (As you can guess, "ne" is versatile, but usually functions as a suppository question, meaning "hey", "huh", "don't you", "isn't it", and so on.)  He might have also got this sound "ne" because I have been keeping telling him "Nen-ne, Nen-ne" (= Sleep, sleep) , "Nen-ne shiyo ne" (=Let's sleep, shall we?). ("Nen-ne" is a baby-word for "sleep".) 

And about 2 weeks ago, Benjamin started crying sounding like "Mam mam mam mam...!!" 

My guess is that he learned this sound from frequently heard word "Mom" or "Mummy".  And he uses this way of crying particularly when he is hungry or when he wants to my attention, so it does make me believe that he is trying to say "Mo----m!"

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