A few weeks ago I was sitting on a picnic blanket with Soren at the park and a friend asked me to hold his baby while he chased his older daughter down who'd wandered to other end of the park. I plopped the baby, who was noticeably larger than Soren, down in front of him so they could look at each other, but the other baby toppled over when I stopped supporting him. I tried righting him again, but he slumped over. Then I remembered that even though he looked gigantic next to Soren, he was only five months old and couldn't sit up on his own yet.
I wasn't surprised, then, when I took Soren in for his nine-month wellness visit this week that the scale topped out at 16 pounds, two ounces. I had seemed to notice that Soren's been staying in each size of clothing a little longer than Oliver had. No big deal. I don't expect to produce big babies. And, yet, despite my stature, I was taken aback when his weight put him in the third percentile and his height (26 3/8 inches) in the sixth percentile. I immediately thought of all the teasing I endured as a kid and the stupid and sometimes down-right mean comments I still receive from people because of my height. I don't remember ever being this worried about Oliver, even though he's going to be small too, so I don't know why I became fixated on these purticular measurements. Eventually I looked up Oliver's measurements from his nine-month wellness visit and the kids aren't that far apart from each other, so I don't know why I was obsessing so much over a bunch of numbers that are going to fluctuate from visit to visit.
While the nurse who took his measurements expressed concern about Soren's weight, the doctor had zero concern and didn't even bring it up until I did. The bottom line, according to the doctor, is Soren is proportional, and having met Chris and me, Soren's percentiles match what he'd expect. But most important, Soren is meeting all his developmental milestones. He's doing things like moving around, starting to pull himself up, babbling, smiling, laughing, showing attachment to his parents, and getting into everything. And as Chris commented, tall or short, Soren's the cutest baby in the world.
Kiera, Matteo, Oliver and Soren
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You would know if there was a problem! There were times with Owen that the doctors had obvious concern because he was very tall and also very thin, could see every bone in his body, etc. But will is the opposite of soren--very tall and very heavy-- he is proportional, so no need to worry! You have a healthy tiny baby and I have a healthy giant baby...its what makes the world interesting :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder Alison. There are all types of sizes in the world. I never felt anything was wrong with Soren's weight until the nurse expressed concern and then I felt guilty, like, how could I have missed this? I actually thought of you and Owen and how there was that emphasis to get Owen to eat more. And I was thinking that Soren loves to eat and eats plenty, so I couldn't fathom how I was supposed to make him eat more. But that was just the nurse's opinion, because luckily the doctor thought Soren is doing more than fine.
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