Friday, January 21, 2011

Little Jacob is Itsy Bitsy, Teanie Weanie

This week was filled with doctor's visits.  But this time not all of them were for Jacob.  Courtney got her 18-month check up with the doctor which meant shots (lots of them!) and her height/weight measurements.  She weighed in at just under 30 lbs and 35 1/2 inches. This means that she is in the 95% for both height and weight for her age.  But if you look at her, she looks and acts more like a 3 year old than a 20-month old.

Courtney is our third child.  Elisha (now 15) always seemed to come in around the 95% mark for all of her check ups and now measures in at a modest 5'10" - perfect for volleyball, her favorite sport.  Nathan (now 11) was totally off the charts - in fact, at 5'5" in height - he ranks in somewhere around the 110 - 115% mark.  I figure he'll be taller than I am by the time he turns 12, and he'll outgrow Elisha probably the year after that.  KC and I figure that at the rate he's been growing all his life, he may very realistically break the 7 foot mark, or get REALLY close to it.  It's darned near impossible to keep that boy clothed at his rate of growth.  Taking Elisha's numbers into account growing up vs. Courtney's, we figure our little darling will break 6 feet when she's done growing. 

Then there is Jacob.  Sweet, sweet Jacob.  Seeing Courtney's numbers piqued my interest so I went and found a growth chart to find out where he stands in his rankings for his age.  At 11 lbs and 22" He's hovering right around 10%.  At that level, he will be lucky to reach about 5'5" or 5'6" by age 18. Woohoo! That means that I won't be the shortest person in my family!!   I guess we short people will have to stick together, right? :)

On a more sober note - we met with the early interventionists for the second time to see how Jacob is fairing developmentally and to go over some of his assessments from his first visit.  As expected, he tests well under the national average, but that is to be expected for a baby with Downs.  What I didn't expect was that we had been discussing his feeding during general conversation and I had explained how Jacob's gagging had gotten worse.  I demonstrated with a binky how he gags if you just put the binky to his mouth and all I got was a "Whoa!" from all three ladies. Apparently, he needs a feeding study done on him and there are entire departments that are devoted to this!  Sooo, I will add the feeding study to my list of things to research for Jacob.  Good thing I quit my day job! :)

No comments: