Failure to thrive

Button's one year check up was Tuesday. I knew going in that she was small for her age. In fact, it's the one of the things people love to point out to me. I knew she was going to be about 16 pounds and 27 inches. And sure enough she is 16 lbs, 3 oz and 27 1/2 inches. She grew about 2 inches between 8 1/2 months and now. She gained only 13 oz. She fell off the chart. If you don't know what that means, I'll explain. There is a growth chart that measures head, height and weight and it measures your kid against an average. So right now Button is less than 5% for height and weight meaning pretty much every other baby her age is bigger than her.

I wasn't worried and I'm still not to a degree. But you pretty much never want to hear the pediatrician use the words "failure to thrive" ever. And then he wrote it down. But he explained that it's just a technical diagnosis and not to freak out. So she has to have some blood work done just to check her out. I'm not really worried. As he said, she is obviously healthy and active. She's just small. She actually has almost the exact measurements as her dad did at that age. I joked that if that meant she ended up at 5'4" than she'd still be taller than me.

I don't like the idea of the blood work so BT has been tasked with taking her. I did the shots so this will be his deal. I think it will be worse and of the two of us he is less likely to cry. I know I will cry because I usually do at shots and when they did Bub's blood work before he got tubes in. So it's better this way.

When you look at her she is clearly very healthy. She eats a lot and drinks a lot of milk everyday so her calories are there. She is very smart and incredibly active. So I'm not worried about her. She is fine. She is thriving despite the "official" word on the matter.