18 month checkup

greta had her 18 month check up (is she REALLY a year and a half old??) and it went well. some tears with the shot at the end, but that was about it. i told her we were going to see doctor bird (her pediatrician) and the whole way there she repeated his name. she even said it to him when he came in the room. she was very brave, and liked when dr. bird showed her the light he was going to use to look in her ears. just like last visit, she enjoyed dancing on the crinkly paper on the table.

so where does she "rank", you ask? head circumference is again in the 90-95th percentile. to put it plainly, she has a big noggin. she weighed in at 25 pounds, which sounded like a lot to me but it actually means she's "slimming down" a bit. she is now just a bit over the 50th percentile for weight, which means that she is pretty average. which means nothing, really. but we find it so interesting to see these growth charts and see how she's changed. and we like to laugh at the part of the chart from about 3-6 months where her weight was off the charts. as for her height, she is 33.5 inches tall, which is almost the 95th percentile for height. she must get the height from her mother. or her father. oh, who am i kidding. we have no idea how she is "tall" and imagine that it won't stay that way. but we're just glad she's healthy and well.

weigh in

for those of you following along on your growth charts, greta had her 15 month checkup yesterday. this visit was a bit less traumatic than the last few visits, and i am convinced it's because greta got to be stripped down to her diaper for most of the time. she loves to be naked...she just keeps patting her belly over and over as if to remind herself that she doesn't have any clothes on. she did cry each time she had to lay on the table, but she was able to compose herself this time. she even did some dancing on the crinkly paper on the table once the nurse left the room.

anyway, she now weighs 23 pounds, which means her weight has literally plateaued on the growth chart. this puts her in about the 50th percentile for weight. dr. bird said a plateau like this was extremely normal, and asked if she was, "always on the go". uh, you think?

she is 31 and a half inches tall, which puts her height around the 75th percentile.

her head circumference, you ask? well, dr. bird commented that, "the biggest part of her is still her head". her head circumference is in the 95th percentile, which means that only 5 percent of girls her age have a head larger than hers. joe blames it on her hair....that other babies this age have less hair and therefore a smaller head. doubtful.
all in all, our girl is happy and healthy and thriving.

9 month checkup

we took greta to see dr. bird for her 9 month checkup today. today greta made it known that she does not like to go the doctor at naptime, she really does not like sitting on the scale, she sort of hates laying down on the crinkly paper, she especially dislikes when dr. bird examines her, and she has particular disgust for receiving shots.
althought there were tears, we all survived. greta weighs 21 pounds (just above 75th percentile) and is 28.25 inches long (just under 75th percentile). greta's weigh only increased by 2 pounds since her 6 month checkup, and has been hovering around 21 pounds for the last couple months. we asked dr. bird about this and he asked if greta had started crawling yet. um, yeah. crawling, cruising, standing.... he said that when babies become more mobile, they generally don't gain much weight because they are expending so much energy. and judging by the way greta moves around, we are lucky she gained at all!
greta has not shown any symptoms of her dairy allergy in 5 months, so we asked dr. bird about introducing that food group. (main motivation being her birthday cake in a few months!!) he said we should wait til she turns a year and then we can discuss it. darn....looks like it might be a yummy vegan cake for greta. hopefully people will still come to the party!
so our girl is happy and healthy and well.....what more could we ask for.

6 month checkup

speaking of greta's 6 month checkup, she weighed in at 19 pounds and is 26.5 inches long. that puts her in the 90-95th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. and for those of you following along, that means our girl is no longer literally off the charts. she is healthy and happy and growing bigger and stronger everyday. the checkup went well. greta got three shots, and she actually didn't cry at all for the first one. she made up for it with the next two. now we don't go back to see dr. bird until greta is 9 months old, which seems hard to believe. although i'm sure i'll be calling the nurses before then with some sort of first time mom worry. and now that we are starting foods, a whole new adventure begins.