Why what good timing you have! We just got back and we have all the stats you could want and more!
Height: 22 inches = 55-60th % (born 20.5 inches)
Weight: 9 lbs 4 oz = 25th % (born 7 lbs 7 oz)
Head size: 38 1/2 cm = 55th % (born with head)
So this is good! I thought he might look long and skinny and apparently that thought was not inaccurate. I asked how they come up with the percentiles- is it based on birth weight or is it just all babies lumped in together. The doc told me it’s all babies lumped in together, so it’s not that surprising that he’s low on the weight side given that one of my former colleagues’ wife had a baby at 9 lbs 11 oz and that baby clearly had a slight head start on the whole ‘acquiring mass’ thing.
The doc was very happy with his growth and how he looked. She was very impressed with his concentration and the fact that he was very alert and looking around him the whole time. He’s been pretty alert from day one actually- the day he was born he spent a good 5 minutes staring at the long sleeve shirt covering his hand and trying to get it into his mouth. He never succeeded, but it was pretty amazing to watch his determination. It’s all so shocking too given how his father and I are both such unmotivated and unfocused slackers. Who would have guessed we would have laser focus child??? 🙂
I asked about his skin: the poor kid is riddled with baby acne and has skin peeling off of his whole head. He looks like he’s gone on too many benders while on a strictly fast food and beer diet. On the upside, he hasn’t told us we don’t understand him or demanded the car keys. In any case, it’s all part of cradle cap and is normal- even if it’s not so attractive. She said that we should wash his hair with Selsun Blue and for some reason that seems to help with the acne too.
Jackson also wanted to demonstrate his output skills at the docs- and impress he did! When we stripped him nekkied to weigh him, he peed all over the scale and his head- for the third time this week. After wiping him off the best we could with paper towels, he proceeded to spit-up all down my shirt as we carried him back to the examining room, and then all over the examining room table. Our doc prefers we hold the babies as she examines them as she finds they remain calmer and more in their ‘natural habitat’. While I held my little bundle of joy and she examined him, he let out two very large solid outputs that reverberated around the room and got an eyebrow raise from not only the doc, but the new physicians assistant she was training who was standing on the other side of the room. When the doc got to the question: is he having adequate pee and solid waste she said ‘well, I clearly don’t really need to ask that one’. That’s our boy: laser focus with high velocity expulsion from every orifice. Could a mother ask for more?
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