Eli: 22 lbs.!

Well, my mom's "diet" kind of worked, once again proving that nothing, no nothing, not human nor feline nor crickets can enter and exit her house without gaining weight. Eli has now worked up to 22 lbs.!

After being perplexed as to how Eli can be <20 lbs. (2nd percentile @ 15 mos.) while a friend's kid with oral aversion who has known to vomit at the sight of food is 45th percentile and our family pastor's granddaughter with a plethora of serious health issues needing a feeding tube was 21 lbs. at 1 year, Eli has now "climbed" to 7th percentile.

I never gave his chart (now computerized) a serious look until this past appt. Eli was actually born and thrived in the first 3-4 months, regularly in the 50th to 70th percentile. Things took a nose dive from there, now making me feel kind of horrible. I knew he was kind of struggling with the breastfeeding, not having enough patience to wait for my slower letdowns. Tack on a little stress with Grandma passing away and Chang's visiting for Thanksgiving, I also didn't have the persistence to keep him at it (although, he made it pretty clear when he was done with a nursing session). Determined to keep to breastfeeding exclusively, I didn't supplement with formula and between his 4 and 6 mos. checkup, he really dropped in the charts. Kind of makes me wonder whether I made the best choice to stay BF exclusive.

Another thing I learned from the charts was that he's 50th percentile in height. He kind of bounces up and down in the height chart which Dr. Moore says just shows how inaccurate the method for measuring baby height is. But I guess that's why people look at Eli and don't always think he's a little guy. He has a little height and a belly. So who knew he was 2nd percentile.

Speaking of his belly, Dr. Moore joked, as we kept inquiring about Eli's small size: "Yeah, that Buddha belly just makes him look even more malnourished, huh?"

Just when I thought Eli is pretty small, I had a playdate with a new Y mom friend and found out that her kid (1 month younger than Eli) has yet to reach 20 lbs. So when she asked how heavy Eli was and I told her, she said, "Oh good, another small guy." You always feel better when you got a little company.