Failure to what?!?

We had a successful 9 month check up.  Amelia weighs 15 lbs 2 oz - which is less than 5th percentile - I'll come back to that in a minute.  She's 27 inches long and her head is about 17 inches around.  Her head and length are near the 50th percentile.  First of all, how do they come up with these percentile rankings?  As a mother, you're always comparing where your kid stands in the percentile mark to see how they compare to their peers.  But ultimately, every baby is so different it's hard to come up with averages.  And I've never met one baby who was average all the way through.  So Amelia is less than 5th percentile in weight.  Which we knew was a small issue - no pun intended.  The condition is called "Failure to Thrive".  By the way, this diagnosis sucks.  No parent wants to hear "Failure to.... " anything with their kid.  Her pediatrician wanted us to do some blood work to make sure her chemistry was fine.  And sure enough, all blood work came back normal.  What does that mean now?  Now we have to see a nutritionist and do some calorie counting.  The goal is to make sure she's getting enough calories per day to continue developing at a normal rate.  Some recent recommendations from her doctor and nutritionist friends include adding butter to her cereal!  Not a bad diet, huh?  The upside to this issue is that she has been able to use her 3-6 month clothes for an extended period of time!  I keep trying to put her in 6-12 month clothes and they just swallow her up.  Either way, I'm mixing it up and some things are 3-6 month and others 6-12 month.  One day she'll fit into her big girl clothes!


Amelia recently started going to a new daycare. Martin and I were not crazy about her old day care and felt it was time to change.  This new place is amazing!  Because this new place is so much better, I feel like we've been slumming it this whole time at the old place.  But we have learned a valuable lesson - go with your first instincts.  The new day care is part of a Baptist church and the teachers and staff are so wonderful.  On Friday, Amelia had a mother's day present for me - a flower picture frame and her hand print with a poem!  I love being a mom!  Tomorrow is my first Mother's Day and I'm so looking forward to it.  On top of being so happy to be a mom myself, I have never been in such awe over my own mother.  I now understand so many things about her and what she gave up for me.  My admiration and appreciation of her is beyond words or description.  To my mom - I love you more now than ever.  Thank you for being the most wonderful friend, mother and grandmother anyone could ever ask for!


Happy Mother's Day, everyone!

Big hug and kiss for mommy:)

Silly girl after bath time

She loves being in the water!

Playing on the big girl slide!