September 7: 15 months old

Isla was technically 15 months old last week, but she had her 15 month check up today.  She weighed in at 20 pounds, 7 ounces, and she was 29.5 inches tall.

 At her last checkup, I was shocked at how low her weight was (19 lbs, 7 oz).  That is not really an extremely low weight, but she was so chubby; I was expecting big numbers on the scale.  Again today, I was expecting the scale to say somewhere between 23-25 pounds (Audrey was almost 22 pounds at this age and Isla looks bigger to me), and I was so surprised to see 20 pounds.  Our doctor was a little surprised at Isla's size too, as her growth rate has been decreasing for the past few months.

I have always used percentiles from an online chart to record Isla's growth because our doctor doesn't always give us a number (and I like to keep track of those things).  Today I got the percentiles from the doctor and they are significantly different than what I have recorded so far.  For my records, here is an update on her official growth percentiles so far:

Newborn-- Weight:  1%, Height:  40%, Head:  26%
2 Months-- Weight:  5%, Height:  33%, Head:  44%
4 months--  Weight:  28%, Height:  44%, Head:  47%
6 months--  Weight:  57%, Height: 37%, Head: 70%
9 months--  Weight:  65%, Height: 39%, Head: 68%
12 months-- Weight:  47%, Height: 26%, Head: 68%
15 months-- Weight: 37%, Height:  15%, Head: 67%

With the growth charts, the percentiles really don't matter that much.  What matters (to the doctors at least) is that they continue to grow on the same curve and the percentiles remain consistent.  Isla's curve was moving up consistently, but the past six months or so it has begun to take a turn downward.  Not too drastic, but still consistently down.

This caught me off guard, because Audrey was always so consistent and right in the middle of the growth chart every time.  Most likely, this is not a big deal.  After a quick inquiry on Facebook today, I got lots of feedback from many others whose kids had similar drops on their growth curves without any problems.   Even though she didn't grow as much as we expected, she did gain one pound and grow one inch in the last three months, so I think she is most likely just fine.

Our doctor was most concerned about her height growth moving in the wrong direction.  She wants to keep an eye on her.  If Isla's percentiles continue to go down at her next appointment (at 18 months), she may want to run some tests.  We'll see.  Since lack of growth was a concern before Isla was born and since she has had some developmental delays, I think our doctor wants to be cautious and make sure everything is 100% okay. 

There is always something to worry about with our sweet baby Isla, isn't there?   Fortunately, up to this point, she has never had anything seriously wrong with her.  I'm praying her good health and ability to prove doctors wrong will continue!

This is a classic Isla face.  She just has this ornery, mischevious look about her, don't you think?

 I wrote an update a few weeks ago about some things Isla is doing now, here are a few more:

• She hasn't really added many more words to her vocabulary.  I would like to hear her saying more, but it's early and she is not behind yet.  So I'm not worried yet.
• She loves to point at things and say "huh??"  I think she wants to know the words for everything.  Even though she isn't really repeating words back to us much, I think she is still learning them.
• She knows a few more body parts, including eyes and belly button.
• She makes some sounds for different emotions:  "ha, ha, ha" for happy, "grrr" for grumpy, and "oh" for suprised/excited.
•  I feel like she understands A LOT of what we say to her.  I am constantly surprised when I tell her to do something and she does it! 
• Things she loves:  necklaces, shoes, the TV show Bubble Guppies, crayons, sitting in chairs, building towers, and imitating her big sister!
• When she sees Elmo, she starts saying "la, la, la" (that is the opening to Elmo's theme song, and she knows this thanks to an Elmo phone that plays the song over and over again)
•  She now has eleven teeth, including both molars on the bottom.  Her top gums are super swollen, and I expect to see those molars peeking through soon.  
• Isla is not quite as chill and laid back as she once was.  She is learning to express her opinion about more and more things.  She is having some separation anxiety and doesn't always like to go to the nursery at church.  She is proving to be very stubborn at times!
• Since my exciting news the other night that Isla was taking steps, she hasn't done too much more.  Yesterday, I got her to take some steps again a few times, but today she refused.  Anytime I tried to get her to let go and walk, she immediately sat herself down.  Frustrating, but I should have known better than to think it would be so easy!

Here are a few outtakes from our photo shoot today.   This was the first time that Isla would not sit still for me to take her picture with Raggedy Ann.  I think that shows big improvement in her development and movement...a 15 month old shouldn't be willing to sit perfectly still!

 And here's one more picture of my little chubster...to show that all this talk about her not growing enough is just silly!!