May 18: Another Growth Update

Isla had her follow up with the endocrinologist today.  The purpose of the visit was to measure her height again and see how much she has grown in the past three months.  As always with these types of posts, brace yourself for more details than you ever wanted to hear!

I wasn't sure what to expect.  Based on the way her clothes fit her, I was guessing that she had gained weight, as her belly is definitely bigger than it used to be and she fills out her shirts more.  But her 18 month pants are still plenty long, sometimes too long, on her and this doesn't seem to have changed at all over the past few months.  So my guess was that she hadn't gotten much taller.

And I was right.  She gained almost two pounds in the past three months, weighing in at 23.8 pounds today.  (I'm not 100% convinced on the accuracy of this measurement, as Isla wasn't being very cooperative.  They had to weigh me, then weigh us together, then subtract the difference...and Isla was very squirmy the whole time.)  I don't know what percentile that put her in today, but she has definitely gained weight at a good rate recently.

The problem is that she is not gaining height.  And if she continues to gain weight without getting any taller, that is definitely a problem!  I'm afraid she is going to just keep getting rounder and rounder.  Over the past few months, Isla has grown just under 1 cm taller (they do everything with a metric scale).  She was 78 cm on February 1, and today she was 78.8 cm.  That translates to just barely over 31 inches, and it puts her into the 1% for height.  Her percentile in February was 6%.  She has been borderline on the bottom of the growth curve for a while now, but she has now officially dropped off the bottom. 

So the good weight gain combined with the not very good height gain signaled to the doctor that something is not right.  If she were just "small stature" as we talked about at her last appointment, her weight and height would remain proportionate.  But since her height has almost stopped growing while she continues to eat well and gain weight normally, the doctor thought it likely that something else was going on to stunt her growth.  So she ordered some tests.  A lot of tests.  A lot of tests that are not very much fun for an almost two year old.

Isla and I headed down to the lab, where she first got some x-rays.  This was the second time Isla got x-rays in her short life (the first was for her neck as a baby).  How many almost two year olds can claim that?  Isla did not cry at all during the x-rays, but she was very nervous.  She kept saying "Mama? Mama? Mama?" in a scared little voice.  But she laid perfectly still, and they were able to get all three pictures (one of her arm and hand, one of her leg, and one of her foot) easily.  These x-rays will help the doctor to look at her growth plates and bone age to determine if something is not right there.

After the x-rays, we went back out to wait for our turn in the lab.  Then it was time to get a urine sample and draw blood.  Getting a urine sample on command from a non-potty trained almost two year old is not easy, and we were not successful today.  The doctor said not to worry about it, and if they need to, they will try again at a later date. 

Drawing five vials worth of blood from an almost two year old is also not very easy.  Isla took it like a champ.  The worst part was that they had me hold her down on the table even while they were getting everything ready.  Isla was looking straight into my eyes, whimpering, with the most confused look on her face, like she was saying, "Why, Mama?  Why are you doing this to me?"  It was horrible.

While drawing her blood, Isla cried, but she remained perfectly still which made it easier on everyone.  It felt like an eternity for them to fill up all the vials, though I'm sure it was just a couple of minutes.  Once they finally finished, Isla lost it and just started crying and sobbing uncontrollablly.  It took forever for her to stop crying, and then once she stopped, she just laid still and wouldn't move until she finally fell asleep at home.   She was not happy.  Fortunately, after she woke up from her nap, she was back to her usual happy self.  Poor girl, it was not a fun morning at all!

After all of that, I thought Isla deserved a special treat.  Though she did come home with eight stickers this morning, as everyone at the doctor's office felt sorry for all she had to go through.  Daniel and Audrey went out on a date night tonight (more on that in another post), so Isla and I went out to get ice cream!

And while I am writing about Isla, I finally got a little video of her talking!  Yesterday, she was all of a sudden ready and willing to talk to me on camera.  It's not much, but it is the most she has ever talked in front of the camera!