Katie’s weight
I know for most parents, and mothers especially, the months of watching the scale move up while they’re pregnant is replaced by watching the scale move up when their baby is born. Due to the recommendations from the American Pediatric Association, most babies only come in for well-baby visits every 2 months until they are 6 months old. So for Andy, he was gaining weight fine at his 2 month visit, but had only gained a few ounces according to the doctors at his 4 month visit. I told them he had lost weight because I had weighed him at home when he was 3 months old and he was over 12 pounds. The doctors blew me off and said that it’s hard to trust a home scale. If only they had listened to me, we may have avoided 3 weeks of agonizing pain for Andy!
Nevertheless, knowing what we do now, of course the pediatricians are checking Katie every month. So when she went in for her 5 month weight check, she was down 8 ounces to 12 pounds 8.5 ounces. I know that may seem small, but when you consider how small babies are to start with, that is pretty significant. They sent me home with orders to continue with my normal routine, only supplementing with formula if she seemed hungry after nursing. Two weeks later, we came back for another weight check and she was down another 4 ounces. The doctor said he was concerned so we started a whole host of blood tests and stool tests just to make sure that there was no underlying issue. Her blood sugars continued to remain stable in the low to mid 100’s so at least we knew it was not directly related to her blood sugars. I was ordered to stop nursing and just pump to see exactly how much she was getting.
Within 5 days, she had gained 8 ounces and within another week, she had passed her 4 month weight. She is now at 13 pounds 4 ounces (as of 2/17). While that is still on the small side for a six month old (she’s six months today!), we may just have a small baby on our hands. The more I talk to other parents of children with the V59M mutation of the gene, the more I find out that these children tend to be smaller. I’m not sure if this holds true for all of the children with this mutation, but it would be something interesting to investigate. Anyway, whether or not the gene causes the low weight is not as important as the fact that she is now growing again. I have had to increase her glyburide due to her taking in much more milk now. I have officially stopped nursing though. After 2 weeks of only taking milk (formula and mommy milk) from a bottle, she would just have none of it so I quit. I’m now over a huge phase in my life. My childbearing years are over and now my nursing time is over too. At least we can breath a sigh of relief that there is no underlying issue as all of her tests came back normal.
I n0w really do have to stop comparing her to Andy because her path will be so different from his from this point on. When Andy was this age, he was on insulin and it really bulked him up so he was a chunky baby until he was about 18 months old. He started thinning out just before he transitioned off of the insulin. After that, he shot up 3 inches in about 5 months and continues to be very skinny, but very muscular (my handsome little man!). It is still too early to tell if Katie will have any developmental delays. For now, she is meeting all her milestones either early or right on track, so we are keeping our fingers crossed and praying every day that she will continue this way. Who knows, maybe she can help teach her older brother in a year or two!
