9 Month Stats

This morning Suri had her 9 month appointment with her Pediatrician, Dr. Engle. When we arrived, we were one of the first appointments of the morning. Suri was as cheerful as she always is and greeted the staff with her warm smile and with one arm raised over her head (I'm not sure if this is now her new "hi" or if is a lazy way of doing 1/2 of "SO BIG" : )   Regardless, everyone talked to her and told her what a big girl she was. Suri loved all the attention.
Dr. Engle was happy to see Suri and she too could not believe how much she has grown since her 6 month appointment. So much for the tiny little munchkin I used to have. The "preemie" growth chart is a thing of the past as this baby is now practically off the charts for a TERM baby. Suri's 9 month statistics are as follows:
Length: 30 3/4inches = 100 %
Weight: 22lbs 14.5 inches = 95%
Head Circumference: 46cm = 93%

Her growth has taken off these past 3 months which partially correlates with the fact that she is not rolling and crawling yet. Basically Dr. Engle feels that part of Suri's lower tone (hypotonia) is due to her weaker core muscles. Her muscles are that of an 8 month old supporting the comparable growth of a 15 month old. Suri is so long that she has not developed the strength just yet to be able to coordinate her movements. Dr. Engle feels that Suri is advanced on her social skills as well as on her fine motor skills ( yay!) and she feels Suri will catch up on her gross motor skills in time. She has set 12 months for her goal for crawling and 15 months for her goal for walking. She said if she is still not walking by 18 months, we will discuss options for evaluation at that time. She suggests I continue with Suri's physical therapy for an additional 3 months and we will see how Suri has progressed at her 12 month check up.

Suri had to have her toe poked today to run a blood test for Anemia. She didn't even flinch and the results came back A- OK.  No anemia! ( good thing she doesn't take after me in the Anemia category : )

Now, for the exciting part...her ears were squeaky clean !  No wax... No Fluid... NO INFECTION!!!  I am so glad I decided to hold off on the placement of her tubes! Dr. Engle is hopeful she will remain infection free and come fall (when respiratory season begins), if Suri gets 2 back to back ear infections early on during respiratory season, we should go for tubes in order to protect her from the duration of respiratory season- if she does not get 2 more back to back, we are probably in the clear and will not need tubes. I will keep my fingers AND toes crossed that that is the case and I am so thankful I didn't proceed with a procedure that looks like it might have been unnecessary at this point.

Overall, Suri had a stellar 9 month check up. She is a healthy, happy, smart baby girl that is growing up all too fast : )