Tory's 9 month check-up

[Kensbev]

She's going to hate going to the doctor if this keeps up!

First, we got the news that she's 29 inches, 21 pounds. 90-95th and 75th-90th percentiles, respectively. So, she's a big girl, but we knew that. Weight for length is 50-75th, so she's still my little Chubba Wubba!

Then, they stuck her finger to test her iron levels. She was showing she might be anemic, so they tried to draw her blood. I shouldn't laugh about this, but she was so fat that they had a hard time finding veins. Then, when the first nurse tried to draw her blood, she stuck her but couldn't get the vein. So, they sent another nurse in, who also stuck her, but Tory tensed up and the vein slipped off the needle. So, now we have to take her to the hospital to have her blood drawn.

Fortunately for me, DH took the rest of the day off work, and he's taken her to the hospital for testing. He claims he doesn't need the breast to comfort her. Whatever. I will unashamedly admit that I was actually breastfeeding Tory from the first time they stuck her finger until a couple of minutes after the second time they tried to draw blood, lol. Hey, I will happily use the tools God gave me to keep her happy!

[LaDonna]

Bev I will be praying that all goes well at the Dr. Our youngest dd just turned 2 in Nov. and they checked her iron levels the first of Dec. and they came back dangerously low....this was one of the first visits to the new pedi who is nothing more than an answered prayer. The Dr. put her on liquid iron supplements she took them for about a month and her levels are exactly where they need to be...I don't think your lil one is going to have any trouble she sounds like she is a very good weight. My girls are both very small frame like their daddy and that is one of the reasons the dr. wanted to check iron. Oldest dd her iron was right on the mark. While taking the iron dd grew over an inch and has been bouncing off the walls. Our old pedi should have had an iron test done at 9 mths but never did one and I didn't know anything about them or if and when they should be given. Your girls are too cute by the way.

[Kensbev]

Thanks so much for the kind words. Actually, I think that she might be a little anemic. Only because I was praying after they said her iron levels were low that the second test would come back clear if we didn't need to do anything for Tory's iron levels. (I didn't want her to have to go through the blood draw if she didn't have to.) I kinda have faith that God is only letting us go through all of this because we need to get our girl a little help.

What you said about your dd growing an inch in a month kinda scares me, though. Seriously, if Tory is 90-95th percentile *with* low iron, what's it going to be like when it gets corrected?! I already expect that both of my girls will be taller than me (I'm 5'2", DH is 6'4"), but how much taller?!?

[LaDonna]

O I am sorry I didn't mean to scare you with the growth thing,,, Emma is short like me and on the slightly lower end of the growth chart. We did liquid iron supplements for a month. We started out taking it 3 x's a day and then went to twice a day when her levels started improving....the iron med was really cheap it was only like $7 and change. I word of caution it can make her poop really dark and even make her constipated...we only had one day of constipation and it was not bad. Another thing that I started to notice after a few days was her teeth which have always been really pretty and white started to become discolored....duh I didn't read to put it with water so they could actually drink it and by pass the teeth once we started doing this her teeth went back to white and no dullness. Keep me up to date with everything. We go on Wednesday for dd 4 yr checkup and we are going to get Emma's iron checked while we are there.

[Kensbev]

You didn't *really* scare me. I was just joking, since she's already such a big girl! Actually, I always wanted to be tall, so I guess I can live vicariously through my girl!

Thanks for the tips on giving her the meds! I'm already all prepared for her to be low; I can't figure out why else she would have to go through all this stuff, otherwise. Hopefully, I'll find out from the ped pretty soon!