At 9 months old, Xaris Sofia stands a whopping 27.25 inches tall (40th percentile).
Her head circumference is 17.24 (45th percentile).
Unfortunately, she's only grown longer, and hasn't gained any weight in a month, so she's at 15 lbs, 10.5 oz, a mere 5th percentile. We've got a long, lean baby for now. She was getting pretty chubby several weeks ago, so I suppose it was just preparation for this growth spurt in height!
We had a traumatic day at the lab getting blood taken for some routine tests (lead and anemia I think?) However, it was so difficult for them to find a vein (2 sticks and lots of digging around), before they decided to do a finger prick and just "milk" the blood out. I ended up yelling at one of the phlebotomists--she came to help, but didn't listen and shook the vial of blood without putting the top on first. Result: blood spilled everywhere and they needed to take more from Xaris.
Final result, X doesn't seem any worse for the wear, but I'm still mad that we had to do this and called our dr's office to talk with the nurse and the office manager. I let them know that I would not be taking her to get any more "routine" blood work or anything else of the sort unless they can send me to someone who specializes in infants/peds. But I'm curious--for those of you who have 9 month or older babies--did you have to do these tests? I might start fighting some of the things they just want me to automatically do here, unless the dr. convinces me how necessary it is. What were the 9 month things you had to do? (Or---maybe I should think ahead--what happens at 12 months? 15?)
Not sure if this is just one of those living-in-the-south things, or if it's actually a horrible ordeal that we just have to endure?
7 comments:
I was just thinking the other day that we haven't had to have any blood drawn since Ian was born (his PKU's-heel prick) almost 3 years ago. So, it's not routine at our Ped's office.
Peter had blood drawn, but it wasn't routine (Pre-op I think?? I can't remember). It might be a geographic difference, but I don't remember ever ordering routine bloodwork on a kid in med school and my kids haven't had any ordered on them. Maybe they were checking because she's so small or because there's a lot of lead paint in the area? They should at least explain it to you.
Also, you live in a big city or nearish a big city. If you need more bloodwork, haul her over to the childrens hospital. They're always fantastic. Peter had surgery at Childrens in Seattle when he was 4 months old and they were FANTASTIC for everything from blood draws on out.
Thanks guys...I'll definitely put up much more of a fight next time they try to tell me something like this is routine. that's good advice to go to childrem's christine, thanks!
Calia,
So frustrating! No we haven't had to do anything like that either. We've opted for an alternative schedule for vaccinations, but I've learned a few things from the ones we've had that I'll pass along.
At about 1 year, the nurse we saw told me to distract Magnolia while she gave her the shot. I talked to her about the wall paper and pictures on the wall and she was almost totally oblivious. The next time 18 months, the nurse tried to show Maggie the shot and explain it to her. It totally freaked her out. Since then I take a little more control and do what the first nurse suggested. Way better! I just share this to encourage you to go with your instinct and put up a fight.
Lily had a blood test done to check for anemia at nine months, but it was not traumatic at all for her. Then we just had the usual shots at 12 months and 15 months. Ask what to expect for the next appointment and hopefully you won't get any more nasty surprises.
Our pediatrician spaces out the vaccinations so that they don't have to get poked so many times in one appointment and so that they're not responding to so many vaccinations in their system all at one time.
We had blood work done for Charlie (we live in a lead high risk area) and went to the hospital for it since they have more experience with children. It was a great experience. If you have to do it again, I would suggest asking the dr to suggest the place with most experience with baby blood work near you and go there.
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