Friday, January 15, 2010

How old are you really?



Analiese went for her well check up today. The pediatrician said she is an extremely healthy little girl! She is 44 inches tall and 37 1/2 pounds! That puts her in less than the 3rd percentile. That's actually an improvement as for the first years home she didn't even make the growth chart!!!

Dave did discuss with the doctor our concerns about Analiese's "age". He jokingly passed on my request to "cut off a limb" to count the rings and see how old Analiese really was. Even though the pediatrician laughed, she told us that we could do a bone scan and find out, within 3 months, what Analiese's age really was.

It didn't take a minute for David to agree. It was a simple procedure--an x-ray of Analiese's hand. They will measure the wrist growth plate as well as the growth around her knuckles and get a very good age estimate!

Why do we want to know her "real" age? Oh, for so many reasons. But, mainly, for her. As she matures and grows she'll want to know the "whys'. Will we change her birth certificate or do anything formal? We decided no. However, we will know and more importantly Analiese will know.

Analiese is EXTREMELY bright. She questions why she is so small, why others can do things she cannot, why she has a "hole" in her mouth, why she has to roll up her sleeves on her shirts and why she can't do some things that her friends can do. We can't answer everything for her but we want to do our best to give her the answers we can get.

Our guess is that Analiese's real age is about a young 6 year old--not a 7 1/2 old. Will that change anything that we do? Not really. It will validate our suspicions and allow us to reevaluate our expectations for her.

Analiese will always be who she is, nothing will change that. But...we are pretty excited that we may be able to give her a piece of the puzzle of her life.

By the way, Analiese has the most beautiful hands around--and the x-ray proves it!

5 comments:

Laura and Erik said...

We did the same x-Ray on Ellie Grace. It confirmed her age to be accurate, she is just very petite.

Ellen and Kevin Fay said...

Hi! Thanks for the recommendation -- our oven is listed on Craigslist under "Kenmore Elite Stainless Oven," but I can send some pics too! Thanks again, ellen

Ellen and Kevin Fay said...

Ha ha, I meant the oven, not the house. Thanks, Ellen

The Accidental Mommy said...

Hi- saw your post under my blogher ads. My daughter had failure to thrive and was way under the 3rd percentile, about a 2 year old at age 4. Her bone age was right on though and she grew about 11 inches the first year she lived with us. A child being thought of as 18 months older, that would be hard on her I would imagine!

Anonymous said...

Maya's still hanging in at 36-37 lbs herself, and I just measured her height and she's just about 44 ". Those 2 stick together, don't they??

Nancy