July 9, 2010

Leading Indicators

Sabrina had her one month check-up this morning. She gained another pound since 2 weeks ago, so her growth is right on schedule. I ran her statistics to find out her percentiles and then I thought to do the same with the height and weight measurements that I took of Emma and Lorelei exactly a month ago. I have to say that the results were surprising.

Sabrina at 1 month: 9 lbs. 8 ozs.  21 1/4 inches in length and a head circumference of 14 inches. She grew but stayed pretty much at the same percentile rankings as at birth and at 2 weeks. 53% for weight, 48% for length and 16% for her head size.

Emma at 2 years 9 months: 35 lbs. and 37 inches tall. I like the symmetry of those numbers. It made me think of her as being "squared". Not surprising that put her at 90% for weight but surprisingly her height is only 64%. She seems so tall to me and so much taller than the other kids in her class at school, but I guess she isn't so tall after all.

Lorelei at 5 years 1 month: 43 lbs. and 44 1/2 inches tall. Again, good symmetry but it doesn't work out that way in the percentiles. She is at 65% for her weight and 79% for height. I'm not too surprised about her weight, although I wouldn't have been surprised had it been lower either because she is such a skinny minny. I was surprised that she moved out of the middle of the pack for her height. Maybe we'll get a volleyball player after all.

If I had to predict (and I did) about future statures based on early indicators, I had thought that Emma would end up being taller than average and several inches taller than Lorelei. Maybe that isn't how things will pan out at all. Or maybe I need to take a more nuanced review of the data to determine if the girls' growths spurts start with vertical or weight growth. Hmmm............ I'll get back to you on that one.

No comments: