Growth-wise, David is 23 lbs, 4 oz, 30" long, and has a head circumference of some magnitude, which I never bother to remember. For his age (no longer being adjusted for prematurity because he's [almost] two!), his weight is the 50th percentile, height is 10th percentile, and weight for height is 75th. These percentages are all on charts for kids with Down syndrome - if they used the "regular" ones he probably wouldn't even be on the graph, especially height-wise. For those of you who are new to our family, David started out in the world at 2 lbs, 13 oz, and 15.5" long. He gained weight very slowly while in the NICU, and after 13 weeks there he only weighed 7 lbs, 0.2 oz This was partly a suck/swallow issue common in kids with Down syndrome (and other preemies, I suppose), but mostly due to his heart defect - eating was just exhausting for him, and we barely managed to get his daily minimum of formula or breast milk in him. After his heart surgery, weight gain came much more easily - the day his pulmonologist told us he was getting too fat was a wonderful day for us:
2 lbs 13 oz is actually not that small, I guess - we have heard approximately a million stories about smaller babies, and the one family we got to know in the NICU, their daughter was barely over a pound. And 32 weeks' gestation is not horribly early. But with the heart defect, Down syndrome and slow growth, and getting hit with two back-to-back serious infections, he was a pretty sick little guy for quite some time. For so long it seemed our entire lives consisted of hospitals, tests, doctor appointments, differing opinions, and 24/7 feedback on his health that it has taken us some time to realize that he's really not a sick little baby anymore - he is a big, healthy, thriving [almost] two-year-old boy.
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