I wanted to update you on some developments since Seth’s 4 month check-up.  I had known that Seth has not been gaining weight at the rate expected by the growth charts, so I knew we would be discussing that on Wednesday.  At his last week’s appointment for a cold he weighed 14 lbs 9 oz with his clothes and diaper on.  At this week’s appointment he weighed 14 lbs 6.5 oz (without his clothes and diaper).  So I am guessing he probably gained a small amount of weight.  It is not like he’s extremely small either.  I looked it up on the growth chart and he is in the 25th percentile.  It is just that he started in the 75th percentile.  But since all my kids have dropped on the charts at one point or another (including Emma who actually dropped off the bottom of the chart, but that doesn’t really count) the doctor is not really worried about it.  The thing that surprised me more actually was that he dropped from the 97th percentile in height to the 50th percentile.  He actually did not grow in length at all in the last 2 months.  But I assume that he was concentrating on something else – like rolling over.  🙂  His head circumference grew a whole inch since 2 months though, so I guess he’s just going to concentrate on being smart instead of the really tall kid I thought he was going to be.  🙂

Anyway, all this wouldn’t be an issue at all since all my kids are on the small size.  The doctor did suggest starting solid foods if he will take them to add some extra calories in.  He’s started already showing interest in food when we eat, so I am excited to try giving him rice cereal soon (as soon as I make it to the store to get some).

When the doctor did do the physical exam though, he noticed that Seth has a heart murmur.  Again, probably not worrisome (most likely a functional murmur I’m guessing, which are normal), but with his slow weight gain and Emma’s medical history, the doctor wants to be extra careful and get a heart echocardiogram done.  Seth never has had one, even when I was pregnant with him, so this will just give us a good idea of what his heart looks like and if there are any issues we need to be aware of.  He is obviously in very good health and not showing any of the problems Emma did, so we are not anticipating anything major.  I am actually anticipating that they will not find anything, I think that is much more likely.

So Seth and Will will both be going in to get heart echos.  To explain why Will is going in, in case I forgot to post it here, he is going in because he has not outgrown the circulation issue he has in his feet and hands.  They often turn blue, purple, or motteled pink.  They also sometimes looked swollen.  Of course that could just be because his feet are chubby.  Again, he has not shown any other signs of a heart issue, and he actually did get a heart echo done in the womb with no signs of problems.  But just to be on the safe side, he also will get an echo.