update on the kids

Spencer
I can't believe Spencer is already 8 months. I swear the second one ages so much faster than the first. He seems to be quickly following in Kyah's footsteps as far as growth. He grew real fast at first, just like she did, but seems to have slowed down. I make a point to weigh and measure him every month, even when I don't have a doctor's appointment for him, and he didn't put on any weight or height this month. I guess my kids are just destined to be small like the Jorgensons! My pediatrician has decided that Kyah was always so small and behind in milestones because she is severely anemic, so he already wants me to start Spencer on an iron supplement. We'll see how that works out for him since I'm starting a lot sooner than I did with Kyah (and I know how detrimental it can be if I accidentally forget to give it to him, so I've been really consistent.) He seems to be hitting all his milestones right on time so I'm pretty pleased with that. He's been watching Kaylee barrell roll around the floor for months as a means of getting around and has just figured that out this month. All of a sudden, he's not so content with just staying put. He's all over the place. It was actually quite nice to not ever have to worry about what he would get into if I left him alone for a few minutes. Those days are gone! Also like Kyah, he gave me a hard time when it came time to solid foods. Kyah just plain didn't like them and didn't want anything to do with them. Spencer really liked them, he just wanted to feed himself. He would grab the spoon every time and it would take like 20 minutes just to feed him half of a stage one baby food and it would be ALL OVER him. It was hardly worth it. Eating is something else he has figured out recently. He actually lets me feed him (most of the time) and is way neater about it. Sometimes he'll even open his mouth without being coerced (tickling or making him laugh.) He's just like Kyle when it comes to eating....he like to savor every bite and roll it around on his tongue for a bit, and waits a minute between every bite. It's only slightly annoying! :)

Kyah
Like I said before, Kyah has almost always been small. She was top of the percentiles for her height and weight when she was born, up until she was 3 months old. That's when her growth started to taper off. She stopped growing at 4 months. She was 14 pounds and 24 1/2 inches at her 4 month check up. She was 14.75 pounds and 27 inches at her 1 year check up. It was really scary not knowing why she was not growing. After much testing (and everything coming back negative, thank goodness) the doctor decided it was simply anemia. I started giving her iron supplments a long time ago. She started to grow slowly. She was still off the charts small at her 2 year check up and when he tested her iron levels, they were still lower than he wanted them to be. He decided she just wasn't absorbing the iron I was giving her. So rather than giving her 10 mg/day in one dose, he wanted me to divide it into 2-5mg doses. He explained it that no matter how much iron I was giving her (whether it be 5 mg or 15) she would only absorb, say, 3 mg at a time. So, if I gave her 5 twice, she would be getting 6 mg per day. Well, obviously it worked. At her two year check up, she was 31 inches and 25 pounds. Her weight was barely on the charts, her height was still not at all. Well, now, just 3 short months later, she is 34 inches tall and weighs 28 pounds. That is the biggest growth spurt she has had in her whole life! She is actually considered average size her for age. The doctor also contributed her anemia to her slow pace in reaching milestones...it's all related. Iron not only makes the body grow, it makes the brain grow. She just seems to be taking off. She is still very far behind other kids her age as far as what she should be doing, but she is progressing faster than she ever has before. We've got her signed up for speech therapy twice a month. She has only had one appointment so far, but I'm starting to wonder if she needs it. She seems to be figuring it all out on her own. I'll give it a few months and see if I think it's doing any good. She's such a sweet girl (most of the time) and I'm so happy to see her progress!

I unfortunately don't have a really cute recent picture of Kyah...I just took this one the other day for fun....what a bad mom I am. I need to be better with the camera!