Grow, baby, grow!

We had Callie's 6 month appointment on March 25th. She got her 6 month shots which she took like a trooper. She only cried a little. They also did all her measurements.

Weight - 16.4 lbs - 51%
Height - 26.5 inches - 73%

Then the nurse measured her head.

Head - 46.2 cm - 100+%

The nurse remeasured because she said she knew the pediatrician would make her do it again. Same thing. Then Dr. Day came in and he measured her head. He got an even bigger measurement than the nurse. I started to get a little nervous since they were making such a fuss about it. I asked what it means for her head to be so big and he told me to hang on for a second while he put some information into the computer.

Let me give you some backstory on this girl's head. It was big when she was born. You might recall from her birth story that the doctor had to use forceps to get her big ole head out. Then after we got her home, she started to get a flat place on one side. We had to position her so that she laid on the other side of her head in her carseat, bouncy seat, crib, etc. There was even talk of putting her in a helmet at her 2 week and 2 month appointments. Luckily, that worked itself out and at her 4 month appointment, the shape was fine and the doctor felt good about it. I, however, being the new sometimes worrisome mom I am, have always worried about her head. It's always the top of my list of questions to ask her doctor at every visit. So, this measuring and remeasuring of her head had me getting a little tense.

Now, where were we? Oh, yes, he was putting info in the computer.

So he got it all put in and showed me why he was concerned about her head size. Because you may be thinking what many people have told me since this day...don't all babies have heads that are bigger than anything else for a while?? Well, his concern was more about her head growth from 4 months (our last appt) to 6 months. Apparently it had grown exponentially faster than anything else in that time. He showed me some graphs charting her growth and her height and weight had always been on this nice curve that is considered "normal" development. Her head had been on that curve at 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months but it had started to spike up off the curve at 4 months, but not too much. But now her line was spiked completely straight up, showing an abnormal amount of growth. Then he started to speak to me about what that means. The long story short version is that he used words like "neurosurgeon" and "cat scan" and "surgery" and "fluid on the brain" and other similiarly scary terms. But he also said that since her development is right on for where it should be that he wasn't too concerned but he wanted to get her checked out just to be safe.

Okay.

He really did share that information with me in a very gentle way. I think he was expecting me to lose it. To cry. To go all new mom crazy. But I didn't. I was very calm. I think mostly because she is on track developmentally. However, since I have always had concerns about her head it was a bit scary. Plus, with brain surgery as the cure for what may be ailing your 6 month old, it's pretty scary. They told me they would set up the appointment for us for Callie to get a cat scan asap. They reassured me that she is fine and nothing would happen to her before we made it to the appointment. Thank you God for that.

That was a Friday. Fast-forward to Monday. They call me to tell me her appointment was on Wednesday at 8am and that we would have results by noon that same day.

On Wednesday we went to the appointment for Callie to have a cat scan. I wondered how in the world this would work! Turns out it's pretty simple. Courtney and I got to go in with her and after they got  her laid down and strapped in, Courtney kept her arms down and still and I held a bottle then her pacifier in her mouth. It was very noisy and her little eyes got so big when it started but she did so good. It was only in like 15-30 seconds and we were out and on our way.

Then we waited. UGH! That noon phone call did not come until 3pm. Waiting is so hard! But the news was GREAT! She is completely and totally normal!! No fluid on her brain...her bone structure is perfect...all is well! He said even if her head continues to grow that he wouldn't be concerned because everything looked perfect. YAY!

You know what that means though, right? We've got one big headed little girl on our hands! hahahaha! We can laugh about it now. :)

So, grow baby Callie grow! But that head can slow down a bit! ;)

And here's our sweet girl playing in a trash can

at my parent's house in Hot Springs Village.