Well Charted Territory

Thanks to everyone who offered their stories and thoughts about the last post. It was especially nice to hear from Julie (finally!) It's nice to feel that I'm not alone. Sometimes you throw these things out there and are never sure if people will think you are insane or brilliant. Although, I always love to think it's the latter, I'm hoping it's somewhere in between the two.

Owen had a well check at his new pediatrician's last week (our previous ped retired) and here are the latest stats.
At 17 months old, Owen is 28 3/4th inches, 22.5 lbs with a head circumference of 52.5cm. Just to give a little perspective as to where that puts him on the growth charts I've plotted him so that you can get a visual!

*Copyright Information*
These charts are copyrighted by the American Academy of Pediatrics

Ok, what you are looking at here are the charts for males with achondroplasia. The charts also include average height curves so that you can plot simultaniously. The grey area is average height and the unbroken lines are the achondroplasia curve. The height and circumference is in centimeters and weight is in kilograms. Here are the links in case you would like to examine further
Health Supervision for Children with Achondroplasia.

Owen seems to be falling in about the 75th percentile for height on the achondroplasia chart.

His head size is a little below the 50th percentile in his chart and off the pin heads - ahem - I mean average size baby charts. Sorry average height babies, that was a cheap shot!

I'll be honest. I don't really know what is going on in this chart. He's kind of in the middle so I'm assuming that's good. You're on your own with this one.

There were 2 shocking parts about Owen's measurements. #1 - He kinda had a growth spurt! His last measurement at 14 months was 27 inches. Almost 2 inches in 3 months is significant considering that he has grown 10 inches over the span of his entire life. Shocking fact #2 - He has only gained 5 ounces since March. He's thinning out! This is something I never thought would happen. OK, let me rephrase that. I'm not saying I thought he would stay his wonderful squishy self forever, I just thought the thinning out growth spurts were reserved for average height kids. At this point, I've pretty much gotten used to his growth progressing by fractions of inches so anything over an inch was a pleasant surprise.

In other news, I finally made an appointment with Dr. Pauli. Dr. Pauli is the former Chairman for the LPA Medical Advisory Board and commenly acknowledged as the doc du jour for little people. He is based in Wisconsin but has satellite offices in Akron, OH and Grand Rapids, MI. We will be seeing him in Grand Rapids sometime in October. We got the chance to meet him at the National Conference and thought he was great! He was actually surprised that there was an infant with dwarfism in Michigan that he hasn't seen!

Other upcoming appointments: Sleep study re-do in September. His Dec '07 study was inconclusive so we are doing it again. I should say, Dan is doing it this time. Once was enough for me! We have another MRI in October. His first MRI showed some narrowing of the foramen magnum and enlarged ventricles. Our neurologist recommended have another MRI in 6 months, so we will go back to poke around a bit. October will also be his first real orthopedic appointment. We had a consult in May, but will go back for X Rays and a full exam in the now very busy upcoming months.

I know I promised more Drew and Owen pictures, but I left my camera at my cousins so they will have to wait. I can however, tide the picture-lovers over with shots from our outing at the Grand Blanc Splash Pad!

Splash pad buddies, Drew, Owen and Blake