One Year Stats

Benjamin's 1 year statistics are in:

He's just barely 18 lbs. and is 26.5 inches.

I was thrilled with his numbers but his nutritionist was...not so thrilled.

"He's a good weight for his height," she said. "But when I put him on the chart for his age he's short and underweight. When I adjust for his prematurity his numbers get a little better but he's still short and underweight."

I can't find a calculator right now that will tell me exactly where he stands on the growth chart—it just says that he's "less than the third" percentile. But you know what? He started out at 4 lbs. 13 oz. and 16.5 inches so he's gained over 13 lbs. and 10 inches this past year. That's not too shabby.

Miriam went from 7 lbs. to 19 lbs. and from 18.9 inches to 28 inches. She only gained 12 lbs...and, granted, grew a whole foot. Quite frankly, though, Benjamin doesn't have that much on her. She wasn't a huge one-year-old either.

Rachel was 7 lbs. 7 oz. and 19.5 inches at birth and at one year she was 19 lbs. 12 oz. and 30.5 inches. She was definitely my biggest baby. No contest. She gained just over 12 lbs and grew only eleven inches.

Anyway, the nutritionist pointed out that it's odd that he's super short because I'm pretty tall. I told her that we have short people in our family. I don't know how tall I was at age one but I'm sure I wasn't very tall because Miriam's also short—she's 38 inches right now—and I was only 39 inches at 4 years old (Miriam will probably be about that tall, too). My sister Josie, on the other hand, was super tall as a toddler and preschooler but now that she's full grown she's...short. You just never know how these things are going to pan out.

I was 18 lbs and 12 oz. when I was a year old, so I weighed more than Benjamin but less than the girls.

Seriously, though, I don't know why we're always plopping people on charts as if there's a perfect body out there to achieve. Some people don't fit on the charts.

"You're very, very, very, very, very underweight for your height," the nutritionist pointed out to me.

"I know," I told her. "It's very, very, very, very, very genetic."

I can only take so many comments about my size before I begin to talk back. Besides, we weren't there to talk about my weight but about Benjamin's. I've never registered "properly" on a BMI chart, unless, of course, I happened to be around 36 weeks pregnant. Is it any wonder my children don't register on their curves either? Probably not.

"You do eat though?" the nutritionist asked me. "I mean..."

"Yes. I eat. I eat a lot. I just don't gain weight. Ever. It's not just me. My little brother is well over six feet tall and he only weighs like fifteen pounds more than me. Honestly, we can't gain weight if we try. I know because we do try...and we can't."

Seriously. My mom said that some of her cousins started keeping on baby weight after baby number four. So I've got a couple of kids to go before I stop dipping below my pre-pregnancy weight post-pregnancy.

Rachel, in case you were wondering, is currently 42 lbs and 46 inches. She's always been my middle-of-the-chart child (instead of the very bottom (or below the very bottom) child). She's at the 35th percentile for weight and the 67th for height.

Perhaps one day I'll be able to say something similar about Benjamin—instead of saying "He's a little short for his age," I'll be able to say, "He's doing just fine!"

He is doing just fine...but he's also a little short.