Micah had his 15-month checkup on Monday. He’s now 22 lbs., 10 ozs.–still in the 25th percentile for weight. Of course his head is still in the 95+ percentile, as always. Even in his final prenatal ultrasound, his head was measuring at 33 weeks, when his body was measuring 31 weeks. His head has always been disproportionately large.
But the news of the day is that he’s finally starting to catch up to the average in height! He’s now 31 inches tall, around the 45th percentile!
The pediatrician confirmed what we thought about his speech. Basically, he had three questions:
1) Is he “babbling”? Oh, yes!
2) Are you concerned about potential hearing problems? No.
3) Is he comprehending basic instructions or basic thoughts you say to him? Yes. (See Micah at 15 months – Part 1.)
If he is still not talking by age 2, the pediatrician would recommend a hearing test. If all is well with his hearing, our pediatrician would wait until age 3 before pursuing speech therapy. Boys tend to talk later than girls, and the main issues of concern at this age are hearing and comprehension. Talk to him. Read to him. Insist that he “ask” for things, rather than just giving him whatever he wants to be happy. Give him a chance to talk back.
On a somewhat-related note, Micah is still shy as ever. One story from this weekend’s retreat illustrates this quite well. I will say: This story will be the funniest to those who know both Randy (from church) and our little Micah–unfortunately, that’s only one or two of my readers–but I was laughing soo hard!
My shy little Micah was walking around the main room downstairs after breakfast on Sunday. I was still eating, but sitting only about four feet away from Micah. He walked toward the seat where Randy was sitting, and Randy said an enthusiastic “HI!” to Micah, who stood frozen, staring at Randy.
Micah’s lips puckered and then, after a long moment, began quivering. Half-jokingly, I guess, Randy then said, “I come in peace!”
I knew what would happen next.
Micah began weeping–sobbing, as if he were half-terrified and half-heartbroken.
Randy just looked at him and said, “You should really watch more Star Trek.”
I was dying laughing. I walked over to comfort my shy little Micah-man, who still stood there frozen in fright.
Someday. . . someday, he will grow out of this!!!
But I had a realization last week . . .
This was my little Micah, one year ago today.
One year ago today, he came off the AB monitor! And when I look at his life over the past few months, my heart is truly filled with gratitude to the Lord.
Here’s my little man this week!
How far he has come in one year! How different this summer has been than the last! How wonderful to have such simple concerns about our little guy, like “Will his head always be this much bigger than his body?” and “When will he learn to talk?”
Tonight I stumbled across Kaleigh Freeman’s website. . . A beautiful baby girl born June 23, 2008–just 19 days after Micah–weighing only 1 lb. 1 oz. Kaleigh had numerous surgeries and passed away following the surgery that was supposed to be the “final” surgery before she came home. Her parents’ blog chronicles her 11 months of life and their fight for joy in God in the midst of the struggles. Kaleigh didn’t make it to her first birthday, let alone 15 months . . . yes, I cried a lot reading this . . . Daniel keeps telling me I shouldn’t read about other preemies now that I’m pregnant again . . .
But all that to say, I was overwhelmed while reading Kaleigh’s story, with a sense of how gracious God was in allowing Micah to remain in the womb for 32 weeks. Overwhelmed with a sense of how undeserving we are to have the baby that spent only 23 days in the NICU, rather than his entire 11 months. Just overwhelmed by the frailty of life for all of us, and once again, I found a renewed sense of thanksgiving to God for life and breath . . . and for the privilege of caring for perfectly healthy 15-month-old Micah!
Thank you, God.