Counting Calories

Whenever Lillian takes me out with her friend Caleb and his mommy (also named Amanda), everyone thinks they're twins! Despite the fact that they look nothing alike (except that they're both babies), this became a little concerning to me. Reason being: Caleb is 5 months (well, really 4 months and 29 days...but who's counting?) YOUNGER than Lillian. Granted, Caleb weighs more than Lillian does, but so do most 4 (and some 3) month olds. In fact, at Lillian's 6-month check-up in January she was "barely approaching" the 5th percentile, according to her doctor. So we have a small baby. Yay for me, who thinks the car seat alone is heavy enough!

At Lillian's 9-month check-up two weeks ago I was sure she was at least 13 pounds, maybe 14 pounds, but I knew that was probably wishful thinking. When the nurse put Lil on the scale (she wasn't very happy about it, by the way) Bobby and I were shocked to see that she was only 12 pounds, 11 ounces. "Bad Mommy Syndrome" hit me for a few minutes, but the pediatrician and Bobby reassured me not to worry about it. We were instructed to hike up Lillian's caloric intake to 1,000 calories per day (that's as much as a 1 year-old should have!) and to come back in 2 weeks for a weigh-in.

I went into Mommy On A Mission Super-drive. I stocked up on Lactose Free formula, oatmeal, and baby food. I made "Calorie Intake" charts and "Daily Summary" logs to record every single calorie that entered Lillian's little (but expanding!) tummy. Getting her to take the formula from a sippy cup was hard at first, but now she prefers that over me! (Don't worry, Lillian, I'll get over it). There were several nights that Bobby would be feeding her as she was falling asleep, but we kept spooning the calories in, determined to get her weight up. We spiked her food with mashed avocado and butter (sounds like a real Doran, huh?) and we snuck extra ounces of formula into every meal. Slowly but surely, we started to notice her belly pudge out a little bit. Caleb's mommy said Lillian finally had some "fat leg wrinkles" like Caleb (but not quite so many).

Yesterday was the big weigh-in day. I marched into the pediatrician's office with final exam-like anxiety- would I pass the test? Bobby and I eagerly watched on as Lil was lowered onto the baby scale. What would it be? Did all of our hard work pay off? When we saw the weight we practically jumped for joy- 14 pounds, 4 ounces! Little Lil gained nearly 2 pounds in 2 weeks. Now that's packing it in! Give her 2 more weeks and she just might catch up with Caleb! :)

Mommy and Daddy are relieved that Lillian is capable of gaining the weight she needs. We'll continue her diet (but I am resigning my efforts to record everything) until her 12-month check-up. This summer she just might fit into all those cute 9 and 12-month old dresses after all!