Holly is Two Months Old

This is the beginning of a sneeze…

…and this is its conclusion.

Today Holly is two months old. Tomorrow she has her second appointment with the pediatrician and will receive her first round of vaccinations. They will also weigh her and measure her length. I am very curious to see what measurement they come up with for her length because something strange happened at her two-week check-up at this same pediatrician’s office in September. At that appointment, a nurse measured Holly in the usual way: she had me lay her down on the paper-covered exam table and then she drew lines on the paper at Holly’s feet and head. Now, the next step is to take a measuring tape and measure the length between those two lines, but I never saw the nurse actually do this. I am not saying she didn’t, but if/when she did, I missed it. I was in the room the whole time, but with keeping one eye on the baby and another on Emrick, it is totally possible that it happened and I somehow did not see. It’s strange, though, because I had been specifically curious about Holly’s length. At her birth at Lone Peak Hospital, the nurses there had measured her at 20 inches, but I had yet to do a measurement myself — at home — so I was eager to see if the pediatrician’s office would verify that she was about that long (Emrick was just 18 inches at birth, so I was very surprised when Holly measured at a totally average twenty inches). Anyway, the nurse left and shortly afterwards the doctor came in and we discussed both kids (it was Emrick’s 3-year check up as well). The whole time I was thinking to myself that the nurse had never checked the measurement between those lines she drew. I didn’t mention it to the doctor, though, because I figured that I was probably mistaken.

Then the doctor left the room and I was free to go. But first I was going to measure those lines myself! I spotted the measuring tape on the counter and measured the distance between the two lines that the nurse had drawn. It was about 21 inches. Holly probably didn’t grow a whole inch in her first two weeks of life, but whatever. It was close enough.

BUT THEN!!! A few days later I was looking over the paper work they printed up for me at that pediatrician appointment, and in it was a record of Holly’s weight and length measurements. Their record showed that she was 19.75 inches at her two-week check up. What? My first thought was that either the nurse was totally sloppy with her measuring, or Lone Peak Hospital had been… until I remembered that I myself had gotten a measurement of 21 inches from the LINES DRAWN BY THE NURSE not by me. So this left me wondering WHERE IN THE WORLD did 19.75 come from? Did the nurse mis-measure her own lines? Did she never measure at all and then make up a number to enter into the computer? I don’t know WHAT happened, but I will probably mention it at Holly’s appointment tomorrow.

*                    *                    *                    *                    *

Holly is our precious, darling girl. I still think she looks like Marcus’ mom, but lately I have been seeing some Morgan in her, at least in the eyes, and especially in pictures. As my Aunt Janet observed in the comments on a previous post, there’s a twinkle there.

Holly weighs about 10 lbs., 14 ounces, and measures (by me) just over 22 inches long. We love you, sweet girl. ~muah!~