You Have a 12-lb 4 Month-Old Baby, Too?

After putting up the site meter thingy and realizing that quite a few worried parents land on our blog after googling "4-month old baby weighs only 12 lbs," "is it normal to have a 12-lbs 4 months baby?," or "is my 4-month-old-12-lb-baby growing?" etc, I feel compel to share something I learn recently. Do you know that the data, which was used to create the infant growth chart, was gathered from Wisconsin infants in the 70's? Even though I agree that it makes for a good guideline to gauge a baby's growth as infants haven't necessarily change dramatically in the past 30 years or so, the data clearly lacks any kind of ethnic influence. I don't imagine too many Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, or any other minority groups to be truly represented. Secondly, weren't putting cereal in baby's bottles and early starting of solids common practices back then? Naturally, babies gain quickly once they get more than just breast milk or formula. Wil and I have been lucky that all of our pediatricians never fuss about the growth chart. So what if our kid's weight could never crack the 10th percentile, they ask? She's healthy, happy, growing perfectly proportionately, and just beautifully petite. I know that as a first time parent, I worry sick about EVERYTHING even though there's no need to worry, because, well, that's just what I do. About a month ago my friend Carol invited us to a party at her house, where we met two other infants (3 and 4 months olds), who were just about the same size as my 7-month old Chase. Had that scenario happened 3 months earlier, I probably would have freaked a little. Ok, a lot. Then I would come home and furiously google for the rest of the night. But knowing what I know now and having gone through many a well-baby visits, I can comfortably say that I'm just happy that I don't have to lift 20+ lbs of chunk all day. I know that they are parents out there, who have the kind of pediatricians that hang on to every plot on the growth chart as if they were some kind of life lines and are reading this entry at 3 a.m. So here's my public service announcement: RELAX. Look at that perfect baby of yours! Isn't she happy, healthy, and has the most adorable giggles? I'm sure that she's perfect just the way she is! The next time you run into that neighbor of yours who loves to boast about her little sumo wrestler, just don't panic and be happy that your back won't go out anytime soon. Now kiss your babies for me and go have fun!

The following rant will have absolutely nothing to do with an infant's growth chart, so you can stop reading now if you're here for that. Let's talk exchange rate and how awful it is that my livelihood is now seriously depending on it. For the past year and a half, we've been spoiled. Even though the upstairs neighbor's dog's performance of an Irish jig over my kid's crib makes my blood pressure go up a few hundred points everyday, I do live in a comfort of a beautifully renovated American-styled rent-free apartment. On-post housing has its benefits: free rent, free utilities, free maintenance, free home improvement projects,...etc. Now we get to live off-post and most of our living costs will be offset by a sizable allowance. Thank you, U.S. Government. However, He can only be so generous, this U.S. Government character, as He has many children to look after and feed. Wil gets paid in U.S. dollars, which then gets converted to Euro to pay for rent and utilities. The catch here is that there's a cap on the allowance. So whenever the exchange rate plummets, as it doing now as I type (DAMN IT!), we get stuck paying the difference. Wil and I were extra careful to stay well below our rent cap when we were house hunting and felt pretty good about what we committed ourselves to. But there's not much we can do when the exchange rate drops 5 points in a week. So now we're 2 points away from having to pay out of pocket for rent and we haven't even moved in yet! I'm not even going to think about what it'll be like if the rate should revisit the sad low point of summer/fall. Sigh.

***You absolutely NEED to read MetroDad's new entry: "It's Breast Not To Ask" and the comments, especially if you are having a bad day worrying about the exchange rate. I discovered MetroDad while I was pregnant and now Wil and I can't get enough of his writing. I also have him under my blog roll, so glance over there every once in a while for an update when you are on our blog.