Belated 18.5 Month Update

Soon after I wrote Shelby's 18 month post, we had her 18 month check-up with the pediatrician & an informal evaluation with her Early Intervention service coordinator. I just wanted to record the results of these visits for our personal record, and I know Shelby's grandparents will appreciate the stats, too! :)

We went for her check-up waaay back on April 3rd when you were about 18.5 months old. We were anticipating a big drop on the growth chart at this appointment. Shelby was a pretty average size newborn considering she was 9 days late (7 lbs, 14 oz), but ever since then she's been in the 99th percentile for height & weight! We were expecting a drop b/c she still eats next to nothing and she's been walking/running up a storm lately! But nope, Shelby is still in the 99th percentile for both! Shelby was 35.8 inches tall, and she weighed 32.2 pounds.

A little side note about Shelby's pediatrician's appointment....when they were getting ready to weigh her, I started to strip her down b/c they have always weighed her completely naked..not even a diaper! But the lady told me all I had to do was take her shoes off. I was shocked, and I couldn't understand why. Derek walked in shortly after Shelby was weighed (he had just finished rounding upstairs in the hospital and was coming down for her appt), and I was telling him how weird it was. And he promptly replied: "Well, they have to stop weighing them naked at some point. I guess 18 months is the cut-off." I was still confused, so he asked me if I still have to completely undress for my weight checks when I go to the doctor. :)

At one of our Early Intervention sessions for Shelby, she was informally evaluated. I will list the areas she was evaluated in with the corresponding developmental age she was at the actual age of 18.5 months.
--Gross Motor: 16 months (Shelby was still a bit behind in this area b/c she was delayed in walking. One of the biggest things affecting her in this area was that fact that she couldn't climb...but she is now a climber! So I'm sure her developmental age has already gone up more.)
--Fine Motor: 18+ months
--Cognitive: 21+ months
--Language: 21 months
--Social/Emotional: 18+ months

And to give you an idea of how far she has come, here are Shelby's results from her initial Early Intervention evaluation back in January when she was 16 months old. (This is when she was evaluated to see if she would qualify for the program or not. You can read the details of this evaluation HERE.) For this evaluation Shelby was evaluated using two different testing instruments, so I will list both results next to each area.
--Gross Motor: 11 months/11-13 months (31% delay)
--Fine Motor: 16 months/13-15 months
--Cognitive: 13 months/13-18 months
--Language: 12 months/10 months (25% delay)
--Social/Emotional: 14 months/13 months

As you can see, Shelby has come a LONG way in just a few short months! It's truly been remarkable to watch how much she's grown, changed, and learned along the way. Shelby is caught up or ahead in every area with the exception of gross motor, but she has still made great strides in that area, too! Because she is doing so well, her services are being reduced a bit. Up until now, she has seen her Early Intervention service coordinator once a week and her OT once a week. The OT will remain the same, but instead of seeing her Early Intervention service coordinator once a week we will now only see her once a month. Derek & I are both so very proud of our baby girl!