Days with the Dorans

After learning early on that Sean had a big head (97 th percentile at one point), I was not really alarmed or surprised. His older brothers both had giant heads and I wrote here about it when Z was just 9 months old. Because of that trend, I hardly thought that they would tell us something could be wrong with our youngest son. At his 18 month check up (and Z's 4 year old check up which took AN HOUR AND A HALF), I learned that Sean's head percentile actually went DOWN- from 97 th to 90 th , so was very surprised when the doctor felt his head and told me she thought we should have an ultrasound of his brain (his percentiles in both weight and height were 25-50 th ). I questioned why they were doing this now (and not earlier) and suggested that this was just a genetic thing because it has been the case with all of my boys. She said it may be nothing, but it could be something and if we didn't do it now (when they could do an ultrasound through his soft-spot while it was s...

At Zach's 9 month apt. the Dr. did all the regular things, like taking measurements and things and I was shocked to learn that my little chubby baby was only in the 5th percentile for weight, the 25th for height and the 50th for his head circumference. Because of this, the Dr. told me that we should go to Beaumont and have an ultrasound of his head to check for fluid on his brain. Needless to say this was a little scary, and while my heart told me that he was fine, and my head told me that he was fine (I looked up Joe's stats which were the same), something in the back of my mind said, "What if..." Like that Shel Silverstein poem. Well, I got Zach on the prayer list at church and school and people came out of the woodwork with not just prayers, but encouraging words of their own stories.... long story shorter- God answered this prayer and Zach just has a big head (like his mother) - but it taught me that sometimes, the power of prayer is just to know that others care...