Tiny Wolverine

Thumper is a pretty small baby; he was only an even six pounds when he was born, and his weight is close to the bottom of the growth charts.  In height, he's higher, but still well below the middle of the bell curve, so he's proportional, but small.  I don't know if it's because of my high blood pressure; he was monitored pretty closely, and the doctors were always satisfied with his growth.  Also, my siblings and I were all in the 6-7 lb range, so it's possible I'm just meant to have rather small babies.

However, if you were to listen to the members of the Yeti's family, you would have expected me to give birth to a Hulk baby.  I know I was half convinced.  Babies on the Yeti's side of the family are soooo huge that they're automatically C-sections.  They go straight into three-month clothing.  They have giant heads.  They're given blue ox stuffed animals because they require their very own Babe.

Okay, so I made up that last one.  But I did hear everything else, ad nauseum, while I was pregnant.

The first ultrasound revealed that Thumper was in the 70th percentile for growth.  Maybe it was accurate; maybe not (certainly there's a range of error).  He wasn't anywhere near that by the time he was nearing term.  Still, this was proof that I was baking a Hulk baby.

At one point near the end of the second trimester the Yeti's parents came to visit.  I had been doing a fair amount of shopping at Ross and Old Navy and I was pleased with both the clothes I had bought and the prices I'd scored, and I thought his mother-in-law would enjoy looking at the wittle bitty baby clothes.  Not so much.

"You won't get any wear out of that," she sniffed, holding a little outfit that was newborn-sized.  I had bought a few newborn outfits, but since her dire proclamations were already ringing in my ears, the vast majority of what I'd bought was in the 0-3 month range.

She surveyed it all, scoffing.  "Yeah, that'll fit for maybe a few weeks," she said.

I knew that there was a chance Thumper would take after my side of the family, but she was so darn certain that this baby would come out needing his driver's license that I didn't buy any more newborn stuff.  And then I was packing my hospital bag and I realized that all I had in newborn sizes were those little outfits - nothing suitable for sleeping or really being comfortable as a newborn.  The Yeti found some little kimono shirts on Amazon and a sleeper.  A few reviews claimed that the shirts ran small.  They were certainly smaller than anything else I had for him.

As it turned out, those shirts were the only thing that actually fit him after he was born.  Yes, I felt a little smug that we'd be getting more than enough use out of everything.

orange alien newborn in his kimono shirt

Maybe the Yeti's mom didn't know, but the month sizing in infant clothes is an extremely loose guideline.  Most babies I know of are a size or two ahead of what they're "supposed" to be, so wearing 0-3 month clothes shortly after birth isn't that unheard of.  However, Thumper is one whose age actually corresponds to his clothing.  At five months, he's beginning to grow out of some of his 3-6 month clothing, and most of his 6-9 or 6-12 month stuff is still just a touch too big.  The Carter's brand sticks to one number (like "3" or "6" or "9") and he's only now outgrowing the 3-month size.

Now, as I mentioned previously, my siblings were all 6-7 lbs at birth and they're a wide range of height and body type as adults, so we still have no clue if Thumper will always be the little peanut he is now.   But for now, he's no Hulk.  In fact, with his compact size, super strong legs (where Thumper got his name), high energy, and razor sharp claws (I've got scratches on my face from an enthusiastic hug to prove it), he's much more like Wolverine.

use your imagination to fill in the adamantium