Meghan Update

All of her appointments, therapies, and hard work are paying off for Meghan. Here are some awesome updates recently for her:

• She has been taking her bottles in the family room! She lays under her weighted blanket and sucks away happily. For the most part, she continues to use her entire jaw/breathing method of taking the bottle, but I have noted her try to use her tongue periodically. 
• When she is hungry, she will crawl to the area of the family room where I typically feed her. If I tell her it's not bottle time, she will crawl to her high chair! 
• She love eating "puff" snacks. We store them in a snack cup in her diaper bag when we go out. I was feeding them to her while shopping at Costco when we hit an aisle where I needed several things. She pulled the snack cup out of her diaper bag and handed it to me! 
• Since her tooth has come in, we have started brushing her teeth. She loves the flavor of her toothpaste and will move her tongue around in her mouth to follow it and has stuck her tongue out a few times while we brush. 
• Meghan happily chews on chewy sticks and other therapy tools - she puts them in the side of her mouth and uses them to encourage her tongue to move - she is doing therapy on herself :) 
• Meghan will sometimes just crawl to her weighted blanket, pat it, and look for one of us to cover her up - she is beginning to indicate when she needs help meeting her sensory needs! 
• When Meghan is eating solids and begins to gag (she does this more than most babies as a result of her tongue) I have started to put my arm in the air and say "chew chew" like when you imitate a train. Now when she is gagging, she will put her own arm/s in the air and make a similar motion. So cute! 

And some non-food related excitement:

• Meghan can move herself wherever she wants to go on the first floor - she can move between the family room, the playroom, and the magnets on the fridge to play.
• Meghan is pulling herself up on shelves in her playroom to get toys or books she wants. 
• She remembers where toys are stored and goes to find the ones that she wants. She will set out across the room, pull a basket down, and play with the toys inside. (For example - while playing at the floor vent, she will crawl to her animals, pull down the basket, pull out a few animals, and crawl with them back to the air vent to pat them and make more sound.)

We are so proud of our big girl! Talking with her feeding therapist, doctor, and Daddy we've said that month seven to eight is a big transition for kids in general - and we are blown away by the way Meghan didn't just make those transitions - she caught up on so many skills as well! What a precious miracle to watch unfolding in this little girl's life!!