I'm a little bit late getting this blog post written and posted - for good reason. This last weekend, on the 20th, you went to your Uncle Zachary and Aunt Gabrielle's wedding. It was a wonderful day of celebrating their love and God's goodness. You were a rockstar (and so cute in your fancy dress for the wedding) all weekend!
You continue to just absolutely amaze us with how quickly you are growing and changing. And you have continued to not only develop as all babies do, but have continued to make HUGE strides in overcoming some of your special needs and circumstances. You simply amaze us every day!
You continue to sleep a solid 11-12 hours at night and nap 2-4 hours per day. You went through about 1.5 weeks of waking up in the middle of the night every night wanting cuddled about the time you started making some huge gross motor skill gains, but other than that you have continued to be a very good sleeper! I simply love being with you during waketime - but more on that when I describe some of your new skill attainments! You continue to love sleeping with Charlotte, your bear.
You wear your cloth diapers at the largest rise setting and wear size 4 disposable diapers when we put you in those (while traveling and over night). This is not because you meet the weight requirement for such large diapers - but because you have chunky thighs :) I could honsetly see you moving backwards in diaper sizes once you start walking and those thighs slim down some.
You now wear 18 month clothes. You are still a very tall kiddo and most of that height is in your trunk. You have started wearing size 18 month pants; they are still a bit too long, but with your new eating habits, you have gained a bit of a belly and the 12 month ones were very difficult to snap.
Speaking of eating....every day when I feed you, I tear up at least once! You are an amazing eater now! You are not afraid of food; in fact, I think it's even safe to say you LIKE food!! We praise Jesus so often for this amazing transformation; He has been so faithful to heal your little body.
You currently take omeprazole 2 times a day; this medication has to be given on the same schedule every day (and kept cold) which makes it a bit hard for us to be spontaneous, but the change it has made for you is totally worth it! You take 3 bottles a day at 6:30 am, 11:00 am, and 5:45 pm. You still watch baby signing time and lay under your weighted blanket for bottles; you usually hold my hand so sweetly. You are able to start the suck/swallow/breathe pattern so well and drink until you are full. When you are done drinking, you use your hand to pull the bottle back out of your mouth - you take an average of 15-18 ounces of formula a day. Our bottle feeding times have become nothing more than a sweet "pause" in your day rather than an hour of screaming and frustration. It's so wonderful!
As far as solids go - you eat a snacky breakfast (you just took a good bottle and don't usually want more than a few bites) after your breakfast bottle, lunch at 11:15, afternoon snack at 2:30, and dinner at 4:00. For breakfast and snack you usually eat a few of the crackers that I make out of rice cereal. For lunch and dinner you are always offered a protein, cheese, vegetable, fruit, and crackers or other grain. We mostly do BLW - you are given options, eat what you want, and then your signing "done" is respected. I try to feed you pureed fruit as fruit is just hard to pick up; some days you want it, some days you want nothing to do with it. Refusing fruit sometimes makes me question where you came from :) Unless you have just eaten and are full, you will usually try anything that I offer you throughout the day. You definitely have favorites - the crackers I make you, tacos, and broccoli. You eat broccoli like it's dessert!
You have decided that you are a big girl and no longer want to eat in the seat we have for you with the tray. I think it's because the seat reclines slightly and that makes it harder to eat. You love the more upright seat at Mimsie and Papas and eating in your seat at the table with no tray. Cousin Micah is done with his upright booster and is going to let you borrow it until Cousin Isaac needs it - it's so nice of him to share with you!!
You have done so well learning the motor skills necessary for eating that you were dismissed from OT-Feeding Therapy at Children's Mercy. We are still receiving services through infant and toddler services, but no longer need to drive to Children's Mercy for OT there as well.
You continue to drink water from a straw cup and have moved from the trainer cup to a "big girl" cup which Mama loves because it doesn't leak! You drink 3-10 ounces of water per day. You certainly enjoy water, particularly in the afternoon!
You have two teeth - on the bottom.
Your motor skills continue to develop so quickly! You are cruising, walking while holding hands, pulling up on any and everything, crawling up whole flights of stairs, and standing alone momentarily. You like to stand and walk (either on feet or knees) behind anything that will serve as a "walker" for you. You are fast and you are efficient about this whole movement thing!
Your fine motor skills are also developing quickly: you can pincer anything, point or press with one finger, manipulate your toys, pull baskets off shelves, take things in and out of containers (though, you just prefer everything be out), and play with/manipulate small objects such as zippers and buttons on clothing.
Sensory things you like and we try to work into your days right now are: swinging in your swing, rocking in the bilibo, rolling prone over the peanut ball, crawling through your tunnel, jumping holding Mama's hands, and weighted blanket during bottle feeds. We are working on helping you adapt to sounds in the environment and you are making gains - you handle sudden loud noises better if we tell you what happened and smile at you. You struggle in loud environments (especially if you are tired) but can do it for short periods of time. As I said earlier, you were a rockstar this weekend where we took you to a wedding reception and had lots of family around. We made sure to build some "quiet time" into your days, but you totally surprised us with how well you handled everything! Way to go, big girl!!
You gave us a scare about a month ago when you just stopped using consonant sounds completely. Slowly but surely, you are adding them back and saying some new ones. We spoke with an SLP about this and she was not concerned as long as you were not decreasing the amount that you babble during the day; it is something we and they are going to be watching! You say /a/, /i/, /o/, /m/, /p/, /b/, /n/, /c/, and /g/. You have not started saying /d/ again and your dad works with you on it every day. You don't yet say "mama" with intention; which is expected at 10 months - we'll just keep working on it. However, you do say "hi!" most of the time when I come into your room to get you up from a nap - I LOVE IT!
You love music; if you're fussing and I turn on the radio, you almost always stop and dance instead. You enjoy taking apart and knocking down anything that Mama and Daddy build.You love playing with balls and crawling through anything that looks like a tunnel. You love listening to and reading books. You read them independently and listen to us read them to you several times throughout the day. You love to kiss faces in books and to touch the touchy-feely ones!
You, baby girl, are just growing up far too fast! I can't believe that the next time I write one of these letters you will be a year old! How is that even possible?
You amaze me day-to-day how fast you can change and learn new skills! Being your Mama is a pleasure - your smiles, your giggles, you....you make me so happy.
Happy 10 months and Merry (first) Christmas, sweet girl. Daddy and Mama love you so much!
Love,
Mama
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