Dear Meghan :: 8 Months

Dear Sweet Meghan,

What a two months it has been! You have undergone such an amazing transformation in the last two months - partially because of some medical tests/changes and partially because you are just growing into an amazing person. Your Daddy and I say often that we are so grateful that we get to have you - God sure did give us an amazing blessing in his gift of you to us.

You continue to sleep a solid 11-12 hours at night and nap 2-4 hours per day. You are continuing to extend your waketimes, and I love that time spent with you! We get to play, eat, go on walks, sing, dance, play with friends, etc. You are just a blast to hang out with!

Your diapers have not changed since 6 months: you are wearing cloth diapers at the second or third rise level depending on whether they are the old style or new style of diapers. When you wear disposables - which you do at night - you wear a size 3.

You now wear 12 and 18 month clothes. You are still a very tall kiddo and most of that height is in your trunk. If I am going to put you in a onesie, it has to be 18 months! You have just now moved into 12 month pants (they are still a little bit too big, but cloth diapers help with that) while you have been wearing 12 month shirts for several months. I think you're gonna keep me on my toes when trying to figure out what size of shirt vs. pants you wear as you grow up. You get your torso-to-legs proportions from your Daddy - you are the opposite of me!

Your chunkiest body part continues to be your thighs.You still have little rolls in your arms and a bit of a muffin top; I think you have more muffin top this month than last month. This is AWESOME as weight gain has been difficult as has eating. The last two months have been a journey with eating....

At your 6 month doctor's appointment, he decided it was time to act on your eating difficulties. I will write another post about all of the testing that has been done but the short version is that in the past two months you have been evaluated by Infant and Toddler services, Children's Mercy OT, and Children's Mercy GI. You are now receiving services for feeding from ITS and Children's Mercy. They are working on helping you with your sensory system, your bottle eating, your solids eating, and proper tongue movement. We are amazed with the improvements you have made in the last two months!! We are so very proud of you!!

You were diagnosed as having silent reflux. Your poor throat is burned and you fear the bottle because it's been such a source of pain - I had suspected this for a long time, but you weren't a "spitter", were a very happy baby, and maintained consistent growth on your curve so it definitely hid well. We started you on medicine and you have become a whole new eater!

For the last week you have taken your bottles in the family room. You lay on the floor, under your weighted blanket, often with Frozen or Baby Signing Time on, and happily drink until you are full. Then I sit you up, put your weighted blanket on your lap, and we watch some more together to help you stay still for the milk to settle in your tummy. (I know, research says that you shouldn't let a kid watch tv before 2. But, for a kiddo who has fought so much - TV is a beneficial tool in helping her recover her trust of food and something fun to enjoy together while she sits still after eating.) You have been able to maintain eating despite my phone ringing and your Daddy being in the room and doing things. Before this, you had to be fed in your room, in the dark, after a long prep period, often after falling asleep, and nothing could interrupt your attention or the feed would not start again; you had trouble sucking the bottle because of your tongue and it hurt because of your reflux. Starting to heal those two issues has produced wonderful results. Are you a "typical" feeder? No way! Are we so proud of how far you have come? ABSOLUTELY!

You have also started eating solids. Sometimes you enjoy feeding yourself purees, though you have figured out that solids fill your tummy, and are often willing to let me feed purees to you so that they get in your mouth faster! For the most part we do Baby Led Weaning with you. We put food on your plate and let you choose what and how much you will eat. We do pick things that are hard for you to hold up and offer them to you - letting you choose whether or not to eat it by pulling our hand to your mouth or not. This time with you is so fun! You love exploring foods! You have tried so many more foods than most babies your age have - and you sure have some favorites! Your favorites are: cheddar cheese, avocado, mango, twice baked potatoes, ham, pears, banana yogurt, bananas, mum-mums, and baby "puffs".

You have also mastered drinking from a straw sippy cup! We introduced it to you with a cup recommended by your feeding therapist that allows Mama or Daddy to pump water into the straw so that it gave you immediate feedback - within a few days you were independently sucking the water!

Motor Skills: this is an area where you have EXPLODED in skills the past two months. You now crawl on your hands and knees on carpet and hard floors, move from sitting to crawling position, move from crawling position to sitting, and are starting to pull up on things. When I hold your hands you take steps on carpet. With this explosion of motor skills you have become a very independent player. You will now happily play in your play room for 20+ minutes when given several toy options. You love playing with your Little People, your gertie ball, your cloth ball, board books, the bilibo, and your wedgits in the playroom. You are very into playing with your baby doll (Maizy) as well.

You have officially been diagnosed as having sensory integration difficulties. This finally confirms what I have thought - you are a sensory seeker! You continue to love your jumperoo/doorway jumper, swinging, and bouncing. We are working to add sensory into your day in a structured way; we have purchased several tools to help you with your sensory system. It's exciting to be able to use some of the information I learned while teaching to help you through your days. It's awesome to see you, when you are having a tough time managing life, crawl over to your weighted blanket. With that extra sensory, you are able to calm down; often times all you need is to lay under your weighted blanket and chew on a toy sometimes while also holding Mama's hand. It's awesome to be figuring out how to help you!

Whenever you see the carries you get excited - you still love being worn - though it's a very different experience than just a few months ago. You have grown so much and are very engaged in the world around us while in the carrier; you enjoy being worn when we go out but you are still able to find your calm place in them, as well.

At 6 months you were only making vowel sounds. You added /b/ and /m/ fairly soon afterwards. It wasn't until we started doing therapy to help your tongue learn that it could move that you started adding other sounds. You now also say /d/ and /n/. You say "mam" or "mama" when you want or need something. And "dadada" throughout the day.

You definitely know that Daddy is "dada". You get excited when the phone rings in the afternoon and you look around for Daddy when I say the word "Dada."

You still love music! We listen to a lot of music during the day. You know how to make your Little People zoo make music - and you wiggle your hips and tap your feet when it does. You LOVE going to church; you enjoy singing along, sometimes quite loud! We love that you are learning to worship and pray that as time goes on that time will come to mean so much more to you as you come to know our Lord personally.

You love unlacing shoelaces. You love cords; you understand the meaning of the word "no" because of this love and generally will obey. You love the floor vents. And, you love crawling behind the couches.

Your face lights up when we enter the garage - you know we are going for a walk or to go somewhere in the car. You love both. When we run errands you smile at the people who pass us - you often talk to them as well. You light up the world around you; I am positive already that God has big plans for your life. One of our friends commented, upon seeing you at church yesterday "I love that she's in her default state of smiling." You are so joyful and that joy just spills over into the lives of others around you -- and you are only 8 months old!

The past two months have been very busy and full of appointments and therapy for you - and that may very likely continue for some time. But you are worth every mile and every minute. Meghan, you're an amazing kid! Sometimes I feel like I need to pinch myself to be sure this is real life - it's just so good.

You have changed me - some people fear that they will lose themselves in parenthood, you didn't cause me to lose myself at all - you have pushed me towards a deeper faith, a more consuming understanding of love (for you, your daddy, the people around us, and for our God), and stronger character. For those things, I am so thankful.

Meghan Leigh - I love you. I love being your Mama. I love spending my days with you. I love watching you grow. I love cuddling with you. I love hearing you laugh. I love seeing you smile. I love you through and through. Happy 8 months, dear.

Love,
Mama