Monday, January 6, 2014

6 Months!



This post is about two weeks overdue - but we've had a verrrrry busy two weeks with all the holidays, travelling and eight million doctors appointments! So I apologize. But we're here now, and had a wonderful first holiday season with our little elf! We went to Arizona for a few days to see my family and then spent Christmas and New Years back in California with Kevin's family. Maddie was QUITE spoiled by everyone! I'm going to need an extra room just to hold all her toys and clothes soon! :)  Also, in the past week, Maddie got an MRI, EEG and a Physical Therapy evaluation done! Busy busy! She really was SUCH a champ though with all these appointments! The MRI required sedation so we were a bit nervous about how she would handle it, but she woke up with a huge grin on her face and didn't miss a beat! She really just melts my heart. All of these tests are follow-ups being done by her neurologist to see how her brain is developing. The MRI is mostly for informational purposes, while the EEG (if all looks good) will determine if we can start weaning her off of some of her seizure meds (fingers crossed!). We don't have any results back yet, but we're not too worried. Since her rolling skills are a bit behind, and she has slightly low tone, she will also be starting PT once a week now. I'm actually really excited for this because I think it will be so good for her development and will help me learn new things to work on with her! Overall though, we are really SO happy with how she is doing and she just gets more fun every single day!
 
 
Stats: 16lbs (49th percentile), 25.75 inches (49th percentile) <-- so my length measurement from last month was a bit off hehe. But she is very proportional with her percentiles and is consistently growing chunkier so we're happy!
Clothes: She is in 6 month sizes now. Officially too big for the 3-6mos! She has grown a TON lately!
Sleep: She is actually sleeping great right now! Her nighttime sleep is getting more sound now, so that's great for me! She consistently sleeps about 9 hours a night and takes 4 shorter naps during the day.
Milestones in the works: Currently still working on rolling over - she has done a few rolls totally on her own in the past few weeks so that's huge! She is such a mellow baby, we find it hard to motivate her to roll a lot of the time...she's just content to hang out wherever she is. She is also getting really good at  sitting now as well! She is a total chatterbox and has been exploring new sounds recently - she'll be talking in no time! :)
Favorite Activities: 
     - Lip smacking - we always do a smacking noise to her when we give her her medicine to help her swallow it, so she has started to imitate us! She just started doing it one day and now does it every 5 minutes lol.
     - Laughing at daddy. She just thinks he is hilarious! He doesn't even have to do anything, or just makes the smallest noise and she is cracking up! It is soo adorable and I am totally jealous!
     - Using her pincher fingers. Particularly with her binky or burp rag. She picks it up with her two fingers and dangles it in front of her face like..'BEHOLD!' So funny :)
     - Eating 'real' food! Her new fave is peaches. She is doing so well with it! She opens her mouth wide and actually swallows most of it. She loves to watch us eat so she must have been taking notes ;)
     - Books! She's finally starting to really enjoy having her books read to her! Before, we could never really get through an entire book without her getting bored or distracted, but now she is starting to really be interested and will intently listen! It makes me so happy!

Least Favorite Activities:
     - Sitting in her car seat at night. When it's dark in the car, she just haaaates it! During the day, she is fine but at night, she has to have someone back there with her or a light on. 
     - Getting her snot sucked! Since winter has come and it's much drier out, it's been booger city over here! We have our trusty snot-sucker but oh my gosh, she HATES it!! It's really the only time she cries and boy does she scream!


I really cannot believe how easy of a baby Maddie is! She is just so mellow and content no matter what - she really is the best baby ever ;) Kevin and I always say that we are so lucky to have such a happy girl! Her huge smiles and big laughs just completely turn me into mush and I honestly can't believe how much I love her! She makes us all so happy <3