8 Months!

Hi! We've had a very exciting month! Maddie and I went on her very first trip to Colorado! She was an absolute angel through the whole thing - the most difficult part was just me trying to carry everything! So many people on the airplanes commented on how great she was - I was a very proud mama! :) other than that, she's just continuing to grow and develop - we are so happy with how she is doing! Both her Neurologist and Physical Therapist have said that they don't think she will end up being diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy woohoo! While she is definitely still at risk for it, they don't see any strong indicators at this time. So that's been great to hear!! 

Stats: *we didn't have a doctors appt this month so these measurements were done by me and could be a bit off*

18.8lbs (59th percentile), 27.25 inches (50th percentile). She's grown so much lately! Getting to be such a big girl! 

Clothes: The 6month sizes are starting to get pretty tight! Starting to transition to the 9 month size now :) 

Sleep: We're still trying to get the crib transition down...she goes to bed around 8:30-9pm now which is great for us! Some nights she sleeps in her crib until 6:30 the next morning, and some nights it's only until 2am. I just bring her back into our bed when she wakes up - it's not worth the fight! She seems to have a cycle: two or three really great nights, and then a bad one. So it's not too awful but we're definitely still working on it :) 

Milestones in the works: The PT has been helping so much! She can hold herself up on straight arms on her tummy now! And she can almost hold herself in the all-fours position. Her sitting is still a bit wobbly but she's getting much better and she's really using her hands a lot more too! She loves grabbing her toes. Her language is always improving and she is definitely understanding us more and more. 

Favorite Activities: 

     - Sitting in her activity seat! Now that she can sit up straight for a longer period of time, she really is enjoying being able to look around and play with the toys on there! She can last a good 30 minutes entertaining herself which is awesome for us! :) 

     - Laughing. Up until now, whenever she laughed, it was always at something. Lately, she'll just start chuckling to herself randomly for no apparent reason. It's like she has her own inside jokes haha 

     - New people. She looooves to just stare at them! When we went to CO, she got held by lots of new people to her and she just loves it! She's very content to just stare down anyone in front of her :) 

     - Tummy time - now that she can hold herself up higher to see more and play with her toys, she likes it so much more! She is starting to realize life is more fun when you can see everything so she's more motivated to push up!

       - "Mama". Whenever anyone says it, she gets a huge smile on her face! It's the best! She got some Valentines pictures taken and all we did was say 'mama' over and over again and they turned out so great! (See below). It just melts my heart! ❤️

Least Favorite Activities:

     - Being by herself. If I walk out of eyesight, or sometimes just 5 feet away, she'll start yelling. She definitely is very clingy right now and it makes my life a bit harder! She's always all smiles, though the second I come back :) 

It's so amazing to see how much she's growing right now! It's like she's turned from a baby to a real small person! Haha She can do and understand so many more things now, and it's just so much fun! She is such a goofball and we love every minute with her! <3