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 

 

7 Months!

Hello! We're late again with this post - sorry! We've been busy bees over here since Kevin started school up again (his last semester!), and Maddie started going to PT once a week along with a new play group :)  I've decided that this is officially my favorite age for her (although I'm sure I'll say that again). She is just growing up and I am shocked to find that she is a real mini person now and not just a baby! Her personality is really shining through and we are loving it! 

 

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

17.8lbs (58th percentile), 26.5 inches (44th percentile). She has really been putting on the pounds these last few weeks! 

Clothes: Still in the 6month sizes but getting close to fitting in some 9monthers.

Sleep: So a week ago we decided to be brave to try out the crib transition! We were really scared that we would be up all night with her, and we have been a few nights, but overall she is starting to get it. The key is getting her to put herself back to sleep when she wakes up at night. Some nights she does great, others not so much but we're making progress so I have hope! 

Milestones in the works: She has officially mastered the tummy-to-back roll! Woohoo! Better late than never! She hasn't gotten back-to-tummy quite yet but that's pretty normal. She's been getting her feet up and rocking side to side so that's a good start! Her sitting skills are getting better and better and her language is nonstop these days! She seems to be really improving in all areas :) 

Favorite Activities: 

     - Chatting. She is just little miss social these days and loves babbling to people. She has finally learned some volume control so as long as you talk back, she'll just have a nice little convo with you. 

     - Jumping/being thrown in the air. All we do is say, 'BOING!' And jump her up in the air and she just shrieks with happiness! It's so much fun (and a great arm workout!). 

     - Her Bubba. He is a stuffed labradoodle that looks exactly like our dog, Hudson. We call Hudson 'bubba' all the time, so that is what her toy is named. She could really care less about most of her stuffed animals, but she is obsessed with this one! She snuggles and sleeps with him every night. It's soo cute! <3

     - Napkins- but only paper ones. She loves crinkling them and ripping them apart. It keeps her entertained all through dinners when we go out. We buy all these nice toys for her and she really just wants a napkin lol. 

     - The Sons of Anarchy theme song. Kevin and I binge watched all 6 seasons of this show in the last month so Maddie heard this song quite a bit. Every time it came on, she would crane her head around to see the tv and would listen so intently. She never cares about any other songs on the tv - just that one. So whenever she gets fussy in the car, I turn on that song and it's silent the rest of the trip. It's so funny! She just really loves it. Lucky for us we like the song too and it's not annoying haha. 

Least Favorite Activities:

     - Eating green beans. She really hates them. It's so hard to get them down but I keep trying because I'm convinced she will learn to like them! I've had to resort to dipping them in peaches occasionally though :/ 

Other than that, she doesn't really have any new dislikes. She is so mellow and happy all the time and we love it! Everytime we go out somewhere people always stop us to say how adorable/happy she is. I know we're a little biased, but it seems to be the consensus that she's the cutest baby there ever was. ;) 

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

Perspective

I haven't really done a post about Madeline's health since the original one after her birth. I never know what to say. I have two different versions of my response to 'how's she doing?' - my overly positive, 'she's great! No problems!' response that I spit out to friends and family all the time, or my realistic 'we don't know and it's scary' response that I try to stifle. 

I have a hard time admitting my doubts and fears about Maddie's health because I don't want anyone to ever look at her differently. I don't want her pigeon-holed into the special needs box if she doesn't need to be. 

While her development is coming along wonderfully, it is still so scary to think about the future. As of right now, we have eight doctors and therapists who are working with us on making sure she is doing what she is supposed to be doing. Eight. It can be very overwhelming at times to keep track of all the different doctors and concerns, but I know it could be so much worse. 

She has been evaluated and we've found that she is perfectly on track for her age level in language and cognitive skills. This. Is. Huge! She is slightly behind in her motor skills but that is being worked on as well. I will definitely take cognition over motor skills anyday...(sad that that is even being said). 

It's so easy to get hung up on the things that she can't do or isn't doing. It's the majority of what the doctors talk about at her appointments and no one likes to hear that their child is 'behind'. 

Amidst all this, I have to remind myself to stop and think about what the doctors told us when we were in the NICU just learning of Madeline's condition. They basically told us they did not know if she would ever be able to do much of anything. There was talk of hospice and life expectancy. While I hate thinking about that time, it does me good to remember it and look at how far we have come. 

Going from this:

 To this: 

 Madeline has completely blown those predictions out of the water. I have to look at all the wonderful positive things she is doing now that they said she never would. I need to stop thinking of her in relation to the 'typical' 6 month old and look at her in regards to where we've come from. It's all about perspective and we are so happy with our little miracle baby and will continue to fight for the best life possible for her. <3