9 Months!

Soo I took Maddie's 9 month pictures and then totally forgot that I hadn't updated the blog! Ugh sorry guys, I'm failing at this! :P 

We've had a great month! Maddie is just amazing us everyday. We see soo much improvement in all areas and she has the funniest little personality! I don't think I could enjoy her any more than I do now - she is just a crack up :) she now has 3 teeth that have come through! She's going to look so funny with teeth! Haha Luckily we've had a very easy time with teething so far! 

We are all set to start her wean from one of her seizure medications this next month so we are excited/anxious about that! Her development is coming along well - she makes progress every week so that is really all we could hope for :). I honestly can't believe she is already so old - I need to start planning her birthday party! I'm sure I'll cry the entire time ;)

Stats: *we actually had a doctors appt this month so we have official measurements!*

19lbs 7oz. (71st percentile), 28.5 inches (82nd percentile). !!!!!!!!! What?!? Our tiny little girl is now HUGE! How did this happen?? Haha she's come a long way from that little 6 pounder we had 9 months ago <3 

Clothes: Even though she's now well above average in length and weight, she still is a bit small in clothes...I'll never figure out how they do these sizes! She's just getting into 9 month size now :) 

Sleep: Ugh. She is having a definite sleep regression right now which is apparently normal for this age, but man it sucks! She is basically waking up every 2 hours or so. And since she's not able to put her pacifier in by herself at this point, she starts screaming and we have to get up everytime. :/ We're hoping this phase doesn't last much longer!!

Milestones in the works: Funny story: Maddie's PT had another senior PT come to one of our appts a few weeks ago to try to get some new input on how to get Maddie's sitting more sturdy. Well Maddie walked (figuratively) into that appt and kicked some ass! She plopped down, sat up perfectly straight and looked at them like 'what?!'  Haha that's my feisty girl! She shocks her PT every week with her improvement. We're so thrilled! She's still just working on her trunk & arm strength and balance but she's doing great! We're set to start Occupational therapy in the next week or so also which will help a lot with her hands and grasping. :) 

Favorite Activities: 

     - TALKING!! Sort of...lol. She has started saying 'dada' when she sees Kevin and it just seriously melts my heart! She is babbling nonstop these days and it's so much fun to see her try to figure out new sounds. Also, yesterday when Kevin got home, I said, 'Hi Dad!' and she totally said it too!! She's amazing <3 

     - Hudson. She has renewed her love for our dog. She's always loved him, but lately she just gets soo excited when she sees him. They are going to have so much fun playing together as she grows up! We call him Bubba and she tries so hard to say it :) 

     - Her hairbrush. Haha we have this baby brush and it is now her favorite new toy. She loves the bristles on it and just can't get enough. Picture below :) 

     - Toys! Up until recently, she never really cared about her toys that much. She would rather just look at people than play. But now she has gotten so curious about her toys and loves playing! This is so great since it will be a huge motivator to get her moving! 

       - New faces. She loves just staring down new people! She definitely doesn't have any stranger danger at this point! She also loves to claw faces too...that part's not as cute :P 

Least Favorite Activities:

     - Sleeping through the night :/ see above. 

     - Electric toothbrushes. Haha Kevin was brushing his teeth and I was holding her and she got the most terrified look on her face and started crying. I've never seen her be afraid of something like that before! So weird. 

Bottom line: she's awesome. ;) We are convinced she's the greatest thing that ever was and she just proves it more and more everyday. <3

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. ;)