Another visit with Dr. Lambert (eye doctor)

We went to see the pediatric ophthalmologist this morning for a 6-month check up on her strabismus (how her eyes don't always look in the same direction at the same time). The visit was a little disappointing in my opinion. Nothing had changed; not that I expected it to, but I thought he would give us a recommendation about surgery. He just said he needs to have a CT or MRI done so he can see exactly where her eye muscles are before he can make a recommendation. I believe Lucy is already scheduled to have another CT done within the next few months so instead of doing an extra procedure, he is just going to let the neurosurgeon know to take a specific "shot" or angle when they do the CT scan they already had planned. After that he should be able to let us know something about what type of surgery he would do on her. So that's all I know for now!

Lucy turns one!

*EDITED 3/31/11* -- So we had Lucy's 12 month appointment on Tuesday and I thought I would update her stats here for posterity.

She weighed 18 lbs., 12 oz. which is way less than I thought she would weigh, but the doctor didn't seem concerned at all and I'm not really either since she looks healthy and eats whatever we put in front of her. She was 29" tall (tall for her age!) and her head is now getting in to the normal range for circumference. The doctor gave us some ointment to try to make the redness around Lucy's eyes go away for good. We hope it works!

The birthday girl plays with her rubber ducky in her birthday onesie and tutu (thanks to our friend Kelsey for the tutu!)

The birthday girl with Mommy (and cousin Olivia is in the picture, too).

LUCY IS ONE YEAR OLD!

I really can't believe it. What a year we've had. Any of you that read this blog know that since Lucy was born, all I could think about was her surgery. It seemed like the only time I could see, and when her surgery was over, I could finally relax and start getting excited about other things, like her first birthday!

We just had both sets of grandparents, her uncle and cousins, and a lot of wonderful friends that have been a big part of our lives and of Lucy's life. We planned to have her party at the park, but the weather had other ideas, so we ended up just having it at our house. I think it worked out better that way anyway! We snacked and played and then let her dig in to her first cupcake, which was really cute. She liked it, and then realized that she didn't like that chocolate frosting all over her hands and started crying (it didn't help that she had not napped yet that day and the party was in the early afternoon!).

This feels like such a milestone. It's amazing to reach this start of another year with her. We are blessed -- and we hope that this year is a lot more about having fun than it is about spending time in the hospital! :)

From now on, I'll just use this blog to update about her ongoing medical visits, and I will probably post on the milestones (six months after surgery, a year after surgery, when she turns 2 years old, etc.) so please forgive me if the posts are farther between than a month or so. Just know that means she's doing great, which is what we've all been hoping and praying for!

Much love!

Another follow up visit with Dr. Mackay

We had a quick (key word) follow up visit with Dr. Mackay on Wednesday. He said she looks great and her created soft spot will continue to fill in with it's own bone. We don't have to see him again for another year. That's great!

11 months old!

So sorry for the delay -- it's been a busy few weeks!

Lucy turned 11 months old almost a week ago now. I really can't believe she is almost a year old! When she was born, I imagined us at this time ... almost having a one year old baby ... and now it's really here and it's crazy! She still seems so much like a baby.

She still only takes 2-3 steps on her own these days but if she walks behind her her dino toy she can walk for a really long time! It's so cute.

Her favorite things to do during the day are:

• crawling around holding a clean diaper in one hand
• "help" me load and unload the dishwasher (which consists of taking out clean things and pushing them around on the floor, and then trying to take out the dirty things while I try to keep her from doing that)
• walk behind her dino toy
• open drawers and pull out whatever is inside of them
• pulling out my cooling racks and pushing them around the kitchen floor
• getting into the pantry if we accidentally leave the door open

So you can see that a lot of her favorite activities involve getting into things. :) She's very mobile and she doesn't stay in one place for very long.

She eats so much these days. She will eat almost anything I put in front of her. I can't even believe I'm typing that. Three months ago she couldn't even eat thick baby food. Her favorite foods are: yogurt, peas, carrots, green beans, asparagus, edamame, Cheerios, and any kind of baby food that includes apples. I'm starting to experiment with other foods. It's hard to think of things to feed her ... I barely have the brain power to feed myself some days and now I have to think about meals for her, too! :)

The next time I check in, she'll be a year old! So exciting. We're having her party on March 26th at a local park and I can't wait.

A few steps and sleeping better!

I don't keep a baby book, so this will have to serve as a reminder for posterity!

A few nights ago Lucy slept from 8:30pm until 6:45am! I would definitely call that sleeping through the night. The next few nights she only needed a little encouragement to go back to sleep and she would sleep from like 7:30-11:30, and then until 5:30am, etc. I'm definitely happier with that scenario than with the every 2-3 hour waking that she has been doing for all of her life.

And ... today she took her first steps! She's been standing on her own for a while now, but if she wanted to go somewhere, she would just drop down and crawl. Today I was sitting on the floor with her and she was standing and then just took two steps towards me! That was all, of course, but it's exciting anyway.

Here she is on her dino walker toy right after we got it about a week and a half ago...

10 months old

Our baby girl turns 10 months old tomorrow (1/27/11)!

I thought I'd just post a little update about her here for posterity.

Eating:

She is now eating 3 "meals" a day in addition to breastfeeding. Most of the time, it's just baby food and baby yogurt. I try to give her Cheerios, cereal puffs, yogurt melts, and other baby snacks at the end of each meal to encourage her pincer grasp and eating more crunchy/whole foods. She likes peas, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and she likes eating mango from one of those netted baby feeders.

Motor Skills:

She crawls like a champ, a very fast NASCAR champ. She cruises around our furniture and other things, and can stand alone for probably 10 seconds before sitting down. She hasn't really tried to take any steps on her own yet, but I'm alright with that. :) She's already into everything so I can't imagine how it will be when she's walking. She's still working on that pincer grasp with small food items.

Talking:

She can say "baba", "dada", "mama", "nana", and other assorted words. I definitely think she knows I'm "mama" because if Wesley has her and she wants me she says "mama" a lot. I'm pretty sure "nana" means Nina (sorry to my mom, who actually is Lucy's nana). But she babbles and squeals all day. It's really cute. I can't wait until she can say more words.

Sleeping:

Oh, sleeping. Or I guess I should say sometimes the lack of it. I know every baby is different, and I know every parent has a different philosophy about what age a baby "should" be sleeping through the night. I'm okay with the fact that Lucy is not sleeping through the night for several reasons. One, I really just now feel like she's getting to the point where we can give her enough food and calories during the day that I could expect her to be able to sleep through the night, hunger-wise. Two, 98% of the time, she wakes up, I feed her, and she goes immediately back to sleep on her own ... I never nurse her back to sleep. I nurse her and then I just put her back in the bed and almost always she will go back to sleep on her own. I think that's great. And three, I don't necessarily think that sleeping through the night means 12 hours. Most people agree that 5-6 hours at a time is considered sleeping through the night for a baby. Lucy usually goes to bed around 7:30 or 8pm, sleeps until midnight, eats, sleeps until 4:00 or 5am, eats, then wakes up around 7:30 or 8am the next morning. That is on a good night. haha. And she is pretty good about taking two consistent naps during the day, one about 3 hours after she wakes up (for about an hour or sometimes *gasp* for 2 hours!) and then an afternoon nap about 3 hours after she wakes up from her first nap. That second nap is usually short these days and she fights it hard. So if you ask me if I'm satisfied with the way Lucy sleeps, I would probably say NO. I have nights where I am in tears because I'm so tired and she keeps waking up. But those nights are the exception, not the rule, and we're just trying to be consistent with all the tips and strategies for getting her to sleep longer and we have to hope that they will catch on soon.

Personality/Pasttimes:

Lucy is usually a happy baby, and she smiles and flirts with everyone she meets. She is very focused when she plays with her toys, sometimes spending 20 minutes just on one thing like blocks or her stacking cups. She doesn't laugh all the time, but if she is tired she laughs very easily and Nina can almost always make her laugh. She loves hearing Wesley's keys in the door at the end of each workday and she looks at the door expectantly and then gives Wesley a huge grin when she sees him. She gives great snuggly hugs and she can wave and clap. I'm trying to teach her how to blow kisses now. She loves to take Nina's toys and wave them around while Nina tries to get them out of her hand. Her other favorite activities are cruising around our pots and pans rack, playing with the dishwasher when I am loading or unloading it, standing at the back window and patting the glass or playing with our ugly vertical blinds, and pulling up on Nina's dog crate and swinging the door back and forth.

So you can see we have one adorable little Lucybird on our hands. We are very grateful and every day she gets older we fall more and more in love with her.

9 months old

Technically, Lucy turned nine months old on Monday, but since we just saw the doctor today, I will update her stats now!

She weighed 17 lbs, 4 oz which is much less than I expected her to weigh but the doctor didn't seem concerned at all so I'm not either. She is 27" long and her head circumference is 17 1/4" (I have NO idea how to gauge if head circumference is normal or not! haha).

The pediatrician was very impressed with how well Lucy was doing after her surgery. I also talked to her about my concern about Lucy's eating habits and she said just to take it slow and keep trying different things and that she would probably get the hang of it really soon. I hope so! They also tested her hemoglobin since she is exclusively breastfeeding at the moment and hasn't really consistently been eating solid food. Her hemoglobin was great, 13.8 or something like that, so the doctor was like, "No need to worry about feeding her iron-rich foods or giving her any iron supplements!" which is great because that is always the thing doctors seem to be concerned about with Lucy since she has been breastfed with some solid foods. It makes me feel good as a mom, too, because it means that I don't have to force Lucy to eat food because she's lacking in iron. We can go slow until she is ready.

She's been wearing her monitor today and doesn't seem to mind it. Only 10 more days to go! :)