Luca has been rolling from back to front for awhile now. She is able to roll onto her stomach, but she stops herself on her side because she absolutely hates being on her stomach. So imagine our surprise when we checked on her last night, and she was sleeping partially on her stomach. But we were not surprised when less than a half hour later we heard screaming: she had woken up on her belly and was angry. She has the strength to roll over back onto her back, but gets so annoyed with being on her belly that she screams and bangs her arms and legs against whatever surface she is on. We are not sure whether being on her belly is uncomfortable in terms of her scar, gtube, or bile duct drain.
Every time we get her home for a few days, she progresses developmentally so quickly. In the hospital, she kind of slows down. Then we get her home, and she wants to catch up for lost time. She is desperately trying to sit without any assistance and does for a few seconds at a time - but you can tell that her core muscles still have a way to go to catch up completely. She has been talking nonstop since we came home. She was babbling before, but now she is chatting away while we're driving, while I am doing the dishes, even in her crib.
Yesterday, I started the task of trying to feed her by mouth again. I tried rice cereal and she did better. I think we will stick to that for now until she actually makes some progress with it before we try anything with a stronger taste.
She loves standing. She needs assistance staying up, but she locks her legs and moves her tush back and forward to bounce a bit, with a huge smile across her face. Then, after about 10-15 seconds, her legs get tired and she does not know how to sit, so she whines until I help lower her to the ground.
She sleeps pretty well so long as we put 4-5 pacifiers around her in the crib. That way, when she wakes up to move positions or stirs, she can feel around and find a binky to hold. She does not even necessarily put it in her mouth (although she normally does), but so long as she is holding one, she falls back to sleep on her own.
She is obsessed with laying on her back, bending her knees, planting her feet flat on the ground, and bouncing her tush on and off the ground. She normally squeals with delight when she does this. It's hilarious to watch (but not so hilarious if she has a dirty diaper that has then been smashed from her bouncing on the floor). Like this:
She weighs about 8.5 kg. She wears a size 2 or 3 diaper. She wears almost all 6-9 month clothes (some 9-12, and can squeeze into some bigger 3-6 month stuff). She tends to outgrow things in length before she outgrows them in width.
Her hair is super long up top, short on the sides, and pretty much nothing in the back. Party up top, business in the back. It's a dirty blond type color, but either shows up in pictures dark, or bright red. Very weird.
People are split as to who she looks like. A lot of people say she looks like Ian. But she looks super similar to how I looked in my baby pictures. And unfortunately Ian's baby pictures got lost somewhere so we have no idea what he looked like as a baby so we cannot compare. But I will at some point post my baby pictures so you can see for yourself. And honestly, it sounds weird to hear that my manly husband looks like my feminine baby girl. Most of the time, I see a little bit of each of us in her.
It's hard to believe all we have been through in 8 months time. When she entered the world and was placed on my chest, I never knew what God had lined up for us. But I knew in that moment, that I loved this precious baby girl more than anything or anyone. I knew in that moment that I was a mama - and a proud one to say the least. Although the life we had imagined we'd have as a family of three is not what we had expected, there are some things that did not change: the love we have for her and the goal we have to give her a happy life.
So happy for you to be able to celebrate a month birthday at home. Awesome!!
ReplyDeleteYay for month-birthdays at home!
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