11 months

11 months.  Hard to believe!  These past few weeks I have been remembering this time last year.  I had so much anticipation of what it would be like to welcome this beautiful girl into our family.  I was nervous about how Hunter would do and what it would be like to juggle two kids.  I was physically very uncomfortable and ready for her to be here.  As the leaves were falling off the trees last year my heart was in preparation mode, readying myself for a new season of life with two kids.  This fall, my heart is just so full-- life is so rich.  Adelyn has blessed our family greatly.  I know it sounds cliche- but I really cannot believe we are about to celebrate her birthday.

 She is about 17.5 pounds now.  She has really had a rough couple of months with her health.  After we spent 4 nights in the hospital in September, she took about a week to recover and even then she wasn't back to normal.  We spent another afternoon in the hospital around that time to make sure she didn't have another bladder infection.  Thankfully, she didn't.  But since Mid-September, she has had: a yeast rash, and then developed eczema on her arms and legs; an ear infection; then another virus that caused coughing and low grade fever.  The girl has had a tough time.  I think that is why she hasn't gained much weight in the past few months.  She is on antibiotics every day to prevent bladder infections.  Now we do cream on her arms and legs twice a day for the eczema and we are starting her on probiotics.

 Adelyn has gotten the hang of "cruising" while holding on to the couch or a walker toy.  She hasn't taken the plunge to start walking on her own yet.  She can stand for a good 30 seconds on her own, but when she realizes what she is doing she sits down.  I think she could walk if she tried, but she hasn't been interested yet.  She definitely gets around, though!  She is keeping me hopping more than ever.  EVERYTHING she touches goes in her mouth.  And she finds everything.

 Tonight I let her have a little chocolate ice cream.  I know, she is still a little young for that.  But the girl loved it!  She is a little foodie!  When she tries something new, she makes lots of sounds while it is in her mouth.  Josh & I joke often that if she had words she would be telling us all the ingredients to that item.  She really analyzes everything.  With the ice cream tonight she would mumble and then whine as soon as she swallowed her taste.

 Adelyn sleeps like a champ at night--usually about 12 or 13 hours!  During the day she sometimes takes 2 short naps and sometimes one long one.  She LOVES her bunny and now holds it with her most of the day.  It is funny to see her crawl around with it because it isn't much smaller than she is! ;)  She still gets between 4 and 5 bottles a day and eats 3 meals of solid food.  She really likes Mum Mums and puffs and really anything she can feed herself.  I have been trying to teach her the signs for "all done" and "more."  She has her own modified versions--it is so neat that she is able to communicate!

 Speaking of communicating, she associates "momma" and "dada" with us now!  She also occasionally says "bye bye" and "uh oh."  She babbles a lot so I think more words will be coming soon!  Another new development this months: she points!  She points at what interests her and it is helpful in knowing what she wants!

She is happy and so charming.  She truly loves her brother and they actually play together quite nicely. Hunter loves her and it is neat to see such a good relationship forming.  She has a different childhood than Hunter already-- he was not entertained by a little person all the time!  

She is less of a cuddle bug than Hunter was at this age.  I do love it when she snuggles up close, though.  She still smells so delightful and her soft baby head is my favorite.  Such a precious baby.  I love her!

10 months!

Adorable Adelyn is 10 months old.  She is such a delight.

She is pretty laid back overall, which is a wonderful quality, especially in second children.  She sleeps so well at night.  We are working on adjusting her day schedule.  Sometimes she wants one nap to be 3.5 hours and sometimes she wants a short nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.  I feel like we are on the edge of dropping down to 1 nap but not quite there yet.  Either way, she is sleeping through the night and that is what I really care about!!!  Her attachment to her bunny has grown.  That is her comfort for sure!

She is cutting 3 teeth on top right now.  I think 2 have cut and one is close, but she doesn't like me to inspect them too often.  The two on the bottom that she cut at 6 months are getting bigger.  We have started her on some puffs and some yogurt bites.  She has had fun starting some solid finger foods at meal times, too.  She makes a mess, but it is adorable! ;)

This month she started clapping when anyone says, "yay!" or if Josh or I come home from work or class.  That makes us feel so loved!!  Plus it is so cute to see her little face light up!

She says, "Momma"  "Dada"  "Nonono" "Dooooooo" and "Uh oh."  (She doesn't always associate these with Mom & Dad yet, though.)  She makes lots of other random sounds, too.  She sings often when she is in her crib.  And her little laugh makes my heart swell!

This has been a tough month for her physically, but she is a little trooper.  We are so thankful she is well and back to her old self.

1 night in the hospital

 

We made it through the night!  Adelyn slept pretty well considering where we were.  She was a miserable baby yesterday and I was really thankful to not be alone in caring for her.  Even though there are certain aspects of being in hospital that are unfortunate (noises, lights, constant people in and out), I was happy to have other people helping me in caring for Adelyn.  By the time we went to bed, she was crying tears again.  So we were all hopeful that the worst was past.
 

She woke herself up with diarrhea several times, but not as often as I expected.  Around 1:30 a.m. I was awoken by something and I looked over at Adelyn.  She was sitting up (for the first time in 24 hours!), sucking her fingers, and staring at me.  She didn't look like she felt very well, but she gave me the sweetest look.  I enjoyed that moment with her, both of us watching each other for a bit before we went back to sleep.
 

This morning she was able to keep 4 oz of formula down along with all the IV fluid.  She is still having diarrhea, but it is slowing.  All of those factors, along with the fact that her blood showed a greater hydration level, allowed us to leave this morning.  We were released around 10:45 a.m.

Adelyn has been eating 2 ounces an hour since we have been home.  She has napped a little bit and desired to be held a whole lot.  But she is better.  She even crawled around for a few minutes! ;)

We let Hunter have chocolate milk for the first time.... he refused it!  HA!  He didn't like the way it looked.  We tried again the next day in a sippy where he couldn't see through it and he LOVED IT.  He said, "I didn't like chocolate milk yesterday, but today I do!!!"  Adorable. 

 We got to do a lot of cuddling, which made this momma happy! ;)

 When she woke up this morning, she was smiley, and actually crawled around her crib a little bit!! We knew she was better!!!

Here is our hospital room:

 YAY!  We get to go home!!!!

We are thankful for all the prayers and love as we have been caring for Adelyn!

9 months

 She is 9 months old!!!
Weight: 17 lbs, 2 oz (15th percentile)
Height: 26.5 inches (or 27.5?  Got different measurements by different doctors) (20th or 5th percentile)
Head: 17 1/2" (75th percentile)

 Adelyn sleeps 11-12 hours at night and 2-3 hours during the day.  She still has only 2 teeth, but 2 top teeth look like they could come through at any point.

 She no longer lets me put bows on her head.  If I sneak them on her, they may stay on for 5 minutes or so.  But as soon as she can, she likes to rip it off and then eat it of course.

 The doctor was particularly impressed by her use of her hands.  She has long fingers that she can manipulate well to pick up small objects.

 She still sucks on her two middle fingers for comfort.  She has become very attached to this bunny, too.  She loves to have it on her face when she falls asleep.

What a big girl...  She pulls to standing on anything she can get a grip on!  She loves to crawl and explore the whole apartment.  She is very playful!