9 months already

Lots to report since my last post which was several weeks ago. Paige is doing really well and seems to be changing on a daily basis. She had her nine month appointment earlier this week and is doing well on the charts. She weighed in at 18.12 (50%) and 28 inches (75%). I don't know her head size but it was between 75-90% which she said was a good thing because it indicates that her brain is growing, something a mom always wants to hear about her child! We talked quite a bit about her gross motor skills and the fact that she's not crawling, pulling herself up to stand, pushing herself into a sitting position from lying, etc. She wasn't overly concerned but did offer to call Early Intervention to set up an appointment since it takes a while to get one. She felt like she should be doing these things by 10 months and if she was we could just cancel the appointment. I haven't heard from her so I'm not sure where that stands. Paige does move herself around quite a bit in the sitting position so I guess that's something.

We also discussed her eating situation and she encouraged us to move her to three meals at regular meal times that we have and also to cut back on her formula. She suggested focusing on Cheerios for finger foods and adding pastina to her baby food to add texture. I haven't tried the latter yet but she did start eating the Cheerios today. It's really hilarious watching her gum them and I was able to capture it on video, one of many reasons why she'll be cursing me in years to come.

We also had her ENT appointment yesterday so it was quite a busy week with the doctors. We went to Children's in Waltham and they were wonderful. She had a hearing test which was quite interesting to watch. She sat in my lap and music came out of speakers in the corner of each room and it also lit up with a stuffed animal in a case by the speaker. She almost always reacted and she did well even when they put headphones on her, even though she fought those a bit. So given the fact that she passed that test and it's the end of cold and flu season they recommended waiting on the tubes and just keeping an eye on her. I'm assuming we won't have to consider tubes until next winter, if at all. Fingers crossed that we won't have to go down that path at all.

Other than that, we're enjoying the spring weather that has finally arrived. Jake bought a ridiculous jogging stroller so he has taken her out in that a few times. We actually plan to take her in it today on the bike path because it also hooks up to a bike. We'll see how she does with that but I think she'll enjoy it. I can't believe I'll need to start thinking about her first birthday soon...where does the time go?

Ear drama continues

So unfortunately we're continuing to battle the ear infections here which is quite the disappointment.  Only a few days after her last dose of antibiotics, Paige's eyes started to look bad again so I brought her back to the pedi assuming that it might be pink eye coupled with an ear infection.  Sure enough, puss in both ears again. :(  So they're now giving her shots of antibiotics to fight this thing!  Our next step is to bring her to an ENT at Children's in Waltham. They are supposed to be wonderful there and the dr we're seeing comes VERY highly recommended.  While I didn't want to go down this route, at this point, I'm ready to do whatever is necessary so she's not on antibiotics all the time.  So it's three weeks until the appointment...fingers crossed it goes well and there is no hearing loss.

In other news, we think Paige is finally about to get her first tooth.  Jake and I can both feel the sharp edges in her lower gums and it's very hard to see anything since she likes to stick her tongue out whenever I try.  However, from what I can tell they haven't actually cut through the gums yet so there may be some challenging days ahead I'm guessing. 

Speaking of temperament, Paige has been very happy, more like her old self recently and I'm wondering if it's due to the fact that we're really fighting these infections whereas before I didn't know they were there until they had gotten bad.  We struggled with the reading before bedtime a lot but this week has gotten better.  She loves touching the books that have things for her to feel (i.e. fur on animals) and still insists on flipping the pages.  We're still not mobile and she's not really showing an interest in any table food.  She likes to chew on the teething crackers and the carrot wagon wheel things but won't take any regular food.  So she just seems to be taking her time in some areas although she continues to learn every day which is really fun to watch!