6 Months

Half a year has passed since baby Hannah entered the world making my life better and happier than I could have ever imagined. Since we are leaving for Bishop tomorrow, Hannah had her 6 month appointment one week early. SHe did so good with her shots. She didn't even make a peep with the first one and then cried only for a minute with the second. The doctor also took a look at the video clip of her 'spasms.' He agreed that they were not seizures, but was also unsure what was going on. Basically we are told just to watch and hopefully they will go away. Hannah looks great, very healthy, active and alert.

She is also big (still).
She weighs 16 lbs. 5 oz. which is 60%, height is 26 1/2 in. which is 75% and her head size is 95%. That is one week before her actual 6 month Birthday.

We are looking forward to our family trip and will post pictures along the way.

Surgery is Scheduled

Nothing says "Happy 9 month Birthday Milestone" like a trip to the hospital. Hannah met with her surgeon today and her surgery is officially scheduled for October 5th at 5:30 am. It is so weird to see it written on my calendar because when this whole thing started it seemed like 9 months was a long way away. Hannah's team will consist of her surgeon, ENT, pediatric anesthesiologist and multiple nurses. THe hospital has 9 pediatric anesthesiologists. My Dr. said 5 are outstanding. I asked him to schedule Hannah with the one he would choose for his own child. He has already put in the written request and the entire team is coordinated. THe surgery will last 4 hours. It starts so early because she can't eat anything after her previous night's bottle. Hannah will spend one night in the hospital if all goes well. The first day she is fed through an IV. Day 2-day 7 she can eat formula. Week 2-Week 4 she can have baby food (fed by parents only, she can't use the spoon herself). I am happy because he said she would not have to use the arm restraints if we take away all of her hard toys. A lot of the time they make babies wear arm restraints for one month to prevent them from putting things in their mouth. He said she will be fine if we give her soft toys, but no sophie giraffe, xylophone mallet, hard rattles or rinky links. He said one month after surgery she will be cleared to eat anything her heart desires:) THe palate actually takes around 6 months to completely heal so she may still have food come out her nose during the recovery period because it takes time for the new palate to become malleable enough to push the food down and function properly. He also thinks her language will take off after the repair (I hope he is right.) With the cleft Hannah can't really babble with consonants because too much air escapes out her nose to make those sounds. THat is the same reason why her laugh is so deep (which I think is cute). So while I don't know where I will find the strength to hand over my baby girl, I am very excited for the day to come so we can put this little hiccup behind us.

Plastic surgeons spend their days making their patients more beautiful, but I think Hannah is already his most gorgeous patient.

Does Mommy Anxiety Ever End?

I think back to pregnancy and despite being a wonderful 9 months of my life, it was also filled with anxiety because I was always worried about the baby. I remember Tim telling me the anxiety never stops, we were officially parents. He was right. I just love Hannah so much and I hate when anything seems off with her. THe last two days Hannah has been having spasms periodically throughout the day. Her shoulders stiffen, she pulls her head back and shakes for about 1-2 seconds. It has been really scary and I have been hoping they would stop, but they haven't so today I met the on call doctor at the office and showed him my video footage (yes, I have been videoing because it's a difficult thing to describe.) After viewing my clips and checking out Hannah he did NOT think they were seizures which is what I was afraid of. He really had no idea what they were or what was causing them, but he didn't think an EEG was needed at this point. He said to continue capturing footage and if her head ever goes forward like a 'jackknife' then it could be more serious. For now he was not overly concerned. I still am, but that is what mom's do.

On to a funnier topic. I've written before about how we don't let Hannah use her snuggly wrap anymore for naps. We have traded it in for her lovie blankey. She really likes the lovie, but every time I check on her, she is sound asleep with the blanket over her head. Maybe she isn't as smart as I thought....

Stay tuned the next two days for doctor blogs, Monday we see her surgeon and Tuesday she gets six month shots and a weigh in.

Hannah loves to hold the spoon herself


Sound Asleep

Anything but the Sneeze

This past weekend we celebrated Father's Day as a family. I'll take this as a good opportunity to acknowledge Tim for being a wonderful father to Hannah. He is so involved and Hannah is very lucky to be his little girl. Tim and Hannah enjoy making funny noises together, playing peek a boo, going for walks, listening to music, and story time. At church Tim won the chocolate cigar award for newest dad. Then we played mini golf and I let him win. (jk he won fair and square and even got a hole in one). Overall it was a great day and we hope both of our dads had nice days as well. We are sorry we couldn't be with you.

As for Hannah, not much new, just enjoying different foods. She gets fruit for breakfast and a veggie for dinner. So far she has tried carrots, peas, sweet potatoes, bananas, and apples. She loves to help guide the spoon and would do it herself if you let her. She enjoys the taste of all of the flavors, but it has really taken me emotionally back to the difficulty of dealing with the cleft. Hannah has mastered her special bottle and is growing on track so I had kind of forgotten that certain things are more difficult for her. As you know a baby with a cleft cannot form suction which is why she can't hold her paci or use a normal bottle. Recently I have also learned there is a website to buy special sippy cups. wow they think of it all. Anyway, now that we have introduced food, her challenges are becoming apparent again and it makes me sad. She seems to really enjoy the taste, but the food gets stuck in the cleft and comes out her nose which makes her cry. THe bananas are the thickest so she has had the most difficulty with these. Tim and I always pray for no sneezes because peas, carrots, you name it will come flying out her nose all over you. Tim is very good at reminding me that she likes it and is happy, but it makes me so sad to see her choke, eyes watering, and food coming out her nose. As a mother you never want your baby to feel even a bit of pain. I really can't wait for the surgery. Until then, Hannah teaches me to be strong and that it's okay to be different. We simply go slow with the food, watch her carefully, and stop at the first sign of the food getting plugged. Hannah usually sneezes to get out whatever got stuck and we wash the rest down with milk. Milk is still her favorite thing.

Hannah and Daddy on Father's Day

I'm Counting It

Yes, true, Hannah slightly resembles early man (hunched over) in the pictures of her sitting, but she IS sitting, so I am counting it. She is still wobbly and usually falls after a few seconds, but I'm still celebrating her accomplishment. Hannah continues to show no interest in rolling over. We do tummy time, I demonstrate what rolling over looks like, I roll her over with help, I put all her toys out of reach on one side, etc., but still no go. She prefers to eat her feet. As a first time parent you eagerly await milestones, but skipping the rolling over stage is just one more thing to make her unique I guess. And, when she does roll over it will make it all the more exciting. Hannah is still such a happy baby and that is the best thing about being mom. It makes me think I am doing something right.

Yeah Hannah!



As I warned in a previous blog, anytime I bring out the new clothes size, Hannah and I have a daily photo shoot. Hannah's nana was the one that told me to take a picture in every outfit because it makes boxing them up less sad. So here are the latest photo session shots:
This outfit was from Great Auntie Linda and it reminds us of my Granny

One Step Closer

One step closer to being a psycho parent on Toddlers and Tiaras that is... I admit I need some sort of 12 step program for taking unusually large numbers of photos of your child addiction. TOday Hannah and I visited Tim at work and Hannah got to meet all the ladies he works with. They were gushing over her and insisted that I submit her to a Gerber baby competition. Well, that is exactly what I did, along with 81,000 other parents. I know I'm her mom, but she is so much cuter that all the creepy babies I see on packages. I mean are the babies you see below the children of the company's owner or something? Certainly out of the 81,000 applicants they can select a baby cuter than the ones below. I am sure we will never hear anything from them, but at least I can tell Hannah one day that her mommy thought she was so cute she entered her into a Gerber contest. Oh and P.S. if she wins she gets 50,000. Ash, if you are reading this, you should enter Luke because he is super cute too and if he wins you could slip me a 5% finders fee :) Ok, I am clearly starting to sound like a braggy Christmas letter so back to earth with some real life mommy issues we've been dealing with....

Hannah is so great at sleeping through the night. 9pm to 7:30!!! Bad news is she has cut her naps down to 30 minutes only. I thought I could combine the three naps to two longer naps, but for now she is really holding on to that third nap. THis week we started eating peas. She doesn't seem to like them as much as the carrots, but she does eat them which is more than I can say for her mom or dad. And here's something we learned the hard way...once a baby starts eating food you really need to brush their teeth (gums in Hannah's case). The first morning after eating carrots, Hannah woke up with the worst breath ever. wow. A whole new reason to call her stinky now. We bought her a purple Abby Cadaby toothbrush and now brush before bedtime.

Creepy Baby Products



THis is not the photo I submitted, just a recent pic

Splish Splash

Today was the first warm day in San Jose and it finally felt like summer. Tim and I took advantage of this by taking Hannah to the pool for the first time. She was so cute in her bikini. Hannah loves to splash in the bath tub. She kicks her feet and sprays water everywhere so I was eager to see how she would respond to a big scary swimming pool. As soon as I felt the water, I thought she would hate it because it was freezing. We decided to give it a try anyway. To my surprise, she really seemed to like it. Tim held her and let her splash her feet. It was so fun.

On a different note, Hannah started eating carrots. She seems to enjoy them. She doesn't really smile, but she opens her mouth and leans towards the spoon so I take that as a good sign. You have to start with one food at a time and do only that food for at least four days to ensure no allergic reaction. We have switched to rice cereal for breakfast and eat carrots for dinner. This is in addition to her regular bottles, so I am sure she is growing quickly. I am happy she is growing, but introducing baby food is sure messy.

And the final piece of good news, Hannah continues to sleep through the night. She doesn't even stir anymore. Yeah! She is doing all of her naps without the snuggly wrap, but we still use it at night time.

Carrots


Laying out by the pool


Swimming with Daddy



Drying off after a fun filled day in the water

5 Months Old

Last week Hannah and I took a trip down south. We celebrated baby Markos at his baby shower on Saturday. Hannah can't wait to have another friend to play with. My dear friend Madeline is due in July so keep her in your prayers. It is always so great to be home. Hopefully this summer we will have more time to spend with people as it is so difficult finding time to see all the people we miss in such a short amount of time. For those of you we did see, we had a blast! Also, while we were down, Hannah celebrated her 5 month old birthday. At 5 months, she eating rice cereal, babbling up a storm, smiling at everyone, and laughing. Her favorite toys are a purple singing puppy from her uncle Tyler, bee friends activity mat, and squeeky giraffe. SHe most enjoys playing with and eating her feet, peek a boo, and bath time. She least enjoys being bumped as she is very sensitive. She is also getting a little more hair. She is almost sitting. Yes you heard me, I expect a blog any day announcing the completion of the sitting milestone. I'm not sure when to technically count it because she sits for a few seconds and then falls. I've decided when she sits long enough that I can grab a camera to snap a picture for proof then it will be official. Silly girl has by passed rolling over all together. She is on to bigger and better things. More exciting news is that she is sleeping through the night again. Hopefully it will stick this time. Last night when we got home I told Tim that I wanted to stop using her little yellow bed because she seems too big for it. Her legs hang over the end and I wonder if it plays a roll in her not rolling over because when she is confined in that she can't turn on her side at all. So, we moved her to the pack and play. THis also means she is no longer in my immediate sight where I can quickly grab her at the first move she makes. Last night she went to sleep at 9 and woke up at 8!!! During the night she woke up at her regular 3am, but instead of feeding her, I just laid there and listened to her move around. I was fully expecting a full blown cry within five minutes of not being attended to, but instead she fell back asleep. SUCCESS! I hope it works again tonight. Once again we boxed up her closet and her new summer clothes are ready to go. THat means more pictures because I honestly think I document every outfit she owns. Speaking of pictures...

Hannah's second date with Luke. THey are so cute. Luke seemed a bit more interested this time around, but Hannah is still the aggressor. Hannah leaned in for the kiss, but Luke started crying.



These were from the day she turned 5 months



My mom just moved into a new home and they have a tot lot so Hannah got to play in a sandbox for the first time. (she sat more than played)