nine months

This sweet little thing turns 9 months old today. There's not a day that goes by that I don't want to just kiss and love on her. She melts my heart everyday.
At her well visit this morning Morgan was weighed, measured, checked and pricked (only once though). The result? She's healthy and right on track developmentally. She's still on the small side, but the doc has no concerns about her weight or size. For the record...

17 lbs, 2 oz (25th percentile)
27.875 inches long (50 - 75th percentile)
her noggin is 17 inches round (25th percentile)

Here are some of the things Morgan has been up to.

*uses her elbows and knees to crawl around, but not quite her hands.
*puts herself into a sitting position from her tummy.
*her first word was mama. she's learning other consonant sounds too.
*responds to her nickname "b-mo", because that's what Michael and Addison call her.
*loves to shake her head NO and I'm pretty sure she knows what it means.
*has a ton of toys, but loves to play with Addison's school bus.
*just this past week learned how to feed herself some puffs.
*eats three meals a day and prefers my homemade food to the jar stuff.
*drinks her bottle from beginning to end with no break. she gets mad if you take it away.
*will sprint from the living room to the bathroom if she knows Addison is in there without her.
*sneaks up on us in the kitchen when we're making dinner.
*loves to splash around in the tub.
*concentrates so hard on trying to pull up, but can't quite do it yet on her own.
*crawls over and puts her head in your lap when she's tired.
*loves avocado, yogurt and sweet potatoes.
*gets very upset when you take something she wants away from her.
*loves to point and grab at your nose.
*starting to point at pictures in her books.
*chews on everything.
*loves to swing outside.
*hates to have things on her head. hats, headbands, barrettes, towels, blankets - they only last 2 minutes.
*loves when daddy comes to get her out of the car everday.
*is starting to dislike diaper changes and getting in her car seat.
*thinks Addison is the funniest person on the planet.
*after a month of sleeping training and a lot of crying it out, Morgan can self soothe and is finally sleeping through the night.

I can't believe she's been with us just as long as I was pregnant. I can't imagine life without her.

this past week

Morgan was officially discharged from her physical therapy. Her neck is completely healed and she has full range of motion and flexibility. It's like it never happen.

Morgan went to the doctor for an ear check. The antibiotics are helping, but her right ear was still infected. We started our second round of antibiotics to hopefully get rid of it completely.

I ate some form of cake everyday last week. It started on Monday and ended Saturday. It's sad really. But oh so good.

I finally went to the doc for the crap I've been living with for a month when my throat got swollen and ugly looking this past weekend. The test was negative for strep, but there was definitely something living in there. I'm now on some meds to knock it all out.

Addison had a serious meltdown. It started in the garage when we went to leave. She has to get in the car by herself and was pretty mad when Michael put her in the seat. She cried the whole way to school and then flopped around it the parking lot for 5 minutes, in the rain. I finally got her inside where she embarassed me by hitting me and Morgan as I tried to free my hands. When all was said and done I got a big kiss and a sweet "I'm sorry" that made it all go away.

Morgan is up on hers knees, almost completely crawling. It's so cute to watch and I plan on taking video this week. She has also learned how to get herself into a sitting position from the floor. I was so happy with her not being mobile.

Addison whacked Morgan in the head with a plastic lunchbox. She seems to have some kind of baseball addiction and is really into "swinging" things lately. That's been a fun one.

I was able to sit both of them down for about 5 mintes yesterday and take some cute Valentine pictures that I hope to turn in to cards. I swear Addison has the attention span of a, well, two year old.

I officially stopped breastfeeding. I was really sad and emotional about it. It started in December when I stopped pumping during the day, but kept feeding morning and night. The lack of milk supply caused Morgan to have no interest and she did everything but eat when I tried to feed her. So I gave it up. But I started making homemade baby food so it makes it a little better.

I think that's about it. Just another typical week.

the numbers

The verdict is in. Morgan is an itty bitty thing. Today at her well visit she was exactly 12 pounds, which if you're keeping notes (and I am), is the 15th percentile. However, my milk is not going to waste. She is now 25.5 inches long which is the 90th percentile. And just for kicks, her head was in the 15th percentile as well. Because she's a little on the small side I was told to try and get some more calories in her. We'll be upping her ounces during the day and giving her some extra mommy milk in a bottle before bed. No formula or cereal for now. We go back for a weight check in 3 weeks to see if it's working and reevaluate from there. Right now she's a little mad at me because I made her get three shots today. I know her legs are sore because she cries when I touch them. If it makes her feel better, my arm hurts from my flu shot today.

Morgan's physical therapy is going really well. The therapist says that her neck already feels so much better and she likes the way she is looking more to her left side. We're still doing stretches and exercises on a daily basis and therapy once a week. For now we're taking it week by week, but are told we're only looking at a couple of months.

Morgan started rolling over a bit this past weekend. She still has a little trouble getting her shoulder under her, but we have some excerises to help her with that also. Last night I let her have a little nakey time before the bath. She loves it! Something about being carefree. She was rolling and moving all over the floor, but had to hold Michael's finger for a little security.This girl is all about her hands. They are always in her mouth. And everyone and everything is soaked from her drool. She's just so stinkin' cute.

new exercises

Michael and I took Morgan to Brooks on Friday morning for her first therapy appointment. We met with her therapist who is super nice and was great with Morgan. She did a complete evaluation and told us that Morgan's case of Torticollis is very mild and easily treatable. She was able to turn her 90 degrees both ways (which is a good thing), but did notice some tightening when turning her head to the left. And she also pointed out Morgan's tilt to the left when she is lying on her back. We were taught some stretches to do on her neck and were told to play with her on her left side as much as possible. For now we'll take Morgan once a week for 30 minutes so they can continue to work with her and show us some new things to try at home. She's hoping that everything will be cleared up in a matter of months.

The therapist did say that Morgan's head control was really good and felt that we should try some new toys. A couple of days ago I had her in the Bumbo to see how she would do. I'm not sure what's so funny since the only thing she was looking at was the arm of the couch.


We decided to add to the clutter of toys that already take up most of our living room and put together the jumperoo. Morgan has chuckled a few times, but has never really laughed until yesterday. She was loving it!


My sweet baby girl will be back to perfect in no time!

it could be worse

Morgan had her three month check up yesterday. She now weighs a whopping 11 lbs, 11 oz, which is the 25th percentile. That's right. She's still a little thing. I think all of the milk that I have been providing for her has been going straight to her legs. She was 24.25 inches long putting her in the 75th percentile.

After all the stats were out of the way we got down to business. I've noticed over the past couple of weeks that Morgan favors her right side. So much that her head is flat and diagonal shaped. I have also noticed that she doesn't seem to want to turn her head much to the left. I mentioned it to the doctor and it does look like she has a mild case of Torticollis. Even though I've been researching it for a week or so and knew the confirmation was coming it was still hard to hear. As a parent you just want your kids to be perfect. And problem free. And pain free. I made an appointment today with the physical therapist so we should know more next Friday.

And on top of that, she has a pretty nasty ear infection that neither of us knew she had. No fever, runny nose or crying. It must be bad for my 'anti' antibiotic doctor to prescribe her something. She's pretty old school, but I like it.

Although I have been pretty bummed, everyone has been reminding me that it could be a lot worse. And that's so true. I'm pretty blessed with two great girls, a wonderful husband and a fun life.