10 Whole Months

I cannot believe that Isabella will be 1 in two months! It blows my mind. She started CRAWLING! Two days before she turned 10 months and I was just over the moon. She also pulls up onto her knees, so it shouldn't be long until she pulls up to her feet and starts cruising. I'm so excited to see her becoming more and more mobile. Lately I've been thinking about her 1 year pictures a lot and getting very nervous because this will be the first photo session that is full-length and completely about her, and I don't know how she will cooperate. She hates getting her picture taken. She still has no teeth and isn't teething yet. She's been cranky for the past couple of days but her constipation is back with a vengeance. This has been an ongoing battle since she was born, no one can seem to figure out why she's ALWAYS constipated and cannot survive without laxatives in her bottle once a day. Hopefully they will refer us to a stomach doctor soon. I've ordered her a birthday dress and a birthday tutu and I'm so excited for her to wear them and get pictures in them. I've also started planning her a little birthday party that I'm afraid will turn into a big birthday party just due to my sheer excitement. Isabella has learned a couple new things (that she only does when she chooses to and never when I want to show someone!) she can wave bye-bye, she can say "puff" (go figure her first word is food related) When I ask her "how tall is Isabella?" she lifts her arms up as high as they can go. She will also hold her blankie in front of her face until I say "where is Isabella?" and they she'll move it and have a big grin on her face. I also think she understands the word "no" because she sure throws a tantrum when I say it. We've fallen behind with the sippy cup drinking, so we need to pick that back up. That's really all I can think of for now, hopefully next month she'll be cruising/attempting to walk!

A whole new year with my 9 month old :)

We had a very Merry Christmas and a great new year :) Isabella got a lot of presents and she loves playing with something new everyday. As far as crawling, she is not having it. She just doesn't want to. She'll go from sitting into an almost crawl position but one of her legs always gets stuck. It's almost as if she can't quite control her legs. Her doctors have said it might be because she's so extremely long and her legs got so long so fast that she doesn't understand how to control them. I'm just hoping she catches up soon because she's pretty behind, she doesn't even pull up or anything. She still saying ma-ma, da-da, and ba-ba but sometimes she'll add in "ommmma" (we think she's saying "oma" because she only says it when she's around my mom and my mom says it first) and she's said na-na twice. We're still practicing with the cups (we've been through at least 12 different kinds and have settled with the Tommee Tippee) She can put her pacifier in on her own and she gives me kisses :) We're getting her to try to work on waving bye-bye and saying "ahhh" when we feed her. She can also feed herself small fingerfoods and LOOOOOVESS the Gerber Puffs. Mainly she's been eating bread and noodles because she STILL has no teeth and shows no signs of getting any soon. I'm very happy with what a good baby she is and how happy she is. I do worry about her delayed physical development, but hopefully she'll catch up soon and ease my mind.

My 8 Month Old Baby Girl

My little girl is 8 months old!! She turned 8 months on Thanksgiving day. We had wonderful holidays and are so excited for her first Christmas. She claps her hands all the time now, especially when I say "clap your hands!" She loves to play the 'Pacifier Game' where I take her pacifier and she takes it back and I say "OOH!" She just bursts out laughing. We're working on getting her to use the sippy cup, and she hold it really well she just needs to get used to the spout. I feel like she's grown so much. She'll rock back and forth when she's on her hands and knees (hopefully that means crawling is next!) She can now say "ma-ma" which is extremely cute, now her vocabulary is "da-da, ba-ba, and ma-ma." She's not showing any signs of getting any teeth, but I didn't get my teeth until I was like 16 months old. Ryan will not let me put shoes on her, which I absolutely know will hurt her when she HAS to wear them but isn't used to them. He thinks its torture to make her wear shoes if she doesn't HAVE to. She sits up and can even get onto her belly sometimes from the sitting position. She rolls all over the place and loves to take off her socks. She is over her "waking up at night" phase and eats all her jarfood although we still have some difficulty with the bottles. She still cries when it's time to wash her hair at bathtime, but that's something that she'll get over. That's all for this month! Have a Merry Christmas!

Lucky (or maybe unlucky) Seven

Isabella is now 7 months old. She weighs about 19 pounds (what a big girl!) and is slowly but surely getting more active. She's pretty lazy and expects everything to be done for her. Her first day of physical therapy is in two days and she'll continue to go every Monday from then on. As far as her physical therapy evaluation, the doctors seem to think she's fine, just that she has weak upper body strength and that she arches her back constantly, which is not good. I'm hoping that with time and work she will get to where she needs to be. She has been starting to try to clap her hands, which is really cute. She can also sit up now for a pretty long period of time. She was a little bumble bee for Halloween and just oh-so-cute. But, Ryan of course says she was a yellow jacket (gotta have school pride). Unfortunately, we've been having horrible nights because for some reason she wakes up in the middle of the night screaming crying and stays up for hours. It's really starting to wear me out. We really have no idea what it is, since it's so out of character for her. The doctors first thought it was constipation and are now saying reflux. We started her reflux medicine today but she's already woken up twice. It's really hard for me to see my baby struggling with something that I can't figure out. I hope the reflux medicine starts working or she's going to have to continue going to the doctor and being crabby from lack of sleep. She also has been refusing her bottles, which is REALLY frustrating because that's nutrition that is so crucial for her to have. Although this is a trying time, we're working through it day by day and doing the best we can.

A Half a Year Old!

Isabella is 6 months old, and in only 9 days she'll be 7 months! She weighs 17.5 pounds and is 28.5 inches long, according to the doctor, that's extremely tall. She's not sitting up, or even attempting to, so the doctor is having us take her to a physical therapist to see what's going on. Whether it's low muscle tone (since she HATES tummy time) or something more serious (I'm praying it's not). She says "da-da" allllll day long, it's the cutest thing I've ever heard. She smiles a lot and is so well behaved. She sleeps through the night and takes two naps a day. She's also teething, but most of the time she's a real champ about it. Of course, she has her days when her gums are swollen and she just wants to fuss it out. She loves any toy that makes noise when she shakes it, and she goes crazy shaking it as hard as she can. She'll even play in her jumper now, but she won't jump (another thing that worries me. Babies LOVE to jump!) We're really excited for all the upcoming holidays; Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas. I can't wait to share them with her, although she doesn't understand, I do and that's all that matters ;) Some mornings when I go to get her out of bed, she's managed to get her head where her feet go and vice versa. I have no idea how she does it. She's growing so fast, she barely wears her clothes for very long. She still ADORES her daddy and lights up when she see's him, but she also breaks into a smile whenever I smile at her, which makes me feel really good! I'm hoping things go well as far as her physical milestones and that she's just, as her doctor put it, "strong willed."

5 Months After Birth

Little Isabella is 5 months old today! She is the happiest, most content baby I could have asked for. She really handles tummy time like a champ now and is practicing at rolling over. She's added fruits to her diet and she can't get enough of them, and of course, prefers them 10 times more than the vegetables. She laughs out loud all the time now and it's just so darn cute when she does. Summer is over and school has started back up so on the days I have school a nanny comes and takes care of her. So far it has been going really well. The nanny keeps her on her schedule and Isabella seems to really like her. She's been biting her gums together lately as if she's chewing, I'm not sure if that's a sign of teething or not, but she always chews on her finger instead of sucking on it. She's in size 3 diapers (such a big girl!) and we've started stacking up her 6-9 month clothes that she'll definitely be in next month. She currently loves to blow spit bubbles, which proves to be a problem when she's eating her fruits/vegetables. Right now, she's only eating babyfood once a day but as she gets older we'll increase it. She has become a pro at eating off the spoon and makes minimal messes considering her age. Although I miss her like crazy when I'm at school, I know it's what's best for her in the long run. Ryan and I are more than half way to our degrees and I'm really excited about that. I'm especially proud of him considering his classes are so hard I'd die if I had to take them. That's all for this month! Who knows, she might be sitting up and attempting to crawl by the next update :)

Could four months have gone by already?

Isabella is growing so fast, I can barely keep up! She's 26 1/4th inches long & weighs 15.4 pounds! The doctors said she's the size of a 6 month old and extremely tall. She's still putting her fingers, any anything she can get her hands on, in her mouth all the time. She sleeps 12 hours at night (which we love!) She started eating baby oatmeal and babyfood about 2 weeks ago and it's so fun to watch her explore all the new tastes. I go back to school next week and I'm really, really sad about leaving her. She hasn't rolled over yet, but she can roll from her back to her side so we know it's probably coming soon. She's started to lose some hair on the back and the sides from rubbing her head when she's laying down, but the doctors said it will grow back once she starts sitting up. She still hates tummy time, but we still make her do it several times a day. She actually laughs out loud so much now. It's the absolute cutest thing I have ever heard. Sometimes when I laugh REALLY hard it makes her laugh out loud too and it just melts my heart. Of course, no one can make her laugh as much as her daddy. She adores him so much. She's wearing 3-6 month clothes but I'm pretty sure she'll be in 6-9 month clothes very soon. Her eyes are still green, so we're curious to see whether or not they will stay that way. I'm so in love with her, she's probably the most well-behaved baby I've ever seen. (and I'm totally not biased!)