9 month stats

Last Tuesday (Oct. 18) Arya (finally) had her 9 month well-baby check-up (after it was rescheduled 3 times). At the appt she had her flu shot, which made for a sad little girl. Her pediatrician said she is right on track and can now start simple table foods!

Weight: 18lbs 13 oz     50th percentile

Height 27.25in    35th percentile

My Growing Girl!

Arya's second tooth cut through yesterday! Interesting since her first tooth cut last Tuesday. 
We are going to Grampa Brian and Grandma Suzanne's next week. While we are there we are getting family pictures. I hope Arya's teeth are in enough to see in the pictures. But it means LOTS of slobber. All the teething has been making for a fussy girl at bed time. We have been using baby tylenol and teething rings. The tylenol has not been a good experience so we bought baby advil and will be using that next. The discomfort is causing her to be a snuggle bunny-which I enjoy but wish I could make her feel better.
This week we have upped Arya to three bottles of formula a day. She has breatmilk with her breakfast and dinner but her three mid-day feedings are formula. Also, I am on my meds so the milk I pump has to be dumped. :( BUT, I am almost dried up- thankful I am not so umcomfortable anymore! My goal was to be done with the pump before going out of town next week. Soon I will be packing it away for good.
Back in August Arya said "Mama." Now she says it ALL the time! I'm not complaining but she is now saying it to everyone! She has called Daddy, herself and our friend Mindy all "Mama." And sometimes she just says it while babbling. I think it's because when she first started saying it she refused to say it when Daddy was around. He kept saying "Ma ma ma ma ma" to try an convince her and I think that's what caused the confusion.
Now that Arya can pull up so loves to stand on the love seat and look out the window. Don't worry, I always stay right there to make sure she doesn't tumble over/off.

 

Arya has starting eating Gerber puffs now. I am not sure what she thinks of them. She eats them willingly on her own but tends to scrunch up her nose and make a funny face. She also now will drink out of her sippy cup. That took a long time! I guess she wasn't ready until now.  Here is her snacking in her Bumbo last night.

Big Week!

This was a big week for Arya!

First of all, she is 9 months old today! She has been on this earth longer than she was in the womb! WOW, time really does fly! She is 3 quarters of the way to a year!

Second, on Tuesday I felt in her mouth and could feel her tooth starting to cut through! Wednesday you could really feel it! We also think her second one might be about to come in. You can see the white but can't feel it yet. She has been pretty happy most of the day but her teeth really bother her at night. She will be crying and when we check on her she is pulling on her cheek.

And finally, yesterday Arya used the side of the couch to pull herself up! I was pretty excited! She even took three steps to the side. Then she fell down on her tush and started playing as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. Silly girl! When Daddy got home and was sitting on the couch she tried to use his pant leg to pull up on.
Here are two pictures after she pulled herself up:
In this first one she looks so proud of herself.

 And here is a picture of her from Sunday:

 

A good start on Good Start

Last night Arya had her first bottle of formula. We had been trying to decide between Similac Advance (which we had samples of) and Gerber Good Start. We chose to go with Gerber. We also decided to not mix it with milk as we had been planning. I decided if she would take the formula on its own then the milk stash would last longer and there wouldn't be the hassle of mixing them.

When the bottle first went in and she tasted it she let go of it, but opened right back up. Then she drank it all down! SUCCESS!! So for right now she will get one bottle of formula a day. We will increase to two in a few days and keep increasing it every few days until our stash of liquid gold is gone.

Formula

Tonight Arya will have formula for the first time. 

I have Myotonic Dystrophy, New Daily Persistent Headaches (NDPH) and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). I have been off my medication since April 2010 when we decided to start trying to get pregnant and have remained off of them so that I could provide breastmilk for Arya.

We have not been nursing. Arya was born premature and never quite got the hang of it. We tried hard and had very little success. I have exclusively pumped up until this time. I am still pumping now, but I am weaning myself off the pump.

Two weeks ago, I had what I call "episodes." I have had constant head pain since September 21, 2008. I have "episodes" where the pain is excruciating and debilitating. This episode lasted a week and a half. I was unable to lift/carry Arya. I could barely stand. Bradley had to take off work to care for her. Back in 2010 I was discussing coming off my medicine. My doctor said, "Yes, breastfeeding is best for a baby. But if you get to the point where you can't function it is more important for you to be able to actually care for the baby." Well. we have reached the point where I am unable to care for Arya. So, next week I start medication. And today, we start formula.

The reason we start formula today is to mix it with the milk we have left to ease her into it. I am very torn up- I wanted to give my daughter breastmilk for the first year of her life. When I realized that might not happen my goal was 9 months. Arya will be nine months old a week from tomorrow.

I feel somewhat like I failed. Everyone told me I did an amazing thing for Arya. I don't feel that way. I feel like I fell short. But as many have pointed out- I have to take care of myself to be able to take care of her. 

This is a picture of Arya her first time in her highchair a couple months ago, so it is breast milk in that bottle. 

Laundry!

Arya's version of helping Mommy with the laundry. :)

Labor Day Weekend

Over Labor day weekend, my parents, and my sisters family came to visit. Then on Sunday we had a picnic with two sets of Arya's grandparents, two Uncles, an aunt, and cousins. This weekend was Arya's first time meeting her cousin Ruthanne (my sister's daughter) who is 3 months younger than her; and Elijah (Bradley's brother's son) who is 1 month older than her.

Meeting Ruthanne for the first time. They liked to hold hands. We just had to stop Arya each time she tried to grab Ruthanne's trach.

Grabbing Mommy's hair as always.

Playing with Mommy at the picnic.

Arya with Daddy, Uncle Aaron, and her cousins.

W

We went for a walk at the picnic. It had cooled down quite a bit, so we bundled up Arya (and Tigger!) in her stroller.

Arya hamming it up for the camera.

Too bad, we didn't get pictures of everything else. We did have some pictures of Arya going swimming with Mommy and Daddy, but I don't know who's camera those are on. There were also group pics of everyone one at the picnic but those were on my moms camera.