Behind the scenes

I keep meaning to update this week but things have been crazy lately. I had a number of emails and messages from concerned friends and family members about ear tubes, developmental milestones, introducing new foods, and just validation. Thanks for that, everyone. I hope that people also know that overall, Chad and I know we're doing a great job and feel very lucky to have such a sweet baby girl.

Our developmental evaluation is scheduled next Tuesday. We are really excited to see how she behaves in the office. She is appropriately guarded in new situations so hopefully she warms up quickly. It is funny, she has gotten a bit more mobile since the last blog post. She scoots a little on her bottom from a seated position (mostly just in a circle), she stretches with her go-go gadget arms/limber body, and she scoots backward a tiny bit (though this seems accidental). Although we never see it, clearly she is capable of rolling. She really seems to like sleeping on her side. So glad we moved her to her crib. She is doing a great job. We still have one or two more difficult nights every week or so, though some of that may be related to teething. Her bottom gum looks swollen so her first tooth may appear sometime soon.

She is so silly. Lately she really likes biting my nose. She thinks this is hilarious.

Also hilarious--playing peek-a-boo. In this video she is a little more focused on the phone than playing but it's still cute.

Her new foods this week were pumpkin and chicken. Pumpkin was a hit. Chicken was not. We will keep introducing it, though. I did not want to puree the chicken (that just grosses me out) so I cut up boiled chicken into small pieces. She is not a fan.

We did meet with the ENT this week. Alaina was fantastic at the office. She continues to amaze me, particularly at how well she does in public! Basically, Dr. Crawley indicated that Alaina's ears are no longer infected but she does still have fluid behind the ear drums of both. He indicated that the fluid could range from watery to honey to jello. He said that currently hers is just fluid but that he doesn't think it will go away on its own. He recommended tubes but said that this wasn't a decision that had to be made immediately. He said that while her congestion and cough were not stemming from the ear infections, getting the ears cleared up might allow her body to focus on clearing up the congestion (and perhaps allow medicine like Zyrtec) to work better. I'm not entirely sure I follow that logic. Chad is pretty convinced/ready but I want to wait just a little bit before deciding. Especially since it would require us to not feed her after midnight and baby girl is a gruuuuuump when she is hungry. So we will see. I think we will get tubes but I'm not in a rush to get them this week. And we may see about a second opinion.

Each week I take a photo to mark how big she is getting. It is surprising how some weeks she makes such huge differences. Anyhow, the photos are so static and don't show that sometimes I have to take so many pictures to get one. So I thought I'd take a "behind the scenes" look. It's so crazy how quickly she is approaching that 52 week mark...things are definitely speeding up now. :(