Well well well, where do I start. How about with how much I love our youngest daughter. She is amazing in so many ways. Her smile lights up my days. There is nothing quite like her gummy grin to chase away any frowny faces in the room. She is insanely ticklish. Even when I'm just changing her onesie and gently grabbing her upper arm to pull through the sleeve she giggles and squirms. She started waving her arm up and down when she wanted "more' of any activity. We have been signing "more" with her and now she attempts to bring her hands together to sign the word. It is awesome to see her communicate. She signs more for singing, silly faces, funny noises, daddy's whistling and food of any kind. Speaking of food, she has really taken to eating her solid food. We have added several new foods to her diet this past month- she has tried sweet potato, pears, prunes, banana, avocado, peas, and oats. Her favorite foods right now are prunes and applesauce. The peas made her gag (that's my girl!).
As far as her eyesight we have a mixed review. The patching helped strengthen her right eye which was positive The problem of her eyes crossing still persists however. We have a follow up appointment right before we leave for Hawaii and we can discuss if surgery in her future might be the next step. Please keep your fingers crossed that her brain starts to tell her eyes to straighten up before the end of March!
On to yet another challenge facing our sweetie. I have mentioned my concern about Elin's mobility (or lack there of) in past blog posts. I try not to compare Elin to Anya but it was becoming apparent to me that Elin's gross motor development was not coming along as she aged. Thankfully we have such a great support network with her Early Intervention program that we were able to quickly set up an evaluation with an agency called Kindering. Elin had a gross motor evaluation by a physical therapist this week and sure enough she qualifies for services. We are hoping to start her PT before we leave for Hawaii. Basically we need to work on her neck strength and have her spend more time on her tummy whether she likes it or not. We are hoping that all this assistance we are receiving so early in her life will help keep her on track to regular development. It is tough though- I'm not going to lie. Officially she is supposed to spend 2 hours a day on her tummy. She usually lasts about 5 minutes before getting really upset so you can imagine how difficult this is going to be.
As for her hearing issue, she is progressing normally with language. Her vowel sounds are coming along wonderfully and we are hoping to hear more consonant sounds soon. We spend a lot of time saying da da da and ma ma ma and ba ba ba. I attended the yearly auction and fundraiser for Elin's hearing program Listen and Talk last month. It was awesome and I felt so welcomed by the community of parents, grandparents and teachers of all these special little people. Next year I will be soliciting donations and attendance from family and friends so be ready!
So in a nutshell I spend most of my days carting Anya around and laying on the floor working with Elin in all sorts of capacities. All of our playtime has a focus and goal- it takes a bit of the fun out of it but it also forces me to slow down and spend time on the really important stuff- time with my kids!
The sun was out for us during our 6 day trip to Sun Valley. I flew over with Natalie and the girls on Tuesday while the boys flew over to meet us on Thursday. Natalie and I flew into Boise, rented a car, and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Sun Valley. We had the boys fly directly in and out of Hailey since their trip was shorter. We all had a blast. My parents rented a lovely condo in Elkhorn for a month and had invited us all to come stay with them. I don't think they had expected all of us to come AT THE SAME TIME, but it worked out great for everyone. Anya and Elin got to spend some quality time with both their grandparents and their aunt and uncle. Meanwhile we got to ski- oh glorious downhill skiing at Sun Valley. It really is the best skiing around. The conditions are almost always perfect- sunny, cold and groomed. That is how I like to ski at least.
The travelling part of the vacation went very well. Both girls had colds so I was concerned about the airplane ride but the take off and descent didn't even phase them on the way over. By the time they flew home however both girls complained of ear pain- Anya by asking me to kiss her ear and telling me it hurt- Elin by screaming for 20 minutes. Myles was a brave soul and with the help of my brother flew home with Elin while Natalie and I took Anya. It worked out well for everyone and I am very proud of my husband for being able to manage a 6 month old on a plane without the mom. Kudos to him!
While in Sun Valley we were able to get Anya up on skis for the first time. She LOVED it! Myles had a great time teaching her and Bobpop took her up to Dollar mountain one day too. She got to sled and snowshoe a bit as well. Since the weather was quite cold and Elin had a cold we kept her inside most the time. She had a lovely time spending time with everyone and relaxing by the fire.
Poor Elin though- she looks like a pirate for 2-3 hours a day. After her eye appointment the doctor recommended we have her wear a patch over her strong (left) eye to strengthen her right eye. She gets frustrated by having to wear the patch but generally goes along with the torture. Taking it off is another matter. Just think of taking a band-aid off the same part of your skin every day- especially the sensitive tender skin around your eye. We are gentle but it still pulls and hurts her.
She has been eating rice cereal and applesauce for a few weeks. We are going to start venturing into new foods now that we are home from vacation. (I didn't want to risk an allergic reaction right before we left or while we were gone). She still mushes it around in her mouth and spits it out but some of it makes it down I think. Our doctor told us it was very important for babies at 6 months to start learning to eat solid foods to get the tongue use to the swallowing motion. It helps with language development which is of course a top priority for us.
We have been working with Elin to get her to sit up more and spend more time on her tummy. I can get about 2-3 minutes of tummy time out of her before she starts crying. She still hates it- but I am trying to persevere in order to develop her neck muscles more. She is happiest sitting on your lap or laying on her back or side interacting with you or any inanimate object with a face.
6 months really? How did that happen? Elin is thriving and loving life. She laughs easily and loves being tickled, sung too, and generally entertained by anyone. Her sister is by far her favorite person and Anya gets Elin laughing by just making eye contact with her. It is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between these two sisters.
We have a couple of exciting trips planned and they are coming up quickly. In the beginning of February we are headed to Sun Valley to stay with Ahma and Bobpop in their condo for 5 days. Auntie Natalie is flying over with Anya, Elin and I and the boys (Scott and Myles) are flying over two days later. Should be quite the adventure flying with two kids and no dad- but thankfully Natalie is super helpful and hopefully she will still love her nieces by the end of the trip! Be good girls! In Sun Valley we plan to snow shoe, down hill and cross country ski, sled and generally have a ball outside. We also are hoping to get Anya up on skis for the first time on dollar mountain. Wish us luck! Rough life- first time skiing in Sun Valley.
In the end of March we all fly over to Hawaii to stay with our friends the Piskels on the North Shore of Oahu in their amazing beach home. Anya and Lucy are good friends so the trip should be a relaxing family vacation. Can't wait for some beach time.
Alright- update on Elin. She had her 6 month appointment last week and weighs 14 lbs, 4 oz putting her in the 45%. She is 25 inches long- 25% and her head is in the 55%. She is sitting up in her Bumbo chair and gaining better control of her large noggin. Her core muscles are coming along as well so she is getting stronger and sitting better in general. We have introduced some rice cereal which she promptly gummed, mushed and drooled out of her mouth. We will keep at it so she begins to learn how to eat some solid food. She is nursing like a champ still and also takes a bottle from anyone. Elin is an easy baby. Despite her "complications" her temperament and general attitude is chill and relaxed. As far as hearing is concerned she is doing well.
Her speech sounds are progressing and she says ahh, ooo, eee, oh, woo, baa (rarely). Mainly she screams and hollers entertaining herself as she wiggles and kicks on the floor. She rolls from her back to her side and almost to her tummy. She is NOT a fan of tummy time mainly because it is too hard for her to lift her head off the ground for any extended period of time (think face smashed into the carpet). She loves naked time which we have come to call "nudey rudey" time at our house. Anya also partakes and we have nightly nudey rudey time with both girls. It is hilarious and I can't wait to someday embarrass them both in front of friends when I tell the story about them spending every night naked on the floor together. Elin spits up often still but it is getting better. I'm hoping with the addition of solid foods we can get more of that milk to stick in her tummy and not end up on me or her burp cloth.
We are seeing a pediatric optometrist because her eyes are not tracking all that well. We hope that it is simply a lazy eye issue which is very fixable and not a vision problem. Stay tuned for more on that.
Generally life is crazy busy and I don't know where the months are flying off too. I'm trying my best to live in the moment and soak up the baby days of Elin since I know they are fleeting.
2012 was a year full of surprises that's for sure. From not knowing whether we were having a boy or a girl to finding out about Elin's hearing loss we ran the gammit of emotions. We are ushering 2013 in with hope we will gain some balance and normalcy in our lives once again.
The holidays were crazy and wonderful. Anya was fully "invested" in Christmas this year from wanting to be good for Santa to singing all sorts of Christmas carols. We had four nights of celebration. First Myles's family Christmas at Kyra's house, next a Santa party (complete with a real live Santa) at my parents, our annual Christmas Eve cocktail party, and Christmas dinner at Scott and Natalie's. Phew- it was a whirlwind of food, drinks and presents and both girls were a bit exhausted by the end of it. Elin handled the noise of the parties well for a while but she would get aggravated after a few hours and need a quiet break from all the din.
She is wearing her hearing aids full time now and seems to be flourishing. She started blowing raspberries about a month ago which is apparently an important skill for speech development according to our Listen and Talk counselor Rebecca. As discussed before, we have an early intervention program counselor come to our house on a weekly basis and meet with us. We go over new sounds Elin is making, new developmental milestones, she tests and checks her hearing aids and she interacts with Elin. She has given us a few good books to read to Anya about hearing loss and hearing aids and she loves to read them.
Anya has gotten to go to Elin's audiologist two times now and is a good sport during the appointments. Anya has been asking to have her hearing checked since reading the books and going to the appointments so at the most recent one we tested her hearing. Both Myles and I were pretty confident that Anya has no hearing issues but it was still a little nerve racking none the less to watch her get tested and wait for the results. She is normal and has absolutely no hearing loss or hearing issue at all. Thank God! She loved playing the games and interacting with the audiologist.
Elin is working very hard at rolling over. If she's naked she can get from her back to her side no problem. Once she gets to her tummy she isn't a fan so she really isn't all that motivated to turn all the way over. Clothes seem to be a bit of hindrance on her ability so she just rocks side to side on her back when dressed. She has found her right hand and sucks on it constantly. Anya is a thumb sucker and Elin is quickly becoming one as well. Self soothing is just fine by me. We have been blindly locating spit out binkies in the dark for several months so an attached thumb will be a welcome tool. Elin is sleeping pretty well. We are getting her down between 8-9 pm and she usually wakes once around 4 or 5 am. Then she will sleep until 8-9 am.
Elin lights up when she hears or sees Anya. I can tell already that these two are going to have a very special bond and it warms my heart to see Anya pay so much attention to her sister. She loves her and enjoys playing with her by showing her toys and making music for her. We have Elin's 6 month appointment the end of January. I can't believe she is almost 6 months old. Second kids grow up so fast.
It's that time of year again; Holicraze has begun.Thankfully having kids in the house during Christmas time brings back the little joys of Christmas I have forgotten as an adult. Watching Anya light up last year when she experienced Snowflake Lane for the first time was truly magical. She danced with Frosty and the Snow Princesses- it was bliss. We went again this year and she was very excited. She danced with her favorite characters again and we all enjoyed the show.
We have also visited Santa already. It went very well. I had prepped Anya with her answer for Santa. Not all went as planned with that part of the visit though. Instead of waiting for Santa to ask her what she wanted for Christmas Anya told him she wanted an Ariel watch the moment she sat on his lap. He looked a little shocked at her forward request. She then proceeded to tell him that her mom and dad call him all the time. Nice. Now Santa thinks we are stellar parents. We have had several conversations with him when we are within earshot of Anya in hopes of correcting some behavior issues. So far it isn't working.
Since this post is focusing on Anya, let's talk about her as a big sister. SHE IS AMAZING! Granted Elin isn't moving yet so she isn't getting into Anya's stuff at all, I'm just enjoying this stage right now. Anya loves to get toys for Elin to look at and will sit and play with her to keep her from crying. She also distracts Elin in the car when she screams (she HATES the car) by singing songs to her.
Elin had her four month appointment two weeks ago. She was happy and loved the doctor. She even giggled when he checked her heartbeat with his stethoscope. She is so ticklish. She avoided her vaccinations at her two month appointment because she had a cold. We had to go back in several weeks later to get them. For those of you with children who get them vaccinated you will be familiar with the Rotavirus vaccination that they administer orally. Since Elin is a puker she literally vomited the vaccination all over the nurse last time.
So this time we got to try again. Thankfully she kept it down and then was rewarded by having three separate jabs in her legs. Her face turned bright red and she cried so hard she didn't even make a sound. And then she turns her sad screaming face toward me and looks at me as if I betrayed her trust. I swear having your child vaccinated is one of the worst things ever. It only took a few minutes to calm her down and nursing helped get her mind reset. Her stats from this appointment are weight 13 lbs 8 oz 55%, length 24 inches 45%, head 16 inches 50%, So we have an average baby even though her chunkiness may lead you to believe otherwise. She wore her hearing aids for the doctor and seems to be happiest when she has them on now. Everything else looked normal and she was given a check of approval for whatever babies need to accomplish by 4 months.
We celebrated Thanksgiving up at our Hood Canal cabin and spent four days up there. We stayed in the newly renovated "boat house". It is so nice to have our own space especially when Elin wakes up in the middle of the night. We all share a room out there and it actually went very well. Elin started sleeping though the night in fact. Hallelujah! Since we've been home she has reverted to waking up once usually but has nights where she sleeps straight until 7am. I feel like a new woman when I get 6 to 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
I officially feel guilty. People always said that you take a million pictures of your first born and have two pictures of second kids. I think I'm running into the same problem keeping up Elin's blog. I just don't have time. HOWEVER- I am making a concerted effort to take lots of pictures at least. So here is an update for the last month and a half.
Elin had a playdate with her cousin Drew who is about 3 weeks younger than her. They are two cute fat babies and had a blast chatting to each other on the blanket. It will be so fun to see how these two grow up together since they are so close in age.
We had professional pictures taken when Elin was two months old and got them back a few weeks ago. They turned out terrific and Anya is the most photogenic of the group. Here are a few of my favorites.
We had our good friends from Australia visit for the last two weeks. Harry was amazing with Elin and he and Anya loved seeing each other again. We had many adventures including a trip to the cabin. Since we don't have a bathtub there Elin gets to sit in her jacuzzi tub in the sink. This kid loves her baths!
Elin is robust. She has rolls upon rolls and her belly shakes when she giggles. She even has "muffin top" coming over her diaper! (Time to go up a size I know- BUT I bought a huge box at Costco and need to use them all first) She loves to eat and still nurses about every two hours if not more frequently She takes a bottle like a champ so I am able to get out and about without worrying about her starving.
We had a rough time with her sleeping about three weeks ago. She was still in her bassinet in our room. We were swaddling her at night too. She started waking at 2am and staying awake until 5am every night. Needless to say this was wreaking havoc on all our lives. To make matters worse she wasn't sleeping at all during the day either. The kid was working herself into a state of sleep deprivation. She is normally happy most the time unless she is hungry. Our sweet happy baby was a tired crying mess and we were quickly deteriorating too. I was clocking her naps and nighttime sleep and she was totaling between 7-9 hours in a 24 hour period. The average sleep recommended for a baby her age was 15 hours! We had a major problem and nothing we were doing seemed to be fixing it.
We consulted other parents and the all knowing grandmothers and switched up our game plan. She has very bad reflux which means she spits up and vomits a lot especially when she is on her back. So what if we tried to prop her on her side to sleep? That did it. She was unswaddled and moved into her own room and own crib, propped on her side and she slept for a solid 9 hours. Since that wonderful discovery we have had regular naps in the crib and she goes down around 10 at night and sleeps until 7am. She usually wakes around 3am for a feeding but it is quick and she goes right back down now. Caveat- this is most nights. We have good nights and not so good nights but this is the normal pattern.
Tummy sleeping is her most favorite position but we can't do that unless we watch her like a hawk. I freak out the entire time she is on her stomach but she can nap for 3 hours that way easy. For my sanity the side sleeping is the way to go.
On to yet another challenge facing our sweetie. I have mentioned my concern about Elin's mobility (or lack there of) in past blog posts. I try not to compare Elin to Anya but it was becoming apparent to me that Elin's gross motor development was not coming along as she aged. Thankfully we have such a great support network with her Early Intervention program that we were able to quickly set up an evaluation with an agency called Kindering. Elin had a gross motor evaluation by a physical therapist this week and sure enough she qualifies for services. We are hoping to start her PT before we leave for Hawaii. Basically we need to work on her neck strength and have her spend more time on her tummy whether she likes it or not. We are hoping that all this assistance we are receiving so early in her life will help keep her on track to regular development. It is tough though- I'm not going to lie. Officially she is supposed to spend 2 hours a day on her tummy. She usually lasts about 5 minutes before getting really upset so you can imagine how difficult this is going to be.
As for her hearing issue, she is progressing normally with language. Her vowel sounds are coming along wonderfully and we are hoping to hear more consonant sounds soon. We spend a lot of time saying da da da and ma ma ma and ba ba ba. I attended the yearly auction and fundraiser for Elin's hearing program Listen and Talk last month. It was awesome and I felt so welcomed by the community of parents, grandparents and teachers of all these special little people. Next year I will be soliciting donations and attendance from family and friends so be ready!
