November 30, 2011
Yes, that's right. Our tiny girl is 8 months old! 4 months away from her first birthday. It's crazy how fast time goes by. People always tell us that she would grow so quickly and the months would just speed away, but I never really thought it would go
this fast. Mind you, there have been many days where I wished we could speed things up, just to get over these
little bumps that seem to be on the road far too often for my taste. The last time I sat down to post, Miss A-Ro had just hit four months old. Wow. It's so funny to go back and read about her back then, and to see what has changed and what still remains the same. Here is a little recap on what she has been up to during our 4 month hiatus....
-We celebrated Averie's first Thanksgiving. She enjoyed a couple bites of sweet potatoes, but was more interested in her toys. We also celebrated Halloween last month. We got Averie the cutest banana costume. Unfortunately, Averie did not agree on it's cuteness. She spent the entire 10 minutes she had it on, screaming bloody murder, so needless to say, she didn't dress up. She preferred to stay in her jeans and Halloween onesie. One of my dear Kindergarten students told me that Averie probably didn't like the costume because she thought she might get eaten.
Duh! Why didn't we think of that! OH, I love the logic of a 5 year old!
-within a week of hitting the 8th month mark, Averie went from being a roller to a full fledged crawler! If that wasn't enough, she cut two bottom teeth (which explains recent fussiness and lack of appetite) at the SAME TIME, and started standing when holding on to things. She especially loves to stand in her crib, which mommy and daddy are not exactly fond of!-Averie still loves her jumper, which we refer to as her "office".
-Averie is currently weighing in somewhere between 16-17lbs, and 27 inches long. She is starting to outgrow the length of her 6 month clothes, so it looks like a size 9-months shopping trip might be in order. It's hard to believe how big she is getting, even if she is still tiny compared to most of the other 8 month olds we know. There was a time when I never thought we'd get out of size 1 diapers, and here we are in our size 3's. She's finally starting to get some chubby little legs and even a slight belly. It's so cute, especially since it's the only time in life when such qualities are actually deemed adorable. Enjoy it while it lasts! ha ha.
-The past four months have been a wild ride on the reflux roller coaster. Shortly after the last 4 month post, Averie's reflux took a turn for the worst. She started refusing ALL bottles. Was barely sleeping longer than 40 minutes at a time. When she was "sleeping", she would flop around the crib like a fish out of water, arching her back and crashing her legs down in the crib. She would wake up screaming and nothing would console her. Meal time was a complete nightmare, and most of her bottles were being given to her while she was asleep. This worked good for awhile, but as she started to sleep less, this became a huge challenge. I became consumed with trying to get her to sleep and eat. We had many visits to the pediatrician, an Upper G.I test performed at Hoag (results were normal), a trial of both Zantac and Prevacid together (which actually made things worse), adding rice cereal to her bottles (which caused more restlessness and spit-up), a brief switch to Enfamil A.R formula (no help), countless hours spent researching any kind of help for her, a complete nervous breakdown for myself, and a whole lot of prayer that God would please help our sweet girl. The last weekend in August, just days after she had turned 5 months old, I found myself in the pit of darkness. I felt so helpless. We had been trying everything we could for our little girl, and nothing was working to ease her reflux. I had been explaining the situation to our dear friend, Dr. Tom Bakman, a chiropractor. He told me that he had actually done some extensive research on treating reflux through chiro care, with great results. We were desperate for any relief, so Jerome and I took Averie to visit him. I will admit, Averie did not like being adjusted, but we continued to take her several times a week to be treated. And who knows, maybe it was just coincidence, but I truly believe that the treatments from Dr. B helped the reflux. Within days, Averie started to seem happier, hungrier, and more at ease. And here we are, 3 months later, and she continues to do well. She still takes Prevacid, 2X a day, and someday we hope to wean her from that (as scary as that might sound). We still have our fussy feedings, but nothing compared to what we went through. The prayers from our friends and the care from Dr. Bakman is truly a blessing to us, and we are forever grateful that we were finally able to help our sweet girl.
-She is obsessed with her daddy on most days. She will scream if he comes in to the room and doesn't immediately pick her up. Definitely a daddy's girl.
-she LOVES riding in her stroller. Sometimes she is so quiet during a ride, I have to check to see if she is awake. She loves checking out the scene. We call her the nose because she is very curious. Always craning her neck to see what's going on.
We love our sweet angel girl, and we can't wait for what the next few months have in store for us!
