Oh Happy Day!

Yesterday our little princess celebrated her 8 month birthday! Everyone always said to enjoy every minute because they grow up so fast. Oh my - how true it is!! As a growing 8 month old - Elle Belle is:

- 16lbs 4 ounces - she has gained over a pound since surgery

- 27 inches long

- in the 75% for length and 20% for weight

- able to roll over from back to tummy and tummy to back

- can sit up un-supported for about 10 - 15 seconds

- holding her head up like a big girl!

- sitting/standing in her exersaucer for over an hour at a time

- reaching for and grabbing on to EVERYTHING (this morning it was the dishwasher handle - she was holding on so tight I thought I was going to pull her out of the exersaucer!)

- Chewing on EVERYTHING (but no teeth yet)

- tolerating tummy time and can lift her head off the ground during tummy time

- putting a little bit of weight on her arms and pushing up with her arms during tummy time

- eating baby food once a day - more for the texture than the nutritional value

- kind of taking a bottle - about 10cc each try

- recognizes signs like "i love you" "eat" "hungry" "milk"

- gets 3 ounces of milk and 4 ounces of formula with every feed every 4 hours 5x a day

- sleeping through the night - usually wakes up around 2am to cry but as long as she is held - she goes right back to sleep

- talking to everyone and everything - with or without her hearing aids in

- STILL eating her hearing aids!

- all her doctors describe her as "very interactive" on all their reports - she loves all her doctors and therapists (and so do I!)

She is our precious precious angel and we are so thankful and blessed to have her in our lives!

We had our re-evaluation with our wonderful physical therapist, Michelle, today. Michelle put Elle down on the mat and within minutes, Elle had rolled over and was on her tummy - holding her head up - reaching for Michelle's papers. It was awesome to see her reaction to Elle's progress. I couldn't help but smile when she said that Elle is like a new baby now post surgery. Pre surgery - she would scream when you put her on her tummy - now she rolls over by herself AND holds her head up! After the evaluation, Michelle told me that Elle is functioning at about a 5 month old level. This makes perfect sense because of the 3 months she spent in the hospital. I am so excited to be back in physical and occupational therapy. I know Elle will benefit so much from all her wonderful therapists. We have round 2 of our ECI evaluations the first week in December and in the mean time I am trying to get in touch with someone regarding deafblind services. Elle qualifies for the services because of her hearing loss and coloboma (hole) in her right eye. Trying to muddle through all these different agencies and programs is a full time job in itself. They really need to have a "How to Work The System for Dummies" book!! Where ever our course leads us, I know that our precious little Elle is in good hands and is loved by so many people! We are so thankful for all of our friends and family and blog friends that have prayed for our family and our little baby girl. Thank you all so much!