kayla aimee: only slightly neurotic

Scarlette Saturday | First Bites!

At Scarlette's last GI appointment, Dr. M thought she had made enough progress to try rice cereal for the first time! And to skip putting it in her bottle and go right to a spoon. They set us up with a feeding therapist because she has a very high risk of choking. Scarlette, not the therapist.

The last picture is of her very first bite! After some discussion it was decided that I would watch her first feeding. Because she had so many tubes in her throat for so long, she has grooves in the roof of her mouth. And because she was tube fed for so long, she tends to gag and choke. Oftentimes a baby will refuse food after experiencing that while eating so there are special techniques for feeding those babies. It was important for me to learn them before feeding her and inadvertently causing her to have bad associations with food.

It's one of those bittersweet moments about parenting a preemie. All of your firsts are different. I know how to feed a baby. But I didn't know how to feed my baby. And the best thing for her was to let the therapist give her her first bite. I admit, I felt a bit sad about it. Until I SAW her take her first bite and then I cried not because I was sad, but because the digestive issues have been so hard for her and now MY BABY CAN EAT!

I am still getting comfortable with the feedings but she is a big fan, as evidenced in the above photos. We put her in the high chair and realized that it wasn't going to be very easy to feed her in it because she is so small. She is almost nine months old but she weighs eleven pounds and is about the size of a one month old so she isn't a great fit. She looks so tiny in it!

The current feeding plan is to continue with rice cereal until she is one, when we will attempt to introduce pureed fruits and vegetables. Which I plan on making myself so hit me up with tips on that, y'all!

(p.s. the Yoshi blanket was sent to her from our friends at Nintendo. It's so cute! I don't know if you can order them but I will find out for those that asked!)

And the little one said "roll over, roll over"

Thank you so much for the kind words on my grandfather's passing.

I've been remiss in blogging Scarlette updates over here and I have a really good reason. It's called "this baby keeps me really, really busy and I forget to download the bazillion photos off my memory card." I posted more pictures on flickr.

Jeff came home the other day and as soon as Scarlette saw him she squealed with delight. It was the cutest thing.

Here is the big news: Scarlette rolled from her back to her tummy! This is such a huge deal because it's one of the areas that she is delayed in because of her arm fractures + laying in a hospital bed for five and a half months. We've been working so hard on rolling in her physical therapy.

And normally she just lays there and looks at us like "Yeah, that toy? It does not interest me enough to make me want to exert any effort to roll over there for it. Y'all are gonna have to do a little better than than a plastic rattle. Show me the money, people. SHOW ME THE MONEY!"

I had her laying on her back next to me while I worked, glanced over and she was on her belly! And then I got REALLY, REALLY excited. And she burst into tears because apparently, when mommy squeals with delight it is more scary than cute.

I was reading the Amazima blog this week and was struck by the sentiment that He has entrusted me with much. I feel so deeply the responsibility of loving and rearing a child. And with Scarlette, whenever she does something that's so simple yet so hard for her (like rolling over) I'm deeply in awe of how blessed we are. Of how far she's come. And how we are, indeed, entrusted with much.

(Amy Tangerine sent her those cute shirts. Are they not the sweetest?!)

Scarlette Saturday | 8.5 Months

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Scarlette Saturday | Nom, Nom, Nom, Nom TOES!

Dear Scarlette,
I'm writing you this letter on my fourth cup of coffee so forgive me if I start rambling incoherently like I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. You've decided that mommy getting any sleep is not on your agenda and so I can barely put together a full sentence without being caffeinated to ten buck two. I did manage to write this letter on the appropriate day so we're calling that a victory, savvy?

This past weekend you were able to meet your extended family for the first time. Your great-grandmother flew in from Texas, plus you got to meet your aunts and uncles. You have some stranger anxiety and clung to me like a little koala bear. I assume this is from the fact that every stranger you've ever met has given you a shot or a feeding tube.

You're doing so great with your physical therapy. This week you started sitting up on your own. You only last about eight seconds before you fall over, but eight seconds is all the time you have to stay on a bull to win a rodeo so I'd say that makes you a champion at sitting.

You have just discovered your toes and you're like "Toys? Why would I want to play with toys? Have you seen this? I have FEET! With TOES ON THEM! I need to put them in my mouth! Nom, nom, nom, nom, TOES!"

You are not, however, what they call an "easy baby" right now. You have learned to make yourself choke in order to get our attention. Right. Your developmental therapist says that this is normal, that you learned we would rush to you when you were choking on your feeding tube. And since you're a little genius, now you're all "Those big people, I CAN CONTROL THEM! I HAVE ALL THE POWER! I WILL CHOKE AND MAKE THEM DO MY BIDDING!"

Please nip that in the bud or I'm seriously going to be all yo ho ho and a BOTTLE OF RUM. Or seven.

You make up for it by doing this smacking thing with your lips to get your daddy's attention that is the cutest thing I've ever seen since that last really cute thing you did. On the other hand, you've also discovered shrieking.

And also? We taught you how to blow raspberries because it made you laugh and we were all "SHE'S LAUGHING! MAKE HER LAUGH AGAIN!" which in hindsight wasn't the brightest idea we've ever had because now you spit all the time. You're spitting on me as I type this. With your foot in your mouth.

You're our favorite awesome tiny girl.

Love,
Mommy

(other recent Scarlette posts: Medically Speaking @7.5 Months)

Scarlette Sunday | Happy Father's Day

Scarlette Saturday Sunday. <- We're really tired around here :)