Lillian is nine months old and being a mom just keeps getting better and better. I love her so much! It seems like she gets happier every month. We are in a really good routine now - Lily sleeps from 8:00 PM until 6:00 or 6:30 AM straight through the night (:::fist pump:::), and then she naps from 9-10 and from 2-4. I love that Greg and I get a few hours together each evening, and I get some time to get stuff done around the house during the day.
We are all recovered from bronchiolitis and Lily no longer needs the Xopenex or Pulmacort. I did get another case of thrush from starting the Symbicort and taking an antibiotic, so my CF doctor wrote me a prescription for Nystatin. Because the Symbicort has really reduced my nighttime wheezing, he also wrote me a prescription to continue swishing Nystatin every few days indefinitely. Hopefully this will keep the thrush at bay, (people who have been following this blog for a while may remember how I could horrible thrush a few years ago when I started taking Advair, and I had to stop taking it).
Right now I am in the process of adding dairy back into my diet. I am doing this as described in the book Baby 411. So far I've added cheeses and yogurt and Greg and I have not noticed an difference in Lily. This week I am eating ice cream and next week will be milk. My fingers are crossed that Lily won't start spitting up again!
And, Lily had her 9 month appointment last week. She weighs 17 pounds, which puts her into the 20th percentile. She is also in the 20th percentile for height and the 75th percentile for head circumference. I did talk to her doctor about the fact that she is behind average on her gross motor skills (she is not crawling yet and as still never rolled from back to front). Her doctor was not worried because Lily has been making progress, which is what the doctor really wanted to observe.
This is what Lily has been up to lately:
-She does scoot backwards and around in a circle on her belly, but she does not like being on her belly. Greg and I still make sure she does three 10-minute sessions of tummy time each day. We try to distract her with toys and books, but there is still a lot of whining involved. This makes me wonder if she will ever crawl.
-She loves to stand holding onto something and has pulled herself to standing several times over the past two weeks. Last night she started letting go and balancing for a few seconds. It was so cute! She would let go and hold her hands out like she was trying to balance on a surf board and get excited and squeal. She was so proud of herself.
-She babbles a ton. She can say "lalalala," "mamama," "dadadada," "nananana," "vavava," and "bababa." She actually said "mamama" before "dadada" (:::fistpump:::). And now she says "mama" and "dada" to the right person. Greg commented the other day about how he never hears her say "mama" and I hear her say it all the time. And, when she really wants to nurse, she cries and says "muuuummmm!" or "mum mum!"
-She is obsessed with books. Especially turning and ripping pages. This makes reading to her almost impossible. And board books are not nearly as fun as regular books, (but we try to keep her away from regular books because we don't want to encourage page-ripping).
-She loves Cheerios, baby cereal (but only one particular brand of cereal), puffs, Mum Mums, and bananas. She'll eat only a few bites of most fruits and veggies, whether it be pureed or in finger-food format. I was really excited tonight because I gave her whole sweet peas for the first time and she ate like 10 of them. My CF doctor actually asked me why I lost more weight and I was like, "Because I have this 17 pound baby who doesn't like to eat anything other than grains and breastmilk :P"
-She loves to play ball, she holds her hands up to play pattycake, and she helps me dress her by holding her arms out when I put her shirt on her.
-She loves to go out in public, especially if there are kids around. She always slaps her hand and yells "Heeeeyyyy!" at people. So cute.
-I've been trying to teach her baby sign language, but she's decided the sign for "more" is slapping the high chair tray (as in, "more Cheerios").
That's all for now! I'll end this with a baby of Daddy and Baby:
And one from the Kite Festival this weekend: