My baby girl is 1...

Ok she turned 1 a couple months ago, but I am finding it so hard to update seeing as how I don't have a computer, and i am so extremely busy. I will try to remember everything that has gone on since the last time I blogged.


Lilah had a wonderful first birthday party, surrounded by family and friends. She was given a high chair by her meme, and lots of toys and clothes. Her Papa set up her high chair so she was able to eat her cake by herself. She finished the whole thing. I took a ton of pics and when I am able to fix my computer I will post a whole blog page with nothing but pics ( : however my facebook page has a ton of new photos, so if you ever want to view them you can find the there, just look up Melissa Howard Berthiaume.


Health wise, nothing major, the only setback was about a couple months ago, when she had a slight issue with her weight. Michelle the visiting nurse was still making monthly visits for weight and wellness checkups. I would say around early March she was weighing in at about 18 pounds. When she was weighed the following month she went down to 17.4. We contributed it to a coupe of factors. First off, she had a touch of the G.I. bug, second, she was moving around a lot more, and last she had switched over to regular food, so she wasn't consuming the high calorie formula every four hours. She can't fit much in her little belly, pus the food I was giving her were "healthy foods", great for her body and health, her weight, not so much. We came up with different solutions to try to get in a little extra calories, such as cooking in extra butter, oil, higher calorie health foods, such as avacodo and cheese. She suggested some Pediasure or Carnation Instant Breakfast. Michelle said to try these different options for a week and she would return and see where she was at. If she had lost weight, then we would talk about possibly meeting with a nutritionist. She came back the next week and sure enough she had gained almost a whole pound. The main thing I had tried was the Pediasure, which she loved, but we also didn't want her gaining weight like crazy, so I just cut back to eight ounces a day which equals about 250 calories and 9 grams of fat. She followed up a second time, was still steadily gaining weight so officially dismissed her, no more visiting nurse! We did have a little scare with a MRSA infection, it started out as a little bump on her diaper line, and within days was a massive ball of pus, swollen up the size of a marble. I brought her in and they lanced it, and gave her a topical and oral antibiotic. thank god it didn't turn into anything worse.


Switching over to "normal food"has been an easy transition, she pretty much likes anything I give her. She has started to self feed and a week later she was a master at picking up anything on her tray. She is also drinking out of a sippy cup with a straw, for some reason she can drink out pof a straw just fine but has trouble with a standard sippy cup, most likely because she has a hard time tipping them. She has recently learned to hold her own bottle and drink it, as long as she's lying down.


New accomplishments through therapy include, as I mentioned, the self feeding, and drinking out a cup. We taught her this by starting with what her therapists call The Bear. It is basically a honey container with a straw sticking out of the top. It is easy to suck from and easy to squeeze in case she needed a little help. As it turned out she didn't need any help, she took to it right away, and we practiced it with her for a couple weeks prior to buying a sippy cup. She is able to kneel at a stool and keep her balance. She is coming to sit unassisted, I am so proud of this milestone! We always clap and make a big deal when she does it, so now every time she sits she looks at us with a big grin and starts clapping, looks like she's proud of herself too! She is creeping on her stomach, and even gets up on her knees for a split second, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if she starts crawling within a couple months. It seems like all of a sudden her motor skills have improved dramatically within a short amount of time. She is saying mama, dada, baba and has been making all kinds of silly sounds!


Doc appointments included a follow-up with Dr. Berman. We didn't take long at Berman's, because he came in, took a quick look at her, had her follow some objects, lights, etc, and he was amazed at the improvement of the Nystagmus, and her focusing. He said she seemed to go slightly cross eyed at times, but other then that he was happy with what he saw. We are going back in 6 months to see how she is, how she's seeing, and make sure we're still seeing improvement. Her one year physical went exceptionally well. Dr Landes. was impressed with her overall weight gain, head circumference, growth, everything. I mentioned the weight loss and she said not to worry, as long as she is going up on the charts and steadily gaining weight, I shouldn't worry about it. She was also impressed with Lilah's eye improvements, and thought cognitively and developmentally she looked great. She had her vaccines, poor baby, and her last Synagis shot!


Every morning when I get her out of bed and I get a big smile and a mama, it is the most amazing feeling in the world. My heart literally melts everytime I see her toothy grin, which now includes a top tooth! I want everyone to be able to see lots of pics, so I will gather a bunch and post as soon as my comp is fixed. Thanks for reading my blog and for eveyones continued support and prayers, it means the world to me!