12 Months

Stella is finally sitting up unassisted. Yay! My goal was for her to accomplish this by the time she was 1 and she beat the goal by a week. Now she just has to figure out how to gracefully get in and out of sitting. I think things are moving right along with her development. She has better control of her body now, finds things more quickly and is exploring and manipulating toys more thoroughly.

Stella is still teeny tiny, not even on the growth chart anymore. She breastfeeds many times a day, but doesn't eat a whole lot of food. She has 8 teeth, so she is perfectly capable. She does best when we put small chunks of food on her tray, giving her a chance to explore the food and then feed herself. The only problem is, she doesn't eat much quantity. I am going to focus more on feeding this coming month. We gave her cow milk for the first time today. First we tried cold milk and she spit it out, but once I warmed it up she chugged it.


Stella makes all sorts of sounds, including dada, and blowing bubbles, but I don't think she says any real words yet. Michael, of course, wants to claim Dada, while I like to think Mmmiii means milk.

Stella still loves her swing and her exersaucer, and any type of fabric. She is playing with blocks a bit, and rings, and still loves rattles and anything musical. She is taking a Kindermusik class, which she mostly enjoys. Sometimes I think she gets overwhelmed. We went to a fair the weekend of July 4 and took her on her first ride on a ferris wheel. She loved it! Stella also enjoys being read to. She grabs the book and wants to chew on the corners, but she has also started exploring the pages with her hands. She finds the dots on the braille books and likes to feel textures on other books.

Sebastian is so eager for Stella to talk, and walk, and play with him. He is usually very sweet and gentle with her, but they do both enjoy rolling around on the floor together. Sebastian is a big help in the car. He will hand her a toy, or her pacifier, but sometimes he hits her just to get a reaction. Sigh. Part of the joy of parenting siblings. Sebastian loves to push Stella in the stroller, or in a swing. It's fun to watch them together.

Happy Birthday Stella!

My darling, beautiful, happy, snuggly, Stella Bella Boo is 1!!!

She wanted nothing to do with the cake, but enjoyed the presents. I think she liked the crinkly tissue paper the presents were wrapped in more than the presents themselves. Stella loved when we sang for her. Sebastian picked out a musical toy for Stella that he, of course, wanted to play with the whole time. All in all, a happy birthday for Stella.

P.S. Look how well that little girl is sitting up now! I'm so happy she has finally reached that milestone.

11 Months

As of yesterday, Stella is 11 months old. In many ways, she is still like a much younger baby. Most days that is just fine with me, but occasionally I feel a pang of regret that she is not developing faster, or I eagerly anticipate her next achievement. I don't mind one bit that she is still tiny. And if she really doesn't walk independently until she is around 3 years old, like many blind children, I'm sure my back will be grateful for her small stature.

Stella rolls all over the place to explore her environment, and I think if she had her way she would spend all of her time on her back. We have been working hard to get her more comfortable in a sitting position and it is paying off. She is getting close to sitting up by herself and she seems to enjoy it most of the time now. She is very curious about what is around her and searches with her hands and feet, twisting to the sides and leaning forward, left and right to explore. She does very well in her high chair and easily finds food and feeds herself. Gerber puffs are her favorite foods, but she also gobbles up bananas, pears, watermelon and sweet potatoes, and more. Just this week she drank water from a sippy cup a few times.

Stella spends a lot of time in the exersaucer, swing and in her booster seat on the floor. She still loves different textures and puts everything, especially fabrics, in her mouth. Her feet, and of course, her pacifier are probably her two favorite things to play with. Every time Michael holds Stella, she chews on the collar of his shirt or jacket. She is still teething. Currently she has 7 teeth and more are about to pop through. She is a wonderful sleeper. She takes long naps in the afternoon and then sleeps easily through the night, usually only nursing once.

Things are moving right along with therapy and with the conformers. Progress is slow, but at least there is steady progress.
Sebastian seems to be enjoying Stella more. He plays with her a lot, talks and sings to her, and loves when she babbles back or laughs. He likes to play "This little piggy" with her and she loves it. She starts laughing as soon as he grabs her big toe. He also likes to hold her and to roll her around on the floor. I think he's a little rough with her at times, but she loves it!

Here are some recent pictures of us with Stella.

Stella's Latest Therapy Device

Stella's TVI brought this over last week and it has been a huge hit! We have been having trouble motivating Stella to sit, but now that she can reach forward and find toys she likes, she is doing much better. She still can't sit up on her own, so I ended up buying her a little booster seat to use on the floor in front of it. She does pretty well, but when she gets tired she leans back against the back of the booster seat. Soon I will remove the back and see how she does. She will also twist to the sides to find things next to her on the floor to play with. Sometimes she leans back and plays with the toys with her feet too, which is pretty funny to watch. Overall, I'm pleased with the device and I wish I had gotten one sooner!

10 Months

I have seen such a change in Stella in the last few weeks. She seems much more comfortable with her body and knowing where she is in space. She moves with purpose and finds things she drops quickly and easily. She is also rolling all over the place to find toys or to explore the area. I took her to Washington DC last weekend for my brother's graduation and it was so fun to watch her roll around the hotel room and explore everything. She often would rather roll around on the floor than be held. I am a little bummed that she is still not sitting up. I think she is capable, but just not interested. I remember that's how it was for a long time with rolling, so I trust she will sit when she is ready, although I am also trying everything I can think of to encourage her and help her feel secure while sitting. She does great in her high chair, so I think her security has to do with knowing where she is in space.

Stella is babbling quite a bit now. Often she has the pacifier in while she talks, which is amusing. Some of the sounds she makes regularly are: gaga, goy, ahh, and oooo. Still no b, d, or m sounds. It's fun to babble back and forth with her, and I love how she tries to sing along when music is playing.

Progress has slowed down with Stella's conformers. Her right socket was growing much faster than the left, so we stopped changing the conformer in the right and we are trying to get the left side to catch up. While the like the style of conformer we are using, the process seems to be taking a long time. The good news is I don't have to go to the Ocularist as often - we are currently going every 3 weeks. It is so obvious to me how odd Stella looks, and yet I continue to be amazed at how many people don't seem to notice, or give us odd looks. The most common comment I get is along the lines of, "Ohh, what a darling baby. Aww. She's sleepy." It doesn't bother me, and I'm glad I don't have to answer questions from strangers all the time. I am completely happy to talk openly about Stella and willing to answer any questions from people I know, I just think it would get old if I tried to explain things to every person I meet at the grocery store.

Stella has 4 bottom teeth now and 1 on the top, with more coming soon. She hasn't been too cranky while teething, although we have had our moments (mostly in the middle of the night.) She chews on everything, especially her fingers, wrist and fabrics, but will not accept any teethers. She is doing okay with food - we have good days and bad days. It's so much easier and cleaner to breastfeed, that some days I don't even offer her food. I would like to get better about exposing her to more foods.

Some of Stella's favorite things to do are: roll around on the floor, chew on things, play with her feet, swing, play bouncing games while Sebastian & I sing, have Michael swing her through the air, play in her exersaucer, go for walks outside (in the stroller or the sling), explore the textures of different toys, baths, listen to Sebastian talk/sing to her.


A note about the pictures. I feel so bad - I had hardly any photos of Stella from the last month. I must remember to take more pictures!!! It's also difficult to get decent photos. I was so impressed with the work the professionals did a few weeks ago. I couldn't resist including the picture of Stella in her first Strawberry Shortcake outfit. I had been looking for Strawberry Shortcake things and couldn't find any - this outfit (and 1 other) is thanks to Michael's mom :-)

Teeth

I am borrowing this picture from a website I found that talks about baby teeth.
Illustration copyright 2003 Nucleus Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.nucleusinc.com

Poor Stella has 3 teeth actually breaking through the skin this week, and it looks like 3-4 more about ready to erupt. She is being pretty good all things considered. She has bitten me several times while nursing, which is NOT FUN. Yesterday she started gnawing on her wrist, which is pretty funny to watch. She just won't use a teether though. I think it's funny how her teeth are coming in. Her first tooth erupted a while ago, her right central incisor. Then this weekend her left lateral incisor poked through, so there was a gap between her teeth. The other two bottom incisors are catching up though - yesterday and today they erupted. Now we are just waiting on some upper teeth, which appear close to ready, and then hopefully she will get a break for a few months.

Test Results

We got the phone call today with results from the tests ordered by the endocrinologist. Everything looks normal :-) They were not able to get enough blood to do all the tests, but they did the main ones we were concerned about - growth hormone, metabolism, and thyroid. Phew. The doctor also didn't see any reason for us to draw more blood at this point. We will continue with regular screenings from here on out. At least my mind can rest assured for now. I guess Stella's just going to be a shorty like her mama.