6 months old

I can't believe my baby is already 6 months old! Time just flies...

She is doing really well. She doesn't seem to be developmentally delayed at all, which I am happy about. Of course that doesn't mean anything about what the future might bring.


Stella has become quite verbal. She babbles a lot, especially when she is playing alone or is trying to get our attention. She makes the ahh and mmmm sounds often, and sometimes the b sound.We swear she can saw mama and milk :-)

Stella loves to explore her environment and will quickly reach for any toy that makes noise. She explores objects with her hands and puts them right to her mouth. She is doing better during tummy time, but still much prefers to be on her back. She does well sitting up now too (while being held) and has started to bang on objects a bit. We have started propping her up in the exer-saucer and she enjoys it for a little while. She smiles a lot and laughs when I tickle her or play blowing or kissing games with her. She loves playing peek-a-boo and sometimes will play by herself.

She is getting stronger and bigger every day. It's so fun to observe! I think she is almost ready to move up to clothing sized 6-9 months and size 3 diapers. Sleep is a bit wacky these days. She usually takes one short nap in the morning, and then a long nap in the afternoon. Sometimes if we let her she will sleep for 7 hours in the afternoon! Usually she will wake up to nurse and then fall back asleep. I think her night time is from 4pm-6am. Ahh well - at least when she sleeps she does it in long chunks.

Her therapy seems to be moving right along, although both Marla & I would love to see her rolling over soon! The trips to the ocularist continue to be difficult, but the conformers are doing their job.

Christmas

Stella had a wonderful first Christmas. She had no idea what was going on of course, but she happily laid on the floor while the rest of us opened presents. She was eager to explore every new object we put next to her. She was a great little traveler - sleeping the entire way to and from Michigan, and she loved visiting with all the relatives and being passed around. In fact, she was spoiled - by the end of the trip she didn't want to be put down. I think she must have missed her play gym though, because the first time I put her under that when we were back home she got so excited.

Stella got some really neat presents:

- A handmade quilt with fabrics of different textures. It also has her name embroidered in braille and made out of detachable stuffed fabric.

- A vtech move & crawl ball

- A Baby Stella doll

- Lots of cute taggies stuff

- A Safe Sippy cup

- A Munchkin Mozart music cube (she loves banging on this)

- Various books, rattles, blankets and clothing

First Food

Stella had her first food today, other than breast milk. I'm being aggressive about introducing her to new foods because I know that eating can be difficult for some blind children, and I'm hoping that having her experience a variety of tastes and textures from a young age will encourage her to enjoy eating.


I started with rice cereal - a typical first food for infants. I mixed it with breast milk and offered it to her from my finger. I held it to her lips and she stuck her little tongue out and licked the cereal. She must have enjoyed it because she grabbed my finger and pushed it into her mouth and sucked all the cereal off. It was so cute! Except for dipping my finger in the cereal for refills, I let Stella do everything else. She wanted more and more - her chin, cheeks, nose and fingers ended up covered in the stuff. Hopefully this is a good sign regarding her relationship with food and feeding.

5 Months Old

Stella is so interactive now. She knows my voice, Michael's and Sebastian's. Usually when someone talks to her she reacts by smiling, waving her arms and kicking her legs. When she is listening intently, she cocks her head to one side, opens her eyelids really wide, and holds perfectly still. It's so cute! When I pick her up she often reaches out to touch my face and she loves to put one hand on my mouth when I talk. Sometimes she grabs my lips. I think she is a pretty social person. She still does well when new people hold her, although I'm noticing that she enjoys spending a lot of time on her back playing with toys or chewing on her fingers. She is definitely teething already!

Stella has great head control, and does fairly well on her tummy now too. She holds her head up for a long time and will reach for toys in front of her. She has grabbing and batting down, so the next gross motor skill we are looking for is banging. Also we are trying to motivate her to roll. She enjoys it when I roll her around during play, she just doesn't seem to have any desire to do it on her own. Some of Stella's favorite toys are a stuffed lamb that jingles, a peek-a-boo piano that makes noise when she kicks it, and her taggies blanket that is easy to chew on.

Trips to her ocularist are difficult for me, as it seems very uncomfortable for her and I have a hard time listening to her cries. It is getting easier though, and she calms down quickly when June is done. Her sockets are expanding quickly, although her left socket is a bit behind the right socket. Every time we go June moves the conformer from Stella's right eye to her left eye and puts a new one in the right eye. I think the difference in a few months in remarkable and very noticable.

Stella currently takes 3 long naps per day - morning, afternoon and evening. Then she stays up until 1:00-1:30, but sleeps until around 9am, so I think it's a decent trade off. I often read with her in bed with me at night, and sometimes doze on and off until she falls asleep. Usually she takes a pacifier to fall asleep, but sometimes she just quiets down from playing and drifts off.

Sebastian has been signing Christmas Carols to Stella, and she seems to enjoy it. Stella's first Christmas - should be fun!

5 month well visit

We went to the pediatrician yesterday for Stella's well visit, and she was weighed and measured for the first time in 3 months. She is currently 14 pounds 2 ounces (25th percentile) and 24 inches long (10th percentile). As time passes she is getting smaller and smaller for her age. Hopefully this just means she is going to be petite (like many women in my family) and isn't a sign that something else is wrong. I'm choosing to think positively.

I actually like that she's so tiny. I just love little babies, so as long as she's healthy and thriving, I am fine with her staying little! It's much easier on my back and she still fits so nicely in my sling. It's just so odd for me because Sebastian was always so huge. When he was 6 weeks old he was bigger than she is now.

Laughter

Stella laughed for the first time today - three deep hearty chuckles while I was changing her. For weeks she has smiled when something brushes her cheeks. Today that turned into laughter as I pulled clothes over her head. How darling. There are few sounds better than a baby's laughter.

Four Months Old

Stella is still a very easy and happy baby. She is addicted to her pacifier and usually falls asleep while sucking on it. She smiles a lot, babbles, and reaches for and grabs objects. We usually put things on her tummy and she finds them and brings them to her mouth. She loves to have her cheeks stroked and smiles from the touch.

On October 20th, she met with Marla, her TVI (teacher of the visually impaired), for the first time. She was very impressed with how strong Stella was. The main thing we need to work on at this point is tummy time, which will strengthen Stella's muscles in preparation for rolling and crawling, just like any other baby. Getting blind babies moving is especially important though, because we don't want them to learn to become content staying in one place - she needs to explore her environment. So far though, Stella seems to be very curious and eager to interact with her environment.