Lots of New Things Shara Can Do!

Here are a few new things Shara's been doing:

• Blowing kisses
• Clapping!
• Passing things back and forth with me
• Playing ball - we roll to her and she rolls back
• Stacking anything
• Filling anything
• Standing for a few seconds
• Walking with someone holding her
• Pulling herself up

More Photos

What a Big Girl!

Eating pasta w/basil, garlic, ricotta & mozzarella cheese - yum yum

Looking like such a pretty girl in her Easter bonnet

9 month checkup

Shara had her doctor's appointment last evening and the doctor was quite impressed with how well she's doing. Shara showed off by doing the sign language for more. I'm not sure she knows what it means, but the doctor and nurse were really impressed! She's still in the 50th percentile for weight and head, but falling a little short. She weighs 18 lbs. 4 oz. - a 3.25 gain, and is 27" tall - 1 1/2" taller than 6 months old.

She had her final hepB shot and did super! We gave her tylenol before going to the doctors and I asked the doctor if it would be ok to put some baby oragel on her thigh. Dr. Wolcott said that she would never have thought of that and it couldn't hurt to give it a try. I don't know if it worked or not, but Shara cried a little after the doctor took the needle out, stuck her thumb in her mouth and was done with the crying. A few seconds later it was like it never happened. Alan & I are also good about not making her think it's going to be an awful experience.

The doctor gave us a sample of a "probiotic". It's not acidopholus, but something similar and we put it in her yogurt or other food and it's been shown to cut 2 days off a stomach bug. We'll see, because her stomach isn't up to what it usually is. In fact, I wonder if she would have weighted in higher if she didn't have the bug.

We got the go-ahead to try all food except heavy spices like curries, or hot foods, berries, seafood, or honey, etc. We can try macaroni & cheese, which will get Shara used to cows milk. So tonight Shara can try a little mashed potato. We'll still give her a few days on a new food before trying something else.

The Re-Ferberization of Shara

After sleeping with mommy & daddy for two nights, Shara wasn't too happy to go back to her own crib. After listening to her scream for a few minutes, I went and put some Oragel on her gums, but didn't take her out of the crib. Went back downstairs, listened to a little more screaming, looked at the time and decided to give her 5 minutes. After2, whe was out. I was really really glad! It's the best thing for her, but hard on us.

Today's job is going to be to keep her hydrated, since she didn't drink much yesterday. At school they said she only had 2 oz. of milk, so she had a liquid supper, but her diapers were the driest morning diapers I've seen. She certainly isn't acting like a dehydrated baby, but we don't want to turn her into one.

Sick Day

Shara has her first stomach bug, or so we think. Last night I woke her up, as usual, to nurse, and for the first time, didn't want to nurse. Of course my immediate thought is that she's now weaning herself. After looking and smiling at the tv for a few, she "spit-up" a good portion of her plums & apples. Then she was fine to nurse.

At about 1:30 am, Shara wakes up and is obviously not feeling well. She was hot to the touch, so I gave her tylanol and tried to nurse her, but again, she didn't want to. After a fashion she did and then I tried to get her back to sleep and she wasn't having any of it. She was screaming as if in pain, but I didn't know if she had a headache, was teething, or had gas pains. All could have been true because her teachers said she was gnawing on her hand lately. I just knew that this was a shooting pain because I'd see her wince and then scream.

I finally put her in bed with us so I could get some sleep and we all did, a bit. Alan changed her diaper this morning and she had a big poopy. She then went back to bed, as did I, and she woke up at 6:30 am. I got her changed and dressed. She seemed off, and also a little warm, but her temp only said 99.5, so add a degree and she was just over 100. I have her tylanol, so I was expecting that to come down enough for her to go to school. On the way there, she obviously threw-up. I pulled over into the gas station to check on her because I knew it wasn't an ordinary spit-up. She was covered. Last night when she spit-up, Alan was wondering where the green beans were. Well we found them this morning. Yuck! I called daycare and asked if I could bring her in for a second opinion and Donna said fine. Basically we changed her, took her temp and sent us home. Shara slept on the way home and then here for a bit. She's done one more poopy, but no diarrea, like the other kids had. Yesterday she pooped 5x, and between 4 kids at daycare there were 15 poops. Kids were going home early and some didn't show up today.

I'm just nursing her today - no solids. She's really cranky and sad and sleepy, not that she didn't have periods of laughter and playing, but in general, she's really not herself. While I worked earlier, she sat on my lap, facing me with her head on my chest and slept. She's sleeping now. I have to admit that for about 15 minutes we watched tv together. It really quieted her down and she was able to relax when nothing else would get her to.

Some pictures of Shara at a happy time!

Mom & Shara rolling around.

Ready to go sleepies on her dolly.

Uh oh

This weekend we had so much fun. Saturday evening we went to a dinner party at the home of friends of the Yab grandparent's. We had a wonderful Indian meal and Shara was all smiles, impressing everyone with her Uh oh's if something dropped! At first we thought she was just mimicking, and for the most part she is, but after a toy got out of her reach, clear as day she said it!
She loved playing with another couple's 6 year old girl and ate so well in her new portable high chair. She conked out in my arms at the dinner table, but this was after dessert, so very good timing.
Sunday we took a trip to the mall and again, Shara was a smile magnet. Maybe it's something in her eyes. We're also practicing "so big" - lifting arms in the air, and saying "cat".
Saturday, at the party, there was a pediatrician there and he verified that it was a great time to give her yogurt and the earlier you start on yogurt, the less chance of developing alergies. So we've been giving it to her as a protein.

Shara at School

Although this picture's from 2/17, it's one of the few we have from her at school. They take a lot of pictures there, so I'm going to have to borrow and scan some.

Oh so messy, but yum yum

Yeah!

Come on Shara!

When I picked Shara up at daycare today, Catherine and Emma's moms where there too. We all stayed a little while, playing with the kids and taking our time packing them up. Emma was funny - she brought over Shara's hat and kept trying to put it on her. Shara was trying to get a toy, just out of her reach, and she was in her usual position - sitting up but completely folded over, stretched out but not going over to her belly. Emma's mom said, "look, she's going to crawl." Everyone started cheering Shara on, "come on Shara! come on!" She was so close, but no crawling today.

When we got home, we did play on the floor and when she was on her back, made her way onto her side and was very close to pushing herself up to a sitting position. It's going to be any day now!