Merritt! You are eleven months old!
You are
not almost one. Nope.
I love how last month was the "game changer." This month was another "game changer." As in, you had a cough the whole time. You hated eating. You hated drinking. You lost weight.
But.
You are such a fighter. Despite all the terrible days we had, you were so joyful. You hit multiple milestones. You surprised us with so many new things. You kept us laughing and shaking our heads with how crazy you are.
This past month, you became obsessed with the dogs. You started barking (a soft woof) and say dah for dog. Most noticeably, I started opening the blinds in your room after breathing treatments so we could look outside at the dogs in the backyard. When you woke up during/after breathing treatments, you immediately started barking and standing up to reach the curtains to open them and see the dogs. You absolutely love dogs! You don't play with them much, but you love looking and barking at them. You also have a dog book that you get pretty excited about.
You have been standing up on your own a lot lately. We're pretty sure you will be walking soon! Then you'll be running around with Hartley. You LOVE your sister! You are always with her, playing along side and dancing when she sings. You love taking baths with her! We never baby proofed anything with Hartley, but we have to watch out with you. You are constantly getting into stuff- drawers, cabinets, toilets, dishwasher, dog bowls. Your new favorite is emptying out the tupperware cabinet and then climbing in.
You started saying
dada and, unfortunately,
grandada. Sometimes we hear
bye bye, but more waving than talking. Daddy says you have tried to say "all done" at meals, but I have never heard it. I think I've heard you say "good job" though! You started signing "more" and "all done" but I haven't seen them in a while since you started clapping. We cheer for you a lot, especially during meals!
Speaking of meals.. We had a rough month. We were talking back and forth with your CF team initially about your stools, which turned into them not being pleased with your eating habits or lack thereof. You were finger feeding yourself various crackers for the most part. We dropped spoon feeding you months ago because you fought it and we just assumed you would rather feed yourself. Your dietician was concerned about developmental issues, that you may have not learned how to properly manipulate your tongue/mouth to eat, so she wanted us to start completely over with solids. We were to begin again with baby cereals for a few weeks and then move to stage 1, stage 2, etc. After over a week of lots of crying and frustration, we knew the spoon was not going to work. Again. We began offering straws to squeeze it in your mouth and eventually found syringes worked best! There's clearly something going on when food hits the tip of your tongue- you immediately push it out. However, if we can syringe it in the cheek of your mouth you actually keep it in.
While all this was going on, you began completely refusing all spoons. Even the spoonfuls of applesauce with your enzymes. You would fight, arch, swat, spit it out- you name it, you were not accepting it. So I did something crazy and offered you enzymes still in the capsules. And guess what! You took them. Like it was no big deal. You are a pro! We have to make sure you swallow it with the first sip, otherwise you like to crush the capsule and play with it in your mouth.
You transitioned to a sippy cup wonderfully! You prefer your "milk" cold. We started adding heavy whipping cream (100calories/oz) to your bottles. It took a few weeks to figure out much you could tolerate, especially after multiple projectile vomiting episodes. We've found a good cocktail, 6.5oz formula + .5oz heavy whipping cream + 1/8tsp salt. You take about 3oz per meal/snack. Each ounce has 32.2 calories. :) We do lots of computing every day to see how many calories you are consuming. You require 900-1000 calories a day to keep up with the extra energy it takes for breathing.
Unfortunately you are not meeting those calories and your weight has dropped. We are heavily considering a feeding tube. It would help your weight, but also take a lot of stress off all of us. I'm working on finishing this monthly update before you turn 11 months tomorrow, since we are scheduled to see your CF team and see what's going on with your cough and eating issues. We're expecting your first "tune up" unfortunately. It's not what we would like for a very energetic baby like you, being confined to a hospital room for at least a week, but if IV antibiotics will help clear your lungs out then we need to.
Merritt, the past 11 months have flown by! We can't believe you're almost one! You are growing up so fast, even though you're still so tiny! You have a fierce personality just like your big sister and I see lots of entertainment and mischief from you two in the future!
