Audrey's 10 Month Check-Up

Audrey officially turned 10 Months old on March 12th and we had her 10 Month check-up today. I don't think that's the schedule most babies are on but Dr. Porter wanted to see her every 2 months when she was 6 months old because of all of our "issues". Here are her stats:

Weight: 22.10 lbs (with casts)
Height: 26 1/2 inches (with casts - last time she was 27 in.)
Head Circumference: 19 inches - not sure why they do inches when all of her other doctors use centimeters - and I'm not even going to do the conversion.

She showed off her abilities to sit up and rolling over in her casts. She talked to him the entire time, practically. She really wanted to help him during the examination so she helped him with putting his stethoscope in the right spots, helped him check her ears, eyes and mouth. He confirmed that she had 2 teeth trying to come through on top. I told him we knew about them and we've known about them for like a month now. When are those little boogers going to pop through. Audrey never lets me get a good look at them. However, today while she was playing I was able to pull her lip up perfectly and her gums are bright red!

He thinks (we all think) that once those casts come off she is going fly by with her milestones. Boy, do I hope so! I've been worrying about this doctors appointment all week long. Lately, Shawn and I have been discussing our concerns for Audrey more and more. We don't really know how much she is delayed and it seems like she has fallen further behind - which scares me the most. When ECI evaluated her 5 months ago, they had her on a 2 month old level physically and cognitively. Which would put her at a 7 month old level now. There are days when I see her on a 7 month old level and other days I see her at a younger level. I also worry that she lacks motivation to explore and discover new things.

I feel so bad that I go through these waves of feeling really hopeful and optimistic about what her life will look like in the future and then I worry about what obstacles she will be faced with. Today I started typing an email to her daycare director and asked her if we could set up a time to meet and discuss Audrey's future at CARE. If it takes her 2 years to start crawling but she's on a 2 year old level mentally, what room will they assign her to? I never had the chance to finish the email and hit send and now I'm not sure if I even want to start heading down that road so early.

But, I will end this post saying that I'm ending my day feeling extremely hopeful for Audrey's future. She was in great spirits today and very mobile. Every time I laid her down on the floor she was really interested in rolling over and playing with her toys. In fact, she would start to get upset when she pushed her toys too far away from her... We have played this game for awhile now and she is really starting to learn how it works! The game is "Good Morning, Good Night" and it's set up with Audrey on my chest and me sitting on the couch. I say "good night" and lay my head down with my eyes closed. I wait until she makes a noise or moves and then I pop my head up and say "Good Morning" in a very happy voice. We do this over and over and over - it's funny when I change it up because she gets really excited. Today, I was holding her up on my chest after her bottle and I closed my eyes just for a little bit which made her squeal in delight. I was so happy that she recognized me closing my eyes with the game, so we continued. And, then she's learning a bit of mathmatics too. I have been counting my fingers to her for a very long time but now she's learning what 1-2-3 means. 1-2-3 Up means she will be picked up. 1-2-3 Upsie Daisy means she's going to sit up. And, this is her favorite! 1-2-3 Blast Off! Means, she's going to be raised up above our heads. She knows exactly which 1-2-3 she's going to do by the way we count off. And, when we do Blast Off she gets real excited at 2 and tenses the muscles in her shoulders. If you don't continue after 2 she will yell at you to continue!

I also talked about her food intake and her diet, but I won't bore you with all of that fun stuff!