9 Months

At nine months: 

Weight: Unsure because we can't really weigh her in the cast. 

        Percentile: ---

Height: unsure because we can't measure in the cast

        Percentile: ---

Sleep: Sleep has been good overall for her. I was shocked by how well she sleeps in the cast. I expected her to sleep awful but her naps have gone up to at least an hour and even up to two hours occasionally. She also alternates waking up only once a night to waking up two or three times a night but is way easier to get to sleep now then ever before. I'm just grateful that the cast hasn't effected near as much as we expected.  
Clothing size: 6-9 or 6-12 months. Still in size 3 diapers. 12 month clothes are a little big and too long for her arms but she still wears them anyway. 

Milestones: Elli cut her second tooth this month, she is also working on her top two as well. She has started talking like crazy and babbling with all different sounds. She wants desperately to crawl and is pulling herself around in circles really well. She's eating more and more solids now and has pretty much everything we eat during meals. I'm pretty sure if not for the cast then she would be crawling and pulling herself up to stand on things. She sure wants to be. 

Special Outings: Elli went back to daycare after her surgeries and has done fairly well there. We also went on two short hikes and spent the day at Cedar Breaks. It was very fun. She loves the new ergo carrier we bought for her and even slept in it for an hour, which for her is unheard of.  

Month Highlights: This month has been a big one for Elli. She has had two surgeries, multiple xrays, and an MRI. She handled it so much better than I ever expected her to. She is so much happier now that I ever could have hoped for. She got her second tooth and started taking just two naps a day for much longer than in the past. She has also started pursing her lips and saying OOH, it's about the cutest thing I've ever seen. 

Big Changes: New teeth, lots more solids. She also is starting to wave, try and clap, and give kisses when you ask her too. She is developing a crazy personality now, she's like a whole different baby than she was last month. She cracks me up. She is always making the funniest faces and smiling and talking at the funniest things. I love watching her develop into this whole new person. She also has started clicking her tongue and blowing raspberries with her tongue. 

Elli's Favorites: suckers, cell phones, watching videos and looking at pictures of herself. Animals, Books. Paper. Always paper, any kind of food, kissing and talking to herself in the mirror, outside, being thrown up in the air, sitting in her high chair, drinking water, chewing on her toothbrush, playing with your hair, going out in public, playing with stuffed animals, talking and singing. 
Thoughts: I can't believe how much Elli has impressed me this month. She is the strongest little baby that I know. She seriously has shown me so much about being strong and rolling with the punches. I did not expect the cast to be so easy. Really it's so much better than we ever expected and as much as I didn't want her to have to do it I think we aren't going to know how to hold her or take care of her anymore once she's no longer in it. We just have one more surgery on Friday to get her cast change and then hopefully no more anesthesia for a long time. She's brave and strong but I sure don't like having to deal with the worry it causes me to have her go through all of it again. 

Who's up for round 2? Hip surgery the second time.

This week was a little crazy. Seriously kind of a whirlwind. On monday, exactly one week after her surgery we went in for an xray to make sure everything looked good. The doctor didn't seem thrilled by the results. He said he couldn't quite tell if the hip was still where it needed to be but he didn't seem very confident so he scheduled us an MRI on Wednesday.  Wednesday we went to the MRI and tried to do it without sedation since it was only a five minute scan but she did not like the machine once it was turned on so they had to give her some mild sedation. I'm so grateful for her and how wonderful Elli is with this kind of stuff. She is so chill and even when they were putting in her IV she just played with their watches. She is pretty awesome and amazes me everyday.

After the MRI we went to dinner with Jill before she left to go back to Cedar. About halfway through dinner I checked online on my health and the radiology report was available. It said that her hip was misaligned still and there was a small fat pocket in the deepest part of her socket that was in the way. So we have to go back to redo her surgery and have an open reduction where they have to cut into her and scrape the socket. So that was upsetting to find out. We had to wait until the next day to find out when they could get her back in for surgery. I was really convinced that it wasn't going to happen until our cast change was scheduled in October so I was really sad to have to wait but the next morning the doctor called, told us she would have to have the open reduction like we thought and that they had a cancellation on Friday and they could do it then. I was so relieved that it was so soon.  I was seriously sad about the idea of having to wait longer to just finally get all of this over with. So we went in that day and got her cast cut off. She was not a fan of the saw at all and cried like crazy. But after it was off she was so happy. She is already so much skinnier in her legs than she was 10 days ago when the cast got put on. It makes me so sad to see and think how skinny she is going to be when she is finally done with casts. We had a very fun day. We cuddled, rolled all around the floor, and went swimming again. I loved it and so did she. We also had another very good bath.

The next morning we went back into surgery, she was a little grumpier this time but still handled it like a champ. It really went great. The surgery was fairly quick and the cast was basically the same this time as last time.

She was pretty groggy and tired so she just slept most of the day. We were supposed to stay the night but everyone there said that Elli was doing completely amazing and so they let us go home rather than stay the night which we were very grateful for. It was a long night with her trying to overcome the anesthesia she ended up just sleeping in bed with us and did okay that way. She was on pain medication but only for two days after other than some ibuprofen to keep the stiffness away. And she once again handled this cast and surgery like a champ. I'm so proud of her and grateful that everything has gone so smoothly for her.

We had another set of xrays 10 days after her surgery and everything looked perfect. The hip was exactly where he wanted it so we are very relieved. He surprised us by keeping her cast change scheduled for the same day it was already on October 17th. So she will only be in this cast for 4 weeks total before the change to a shorter cast. We are pretty relieved about that and so grateful that it is working for her now.

Hip surgery!

Elli finally had her hip surgery today. To know the background of what I'm writing about I would direct you here:

http://ourveryfirstpeanut.blogspot.com/2014/07/hip-update.html

Her surgery was on Tuesday September ninth at 730 in the morning. She was our doctors first surgery of the day so we didn't have to wait or get behind which we were very grateful for. We got up and went to the hospital at 6 in the morning. We were so worried that she was going to be hungry and crying since I couldn't nurse her after two and she usually eats right when she wakes up. I think that with everything going on around her there were enough distractions though so she really was being pretty happy.

We got all checked in and dressed her in the little gown and were ready to go. They had us scheduled for an open reduction, about two hours for surgery, and a night stay in the hospital. All worst case scenario but what our doctor was expecting to be the case. We met with a nurse who talked to us about recovery, the anesthesiologist who talked about his procedure, they give her a mask that smells sweet to get her out and then place an IV, and about how he stays with her the whole time to monitor for any effects from the medications.

Then we met with the doctor and just reviewed the procedure. He once again said he was expecting an open reduction and we would probably be staying the night. He initialed the correct leg, had us pick a cast color (I went with purple) and then we walked back to the OR with the anesthesiologist. I was trying so hard not to freak out and tell them they couldn't take her and that she didn't need to have surgery. They took her back, we went to the waiting room and then just over an hour later the doctor came back out. He said he was very surprised but it ended up being a closed reduction so we got to go home that day. We waiting a little longer then they took us back to recovery. She was crying when we got there but was awake. They gave her a glucose bottle (her second one since waking up) and she downed that and then they let me hold her. She was very awkward to hold between the cast, the IV and all the monitors on her. But we got through it. We got to go home a few hours later and she was doing amazing. This girl truly impresses me. She didn't even seem fazed by the cast. She was every bit as happy, if not more so than she was before she got it on. She was a little fussy the first few nights but then cut a tooth at the same time. As soon as that tooth cut the surface she started sleeping through the night again (almost) and has taken longer naps than ever before. Its been a blessing. We were able to get a high chair that still works for her in the cast so we are very happy about that, so here's some pictures of her in recovery and a picture of her full cast so you can see what it looks like.