Almost eight months

Scarlett is nearly eight months old now. Oh my goodness. It's been a good couple of months. She's doing lots better with things, especially with eating, which is such a relief. She hits her daily goal almost every day now, and has been gaining weight quite nicely. Next up, solid foods! Ha. We shall see how that goes.

She's also made good progress during physical therapy. She finally seems to like being out of her bouncy seat more than she likes to be in it. She loves being on her back and rolling around, and she's able to be on her tummy for longer and longer stretches. She can roll from her tummy to back and back to side, and is very close to figuring out how to roll back to tummy. We've also been working on sitting, which is I think her favorite skill so far. Here are some pictures of her showing off her new talent.




Here she's sitting on my lap biting on her thumb. She has one tooth so far (but doesn't like to show it off) and she's working on some new ones. She also still has crossed eyes a lot of the time, but she's scheduled to have surgery to straighten them the first week of September.





Scarlett has also been talking up a storm these days. She can make lots of new noises and sounds. Her favorites are mamamamama (sometimes just mama) and baba.

Mom. Are we done taking pictures yet? I mean, come on.

A guaranteed cheer-baby-up activity is looking at ourselves in mirrors. But you have to be very excited, like I am here. That's the only way it works.

And, all tired out. We've reintroduced the swaddle, and it works wonders in calming her down and helping her fall asleep. Now that she's eating better, our newest daily annoyance is eczema. She gets so, so itchy and scratches like mad. So the swaddle helps to stop scratching fits (we also use no-scratch mittens a lot), and we're trying various creams and soaps and detergents and foods and trying to figure out what makes it better and worse. I just made an appointment with a dermatologist today. Yay, more doctors!

Feet.

Out and about

Scarlett is getting a lot better about going new places and meeting new people. Which we're very happy about because for a while she was not only refusing to eat when we weren't at home but also refusing to let anyone hold her besides me or Jason, which made life difficult for everyone.


She's been to Cracker Barrel twice now, including this weekend when we had lunch with our old friends Nathan and Sarah DeArman, who were in town from Reno. Jason, Nathan and Sarah all met while working at Cracker Barrel long ago, so we went for the nostalgia. Here's Scarlett waiting patiently while we all eat.



The DeArmans: Nathan, Caleb and Sarah. Their daughter is due in October!

The Manns. Who knows what Scarlett's looking at.

This time, she's looking at Caleb!

A couple weekends ago, we took a quick overnight trip to Fairfield to see Grandma and Grandpa. Here's Scarlett playing with great grandma Mill.

And here we are singing her favorite song, The Wheels on the Bus.

Scarlett's six months old!

And she's very happy about it.

I am too, even though these six months have gone not a thing like I thought they would six months ago. I remember sitting at the table with my mom after Scarlett's first hospital stay for bronchiolitis, and saying that I just couldn't wait until Scarlett was six months old. Then, I figured, she'd be bigger, stronger, not so vulnerable if she got sick, way past her feeding difficulties.

Well, we're not there yet. She's bigger, for sure, and stronger. But things still aren't easy, especially with her feedings. Every day, actually every feeding, is a challenge. I worry about whether she'll start eating, then I worry about how long she'll keep eating. Then I worry about whether she'll keep it down. Will she eat as much as she's supposed to this feeding? Will she eat as much as she's supposed to for the day? I was never so glad as I was to pull that feeding tube out for the last time, but I do now appreciate its benefits -- it put us in charge of her eating, rather than her.

We are working with a physical therapist every week to bring Scarlett's motor skills up to speed, and she tells us that we've been treating her as if she's fragile for too long. She was fragile, before, but now she's not. And we're grateful for that.

Here's a look at Scarlett at six months:

Her newest skills: She laughs pretty often now. She talks all the time and can make some consonant sounds, including B and M. She's quite good at sticking her tongue out and saying thbbbbtttt. She's very good with her hands, and she has started reaching out and feeling everyone's faces. She started playing with her feet, and she's getting better at tolerating being on the floor and out of her chair.

Her nicknames: Miss Scarlett, Scarlett Marlett, Miss Marlett

Things she likes to do: Sit in her bouncy seat. Chew on all her toys (no teeth yet, though). Play peek-a-boo. Play with her feet. Say "thbbtt." Listen to books. Pull my hair. Yank off my glasses. Cuddle with her stuffed animals. Watch TV. Sit in her bouncy seat. Scratch her head. Try to scoot out of her bouncy seat. Even though she does not actually want out of her bouncy seat. Sit in her swing. Take walks in the neighborhood. Go to the grocery store. Go outside.

Her best talent: Sleeping! It's a good talent to have. She goes right to sleep when we put her down for the night, and usually sleeps from about 10:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. Jason feeds her a bottle before he goes to bed around 1 a.m., but she goes right back to sleep and doesn't even wake up crying for her pacifier very often anymore. Hooray for sleep!

Here are some more new six-month pictures:

Her "who, me?" look.

Hey, I have feet!

She's cracking up!

Scarlett is still a huge fan of her bouncy seat. In fact, if she had it her way she'd sit in the darn thing 24 hours a day. But for a lot of reasons, we're trying to wean her off of it. Not least of which is she's about to grow out of it! Soon, she's going to be so heavy it'll topple over backward when she sits in it!

To show you how big she's grown, here's a look at two-weeks-old Scarlett, sitting in the chair.


Look how tiny she is! And since that was so much fun, here's a quick look at Scarlett, month by month.

Zero months

One month

Two months

Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

Tube-free Scarlett

It was recently brought to my attention that I haven't been updating this blog very often. I tried to deny it at first, but it's true ... it's been a whole month since my last post! I never have time! But I'm going to try to do better. And as a special treat, this post will have lots of pictures, including my above attempt at artsy black-and-white.

So, you may have heard the big news around here -- Scarlett is now feeding-tube-free! We're obviously very excited that she's doing better and able to be off the tube, though it hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. She's still struggling a bit with bottle feeding. Even though she's able to suck from the bottle just fine, she's not eating as much per feeding as she should be, and then not getting enough food in for the day. But her doctor is determined to keep her from going back on the tube, so we're trying a higher-calorie formula to see if we can get her back on track.

She's definitely cuter without the tube! Here are some pictures from earlier today:



And here are some more random shots from the last month or so. Sleeping soundly in the car (this was just minutes after throwing a huge screaming fit while were visiting some friends. She loves the car!)

Bathtime! Hooded towels have to be one of the cutest inventions ever.


Hanging out on our bed.

Scarlett is apparently teething. She's definitely chewing on everything she can get her hands on. This bee toy is a favorite.

We don't have many smiling pictures, so here's an old one with the feeding tube that I never posted.

Scarlett with Jason on his 30th birthday (May 25).

I'm jealous. Here are just a few of the not-so-great pictures I have of me with Scarlett. One day we'll get a good one!


In the meantime, there's this one of us taking a Saturday morning nap together. Aww.

Scarlett at play

Scarlett's awake a lot more these days and so we're constantly having to come up with ways to keep her occupied.

We bought her this flowery play mat because she seemed to be getting bored more often. At first, she didn't really know what to think of it.

But now she really like lying on it and playing with her toys.

Mesmerized by the swimming fishes. Her tropical-vacation-loving Grandma Renee bought her this toy.

Jason bought her this little Atlanta Hawks jersey, which she's been wearing during the NBA playoffs. I have to admit, it's pretty cute.

Watching TV. Is that bad? She loves it!

And here are just a few random shots.

Back in the hospital ... but just for a test!

We had to take Scarlett back to the hospital last week so she could finally have her impedence testing done. This will determine how bad her acid reflux is and tell us whether she will be able to come off the feeding tube. We should have the results back next week. While we were there, she had to wear these blue arm restraints so she wouldn't pull her tubes out.

They made for some funny photos, but she didn't seem to mind them all that much. She did quickly figure out how to wriggle out of them, though. Also, they worked so well at keeping her from pulling at her tubes that we brought them home to use when she's sleeping at night. Let's just hope she gets to take the tube out soon!