All About Makenna: 11 Month Update

It is amazing how quickly this first year is flying by.  I just can't believe that Makenna is already 11 months old.  In a way our time in the NICU and the difficult months she spent on oxygen at home seem so long ago, almost like it never happened at all.  However, at the same time it seems like just a few weeks ago I was holding my tiny little baby in my arms.  So crazy.

Her 10th month has been jammed packed with all kinds of new and exciting things.  Our sweet little girl never ceases to amaze us.  Everyday she is learning and doing new things, meeting milestones, and making us smile.



 This month has been huge for her in terms of communication and social skills.  She is babbling a lot more and really enjoys playing with new sounds.  Her speech therapist said she has a surprising number of sounds in her vocabulary and she is impressed with her ability to communicate her needs and desires without crying (she never cries unless she is in pain).  Instead she communicates with us through gestures.  This month she learned to point at what she wants and now she points at everything constantly.  She also learned how to wave high and bye by moving her little fingers up and down.  Adorable!  She can sign "more" when she feels like it, claps when she is excited, and she will nod/shake her head yes and no.  She also reaches out when she wants to be picked up and will push your hand away if she doesn't like what you are doing to her (giving her medicine, measuring her head, etc).  Makenna is also very playful!  She loves playing "peek-a-boo" and "where's makenna" and initiates both games herself.  For 'where's Makenna' she will grab our hand and use it to cover her eyes and when we say "where's Makenna" she will pull our hand off of her face and smile.  Another way she interacts with us is by imitating sounds and noises we make.  If we smack our lips, blow raspberries, click our tongue or say certain sounds, she will too.  This month she also learned how to share.  Now if we ask for something she will usually give it to us and she will also hand us things without us asking too,

Her fine motor skills are absolutely incredible too.  She will not only pick up small pieces of food, but also strings, crumbs, and even pieces of loose hair.  She loves pincer grasping for everything she sees.  She also continues to enjoy playing with toys.  She likes to pull on the strings of her tug box, shake her maracas, bang toys together, and hug/kiss her baby doll.  When playing she also knows exactly which toy she wants and will dig through her toy box or point to what she wants on the shelf.  It is fun seeing her develop desires and opinions towards things.

Physically she officially found her feet this month!  It is so cute watching her finally hold onto her feet and she is even putting them in her mouth.  This skill is great for stretching muscles and preparing to move, so we are excited.  Other than that she remains about the same in terms of physical ability.  She has rolled from back to belly a few times, but in general doesn't roll.  She can sit up pretty solidly, but not well enough that I can look or walk away (she still tends to fall over and isn't able to catch herself).  She also isn't able to get herself into or out of the sitting position yet either.  At this point she is getting very frustrated with herself because she knows what she wants and her body won't let her do it.  She  definitely wants to move, but between her head being extra heavy and her fear of crossing midline, she just hasn't been able to make it happen.  Her physical therapist said that she feels she is now strong enough to do more, but she thinks her fear of falling keeps her from trying.  We work with her constantly though, so hopefully it won't be much longer until she gets enough upper body strength and confidence to do tummy time and learn to scoot.

When it comes to food, Makenna is an adventurous eater.  She is limited more by her food sensitivities (dairy, soy, and some root veggies) than pickiness.  She really isn't that picky about flavor at all, but she is moderately picky about texture (she doesn't like the texture of several fruits).  She loves spinach, quinoa, steel cut oats, turkey, beef, chicken, avocado, pumpkin, noodles, bagels, and pretty much anything we give her, if she is in the mood to eat.  She is also developing independence when it comes to eating.  She doesn't like being fed by us anymore and insists on feeding herself with her hands.  We bought a new booster seat, so now she can sit at the table with us, which we all love.  It is fun having family dinners and really nice being able to eat my food while she eats hers instead of eating in shifts!  Makenna still nurses and refuses to take bottles.  We've tried getting her to drink water and coconut water from sippy cups, but she doesn't like them much either.  She will, however, drink some from regular cups with our help.  Funny girl!

And now onto the medical stuff...
 Unfortunately her head continued to grow again after slowing down briefly last month.  Neurosurgery decided it was time for a shunt.  On Thursday 8/28 we headed back to Gainesville.  She had a sedated MRI of her chest and head on Friday and shunt surgery was scheduled for 8:15am.  At 8am, moments before it was set to begin, they decided to put the surgery on hold and have pediatric surgery, cardiology, and radiology examine her MRI for another possible cause of the hydrocephalus.  Ultimately they decided to go ahead with the surgery and it was rescheduled for 1:30pm.  That meant that poor Makenna couldn't eat or drink from 1:30am to after surgery at 3:30pm!  It also meant that we were stuck in pre-surgical holding for 6 hour.  My mom, Rex, and I spent the 6 hours taking turns reading, holding, and walking her around.  Makenna had fun smiling and waving to everyone else who was waiting for their surgeries.  We were told by several that she brightened their days.  At 1:30 they took her back for surgery.  She has a neurosurgeon do the brain part of her shunt and her buddy Dr. Kays laparoscopically did the abdomen part.  It was a fairly fast procedure and they said it went well.  After surgery I was able to hold and nurse her immediately, which was great because she was crying for me and seemed to be in a little pain.  She didn't want anyone else to hold her, so I held her for hours while she slept.  By 8:30pm her pain seemed minimal.  She had pain medicine before falling asleep for the night at 8:30pm and didn't have anymore throughout the night.  The next morning she woke up, completely alert, and was ready to sit up and play as if she didn't just have brain surgery the day before.  Amazing!  She was able to leave the hospital at 10:30am, just 17 hours after surgery.  Her resilience and strength is amazing.  Makenna has always been "the happiest baby ever" (ask anyone), but since the surgery she is even happier.  She laughs a lot more and just seems to feel better.

 

Height:  29 inches

Weight:  19lbs  10oz

Eyes:   Still grey, sometimes they look brown and sometimes green.

Hair:  Brown and still getting longer

Clothes:  She is wearing mostly 12 month clothes, some 6-9 and 9-12.

Diapers:  Cloth full-time (minus vacations, size 3)

Food:  Listed above

Sleep:  Waking up more times than I can count a night....still
Teeth:  2 bottom teeth

 Favorites:   Makenna really loves putting small balls on her giraffe slide, playing with her tool box, eating food at the table with us, and meeting new people!