All About Makenna: 12 Month Update

 

This month Makenna has shown so much growth!  She has learned to solidly sit up and very rarely falls over.  She can get in and out of side sit and even spin in circles while she is sitting down!  She can also scoot a little bit while sitting and can lean forward onto her hands, almost into the crawling position on her own.  She still can't roll over or get into and out of siting on her own, but if I put her in the crawling position she can maintain it.  She is thankfully doing a little better with tummy time and will lay on her tummy for 1 or 2 minutes at a time without crying.  I think the shunt is really

helping. 

Fine motor skills continue to be one of her strengths.  She amazes me with what she is able to pick up.  She can pincher grasp small things such as pieces of hair or quinoa, and can pick up small and large toys with just the tips of her fingers.  She is also great with problem solving.  She will look for toys under blankets and if she sees a toy on top of a blanket (out of reach) she will pull the blanket towards herself.  She knows how to play with toys correctly (putting balls on her spinning giraffe, pushing buttons, throwing balls, hugging/kissing her dolls, "reading" books, and so on) and will look down if she drops a toy.  She is really starting to figure the world out. 

She is also still a social butterfly.  She is very entertained with games such as peekaboo and patticake, loves being tickled and thrown in the air, and really enjoys being read to.  She loves pointing, especially to pictures in books, and thinks it is funny when people dance, sing, or make silly noises.  She is so sweet.  She will share her toys and can blow kisses (even says "Mwah" when she does), she likes to clap, wave, and loves to mimic sounds.  She "talks" nonstop.  I've never heard a baby babble as much as she does.  She doesn't say many words, but she tells very lengthy stories and jibber-jabbers like crazy. 

As for food she is still nursing on demand and loving a variety of things.  She pretty much eats what we eat as long as it isn't spicy or a possible allergic food (nuts, eggs, fish, so on).  Her favorites lately are asparagus, meat (especially turkey and ground beef), canned green beans, watermelon, and bread.  She has started to refuse to eat anything off of a spoon (even grown-up food like apple sauce or mashed potatoes), she is independent and only wants to feed herself. 
She has also developed preferences for foods and discovered that if she doesn't want to eat something she can carefully remove it from her plate and drop it on the floor.  She routinely picks out the green beans from her mixed veggies and drops them, it is so cute, but we try to discourage it.  We also serve her meals on plates with 3 to 4 different areas for food.  She is so funny, she requires that ever compartment has something in it and she won't eat until each one is full.  This month she also mastered the art of drinking from a straw and really enjoys drinking plain and coconut water, I'm hoping to hold off on introducing her to the exciting world of sugary juices as long as possible!  Thankfully she seems to really like coconut water and it is all she knows, so she's not complaining!

 

Medically she is also doing well.  This week we went back to Gainesville (the 10th time this year)for check-ups with her neurosurgeon and pediatric surgeon. They did an head MRI, chest x-ray, and an echocardiogram.  The MRI showed her shunt is working and her ventricles are slightly smaller.  Yay!  The x-ray looked good and showed her right lung (the effected/smaller lung) had more aeration then it did previously.  Dr. Kays also said that Makenna's right lung is kind of quirky because the top lobe looks just like pneumonia.  He said even he would look at the x-ray and think she had pneumonia, but she doesn't it's just her funky CDH lung.  He said he isn't too worried since her o2 stats are consistently 100.  As for the echocardiogram, her ASD (patent foramen ovale versus) and her pulmonary hypertension appear to be resolved!  Overall good news!!




Height:  30 inches

Weight:  20 pounds 2oz

Eyes:   Brownish-green

Hair:  Light brown, getting thicker, and shockingly long!

Clothes:  Mostly 12m-18m, but she's skinny enough to wear her 3m pants as capris!

Diapers:  Still using cloth, but she fits in size 3.

Food:  Still loving her mommy milk! She also likes asparagus, noodles, turkey (most meat really), and bread.

Sleep:   Still getting up many times a night. 

Shoes:  Her feet are 3.25 inches long.  She fits size 2 for length, but her feet are too chubby for them.  Size 3 are way too big and mostly all fall off. 

Favorites:   Makenna loves her baby dolls, balls, "little people," and things she's not supposed to have (cell phones, remotes, pieces of paper, etc.)