Its so hard to believe that Annika will be 6 months already tomorrow! Somedays I feel like she's just been with us forever, while other times we still feel like such new parents, still questioning our parenting decisions daily!
Since I last posted, Annika continued to recover well after her surgery. She is sleeping regularly at night, and has adjusted well to feeding from the other side of her mouth.
Last time I posted, we had just gotten into cereal. Annika seemed to tolerate the food for a maximum of 10 bites and then she would get mad. After about a month of frustration on both my and Annika's part, I called her specialist just to see if this is just a normal baby phase or if it could be her palate keeping her from eating. The nurse just said, "Oh yeah she probably won't really eat solid foods until after her palate surgery." This would have been nice to know!!! Just a note that palate surgery is not until late winter at least. She also said to keep giving her solids whenever possible to keep her familiar with the texture, but not to expect Annika to get any real nutrients out of the feedings. Since that phone call, I feel much less pressure about feedings. We feed when we can (maybe every other day). And we do some cereal mixed with peaches or bananas. She's actually doing better than before, so I just feed her until she gets agitated and then we stop. Thank goodness she takes bottles so well!
We also got a tentative surgery date for Friday, November 12. This surgery will be her stage 2 lip repair. Dr. Mann will be closing the other sie of her lip. In the first surgery, he attached her outter gums to her right side gums and did her lip. This surgery will be just the lip. Dr. Mann plans to leave the other side of her gums open so that later in life when she has to have dental work, the dentist will be able to move and adjust the gums easier. Also, the date is only tentative as of now because DeVos Children's Hospital only schedules surgeries 3 months in advance, so we should hear if this date is solid in the next few weeks.
Annika also had her 6 month check-up with her pediatrician. These are Ross and my favorite appointments because we can guess how much she has grown. Yesterday Annika was 14lb. 12oz. and 26in. tall. This puts her in the 25th percentile for weight and 63rd for height. She is on track developmentally, and the doctor said everything looks good!
Finally, my dad was able to take Annika's 6 month pictures for us last Saturday. Annika can sit up for about 10 seconds right now, so my dad bought a very handy little helper for her so she could still sit up for pictures. Here are 2 of our favorites!
