Looking Good!

Emily was finally feeling great this weekend. She was a lot of fun all weekend and so interactive with us. When she was at daycare today, her teachers kept saying that she was so funny and was just a riot today. Apparently she was doing a lot of talking and kept saying da-da-da and then would whisper it. She has been doing that a lot at home, but it seems to take her a few days before she tries that sort of thing at daycare. At naptime, she was in her crib laughing and trying to push herself up on her tummy. I guess she was pretty funny. They also said that she had really developed some skills over the last week. Just suddenly acting like a much older baby.

Since she is working so hard at getting bigger, she is making great strides in her finger foods. She can now eat most of her meal as finger food. We try to do baby food with her at the beginning of the meal, because once she gets her hands on the stuff to pick up, no chance of getting any more baby food into her.

In one of the pictures of Emily in her exersaucer, you can get a pretty good view of her 2 bottom teeth. Still nothing on top! You might need to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see.

Greg took her to her dermatologist appointment today. She is doing great. Since her face was so red, the redness isn't quite gone, but he said it'll take a little bit of time. We can stop the steroid cream on her face, just need to keep it moisturized. Aveeno lotion or Aquaphor is the best thing. We'll still keep the steroid cream going on her hand for a few more days, but then we can moisturize that as well. He also suggested some foods that are high in enzymes to avoid, but Greg seemed to think that was to avoid them staying on her face, not in her system. Fortunately since she is doing so much with finger foods it isn't staying on her face much anymore. We're so glad that she is looking so much better.

Emily's Health, or lack thereof

We are waiting for Emily's doctor's office to start offering a frequent visitors card. We would be high on that list right now! At her check up on Thursday, November 30, her pediatrician said that Emily's eczema on her cheek had become infected and prescribed an antibiotic. We debated over the weekend if it was actually getting any better, but decided that we needed to give the antibiotic time to get in. On Monday morning we got her up and she looked awful. The eczema/infection was all over both cheeks, her chin, and underneath her chin and face. She looked awful. We weren't even sure if daycare would take her, but they did. I called her pediatrician's office again and they prescribed bactrim instead of whatever she was on before and a topical antibiotic cream. By Tuesday, she didn't look any better so we decided that I would stay home with her on Wednesday and get her to a dermatologist. The dermatologist said it was impetigo or staph that was infecting the eczema and gave us prescriptions for a special face wash/soak to do twice a day, then the topical antibiotic, then a steroid cream. She also kept taking the oral antibiotic. Twice a day, our almost 10 month old daughter got a mini-facial. Unfortunately, she didn't feel lucky to be getting her facial and usually whined through it. And she needed to be kept home from daycare till he saw her again on Monday. Greg and I were able to juggle our schedules and enjoy some time at home with Emily who was fortunately feeling relatively good, so we could enjoy our time at home with her. She got a clear bill of health from the dermatologist so now we only have to put the steroid on her face and a stronger one on one hand that isn't quite as good. So far, so good. She goes back to see the dermatologist again on Monday afternoon. He also said that she has sensitive skin so nothing used in her laundry or put on her skin should have any fragrances. The 2 pictures that I've posted are of Emily as she was getting better, she actually looked a lot worse than the first picture. This weekend she looks great, a little on the rosy side, but you can't tell there was something wrong.

She finally stopped taking the Bactrim on Monday morning. Over the weekend (while on it) she started with a bit of a cough and a little bit of a cold. Wouldn't you know, Thursday morning she wakes up with a fever. Greg stayed home with her since we expected her to be out for 2 days and he couldn't be home on Friday. He took her to the pediatrician's office and Emily has a viral infection (cough) with an ear infection on top of it. What fun. Now she is on Augmentin to treat the ear infection. Augmentin is the third antibiotic that they use when it looks like they are dealing with a tough infection. I guess since Emily got it just after coming off the Bactrim, they were concerned about drug resistance. We don't like that Emily has been on antibiotics so much recently, but I guess that is the way of life when you have a baby in daycare. Hopefully with the holidays she will get a break from daycare and all of her sicknesses. She was able to go back to daycare on Friday and seems to be feeling good this weekend.

By Monday, in just over 2 weeks, Emily will have had 5 doctor's visits. Fortunately everything is relatively minor.

Emily and Santa Claus

We had quite the busy day Saturday, today. First, we went to Emily's first swimming lesson at the Y. We were a bit worried about how well she would like it because she wasn't too excited about the pool over the summer. She does love bath time now, so we were hopeful. Well, she loved it! She had so much fun. She loved splashing and kicking in the water. We helped her "jump" into the water and put her head under water, which she didn't mind. We sang songs that had lots of splashing motions which she loved. Both of us got in the water with her. Afterwards, she had her first shower, which she liked, too. She slept so well when we finally got her home for a nap. It was a late nap, but we had to wake her up and even then it took her a few minutes to really come to.

After her nap we rushed over to our town hall to see Santa Claus. The line was pretty short and we could take our own pictures which was so much better than at the mall. Emily loved looking at everyone and did great on Santa's lap. She even grabbed a fistful of Santa's beard, but Santa caught her hand before she did any damage.

We took Emily out to lunch after out visit with Santa and then she took another long nap. While we've been home with her today we've been working on her crawling skills and standing up. One of the pictures is Emily standing next to a toy. The picture in the white shirt was before she went to school on Wednesday. Doesn't she look so old???

Emily knows when she drops something and where it goes. No more fooling this little girl. She had 2 toys while she was in her high chair at dinner. She dropped one of them on her side and kept stretching over with the opposite hand to get it. When she couldn't grab it, she traded toys with the other hand and got it with the hand that was closest. It's so amazing watching her learn to do that. A month ago she would drop a toy and forget all about it.

I forgot to mention in Emily's doctor's visit update that she got her flu shot and a blood test. The flu shot was actually pretty funny, Emily's reflexes were very good. She was pretty happy and as soon as she felt the needle in her leg she jumped and she nearly swatted the nurses hand away. The nurse even commented about Emily's reflex, she looked like she was going to grab the shot and pull it out. All in all, Emily did well with the injections that she got.

9 Months Old

Here are Emily's Cleo pictures from when she turned 9 months last week. It was pretty late for her when we took the pictures, but she got pretty silly posing for the camera.

She had a relatively good check up with her pediatrician on Thursday. She weighed 19 pounds, 14 ounces and was in the 50-75 percentile. Her length was 28 inches, also 50-75 percentile. Her cheek that is so red in the pictures is actually infected. It had gotten worse over the last week so we would have been checking in with the doctor anyway. Emily is on antibiotics for that now. Emily can now start on some more food! We can try cheese, eggs, and yogurt. She can eat just about everything now except for peanuts, shellfish, ground beef and different things that would be a choking hazard. The only thing that Emily isn't doing yet that most other 9 month olds are is crawling. She doesn't have much of an interest. Of course, at 6 months, her doctor predicted that she would walk before she crawls and that seems like it might be the case. When she's on her tummy, she'll make a mild effort to get a toy and will spin in a little bit of a circle, but more often than not she puts her thumb in her mouth and head down. She loves to stand, though. She leans up against things and has great balance. She can reach and lift up both hands for a moment without falling over. Around 10 months she should be able to pull up. The doctor wants to see her again in 6 weeks to make sure that she is on track with her gross motor skills since she isn't crawling. We keep working on crawling with her, but are starting to try to show her how to pull up since that might be her next trick. If she isn't in 6 weeks then we'll go through an early intervention program to keep her on track. Her pediatrician tries to prevent problems from being on top of anything that has the chance of becoming problematic.

Our growing girl is doing great! I'm going to do a second post with today's adventures!