12 Month Recap

Since I haven't been doing my regualar blogging over summer. I am simply recapping what Madelyn does at 12 months for my own records. If you are bored and don't wish to read, I understand. Before Madelyn, I was so bored when people went on and on about what their little child did this time. So here it is:

At 12 Months Madelyn:
Crawls everywhere
walks while holding on to something, ie. furniture, walls, etc.
babbles continuously - she likes to stand up, raise her arm up in the air, and declare all kinds of things that I'm sure are very important to her, it's just I don't understand.
We can hold a toddler converstion, she babbles, I say, yes or sure, and then she continues to babble. It's great to have someone to talk to when you are at home all day!?
Her favorite things to do are look at books, play with a shape sorter, and unload all the kitchen drawers.
Madelyn can crawl up and down stairs on her own-yes, I know, I watch her closely, but she is very independant.
Puzzle the cat and Madelyn have a good understanding about petting, and when petting is done. So cute to see them together looking out the patio window!
Feeding - lots of changes there. After reducing her formula from 1.0cal/ml to .61kcal/ml she is eating a whole lot better. Madelyn's loves fingers foods and has been feeding herself from about 9 months.
Madelyn likes swimming, bike rides, and LOVES to swing!


Feeding story:
Most of you already know that Madelyn has a feeding aversion. Since the NICU powder formula was added to the breast milk for her to gain back some of the weight she lost due to surgery. Madelyn was never able to comsume a high enough volume to gain weight without the added calories. Over the first month at home we slowly climbed the later to more and more added calories to her breast milk. Then after the breast milk ran out after seven months, she was on strat formula at 1.1cal/ml. This was working well until she plateaued on her curve at about five months. Dr. C. suggested that I could start her on rice cereal if I wanted to. So, I did and Madelyn ate it very well. She was like a birdie opening her month for the next spoonfull. I thought that this was great; she won't have any problems moving to solid foods. But I was wrong, oh, so very wrong. As soon as I started with veggies and fruit, Madelyn, the little independant child she is decided that she would feed herself. I did "hand over hand" feeding so that the food would get into her mouth, very messy, but it worked. Then one Saturday lunchtime she decided that it was okay for me to spoon feed her again. Once again I thought okay this is great, we have concurred the feeding aversion. And again I was wrong. That only lasted about a month until she decided she would like to eat nothing on a spoon. Only finger foods and very few of them. Nothing mushy, and no pasta, no meat. But Madelyn was gaining weight so I was reassured by Dr. C. and Dr. H. and the Public Health nurse that it was okay.

Just after seeing Dr. C, Madelyn had her first appointment with the OT - Nancy. She asked me what I thought the problem was, and I guess I told the heartfelt truth. Madelyn can eat if she wants to. I really think the continued added calories where now holding her back. Now don't get me wrong, I don't want you to think I don't think added calories to a diet are important, they very much are! But I was feeling that Madelyn was never hungry because she never had to be with the formula mixture at 1.1cal/ml. I had seen a slight increase in diet when I moved her to 1.0cal/ml. So, Nancy encouraged me to try giving water at night time feeding so Madelyn would eat during the day. I did this and it didn't work. What I did instead was changed the formula to a regular mixture that any other baby would drink. And WHOLA! Madelyn now eats four to five small meals a day! I can starting over with the cereals and slowly she is now consuming up to a tablespoon twice a day. Yogurt is a hit, and fruit is okay sometimes too.

As a mother, I have to say that my mood is directly related to how Madelyn feeds in a day. Let's just say it's much happier in our house this last month! Now my prayer is that Madelyn doesn't loose weight, because if she does, up go the kcals/ml again.