9 Month Check-up

Eloise went in for her 9 month check up today. She weighted in at 14lbs 12ozs, 1%, 26.25 inches long, 16%. So she is getting on the chart and growing tall but we need to work on the eating skills. I talked with the doctor today about this and he gave us a recommendation to the feeding clinic at MaryFree Bed. The doctor said it is not uncommon for premies to have trouble learning to eat. With Eloise she really has not interest in eating solid foods and actually locks her lips together when the spoon is put up to her mouth. We pretty much have to trick her to get the spoon in her mouth and since her mouth is so small it is not easy to get the spoon in when she does not want it. She still eats about 4-6-7oz bottles a day which she definitely prefers over the solids. So we will see what the feeding clinic recommends. We have also continued working with the Early On program. The social worker was out last week and gave us some more things to work on with Eloise and then also suggested a playgroup that they have every Thursday from 12:30-1:30 at the KISD building off E. Beltline that is run by a physical therapist. We attended last week and I was very excited about the group. They have sibling care so Cecelia was able to come with us and play in another room. During the hour the therapist starts off by going around and working with each kids individually while the rest of the parents and babies play. Then we do some group singing, they have a topic of the week, last week was flu shots and then finish with some more play/therapist time. I think Eloise will really benefit from attending this group and I enjoyed being able to concentrate on just Eloise for a full hour. Eloise is improving on her motor skills but just needs a little bit of extra help to get her to move to the next levels. She sits up very well but doesn't know how to transition from sitting to the floor. Right now if she gets tired of sitting she just cries and if she falls over she does not try to catch herself she just falls. When she is on her tummy she will pull her legs in but is not anywhere near ready to start crawling. She can move herself forward a little bit on her tummy with her arms but not really an army crawl. Her fastest way of movement is when she is on her back and she arches up and scooches on her head. Which is also what she does during every diaper change!! So there are things we need to work on.

Other than the motor and eating skills Eloise is doing great. She is very smiley and still loves to cuddle. She was very cute today with the doctor. He picked her up and put her on his shoulder and she snuggled right in like she loves to do and when he went to take her away she grabbed his coat and snuggle back in. The doctor was loving it. For a nine month old she can still be such a baby and I love it.