8 Months Old, NICU Follow-Up, and First Trip to the Iowa State Fair!

8 months old

That’s right-Ameliais 8 months old.  I think I say this inevery post, but this seriously has been the fastest and best 8 months of mylife!  I am still amazed that she was 2 ½months early and yet you can barely tell. If she wasn’t a little nugget, no one would know any better!

NICU

Waiting for the NICU appt.

We went for her NICUfollow-up yesterday to do her “6 month” assessment.  Remember, they still grade her by hercorrected age, which means how old she would be if she was born at fullgestation.  So technically, according tocorrected age, she is almost 6 months old-which means she should only be doingthings that a 6 month old can do.

First, Susan (thenurse practitioner), asked us some questions about her eating habits androutine.  She gave us some suggestions tostart trying “teething” foods when she has been introduced to all of the fruitsand veggies.  Teething foods would begraham crackers and other bigger type things that she could easily pick up andput in her mouth. We are going to try that after she’s tried all the differentflavors of food we have for her.  Soafter our chat, she did some assessment test-type things.   She had her sit in Aaron’s lap at the tableand play with some toys.  She had herpick up blocks and cheerios to see how her gross motor and fine motor skillsare developing.  She did awesome!  She could pick up the cheerios, which sheshouldn’t be able to do yet.  Then wemoved to the floor, and Amelia showed off her rolling over skills and herability to almost sit unattended.  Shealso showed Susan how she can get up on her hands and knees like a champ.  Pretty much, by the time we were done, Susanwas so impressed that she was gushing over Amelia!!!!  She showed us how she was doing on her heightand weight and head size.  I’m not goodat remembering the percentages, but she’s still behind in her height (she’ll beshort like Mommy) and her weight-but you better believe she has a basketballhead like Mom and Dad!!! Her head size is catching up nicely, which is notshocking considering how brilliant she is. She has to have room for that big brain! Susan could tell that we talkto her a lot, because she’s so chatty! She is starting to say mama, dada, baba (although she doesn’t know whatshe is saying-she’s just practicing).  Shereally started discovering her voice and her lips and tongue last month.   Susangave us tons of praise and showed us some things that will help her learn tocrawl and to really sit on her own.

Fair

doesn't love sunglasses

So after the great visitto the NICU, Aaron, Amelia and I went to the State Fair.  My work gave free tickets to all of theemployees (generous, I know!).  We met upwith Leigh, Alyssa and Haleigh (Aaron’s brother and family for those of you whodon’t know). 

mmmm Milk on a stick, please!

They are Fair-professionals,so they took us around and showed us all of the important stuff to see…and allthe good food to eat.  Aaron and I areboth on Weight Watchers, so we carefully planned our whole day around the foodso that we didn’t bust our diet.  (It’snot a diet-it’s a lifestyle change…blah blah blah, I want Doritos.)  I ate kettlecorn and a giant S’more…that Ithought was supposed to be on a stick, but I got jipped.  Aaron had a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich andfries.  We ate in moderation so that we didn’tget diabetes.  We walked around and sawthe huge animals and the huge mullets on the cool people. Obviously we went tosee the Butter Cow and the Chocolate Moose.

Chocolate Moose

Butter Cow

Butter Cow and some of the Dwarfs from Snow White-Also in butter

It was really fun,and it was great to hang out with the other Hornbuckles.   Amelia did great-she loves to be outside andto go for walks, so it was perfect for her. She ended up passing out in the stroller.  Needless to say, we were exhausted when wegot home!

 the umbrella doubled as a crib!

 with Daddy and Mommy after the fair

8 Months

Amelia starteddaycare this week and has done awesome all week!  Emily, the new babysitter, has made thetransition so easy for all of us.  She’sso flexible, and puts up with me texting her constantly to check in.  Amelia loves it there, and is always happywhen I pick her up!

Here are your Amelia8 month fun facts

Weighs-14lbs 7 oz.,24inches long, big head

Wears size 2 diapers(just made the switch), and 0-3, and 3 month size clothes…although she iswearing Newborn size jeans today that fit

Eats 4 ounces every 2½-3 hours, has 1 fruit or veggie a day mixed with cereal

sometimes tries to double fist bottles

Sleeps all night-INHER CRIB!!!! (for a full week now-I know, she’s 8 months old…I just have a hardtime letting go)

Can sit up with avery tiny amount of support

Can get up on handsand knees

Likes to Facetime with Granny and PopPop

Likes to blowraspberries with her lips and tongue

Babbles and talks alot

Laughs and smilesconstantly

LOVES to play withtoys

Loves the shower

Is starting tooutgrow her tub!

Isthe cutest, sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.

Xoxo,

Emily

Procrastination

So I’m behind as usual.  This is a late 7 month update, with an 8 month update coming soon…yeah, I know 8 months-I was surprised too.

first trip to the farmer's market

Amelia is amazing.  Well duh-you all knew that already.  She loves the big girl food!  So far we have had green beans, carrots (loved!!), squash, applesauce (you’d think we never fed her before the way she scarfed it down), and right now we are on bananas-which holy cow she loves those too.  Honestly, this kid just really likes food.  She even likes cereal mixed with banana (thanks Aunt Audrey for giving us that tip).  Obviously, not that you want to know, but her poop has become….ummm…special.  That’s all I’m going to say about that J

Amelia is doing some new, entertaining things:

1-      She can sit up when sitting on the bed, but not quite on the floor.  She needs just a little help-I think it’s because her big smart brain is weighing her down. 

2-      2-She has the best little belly laugh.  Her daddy will tickle her with his beard and she loves it!!!  It’s the best free entertainment.  The other night, Daddy was getting her to giggle/screech, and Peyton was really worried.  I think he thought she was crying, and he was torn-oh no, my Sissy is upset, but Daddy is the one causing it-what do I do???  We had to keep telling him that it was ok.  It was hilarious. 

giggling at Mommy

3-      3-She will grunt/screech for attention if she is sitting in her little chair that Aunt Sissy (Andrea) bought her.  It cracks us up.  This kid is happy 95% of the time!

her new chair

4-       4-She is doing this new pre-crawling thing, where she can get up on all fours and sort of lunge forward.  Sometimes she has a hard time picking up her jumbo melon (again, she’s smart, she can’t help her basketball head is so big).  Her favorite mode of transportation is probably a mix of this new lunging thing with a dash of rolling around.  Do not leave her unattended, for sure.

5-       5-This one isn’t so entertaining, if she is laying in her little rocking bassinet and gets mad, she will roll over and push herself up and out of the seat belt-NOT COOL!!!! Mommy gives her a stern talking to when that happens.

drama queen

Some new changes in our world-Aaron got laid off from Best Buy.  It was kind of a surprise, but kind of not.  We knew something was going to happen, because they seem to be in trouble.  Sooo, it just so happened that Aaron had already started looking for a new job, because he had been unhappy for a while.  A week or so before, he had posted to Facebook about anyone hiring in Newton.  An old friend from high school messaged him and introduced him to her fiancé which was looking for some help at Meredith Corporation in Des Moines.  (Meredith is who publishes Better Homes and Gardens and some other fabulous magazines that I love)  So Aaron started talking to Scott, the fiancé, and he was only out of a job for a week.  Aaron loves Meredith.  The environment is great, they have a great time, the job is challenging (he does Web Analysis) and he is learning a new skill.  Not to mention-the pay is pretty nice too.  Technically, Aaron is a contract employee though-which means he isn’t permanent yet.  So hopefully they will realize that Meredith can’t go on without Aaron Hornbuckle under their roof!  The past several weeks have been excellent-Aaron is happy at work again (which has been a long time coming).  Thank the Lord!

 accessory shopping with Mommy and Granny at Michael's

The other change, is that Sissy will start going to real daycare.  Grandpa (Baba as we call him) starts having classes Monday –Thursday this next semester, so we decided it was time to get something more permanent.  So she will be attending daycare Monday-Thursday with Emily and the few kiddos that she watches.  We are excited and nervous.  We were really lucky to find Emily, she seems to have the same attitude about things as we do and I feel like we clicked right away.  She’s awesome with Amelia, too.  It just so happens that her husband works at Rock too-small world. 

this is how she sleeps-too funny

Oh my goodness, this entry is long-this is why I shouldn’t wait so long to post.  I’m wrapping this one up-here are your Amelia fun facts:

She weighed 14 lbs. at the doctor the other day (we went because she has her first little cold).  She eats 3 ½ to 4 ounces every 3ish hours, and has a fruit or veggie once or twice a day, we busted out size 2 diapers last night, she wears 3 month size clothes, she sleeps in the pack & play at the foot of our bed (she does not like her crib), she can sit up on her own on the bed, but not on the floor, she is pre-crawling, she is always full of laughs and smiles, she likes to play with this “book” that Aunt Sissy got her-it crinkles, she pretty much only gets showers now, today is her last day with Aunt Audrey, she loves to play with the Bees (Brienna calls her Meilma and they play with her “shake” (rattle)), she is surviving her first cold, and I have managed to not have a panic attack, oh and 1 more-she’s adorable!

eating the book from Aunt Sissy

Have a great day everyone!

Xoxo,

Emily