9 Months Old

Our sweet little 9 MONTH OLD loves to sleep...

sometimes in her swing (just as a last resort),

but mostly in her crib.

Look at all the space she has!
but sleeping just feels better when you are smooshed up against the railings

Millie sometimes gets her arms and legs caught in the railings, but she's quick to tell us to fix it.

Then all is well.

So sassy. She often holds her own bottle now, which we love.

She LOVES her bath tub.

We decided to go with one of the "European" style tubs that are more like a bucket.

When she doesn't like her swing, bumbo, play gym, or parents' singing this tub does the trick.

This girl is going to be a swimmer.

Check out this sweet video. I promise it will put a smile on your face.

We also went to the doctor yesterday for her 9 month check up. This was our first time visiting Dr. Later since we brought her home from the hospital. He was thrilled that she has put on 5 pounds, grown 3 inches taller, and her head is nearly 2 inches bigger since the last time he saw her.

Millie is basically 13 pounds and 24 3/4 inches tall :)

He gave us the go ahead to give her cereal, veggies, and some fruits. He asked us to stay away from juice which is fine by us (less groceries to buy). He also gave us some formula suggestions (see last post).

He encouraged us to call PEEPs, which is a program aimed at helping special needs children in Provo. We've called to schedule a therapist to visit with Millie and see if she needs any help.

Overall everything is great, and we will see him again for her 12 month check up. She's almost a year old. I definitely remember it like it was yesterday. Maybe we'll rent New Moon and eat Cafe Rio a few days before just to celebrate.

I'm always up for celebrating this miracle.

Crying Over Spilled Milk

Buck and I woke up to this view the other day:

EWWWW!!!

Bless her little heart.
Don't worry, we cleaned her up quickly.
No one likes having crusties soaked off their face.

(she was a little tripped out from the flash, too)

After seeing our sweet girl struggle with this little cold I'm reminded how important Mother's Milk is for a baby.

Ahh Mother's Milk. My hard work since November 24th 2009 until now.

While we were gone for the summer, work was kind enough to let me fill up this entire freezer.

Have you heard about the major construction going on in Utah?

This is what's going on around my office building.
(view from my office)

Construction + precious storage + temporary power outage= trash

That's right folks. That entire freezer is now trash. Trash!

I went to bring some more of the milk home the other day and noticed that every single container had been completely thawed. Completely. The power was turned off for a long time, and of course no one knows anything about it!

I had enough milk to last Millie about 200 days. That's a whole lot of milk at 24 ounces a day.

I can't produce that anymore, and we weren't financially planning on going the formula route.

Needless to say, more than a few tears were shed.

It's okay, you can feel sorry for us.

More than 8 months old!

Our little girl has gotten so big! She's learned a few new tricks:

She's getting better at sitting, but still can't do it on her own.

(some of you Knudsen kids might recognize my baby blanket Millie is using, made by Grandpa Wendell's Mom I think)

She's discovered her hands!

And she can hold her own bottle.
Even if it's just for a second :)

She can grab her feet

And put in/pull out her pacifier at the same time! Now that is talent.

Would you look at how big she is?

Health Updates:

Millie went to her NICU follow up clinic on Friday, so I finally have some health updates. This visit was about 3 hours and checked her almost completely from head to toe.

1. Millie's hearing is wonderful.
2. Millie's eye sight looks good, but truthfully there may be some nearsightedness forming in the left eye. No need for glasses yet.
3. She now weighs 12lbs 8 oz. I was really taken back by this weight (she weighed 12 lbs a few months ago!) but the doctors couldn't believe their eyes. They were so impressed with her growth and the fact that she registered "on the chart" at all that I felt a little better about it all.
4. She's 24 inches tall. Not too bad.
5. Her motor skills are great with one exception; her back muscles are too tight. In the pictures above Millie was grabbing her feet. She stopped doing that about 2 weeks ago. According to the therapist Millie needs to be reaching for things in front of her and not arching her back so much, so Buck and I (mostly Buck since he's home with her) are working on encouraging it. I'm starting to think she might have just been in a bad mood at the appointment because she'll do everything the therapist was trying to get her to do now without complaints. We were given a number for a therapist to come work with her in our home, which I suspect we'll set up soon.
6. We still aren't sure how Millie is adjusting to the high altitude again. You may remember, Millie was on oxygen before we left for South Carolina. Being at Sea Level (and maybe outgrowing it) was enough for her to be without it there. Now that we are back, Millie will be doing an oxygen study for 24 hours (starting tonight) to see how her oxygen levels are. Fingers crossed she won't need anything!

Overall, we're just so proud of her. Everyone just kept saying how good she looks, and how she doesn't even look like a preemie (let alone a micro-preemie)! Apple of my eye.

So yes, I'm back at work. I actually didn't even go to this doctors appointment with Millie since it was 3-4 hours long. Buck has stepped in whole-heartedly being Mr. Mom. It's adorable, and I'm so thankful that someone I love so much is taking care of my baby, and he loves her as much as I do. It makes working that much easier.

We're all moved in to our new home. We had a wonderful summer mooching off of everyone else, but it sure feels good to be in our own home. Millie's nursery is finally coming together, and I will post pictures once I have it how I like it. One word of warning...we moved into Wymount so I can't paint anything, and what I can hang is very restricted. I'm looking forward to having our own house next year so I can decorate more freely.

Can you believe Millie has been out of the hospital for 124 days? My, has the time flown. She was still in the hospital longer than she's been home with us (135 days), but we will pass that milestone very soon. Everyday I'm glad I can just walk into her room to look at her. As a matter of fact, I do just that all the time.