The Not So Yearly Bugle: September 2013

It's amazing just how fast Hannah grows and changes. In the past month and a half, Hannah has been much more communicative of her wants and needs. She'll pull a bottle into her mouth if she's hungry or she'll push it away when she's done. She loves to eat big people food and works on chewing every day. Thankfully, she's a good little eater. So far, she has been munching on a lot of peas, black beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, dill beans, pears, and pickles. I'm still surprised at some of her "likes" such as the pickles and even sauerkraut. She hasn't been a fan of lemon flavors, but other sour foods seem to suit her fine.

Today we went to the heart doctor to do a follow-up on the hole in her heart, or atrial septal defect (ASD). Her EKG was a bit "abnormal" but it was similar to her previous EKG and the abnormalities didn't appear to be related to the ASD. The doctor listened to her heart and said she does not have a heart that sounds in distress. He rattled off a series of questions about her energy levels, her development, her breathing, her desire to eat, etc. and said that it sounds like she could be completely healed of the ASD. He said he's not concerned with her in the slightest but the only way to know for sure if it has healed is to do an echocardiogram. Insurance only pays for one per year, though, and we had one in February, so he said we can put off another checkup with him for a year and choose to do an echo then to see if the hole has closed or wait longer if we want. Frequently, these holes do not heal this quickly, so it's possibly still there, but he said he's not hearing what he heart last time and there is no other indication that she is having any sort of heart issue. PRAISE THE LORD.

In addition to that good news, she was weighed and measured again today. She's now at 15.93lbs and 27 3/4" long. He was really impressed with how well she's done since he saw her in February.

Hannah is sitting up really well on her own. She's still a little bit wobbly and will topple if she gets too excited and reaches too far or too quickly for something, but for the most part, I can sit her up and walk away for a minute or two and know she'll be fine. She was upgraded to a "big girl tub" this week since the newborn one she started with was starting to get too small (and she was trying to fling herself off of it to grab at things). She has had a good time splashing and sitting up since the new tub arrived. Her favorite things to do at the moment are grab things and throw them, pick them back up and throw them to the other side. Her top two teeth have broken through but one of the gums is still swollen as it recedes. She's still babbling "mamamama" but not "dadadada" (much to daddy's dismay). It's such a joy to watch her grow and see her learn new things.

Here are some more videos and pictures since the last update. I can't believe there are only four more laundry basket growth updates left and then she'll be one year old. TIME FLIES!

Hannah sitting up watching the laundry. She loves this.