Ashleigh's August 2002 Development Update

Just wanted to update you all quickly on what happened at the doctor's yesterday and tell you we achieved a new milestone!!

First, the doctor's. She had her 10 month check-up and we're progressing nicely. She's still in the 25% class for both height and weight, so she is petite, but proportionately so! The doctor was pleased that she at least stayed where she was last time and she said that she's actually verging on the 40% for both of them. So :-) We're doing fine there. Her head is now in the 50% class, which is a good thing! This means that her brain in forming and continuing to grow... She's just sucking it all in these days! Her fontanel is 95% closed, just a tiny little portion of it that's not yet completely closed.. so again, that is a good thing!

Now, the not so happy news! After having been on antibiotics again for 9 days, she's still got an minor ear infection in her left ear. Her right ear looked ok, but the doctor decided to do another tympanometry just to see what was going on. The left ear actually showed very little fluid and the right ear showed a lot. So, the doctor said the minute the antibiotics were stopped (which would have been today), both ears were going to get bad again quickly. So, she's doubled the dose of Biaxin and we have another 10 days to go, fortunately Ashleigh loves the taste of it! Ashleigh also still has her little wheezing sounds in her chest, so she's now on daily nebulizers of a maintenance corticosteriod used to treat asthma in children. (Wow, I may just become a Medic yet!) So, she's healthy, just maintaining fluid, and the doctor said if the ENT decides to put the tubes in, they may just very well clear up everything else! I can only hope!

What else? My poor little girl had her first needle put in her arm. :-( They do a test when they get to be about Ashleigh's age to determine what her Iron level is while she's still on her Iron-supplemented baby formula. This will determine whether I need to give her vitamins once she moves off formula and onto milk in two months. (WOW - She'll be 1 in two months!!!) I must say the phlebotomist did very well - He got it on the first stick. Needless to say, she screamed her head off!! Once he got the needle in, she was less upset, but then got upset because she was restrained. She hates to be restrained and confined when she's not in the mood to be that way. She wasn't in the mood! It only took a few minutes and when they were done, I picked her up, she looked at the guy and hollered! I laughed so hard! He was so cute, he said, "well, I'm sorry, but we need to make sure you don't need vitamins!" I just started laughing, continued to console Ashleigh, and thanked him (why do we thank people for pricking our kids with needles?) and we left.

We got home and I put Ashleigh down in her playpen and gave her a bottle. She quickly realized there was a taped bandage on her arm and she proceeded to rip it off! A little bit later on, my Mom and I decided we'd try to work on her walking abilities. So, we sat about 3 feet apart from each other and guided Ashleigh back and forth between us with her just holding onto the top of our hands. As we kept doing that, we moved our hands to her hips and just lightly guided her. Well, by the time we were done, Ashleigh took 5 steps about 30 times all on her own!! SOOOOOO! She's taken her first steps at this point! She was so cute. Every time she walked by herself, she'd get to either my mom or I, smile, clap, and then do a little jig (more like a standing wiggle), but she was clearly as proud of herself as we were of her!

Well, we took the time to do it again this morning. This morning, we weren't guiding her at all. My mom and I both had a toy that she loves to play with in our hands and told her to come get it. We'd stand her up and she'd take a step or two, then recompose herself and gather her balance, and then keep coming! This morning we were probably closer to 4 feet apart and she did it all by herself! So, it won't be long and sweet little Miss will be running the halls!!!

Well, that's it for now! Will update you all again later this month and add pictures as soon as she officially turns 10 months old and I take some more cute ones.

We're going on vacation from the 11th - 18th to the mountains in southern Virginia, so it may not be until after we get back. But I promise to update you shortly after we return~

Update: August 4th: We had some pictures taken of Ashleigh ... These are just a few of them!


Ashleigh in the Clouds			Ashleigh in a Field of Daisies			Ashleigh in the Stars

Wow, so much has happened since the beginning of the month! Ashleigh is eating nothing but table food at this point and she has gained 28 ounces in 1 month. She's now up to 17 lbs 12ounces! I had her at the doctor's last week because I thought she might be getting another ear infection ... but nope! (YEAH!) but she is getting her one year molars!

Our vacation was wonderful! I'm ready to pack Ashleigh up and move, but can't do that quite yet. Maybe next year. She started walking all by herself, so we're saying she's officially walking, and she can climb the stairs without any help. She made friends with the backyard ground hog (from far away of course) and pointed at him and hollered every time she saw him. However, she could care less about the deer. On the way home, we went to Shenandoah Caverns and a place called Celebration on Parade, which had a bunch of floats that were used in parades or inaugurals or events of that nature. Ashleigh seemed to be completely thrilled with it all.

I've started planning (which is really scary for me) her first birthday party. It's going to be the size of a small wedding because of all the family, both Neal's and mine, and of course those close outside of family. So, needless to say I have my work cut out for me. My mom is helping (as usual) me and Neal's mom is waiting anxiously on stand by! My mom already made a "hunny" pot so we can put the wishes for Ashleigh in it and I can seal it for her to open later in life. My nephew is going to dress up in a Pooh costume and collect the wishes. Hopefully it will work out nicely. (MORE BELOW THE PICTURES)


Ashleigh with her Pooh ears on walking to her Cheerios	Ashleigh walking with the Response Vehicle that I bought her for her 1st birthday (I am as bad as her Father was about waiting to give presents! She's only 10 months old. Oh well, will just have to buy her something else for her birthday!)	Queen Ashleigh at Celebration on Parade as :-)

Well, it was a very long and tiring day, between taking Ashleigh to the ENT and then to Urgent Care last night. We didn't get home until just after midnight, so needless to say, I'm just a little tired this morning. And although I fed her last night before I put her to bed in the hopes that she wouldn't wake up at 6:30 this morning, she woke up anyway. She had about a half a bottle and is now sleeping like a big girl in her rocking chair. So, the ENT first. We went to see him about a consultation for tubes and he unequivocally agreed that she is definitely a candidate for tubes. Apparently, there are three real criteria that they look for in order to decide: (1) Greater than 4 ear infection in less than 6 months [well, she's had 9 now in under 4 months]; (2) Breakthrough ear infections, meaning, while on the preventative medicine, she still gets an ear infection [well, she's had 3 of those now]; and finally, ear infections that don't clear up with the normal course of antibiotics [well, she's had that at least with two of her bi-lateral ear infections, because it would stick around in one ear and they'd have to put her on antibiotics again!] SO... as you can see, she's what he called a REALLY good candidate for tubes. So. Since I knew this was a possibility last month, I did a lot of talking to people and research on my own and came to the conclusion that she'll be getting tubes. The doctor said ear infections are usually much worse in the fall and winter and I just don't want her to continue to stay miserable. Every time she gets an ear infection, she gets nasal and chest congestion. That's the reason we were at Urgent Care last night. Her chest got so tight that 9 times out of 10 when she took a breath in, she'd cough really bad and ended up with the croupy cough by 8pm. Unfortunately they didn't have any appointments with her doctor early this morning and I didn't want to wait for her to be seen this afternoon. So, off we trekked to Falls Church and we were there for hours. :-( The one positive is that she registered 18lbs 5 ounces on their scale!~ (She had dinner and a bottle before we go with no waste so that's probably why, but it was nice to see her up over 18lbs!) So, we're back on Albuterol treatments, the Biaxin, the Prelone (because of the really croupy cough), and the Rondec (cough suppressant/antihistamine)! You know, I think I'd probably have tubes put in just to keep her off all this medicine! It just can't be good for a baby!!! Oh well, they're going to do that sometime in September. We need to meet with an anesthesiologist first to make sure she's healthy and then they'll schedule the appointment. So, hopefully by October, we won't be dealing with chronic ear infections and constant medication!

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know what was going on... I probably will only update you once in September unless something really awesome happens... Now that she's fully mobile, it makes it a little more difficult to sit at the laptop for an hour to do the update. Keep you all posted!

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I'm in my sling with Aunt Tracy and I'm so happy!	Ashleigh in one of the train windows at Celebration on Parade. She stood up there all by herself like a really big girl!	I guess Neal wouldn't be so proud of the fact that I'm teaching our little girl to window shop at 10 months!