Her first spontaneous steps!

Earlier today Hannah stood up all on her own and took 3-4 steps all on her own - spontaneously! I didn't prompt her at all. I was actually outside the door in the hallway, and I saw it as I turned. Then later in the evening she did it again for her dad - the stepping on her own. She let go of the furniture she was holding onto and walked towards him. YAY!

Catching up... & a walk to deliver treats

So all of these are my catchup posts. All to follow this one. I've been meaning to post since Tuesday morning...and then yesterday...but we've been super busy...and I just didn't get around to it.

This morning, we got up and she was vocalizing, holding on the railing... and basically telling me she wanted to go to the bathroom! She held her pee until I was able to get her diaper off and she immediately went on the toilet even without me signaling! Yesterday she did the same! I had just barely put her on the toilet in the morning and she let go of her pee immediately - she had been holding it in until then! YAY! I haven't been as good about taking her to potty during the day b/c we've been running around and doing so many things.

This morning was my 1st good nebulizer experience with her. Daddy tried a new approach last night and suggested it to me. We just let her play and we don't try to use the "fish attachment" on her face. We just follow her around as she's playing with the nebulizer and even let her play with it... much better way of her getting her breathing treatments! It just takes so dang long to get a treatment complete!

She's really alert and I can sense she's more aware of things developmentally. She loves books and flipping through them and being read to. She's been really great at navigating the house. She climbs down the stairs voluntarily really well to find me and to get to where she wants to. She knows what we're trying to communicate a lot of the time, and it seems that she's trying to communicate with us. I'm trying to work on the signing...but I think she's developing some of her own. She really enjoys music and vocalizes to singing sometimes.

Wednesday December 19th:
After taking our friends to the airport at noon on Wednesday, Hannah fell asleep. Her naps have been short and brief, and her bedtime has been a bit off kilter the past week.

Hannah & I went on a walk in the afternoon to deliver treats to some of our neighbors/friends in the community. She really enjoys walks. She calms down and just observes. It was windy too... I took some shots of her playing around with different settings.

standing freely on her own...

So last night, amongst all of the playing, she stood on her own for about 5 seconds quite a few times. Previous to last night, standing on her own was "parent-directed," as in daddy would let go of her hands so she was standing, but then she'd sit down. Last night, she'd push off of something or be standing playing on her FP toy thing and let go and "forget" she wasn't holding onto anything and was just standing here. Oh so fun!

the end of a standing moment


crawling all over mommy


Yesterday we were at a friend's house playing with lots of other kids. Hannah and Addison are a month apart, and it was so cute to see them "dance" to music...they sit and wiggle their upper torsos back & forth, bobbing their heads. Too bad I didn't get video. Maybe we'll have a chance to get video today since we're going back there in a bit.

I'm going to start adding more photos to the posts (I've been such a poor photo poster for the month of Nov). I put photos for December in the posts below. So here's a photo story board of an odd night last night...just for fun...

Playing before bed...photo courtesy of daddy before he left for a wk thing.


Sleeping at 6:20 pm.


I'm up! let's play till daddy gets home


mom...play with me


yay! daddy's home again


our fam at night...is she standing?


a moment in the life of hannah...


so that's dad...on the phone for work...


let's climb the stairs & go to bed...again..but wait! what's that on the ground?


she's a blur of speed...but oh so easily distracted

Hannah's 1st Christmas photos - take 1

These were taken Monday night...on her 10-month mark. They were taken with our new toy (dSLR Canon Rebel XT that we bought Friday after Thanksgiving) but didn't start using till last Wednesday when we got our CF card that we ordered in the mail - we didn't realize it took a CF card till after.

This is my attempt at portraits at home since we haven't been pleased with what's available in town. So I don't know that much regarding lighting and technical stuff yet...and I'm learning a lot about stuff as I'm going along. These photos are really really rough...shadows and all sorts of odd things. Only a few of the many...not even the best...but just a sample...

Actually looking at the camera

She was crawling all over the place. It was hard to get a good shot.

She took the flower off of the tree, amongst other things.

Playing with the flower was keeping her just occupied enough to not destroy the tree.

Well-behaved Hannah

I spent most of the day at the Creative Arts Pottery Center painting and working on stuff and she was just her mellow happy self. The owner of the Pottery Center was so impressed with Hannah and kept on commenting on how well behaved she was all day. I will say it was hard to paint and hold Hannah at the same time. She'd be in my arms, she'd be on the chair with me, on my lap, holding onto the chair behind me while I sat in front. That's why I was there so long...it took so much longer to do everything while needing to hold and occupy Hannah. I let her munch on Cheerios (or nurse or play with a toy) pretty much the whole time to keep her occupied. She's really a people person. She loves being around people. She'll people watch and she loves attention.

Happy 10 Months!

Wow. Hannah is 10 months! and I DID take photos on the day! Yay!
Here's some snapshot 10-month photos:



I kept on procrastinating the 9 month photos and well...month 9 came and went and now it's month 10.

Let's see...milestones...etc.

- She's now sleeping through the night consistently! She falls asleep around 7-9pm. No wakings until she wakes for a morning feeding around 5-7am. And then she goes back to bed till around 8-10am.
- She can crawl up and down stairs. She's motivated to find me...and will by crawling up the stairs and pushing aside partially open doors to find me.
- She has 6 teeth (that I know of) and they are quite visible now.
- She prefers to eat "big people food" aka things on our plate vs baby mush. She LOVES Cheerios and will them non-stop unless she's sick. Then she doesn't eat much of anything at all.
- She weighs around 22-23 lbs (last time she was checked)
- She likes books and will flip through them now and not just eat them.
- She likes pulling things out of boxes, bins, off of shelves, etc.
- She's figured out how to turn on and off the TV by pushing the pwr button.
- She likes to wiggle/dance to music. She'll move her head/shoulders/arms
- She understands when I ask for things and will hand them to me.
- She knows cause and effect - has started to play the "dropping things game"
- She still loves to gnaw on anything and everything.
- She can clap, and say some sounds discriminately (bao-to be held, ma, ba/da) and makes sounds for food
- as for EC: (when she was sick, it threw her off. pees were controlled but her poos were diarrhea. and she was whiney and not wanting to even sit on the toilet) but i think she's now back to normal. she pees well on the toilet. and she's started to poo more than just once in the morning. we still use the diapers, but she's seems to be holding onto her bladder for longer and can wait till she gets on the toilet. i'm hoping that we're out of diapers for the daytime around 1 year.
- I'm sure there's a lot more...but basically she's "on track / on schedule" for development.

Santa Claus is scary

Hannah got her official 1st picture on Santa's lap tonight at the Ward Christmas party. She didn't like Santa. Neither did most of the babies under one. They all cried when they were put on Santa's lap. I guess sweaty men in polyester Santa costumes with fake beards and stuffing would be rather scary.



She did have fun playing with other babies BEFORE they had to sit on Santa's lap though.

Saint Nick

We went to Heritage Park tonight. It was mild with a cool breeze and humid outside, versus the nice crisp cold air that one would expect for a December night. Oh how I miss the seasons.



Wish these 2 photos came out a bit less blurry....



We had our 1st photo of the Christmas Season with Father Christmas/Saint Nick.

Acting normal again

Finally she woke up this morning and was happy. It's the first time she's been happy all week upon first waking - not the crying and fussing that we've been experiencing. So I guess she must be feeling better. Yay! We're happy that she's happy!

She still has a bit of a runny nose, but she's behaving much more pleasantly and less clingy. She's more independent and more content to play by herself with her toys and not needing to be held as much.

Roseola Infantum

So what I thought was just a fever and maybe the flu or random virus now has an official name - Roseloa Infantum, most commonly caused by the HHV-6B virus. The virus has an incubation period of about 9 days (5-15days). It's characterized by a high fever lasting about 3 days, followed by a rash, and most commonly affects 9-12 month olds.

Tuesday night while bathing her, we discovered a rash all over her body - on her torso, on her back, under her neck, on the back of the head, on her face. She was red and splotchy. At first I thought she was having an allergic reaction to something I ate (I was naughty and had sushi for lunch b/c dh brought some home - I love sushi). I was totally feeling guilty for eating the sushi and thought I'd given Hannah an allergic reaction. Then we figured even if she was having an allergic reaction, there wasn't anything we could do about it, but just wait it out. She didn't seem too bothered by the rash. Then I started wondering if it was connected to the fever from the weekend. She actually slept the worst on Tuesday night compared to the whole weekend. She was restless, very irritable, kept on waking up every hour and crying. She seemed more bothered than she was by the fever. So once again...we're playing the waiting game.

This morning, she was even more listless and upset. She was crying for no reason and very needy. Her skin seemed worse and more splotchy and the patches were even behind her ears. I called the Dr's office and made an appointment for the afternoon. I called dh at work, and I started reading in the "What to Expect - 1st year" book. During our conversation, I stumbled upon Roseola. As I read the chart, all of Hannah's symptoms seemed to fit. Then I got another phone call, and as I was talking to the friends on the other end, they said it was Roseola - even before I told them that's what I thought it was. I proceeded to research more on the computer and yes by golly, our little Hannah has Roseola. I debated whether to keep or cancel the Dr's appointment. I ended up cancelling it since she decided to finally nap. Her nap schedule has been off since she got sick. And the rash seemed to be off and on - depending on how upset she was (severity of fussiness) her skin would fluctuate.

Looking back on the past 5 days, I was going through each day and where we'd taken her. Did we expose her to other kids? Good thing I cancelled our aquarium trip we had planned to take on Friday with some friends & their kids because Hannah was sick. Saturday we did drag her to San Antonio with us, but the extended relatives that helped to watch her were all adults. We had dinner out at Sausalito's while travelling, but she was either held by us or in the high chair. Sunday we isolated her from other kids during her brief time at church. Then she was with me at home during the day. Oh...we went into town briefly Monday evening, but she was mainly in the car, and then to Wal-Mart for Infant's Motrin & other items, and then CVS (but she was in the car for that one too). Oh...and she did get dragged to the grocery store Tuesday evening. Sigh. I guess I didn't keep her as much inside as I thought I did. BUT she wasn't around other kids. So I was a conscientious parent about that.

"Eighty-six percent of children have acquired HHV-6 antibodies by age 1 year. By age 4 years, almost all children are seropositive." (emedicine) So kids will eventually get it or have it one way or another. Before I knew this - or knew what Hannah had, I had been racking my brain to where she chould have possibly contracted "the virus." But moot point since basically everyone has or gets this, and some people are asymptomatic. It's spread though body fluids (mucus, saliva, cough, sneeze etc.). Today we realized since our daughter loves sticking her finger into people's mouth, including her own, it doesn't help with reducing exposure to contagious things. Plus people here in South Texas LOVE to touch babies because it keeps away the bad and brings good luck (for the baby or person I'm not sure).

I'm not a doctor, and I can't officially diagnose, but I am an educated mommy. Not that they'd be able to find out if it was HHV-6B if the Dr's office. They'd just go off of the symptoms like me. Even if they did a CBC, I don't think insurance would pay to check for antibodies on such a common and mild childhood occurence. The science is there to find out, but the healthcare system is all messed up.

Here are Hannah's classic symptoms and signs:

- high fever (103-105) for 3 days (Fri, Sat, Sun)
- upper respiratory symptoms (runny nose, congestion, slight cough)
- Rash after fever subsides, days 3-5 (rash on Tuesday - day 5)
on neck, back & chest
- mild diarrhea
- irritability and tiredness
- decreased appetite
- swollen eyelids

References/Read more about it:
Baby Center Fever Symptom Guide birth - 12 mos
KidsHealth.org article (has a good rash pic)
another emedicine article topic398 topic 400 is linked above as a reference
webMD article

November's gone and it's December

Where did November go? The weeks feel like months, and the month feels like a week. I barely kept up with posts. I was really busy, but I don't even remember what as of now. And I look back and there's not many posts nor photos. So here's another catch-up post with the most prominent things on my mind.

Sleeping Arrangements... finally sleeping through the night!

So the weekend after Thanksgiving, daddy spent Saturday making a really big "crib" for Hannah out of her twin bed. He went to Lowe's and bought 2x4's and then attached them to the wall and the bed frame (that we had decided not to use). Then he also used cardboard, padding, and quilts to make it a solid wall. We were more than ready to move her back into her own room.

Earlier (I'd written about this in previous posts I think) we had decided to move her back into our room - after we discovered her crawling around her room in the middle of the night. She had been back in our room on her twin mattress on the floor, between our bed and the wall, with the foot of the mattress blocked off, in an enclosed "cubby-ish" area. It worked very well for the first few nights, until she woke up at night and then would stare at us, whine, and pull herself to standing and tug at me at from the side of the bed. Anyways, so we weren't getting good sleep with that idea.

Since Saturday November 24th, after we moved her back into her room with her new "crib," it's been great! The 1st bit was transition, so I'd sleep with her in her bed until she fell asleep, and still do a night nursing or two (depending). Then I got to the point of nursing her, and if she was full, all needs met, but still not asleep, I'd put her down, and then leave her. She'd CIO and eventually fell asleep. After a few days of CIO, she'd whimper and cry, but she is now finally sleeping through the night! It's sooo wonderful! We've all been sleeping so much better. (Though I did worry about reduced milk supply with doing away with the night feedings.)

Some days, when she's fighting sleep, she loves pulling up and pushing the buttons on the Baby Einsten turtle attached to the head of the bed and listen to the music and watch the lights. It entertains her for a long time. It's nice now that I can leave her after nursing and just let her play with the turtle and then put herself to sleep. Hopefully it lasts.

1st High Fever - Flu? Other virus? Random bug?

On Friday November 30th, she started developing a fever in the afternoon. Her cheeks were all red and splotchy. Her eyes got puffy. Friday night, the fever measured around 100/101. We gave her Tylenol.

We had already planned a trip to San Antonio to attend the temple on Saturday. It seemed that something always came up when we tried to go to San Antonio previously. This time we had already asked C's in-laws to help babysit, and so we went even though she was sick. At the time, I thought the fever would go away, and she seemed okay. Her body had responded well to Tylenol. Though as the weekend progressed, the fever got worse. It was around 101.8 axillary Saturday night. We gave her more Tylenol.

The fever seemed to just get worse and didn't seem to respond to the Tylenol very well at night. Sunday morning she seemed not too bad. We took her to church for a little bit (kept her away from others), but then brought her home. Sunday afternoon the fever got over 102 (around 102.5) axillary (so adding 1-2 degrees would make that an internal temp of around 103-104). I was rather distraught and worried. I thought that maybe this was a reaction to the flu vaccine that she got on the last Dr's visit...but that was about 1.5 weeks ago. Her fever was very high, but not over 105 so we decided to wait it out and just treat the fever at home (with stripping her down to her diaper, washcloth on her forehead, warm bath). She'd been having a runny nose and some respiratory symptoms, but I didn't know if it was connected to her last bug, or if this was the flu or what. I'd never seen her so weak, tired, and low on energy. She didn't want to eat food. She'd munch on some Cheerios and nurse, but that was all.

We decided to see how she was doing Monday morning. She'd been running such a high-grade fever all weekend, I thought surely by Monday morning, she should be better. Sure enough, by the morning, it had become more of a low-grade fever. She measured between 99.6 and 101 axillary. I called the Dr's office anyways, and they said she'd be okay and just watch her fever to see if she got worse. I'm so very glad that her fever has come down.