Kayden - 9 months!

Our little love bug is nine months old now. It still is amazing to me that she is almost a year old. She is the reason that I have not been posting lately. Somehow, she managed to get the hand-foot-mouth virus. She was a little fussy, not sleeping well, and flat out refusing to eat. I took her to the doctor after one particularly crabby day. When I arrived, I told the doctor that she had been very grumpy (of course she wasn't at the doctor's office) and that was very out of character for her. I also said that all of her problems could very well be teething. One quick look in her mouth told us other wise. She said, "It isn't just teething. Her throat is covered in ulcerated blisters." Poor thing. Unfortunately, you can't do anything for a virus but wait it out. This particular one makes you "miserable for the better part of a week" according to my hand out. The doctor did a swab for strep but it was negative. She sent us home with some "magic mouth wash"(benadryl and maalox...normally it has lidocaine but since Kayden can't gargle they had to take that out).

Fast forward two days, we are all exceptionally miserable. Kayden is waking up screaming for long periods of the night and she has spiked a fever. I call the doctor saying that I know she is supposed to be miserable but that this is really bad. She says that in addition to the virus, Kayden's strep culture shows that she has a secondary bacterial infection - not strep though. So now we have to start augmentin (which really upsets her tummy). That weekend was miserable too. On Monday I went to her "well" check up with our doctor and told her what had been going on. Apparently, the benadryl in the mouthwash we were giving to help her not hurt was giving her night terrors.

So, very long story in a somewhat condensed version, Kayden is just now sleeping well and feeling better...which means that I am just not regaining some sanity as well!

Here are her stats:

Weight: 18 lb 12 ounces (down a little because she's been sick) 46%
Length: 28 inches (63%)

Her weight actually went down 4 ounces from her sick check up to her well check up the following week. I think she is probably working back up a little now that she is eating better again. This girl can eat. She wants anything you have. She'll eat turkey, pasta, veggies, fruit, grass, dirt, dog food...you name it, she likes to eat it (unless of course you try to offer her baby food, she is so over that!). That was my big tip off that she was sick, actually, when she refused to eat. Grunting and crawling up your body is likely to ensue if you dare eat while holding her and don't offer her any of the food. She also loves my water bottle and trying to drink water from it.

Not surprisingly, she is not a fan of napping. We are working on it though. Because she is so happy even when she's tired, it is hard to force the issue when she'll spend an entire hour crying instead of sleeping. I'm being persistent though so hopefully it will sink in that she does need to sleep!

She is very, very close to walking and will walk holding on to just one finger. When she really wants to get somewhere, though, she still crawls because she can do that in record speed. She can crawl on the fireplace and we are still bathing in our master bath because she kept climbing out of the guest bath. If you want to guarantee a smile from her, you need to show her a picture of herself or play peek a boo. She has also started clapping which is fun.