Our Sweet Buttercup's Six-month Check-Up‏

Margo’s six month check-up was about two weeks after her six-month birthday and everything went well. If you haven’t noticed, Margo is a little chunk! Her stats are:

Weight: 17 lbs 14 oz. at 79%
Height: 25 ¾” at 45%
Head at 54% (her head is finally getting bigger!)

The main thing we discussed at the appointment was her reflux and solids. While the reflux continues to slowly improve, it is still an issue. The doctor thinks that the more solids we feed with less formula and once she fully sits on her own, it will help. Because she is a “happy refluxer” and doesn’t appear to have discomfort, in two weeks we are discontinuing one of her medications—yaay, and then will discontinue Prevacid in a month or so. I cannot wait to be done with meds!

On her solids, we will continue her regular morning and bedtime bottles, but reduce her three daytime bottle to 4 oz. The doctor does not want her to consume more than 20-25 oz. per day and she is currently drinking about 30. She will have fruit and oatmeal for breakfast, fruit and veggie for lunch and veggie and cereal for dinner. She has taken pretty well to solids so far, so I hope this works well.

Since I am making my own food and she will be significantly increasing her intake, I have a lot of work to do. This week I made peas and peaches. This weekend I am going to make green beans, mangoes, butternut squash (if I can still find it in season), pears and carrots. With the stuff I already have made, she will have five of each veggie and fruit to choose from, so I feel I will have a good variety.

The doctor said Margo’s gums are swollen and I should expect her first teeth in a few weeks. I knew it was coming because she has been grabbing her ears, rubbing her eyes excessively and of course drooling, chewing on everything, etc… I will be anxious to see how Margo reacts to getting her first teeth. I hope she doesn’t have too much discomfort.

Poor Margo did not respond well to her shots this time. Margo is an extremely happy baby, so it wasn’t too bad in normal standards, but in Margo standards she did not feel well at all. She had a low-grade fever for about 24 hours, had no appetite and slept a lot. I am sooooo glad she doesn’t have to get shots at the 9-month appointment!!

On a funny note, Margo has recently discovered that she can scream—REALLY LOUD—very high pitched and at the top of her lungs. She thinks it is very funny and does it periodically throughout the day when she is playing. She decided it would be cool to scream at her appointment for the doctor and did it several times. It was pretty funny!

If you are on facebook, you can see that I am obsessed with posting new pictures of Margo. She is so much fun and I love putting her in new clothes and snapping photos. It is really a bit out of control—ha! If you are not on facebook, here are some recent cute ones. She’s amazing!

Our Squirrel Friend is on the Mend

On Sunday morning, the most adorable little baby squirrel was on our patio and seemed very weak, but was moving and fully furred with its eyes open. I called a wildlife rescue and they suggested that we leave her outside for the day to see if the momma could coax her back into the tree. Sweet baby Chester did follow it’s momma to the base of the tree twice, but was too small to get up the tree and too big for momma to carry it. It spent the afternoon sleeping in a ball among the grass and leaves. As evening neared, Chester came back to the patio and I took at as a sign that she needed refuge.
We prepared a box lined with burp cloths and I easily picked up Chester who quickly fell asleep in the corner. She was fed a bit of water every few hours with a syringe and she tried to munch on some bread crumbs and an asparagus spear. She slept in the box on our bathroom counter under a heating pad and I was pleased to see that she made it through the night.

Cary dropped her off at the wildlife rescue center the next day and they said she was very healthy and would be okay. It was there that we found out Chester was a she and learned that she was only 4-5 weeks old, poor baby. They were very friendly and will include us in email updates and we can attend her release back into the wild in about 12 weeks.

I am so glad that the sweet little squirrel will make a full recovery and have a great chance at life. All of God’s creatures, large and small, are special and deserve to be comforted and cared for. I am happy we could make the tiniest bit of difference in Chester’s little life.

The wildlife rescue is in need of volunteers and they were wonderfully helpful. If you are interested, please visit http://wrande.org/

Margo Thrived in Month Five

Each month with Margo gets more and more fun! She is a true and utter joy in our lives. There simply are not words that can express the love in my heart for her or the gratitude I have for God giving us such an amazing gift.

Margo is now laughing at everything… sometimes it seems as if she is just so happy she laughs… whether there is anything to laugh at or not. She loves spinning in circles with mommy, laughing at my funny animal noises and is quite ticklish.

Mid-month we started feeding Margo solids with the spoon. She caught on quickly, most loves her wholegrain cereal and gets excited to eat it. On her third meal of oatmeal with a spoon, she was so delighted she laughed through the whole thing. It sure did make it easy to shovel the food in—ha ha! I started making other baby food for her and so far have two bags each of frozen applesauce and sweet potatoes. I tasted both and they are deliciously simple and pure. I love that I am able to feed her an entirely organic diet with the freshest/best ingredients. Her first sampling of applesauce was hilarious—I have never seen such a face—this time mommy laughed through the entire feed. She truly does not know what to think of these new flavors, but seems to like it more as we continue to feed it to her this week.



Margo loves being outside and we try to take her on a walk once a day. After about a mile, she wants to move around and gets a bit impatient. I think she more enjoys just laying on a blanket under the trees, looking at the sky, kicking her legs and feeling the breeze—when there is wind in her face, she opens her mouth, smiles and makes a little excited noise… it’s pretty sweet.

Margo desperately wants to sit up, but she’s just not there yet. She does stomach crunches in her bath, bouncy seat and on the ground. When I try to help her sit, she quickly falls forward or backwards, but rarely can sit steady for a few seconds on her own. She also still hates being on her tummy, which I find strange since she sleeps on her tummy. She grunts, groans and fusses on her tummy—she is just not strong enough to keep herself pushed up for extended periods. I continue to work with her on this. I think that if her arrival to the world a month early will be evident anywhere, it will be in the area of physical development. She may be a tad bit slower in sitting, crawling, walking, etc… At the same time, she started rolling over and holding up her head very early, so who knows… she is clearly very smart and I realize that all babies develop at different paces, so I am not concerned.

Margo still talks like crazy. Her main sound is still ahh-goo, but I am trying to teach her mama and baba… I am holding daddy responsible for dada. This month she started razzing and thought it was very funny. She literally stuck her tongue out and made these spitty, tooty noises all day long for two days. I took this video sideways, but it is still funny.



She is still sleeping through the night, thank goodness—11 hours on average. Naps are still an issue, but getting better. I would say she has at least one solid 1.5 to 2 hour nap at least 5 days in the week. She really tires after 2 hours of awake time and still sometimes requires a nap in the evening before bed. I have only tried the dreaded crying it out twice and it was successful, but heart wrenching for me. I think once we are past the reflux and having to keep her upright after eating, it will be easier to put her in bed awake and sleep train her.

I cannot believe we are halfway through one year. It is too too fast and I am really trying to soak in each incredible, precious moment with her at this beautiful, pure and innocent age.