A Bit Worried

Ella was doing great health wise and we were so happy!  We went to her nine month appointment.  I had one major item on my agenda....

Get rid of the apnea monitor!!

I talked with the pediatrician and the cardiologist and it came down to that no one was making a decision.  The cardiologist said she didn't need it for him but the pediatrician was worried about taking her off because the neonatologist and the cardiologist never told him she was good to go.  With a bit of persuasion and talk of an upcoming vacation that was just days away he gave me the all clear!  I appreciated having the monitor and obviously it helped save our daughters life and tell us she had a heart condition early on but I was ready to be done with the false alarms.  It was a life line....but it was time for it to go.  We felt freedom and we felt like this was a HUGE step!  Something we thought we would only have for about six weeks had become a second diaper bag for nine months!!

There was some great news at Ella's nine month appointment.  She had made it on the growth chart for the first time!  Just barely but she was on there.  She was still wearing 3-6 month size clothes but we felt like she was making great strides with her growth.  What I was very concerned with was that she was not sitting up yet and she would not role.  In my mind this is something she should have started doing around the six month mark and she was now nine months.  Her adjusted age was seven months so she was falling behind her adjusted age.

The pediatrician saw the worry in my eyes.  He also knew he was staring down a kindergarten teacher who knows about this kind of stuff.  He says "If you really want to have her tested for early intervention, we can but I really want to give her until she is a year old.  She has been through a lot and I am extremely happy with her progress even with all her major set backs."  I understood and I agreed.  I was so blessed she had come so far with all the things she had been through.

We gave it three more months and boy did Miss Ella show me!!!  Just look what she learned to do!!!

 Sitting up!

 Standing up with only holding daddy's hand!

 Pulling up!

 Crawling!

Mommy even moved her from her cradle to her big girl crib (reluctantly of course!)  And yes she loved to be swaddled so much we had to order a bigger swaddle!  She was making amazing gains in such a short time!  Way to go my Ella Bella!!