What a year!

Emily is now one year, one week, and four days old!

At this time last year we had been home from the hospital for exactly one week, and had our hands full.  Emily was still healing from her clavical fracture, had already been in for a weight check due to her poor feeding and weight concerns at our home visit (by a visiting nurse), we had been back to the hospital to meet with lactation twice. Emily was still not feeding well, I was using a SNS, or having someone syringe feed Emily while I tried to get her to latch and if she was not sleeping she was screaming....Emily and I pretty much never left our bedroom.  Paul was still home from work and was an amazing help!  He cooked dinner every night and I do not know how I would have made it through with out him.

Now, Emily and I spend every day playing, and she is so happy!  I am thrilled at all the progress she has made over the last year.  We had our well child visit last week and she have moved up from the 0.81% to 0.89% in her weight.  She weighs in at 16lbs and 6oz this was the first time she has ever moved up percentiles.  It has always been exactly the same or lower, so Paul and I were very happy - every little bit counts!  I hope we can start making up for some lost time now :)  We have been adding wheat back into Emily's diet for about a week now and so far she is tolerating it!  We are going slow (very slow), but she shows no signs of any reaction so far.  She is still on the special "milk" formula, and will be until she passes a milk challenge in the doctors office, that is scheduled when she is 14 months old.  It has been so easy to prepare meals over the last week, and not only is she tolerating the wheat her appetite has really grown as well!  Emily is still at about the 30% for height and is almost 29 inches long.

Emily and I spend the days playing with toys, reading, and going for a walk.  We have started to go to "book babies" on Friday mornings, which she really enjoys!  It is a program at the Iowa City Public Library with singing, reading and music.  It lasts for about 30 min. and then they get out toys for play time, this gives me a chance to talk to other moms and dads and Emily some time to play with kids her own age.  And we usually go to Aunt Amanda's house once a week to visit and play with her cousins.

Emily is starting to sleep a bit better at night (up once or twice still) and usually takes about an hour nap now.  Things really are going well!

Emily has 8 teeth now, four on the top and four on the bottom.  She likes to bite her food with all her teeth (even when not necessary).  She adds to her vocabulary daily and is getting more and more steady on her feet. She is almost running!  She has a mind of her own though, and is starting to have little tantrums when she does not get her way...

Emily had a great birthday party the day after she turned one, with family and friends.  It was so nice to see everyone who made it for the special event.  We had an animal themed party with some snacks (thanks to my mom) and cupcakes decorated like monkeys (again thanks mom for the help decorating).  I think it turned out well, and Emily had such a fun time playing with her two friends that came and her cousins!