Penelope is ONE!!

  Our miracle baby turned one! I adore this little gal so much I can't even describe it! She has been nothing but bliss since the day she was born. She is my easy going little angel, and she is perfection.    

• Penelope loves sour things, like lemons, and pickles.
• You are not a fan of sweets.
• You squawk anytime you don't like something.
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• You give little snuggles here and there
• You started crawling January 20th one day before your birthday!
• I can still get you to lay for a diaper change, or a bolus feeding
• You have 5 teeth now, your top two bottom two and your left top have popped through.

 

• You say Mama, dada, ginger, dog, ni ni (night night) uh oh, and hi
• you like to get into things like baskets of toys, or my crafts.
• You go to sleep at 730 and wake about 630
• You are transitioning from 2 naps to one, but you still need two.
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• You love to mimic
• You play independently very well.
• You are very curious, and smart.
• You adore your daddy. He adores you.
• You love to dance, especially with your Aunt Sarah

We had a big party for your first birthday. Your Great Grandmother (mamaw) and Aunt Mary ann came out to be here for it. Also your Uncle Jason, and Aunt Jami came. We had a Lavender and gold themed party for you. We had someone from church make a few racks of ribs, and some bbq chicken, and drank lavender lemonade. We had cake and ice cream. It was lovely

Below is the naked/floral lavender cake

I made you a smash cake, and another for everyone to enjoy at the party. Here are your smash cake pictures..

 

Penelope Mae month 8

(Okay this is a post I was working on a couple of months ago, but never finished, I'm so far behind!!)

My sweet little teeny Penelope you are 37 weeks, and five days old today. That is 8.7 months old! I just cannot believe it!!

Penelope got her first tooth on my birthday! She was 8 months and 6 days old, and it completely shocked me!! I couldn't believe it! She is sooooo teeny and because she doesn't eat by mouth I figured her body would send a signal to her brain that she didn't need these teeth just yet.. I was wrong! Her little bottom left tooth is through, and I believe the bottom right will follow shortly.

Penelope has changed dramatically in the past month. She is now sitting up as of 2 weeks ago (8 months and a few days old )

She is not sleeping as well as she used to. She sleeps from 7pm-5am Her nap in the morning is between 1-1.5 hours and her afternoon nap is now is anywhere from 45 minutes - 1.5 hours. Where did my amazing sleeper go!! The hardest for me is that she gets up at 5am ready for the day!! Eek!

She says Mamma, and when she cries she cries out "Mamma" because she knows I will rescue her. She makes the sound Na na na also.

Another new thing about Penelope is that she has stopped playing on her own lately. She only wants to be carried and held.
She will grab at everything, and loves  to grab your plate of food from you. She plays with food with her hands, and loves a lick of her sister's lollipops.

Penelope got a bug last month, and was unable to keep much down. Because she is so little I called her GI dr to ask what I should do to help her to not lose weight. She advised me to take out all of the additives from her breast milk while she was sick, and see if she could keep it down better, so I took out her Enfacare calorie additive and watched and waited..She got well soon after and then.. well something miraculous happened.. She stopped dry heaving, and throwing up.. as in Never did again! I then realized that she has a major intolerance to the formula additive I was putting in the breast milk! All of her 8 months we have battled her vomiting, and now just like that it's gone! We hope she will gain a little better from here on out!
Grow baby grow!!

Penelope Mae month 5

• You bite your bottom lip
• got your ears pierced at 4.5 months
• you sleep 1-2 hour nap in the morning and a 2-4 hour nap in the afternoons
• you fall asleep at 630-7 and wake at 6-630 in the mornings. You sleep through the night and don't wake once. Never have!
• You don't eat by mouth still. We give you a bottle 1-2 times a day but you are not interested, and bite down on the nipple. You only swallow because you have to.
• You are THE sweetest little person I have ever known. You are calm, and quiet most of the time.
• You will play in your bassinet quietly while you wait for me to wake up.. sometimes an hour or longer!
• You love tv

• You usually only cry when you are tired. and really it's just a small fuss
•  you vomit and dry heave 1-3 times a day
• You are pretty good about keeping your ng tube in, but sometimes play with it, and pull it.
• You are not very active, and your muscles are little weak, so you tire easily
• you love kisses, and don't mind me kissing you all over all of the time
• you will sit patiently while i take care of dinner,your sisters, really anything.
• you have physical therapy,occupational therapy, and a developmental specialist come to the house each once a week to help you.
• you run hot, and sweat often,
• Still as tiny as ever only 10lbs
• You can grasp at things you are given
• You had so much hair, but it started falling out in clumps, so I buzzed it (yikes!) and now it looks so much better, and looks like it just grew in that way.
• You are still in the bassinet in our room, and will be in with us for a long time.
• You are petite, and have the cuuuutest baby body!
• You have a coo laugh, but have only made that sound when you like mommy tickles or raspberries,
• You are predictable. I know exactly what calms you, and what you need. 
• You love routine.
• All I have to do to put you to sleep is cradle hold you facing in and pat your bum for less than a minute. You protest yell just a bit (which means you are ready and tired) Then I lay you down, on your tummy and you are calm, and fall asleep within minutes.

What can I say? You are the perfect baby for me! I couldn't have picked out a better baby in the entire world! I mean that! We love you and can't wait to see you grow! (thank you Michelle for the dress I love that they all get to wear it!) Thank you also, Ashley for the floor drop! :)

Chloe almost 5

My darling Chloe renee, You are such a sweet big sister to your baby. You try to help her, and sing to her all of the time. you like to hold her, and be right near her face to give hugs, and kisses. Chloe, like always you love your daddy more than anyone in this world. You and him have a strong bond. You were meant to be. Daddy got a new scooter, and takes you on rides all of the time. He even got you a motorcycle helmet to wear so that you are safe! You love your daddy time.

Chloe you are such a girly girl. You will now only wear dresses, and skirts. You go to preschool Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9-12, and in the morning we have our routines. We eat breakfast, do your hair and pick out your clothes. I let you decide what to wear, and it is always dresses or skirts with boots :) 

You love "treasures" and jewels. You will agree to go to the store with me just so you can find "treasures" (ie junk on the ground) like tags from clothes, stickers, beads from craft stores. You are a bit of a clepto .. horder collector. You sleep with mounds of junk  Toys, treasures, stuffed bags, stuffed lunch boxes full of things.  You like all things rainbow, and pink. You are very interested in lotions, perfumes, makeup, and hand sanitizer. To the point of obsession.

You have always loved flowers. This is just your thing! Just about every day you will come in from playing, with a new flower/boquet for me, daddy, or grandma. I just yesterday had the idea to turn your love of flowers into art. I am going to take a picture of every gifted flower, or boquet you give me and put it into a collection on my computer, and print some on canvas for art around our house. 

You still love your shows and movies. You stopped taking naps a few months ago, and have replaced them with quiet time. Which consists of shows and outside time. You still have a sugar obsession for sure. You remind me of the movie "Elf"

You and your sister fight all.of.the.time! and a lot of the time it's Piper that starts it.. but not always..

You are our sweetheart and we love you MUCH!

Penelope Mae 13 weeks (9 wks adjusted)

Let me start out by saying that Penelope is the perfect baby. I mean that. I have never had it so easy. I wake up once in the night, and not because Penelope is awake, but just to pump, and place milk in her feeding pump. She sleeps from 1030pm-11am and continues to nap very well all throughout the afternoon. Penelope's wake time is from 5-1030 in the evenings, with short 10 minute cat naps 1-2 times during that time.

Penelope started smiling (smirking more like) at 11 weeks (7 weeks adjusted) She smiles through her eyes mostly. She is a content baby. She likes quiet, and can be very sensitive to cold, and startles easily. She still has the moro reflex very strong. Penelope is not a fan of baths, or being undressed.

 

Penelope still eats 95% of her food through her feeding tube. She likes to nurse 1-2 times a day and only in the evenings. Most times she latches, and then bites down, or will chew suck, but there are those times she will really nurse. Penelope has a strong gag reflex, and is not used to things in her mouth. She is no longer used to the bottle tries that she had in the hospital, and will not even try it now. Penelope has a vomiting issue, and chokes when she vomits. She stops breathing afterward seemingly as to not get it into her lungs. Its pretty scary. This happens from 1-3 times a day usually. I live in fear that I won't be in the room when it happens, and she won't be able to get it together after an episode. We are going to take her in to do a contrasted swallow study, and an upper gi study to try to figure out what might be happening when she does swallow.

 

This week is the week we have been waiting for. Penelope has her appointment with a geneticist at Stanford. We hope to learn more about what UPD20 is, and what to expect. I am not hopeful that we will walk away knowing much about it, because it is rare, and therefor there isn't enough cases to compare it to. Also everyone manifests different. This past week I took Penelope down to get her blood drawn for another chromosome test. They had a hard time finding her veins. She is so little! She now weighs 7lbs 14oz at almost 13 weeks old.

I think that Penelope has some features like mine when I was a baby. Everyone who sees her immediately says she looks like her Daddy. I by no means think we look like twins, but I do see small similarities. It's so fun to see what/who they look like. Chloe looked just like Adam's baby pictures, but looks more like me as a little girl. Piper looks NOTHING like Adam or I, and so far I can see each of us in Penelope.

words

Piper Jane is seriously the smartest little girl!  I haven't had much time to document her so I'll throw this up and come back to it later to add pictures and update this list I made from three weeks ago..
These are Piper Jane's words

Again
night night
bye bye
1,2,3
gum
thank you
dog
Piper
stuck
duck
Unbuckle
mama, ma, mommy
dada, dad, daddy
I want mama
I want down
diaper
bite
baby
hi
jason
ginger
poopoo
bop (paci)
Bite
book
ball
Pizza
Sea weed (wee weed)
Gama
water
uh-oh




SIGN
dog
bath
food
more
please
elephant
bubbles
milk
please
thank you
daddy

Piper Jane Month 12

This month you have grown more than the last four months combined!! You amaze me. I love love Love your personality!!! You are amazingly smart, responsive, alert, aware, funny, and so so sweet. I am literally in awe of you all of the time. I could never ever ask for a sweeter baby.

• You can now say bye-bye
• night-night
• chicken
• bottle
• dog
• caca
• bum bum
• Ginger (in syllables)
• Chloe (kinda)
• mama
• dada
• dah-die (daddy) I like to think it sounds like the queen's english.
• Mama said faster than regular mama (grandma)

Your signing has taken off! Just like Chloe you pick up signing well. You now sign the following-

• Bath
• more
• food
• please
• milk
• baby
• all done

You walk holding onto things. You can stand alone, and will take one step all by yourself from time to time. (update- you took your first real steps at church yesterday June 15th) You love to point at what you want. You want everything that Chloe has esp food/gum etc. You will point at your chest, then at someone else to let them know "you" want "them".

Honestly I couldn't be more in love or proud of you. I want a million of you!!!