The Kovar Khronicles: Macie at Ten Months

Macie's ten month milestone came on my mom's birthday - January 29th. January was a very long month for Macie and I... the longest since her first, spent in the NICU. We both survived a very long and confusing nursing strike, that ended Macie's breastfeeding career. She had a cold and the flu, got more teeth, started communicating and her personality continued to grow.

Stats:
Chronological Age - 10 Months
Adjusted Age - 8 Months

Weight - 17 pounds

There is no ten month doctor's appointment, but we did end up at the doctor a couple of times during the month. Macie did lose a few ounces this month, which was a first in her entire life. (She did not have any initial weight loss after birth.) I believe this minor loss was in part due to sickness and teething, and am sure that the nursing strike partially contributed as well.

Milestones:

Launch forward from a sit (40 weeks)
Started communicating through signs - "no" and "milk" were first (41 weeks)
First ride in a shopping cart (41 weeks)
First touch of falling snow (41 weeks)
Starts to give a "high five" (41 weeks)
First attempts at a crawl (41 weeks)
Claps without sound (41 weeks)
Begins nursing strike (42 weeks)
First restaurant high chair experience (42 weeks)
First finger food - puffs (42 weeks)
Collects things into larger receptacles (43 weeks)
Hams for the camera (44 weeks)
First flu (44 weeks)
Starts to point (44 weeks)
Mimics words and phrases for sound, not meaning (44 weeks)
End nursing strike by introducing bottles of formula (44 weeks)

At ten months Macie remained in 6-9 month closing and size 3 diapers.

Feeding:

For the first half of the month, Macie breastfed on demand. On January 11th she went from nursing about 5 times throughout the day to a sudden and complete refusal of nursing. She still would accept breastmilk, which I pumped and fed her by spoon, dropper and cup. After two weeks of this and with both of us having succumbed to a flu, I admitted defeat and started introducing bottles and supplementing with formula. I continued to pump and give her what I was able to produce, but once the flu hit my supply had a very sharp decline.

I have not written much about my struggles with breastfeeding but, to put it simply, it was a hard-fought honor to nurse both Ephram and Macie. I still mourn the early termination of her breastfeeding, but I am so grateful that we were able to nurse traditionally at all. I have major supply issues with my milk. On top of this, Macie was a preemie - and many preemies are unable to ever latch or maintain a latch well enough to pull the milk they need. I was blessed to be able to get Macie to latch when she was 3 months old, and for her gagging and spluttering to have declined enough to allow her to get the milk she needed. This happened at a critical point when my supply experienced an initial decline but before ever needing to supplement her with formula. On one hand we were only able to experience true nursing for six months. On the other hand, we were so lucky to be able to have this bonding experience and for her to have all the benefits brought by my milk for six full months. I will probably always be a little sad about this, but I also need to remember how lucky we were.

Solid foods introduced this month included:

yogurt
peaches
squash
applesauce
Gerber puffs
Cheerios

Macie started finger foods in week 42 with puffs and we introduced Cheerios 3 days later. She did pretty well with occasional spluttering... but right away she loved being able to feed herself.

Macie loved yogurt, but developed an intense diaper rash about five days after we introduced it. This was also in tandem with her nursing strike, so it took me some more time to put two and two together. (I thought that the nursing strike may be causing the rash due to concentrated urine.) When the rash spread first to her cheeks, then to her trunk and her arms, I realized that she probably had a problem with a food she was eating. I cut out the milk first, because both Ephram and I have problems with milk, and it took a full 10 days for the rash to back off. We have not given her milk since, and when we started formula we put her on the one that has broken down lactose proteins. She has not yet been allergy tested.

Macie continued to take Zantac to treat acid reflux, but the dose was reduced to .4ml once per day.

Sleeping:

Sleeping this month was not good. In the first half of the month Macie got two teeth and had a cold. During this time she woke overnight at least twice every night. Sometimes she woke more, up to five times a night. The night before she started her nursing strike she was up every hour, which was similar to the night of the nursing strike. She was often inconsolable and took a lot of rocking to put her back to sleep.

About a week into the nursing strike I adjusted, realizing that she was mad at me for trying to nurse her, and things started to improve. At the same time we both got the flu and she started teething again. But on most nights, except for her worst flu nights, she woke only two times.

At night she slept in the swing or in my arms. It was a long month for sleep, and I felt much like I had a newborn again. But I was usually able to keep a positive outlook realizing that she still slept better than Ephram had at the same age, and that the teething and sickness were going to fade away eventually.

Napping was equally confusing. Somedays she took two naps, somedays she took three or four. There was really no rhyme or reason. We were just surviving. When she looked like she needed to sleep, I held her and rocked her until she fell asleep. When I could, I napped with her. Ephram is an awesome kid and was very flexible through the whole thing... often curling up next to us to cuddle as well.

Teething:

Macie cut two more teeth in January, bringing her grand total up to six teeth: four on top and two on bottom.

Communicating:

Macie began to communicate with us by signs in January. The signs that she used by the end of the month were:

No (shake of head)
Milk (squeeze of hand)
Again (head shake accompanied by a little dance)
All done (shakes one hand)

During the month she also began to mimic a lot of our sounds. It was clear that she didn't understand what she was saying, but she was copying the sounds that we made. Her favorite was "dada", but she would do more complicated things as well. For instance, if I said "all done?" when she used the sign, she would say "ah duh."

Macie also communicated with us in other ways. She loved to laugh, and used not only her accidental laugh, but two intentional laughs that she developed. She also started to try to clap for us and waved at anyone that would look at her. (Her wave was often two hands instead of one.)

Favorites: