Ariella's 9 Month Doctor's Appointment

We had Ariella's 9 month appointment Saturday. She's 28 1/4 inches (75%), 19lbs 7oz (50-75%), and head circ 17 3/4 (50-75%). The doctor says she's growing perfectly and very proportionally (yay)!

The scary part of the appointment came when the doctor was examining her. She said that her inner labia was entirely fused! Inside I started freaking out. But, the doctor said it was not a big deal, very common problem caused by hormones. She said I would just have to use a cream once a night until it opened, and then use vasoline on it once a night for 2 weeks.

Ariella also had 3 shots, 2 vaccines and the 2nd dose of the flu vaccine. She actually did very well with them, although she's been a bit more fussy than normal for the past couple of days, and I think it's because of the vaccines (poor baby girl). There was no mention of wanting to do any blood work.

The doctor said I should switch Ariella from bottle to sippy cup by 12 months. Also, by 12 months, her BM intake should go down to 12-16oz (not so sure about that). And by 12 months she should be fully on table foods (not so sure about that either). But, overall it was good.

The prescription cream turned out to have a $50 co-pay (yikes), and then at night before I used it, I figured I would read the warnings, side effects, etc. A huge yikes! The first sentence on it was that it can increase the risk of womb cancer and cancer of the ovaries! Other risks include increased risk of heart disease, stroke, blood clots, etc! The medicine is premarin vaginal cream. I did NOT use it yet.

I called the doctor's office today. She said that the side effects listed were probably for the oral form of the medication or for larger doses. She said that an alternative to the medication would be that they could open it in the office by pulling it apart (no thank you). She said that it should NOT be left as it is, that she would develop bladder infections, UTIs, etc. She said that the worst side-effect she's ever had (which has been very rare) is that one baby developed breast buds while on the medication. Our phone connection wasn't that great, so we got cut short. But, I essentially got the info from her that I wanted to ask.

This all seemed pretty consistent with the research that I did online, although online many sites advised just leaving it alone, but the doctor seemed very adamant that it open (maybe because it was fully fused?). So, I guess I'm going to use this cream, unless some magical solutions arises. This is the first time I have really disliked being a parent. I'm so afraid that I'll make a bad decision that will really hurt Ariella. With my family history, I'm very wary of cancer. I wish Tyree would have participated more in this decision, but he has pushed it on me, so I'm just going to have to do the best I can. Hopefully this is the correct decision.

Picture of baby me and Ariella wearing the same dress

My mom/grandmother made me a brown velvet dress that I wore as a baby. I still have the dress and just got pictures of Ariella in it this weekend at her 9 month photo shoot. My husband merged my picture with one of hers. I think it's so neat that we wore the same dress. She's a bit younger than I was when I wore it. I was a bit over a year old in that picture. I was a much smaller baby than Ariella. But, it's very neat to look at the 2 of us side by side.

There's another picture as well that really shows how we have the exact same mouth as well as some other very similar features. I love that she's starting to look like me!

Pics of Ariella's First 2 Teeth

Ariella finally let me get pictures of her first 2 teeth. She does NOT like showing them off. I realized that the trick is to let her "gum" my finger while I use the other hand to pull down her lip - lol.

It melts and breaks my heart at the same time...

This morning I was leaving to go to work. I went to give Ariella a kiss and to tell her to have a good day. She held her arms up, reaching out to me. It melted my heart. I picked her up and gave her a great big hug. Then, I set her back down (she had been sitting, playing with a toy with Abuela). I told her to have a good day and turned and left. It made it so hard to leave, though. I keep picturing her with her arms stretched out to me. Sigh... This is definitely one of the hard parts about being a working parent.

First Tooth! (And, 2nd tooth)

Ariella cut her first tooth overnight on Halloween night! It was the bottom front left tooth. It was quite exciting to see her 1st tooth. It's still only about 1/4-1/3 of the way in, though. I didn't realize it would take so long to come in. And, now she has a 2nd tooth (the bottom front right tooth) that just broke the surface over the weekend. My little girl is growing up. So far no problems with nursing (yay).

Halloween!!!

Here are some pics from Halloween. Originally, she was going to be a strawberry for Halloween night (since it's a warm costume), but then I needed a cooler (temperature-wise) costume for a daytime birthday party with a Halloween theme (enter the Sleeping Beauty costume). I'm glad I got pics of her as the strawberry earlier, because on Halloween night when I went to put her strawberry costume on, the zipper came right off in my hand! Oops. So, she was Sleeping Beauty for Halloween trick or treating (and, no, she didn't eat the Nestle Crunch bar - lol). I dressed up, too, as a spider queen thing. Originally, my dress had 2 shoulder straps, but along the way trick or treating, the strap on one side broke. It was definitely the year for Halloween costume malfunctions. At least my costume worked well with only one strap. We had a lot of fun, though. All of the neighbors just fawned over Ariella. And, we even went through a "haunted garage" that a neighbor had set up. She had a lot of fun - not scared at all! :-)

Trip to Louisiana

Ariella had her first road trip during the last week of October! We went down to Louisiana so that she could meet a bunch of our relatives for the first time (and so that we could attend my neices' Halloween-themed birthday party).

I was concerned about the drive (especially since I breastfeed), but Ariella was a gem. She nursed several times when we stopped for gas/food, and we fed her solids while in the car.

We were able to see quite a few sets of relatives on both sides of the family. We also were able to go to the park with my brother and his kids, and the birthday party was a lot of fun! I even took Ariella on this gigantic blow up slide that they had rented. She had so much fun.

Here are a few of the pictures from the trip: