6 months old

My baby girl is 1/2 a year old!  What a rollercoaster we have had the last 6 months.  The biggest news this month is that Evin had her repair surgery and now has a fully functioning heart!  We give so many thanks to her fantastic surgeon and team of doctors & nurses at Cook Children's.

Fun facts for this month:

Weight: 13 lbs 8 oz

Length: 25.5 inches

Size Clothes: 3 month, but 6 month jammies for the length

Size Diapers: 1

Size Shoe: 1

-Eats 5 times a day.  Her middle of the day bottles are 6 oz and her first in the morning and night bottles are usually a little less.  Since her surgery, she doesn't take as long to eat, but still likes to take her time.  Bottles take about 45 minutes now.

-Takes a couple of naps a day in her crib.  She no longer likes to be swaddled during naps.  She usually takes a big morning and big late afternoon nap, and a small one in between.

-Still sleeps in her pack n play in our room at night.  We will probably move her to her room soon!

-Since her surgery, she has been waking at least once in the middle of the night (usually around 3:30) for a bottle.  She takes 3-3.5 oz and goes right back to sleep.

-Wakes on her own around 7:30am.  Goes to bed around 9:30 or 10pm now.  A much better schedule than before her surgery!

Monthly pictures are getting harder and harder to take, and this is one reason why.

She discovered that she can pull that sticker right off!  Looking a little guilty in the last photo... 

FYI- her onesie was borrowed from her cousin, Lane, for the monthly pictures.  She doesn't sport a monogrammed "L" on a normal basis. ;)

-Took awhile to start rolling over again since her surgery, but is back to rolling tummy to back again.  She has never rolled back to tummy and I don't know that she is ever going to!  She hates being on her tummy!  I think she might be capable of doing it because she easily flips to her side all the time, but she has no desire to even try.

-She loves to be sitting up.  Can sit on her own in the boppy for about 30 seconds before leaning over to the side.

-Always sticks her legs straight out in front of her while sitting.  If I bend them for her, she immediately straightens them back out.

-Eating solids!  Started on rice cereal and then discovered that she loves oatmeal.  Now eats oatmeal mixed with a fruit in the morning and rice cereal mixed with a veggie at night.

Has tried:
Applesauce
Pears
Peaches
Mangos
Prunes
Sweet Potatoes
Peas
Green Beans
Carrots
Avocado

Favorites are peaches, sweet potatoes, prunes and avocado.  Not a fan of peas, carrots or green beans.

-Still loves her bath and loves to kick her legs (see photo above- ha!).

-Getting a little better with strangers.  I think the hospital stay made her a little more tolerant, espeically of women since most of her nurses were female.  She gives smiles to strangers much more often now, but still doesn't like being held by them.

-Loves Mommy & Daddy, but is currently more of a Momma's girl.

-I keep expecting a tooth to pop through on the bottom.  In the last couple of weeks she has been drooling like crazy!  She constantly chews on a finger and she is at the age when you give her something, it automatically goes in her mouth.

-She likes her paci, but probably not as much as she used to.  Only really needs it when going to sleep.  She uses her Wubbanub (paci with the stuffed animal attached) most of the time, and is pretty content chewing on the giraffe's arm or leg as much as the paci itself.

Evin demonstrates her wiggling abilities in the photos below. Again, monthly photos are more difficult and I know they will only get harder!

-Favorite toys:

Talking baby doll

Plastic keys

Bug car seat toy

-Curls her toes all the time.

-Can't find shoes to fit- her foot is really skinny!

-Loves to hold on to her feet.

-Still loves watching sports on TV and loves watching the dogs.

-Started going on walks and loves to sit in the stroller.

-Reaches for our food and drinks.

-Likes to talk and hear her voice.  I have been trying to get her to make certain sounds (ma, da, ba, la) but she isn't mimicking me yet!

-Still loves to sit in bouncy seat.  We have to strap her in for fear that she will bounce herself out.

So much joy has come from our last 6 months...I can't wait to see what the next 6 months bring!

Post-Op Check-Up

Last Friday we made a visit to Cook's for Evin to have a Post-Op Check-Up.  She had a full cardiology work-up done to check on everything from her surgery and to see how her mended heart is functioning.

Love this heart, made up of glass hearts that were decorated by kiddos with congenital heart defects.  This is what you see as you enter the Heart Center at Cook's.

Sats: 99
Woohoo!  My heart skips a beat every time I see the pulse ox read in the high 90s and sometimes even at 100.  It amazes me to see that number so high!

Weight: 13 lbs 8 oz
This is also good!  She has gained 1/2 a pound since her surgery.  Mitch and I both kind of thought her weight might actually be a little higher than this.  We had been weighing her at home and it had been saying about 14-14.5 lbs.  I am anxious to see what she weighs at her 6 month appointment (which was delayed a bit due to her surgery) on October 10th.

Length:  25.5 inches
As always, we don't really know how accurate this really is.  Sometimes they say she shrinks, sometimes she grows 2 inches- ha!

EKG:  Looked good!

Poor girl shortly after her EKG.  Her chest/belly already looked beat up from the surgery, but all the red splotches were from the sticky leads they had to use for the EKG.  She has super sensitive skin!

Chest x-ray:  All clear.  She didn't have any fluid build up in her lungs.

Her Wubbanub, the paci with the animal attached, makes everything better!

Echocardiogram:  Blood flow and pressures looked great.  Her cardiologist said her pulmonary branch arteries were still a little on the small side, but that was to be expected.  She said in the first year of life, babies' arteries tend to expand, so she does anticipate that they will continue to grow over the next 6 months.

Medication:  We cut her Lasix dose in half, so she now only has to take meds once a day!  She will continue on the Lasix until her 6 week post-op date, which is October 15th.  After that, she will no longer need to be on ANY medication!

Incision:  Looked great.  We are now allowed to use adhesive remover to slowly get the steri-strips off her chest if it looks like they are starting to peel up.  As of today, we have removed the top 3.

We go back to the cardiologist sometime in November, and then will probably only have to visit every 6 months after that.  

We were thrilled to receive such a wonderful report!

Week in Photos- 25 weeks old

I am skipping the Week in Photos post for 24 weeks old since Evin was in the hospital for her surgery that week.

Evin loves sitting in her high chair in the middle of the kitchen while I make and wash bottles or do dishes.

Poor baby about a week and a half after her surgery.  The steri-strips make her incision look worse than it really is.  It's a very thin line that is just a little pink.  The steri-strips should come off in the next couple of weeks.  The bruise is from a line that was inserted in her belly and went to her heart to monitor the pressures after surgery.  The big scab is from her chest tube and there are lots of little scabs from various lines and IVs.

She had just woken up before this picture, hence the seriousness!

For those of you that say she is always smiling...here's a fussy face!

We started Evin on baby foods a few weeks ago, and she has tried several different kinds.  Here she is trying green beans for the first time...

Interesting taste!

"Uh, I'm not sure I like this!"

By the end she decided they weren't so bad!

Sweet girl with Mums

Giraffe lover...I spy 3 giraffes!

Game day! Gig 'Em Ags!

Put this bow on her for a few pictures and it cracked me up!

Mesmerized by that hand...

Same exact picture, different day!

I was playing with Evin on the floor, and laid down next to her to read her some books, holding the book above us.  She thought it was the funniest thing!  She kept grinning at the book, and then would turn and look at me like it was the most fun thing she had ever done.

Love this black and white picture during tummy time!

Week in Photos- 23 weeks old

Little Aggie, ready to watch her first A&M football game!

She has rediscovered her hands recently and is very intrigued by them.  I catch her staring at them and moving her fingers around all the time!  She also loves to scratch different fabrics and textures, like she is doing to the chair below.

Aggie Evin and Aggie Mommy

Loves avocado!

Showing a tiny plumber's crack before bath time.

Bath time = Splash time

See the waves she is making?

Kyla snapped some good pictures of Lane and Evin together since we didn't have a really good one yet.

This one cracks me up!  Lane was being a tiny bit naughty and she gave him a look.

Fast forward 18 years and this could be her pose for a senior picture!

The beginning stages of one finger in her mouth all.the.time.

Love this onesie from Evin's Aunt Kyla. She gave it to me at the baby shower and it finally fits!

Looking like she is ready for Yoga!

Headed out for Mommy's {early} birthday dinner at Babe's.  YUM!