Skills explosion

Margaret still remains delayed in her gross motor skill and speech but we have had a period of advancement the past week or so.

Gross motor wise, she is still doing the same things... butt scooting, not much rolling, can't get from laying on the floor to sitting. She is certainly getting faster with the scooting. I asked her PT if she would crawl and she said it is unlikely now that she has learned to get around on her bottom. She has also tried to pull up a couple of times on her learning table but she is so tall that she couldn't get the right leverage. I need to find something higher for her.

Margaret has discovered that she can go to places she has never played before. Her favorite is the door leading from the den to the carport. She loves the glass storm door and the door stop. At first she loved the dead beetles but I made sure to pick them up when I saw one in her now perfect pincher grasp. The previous owners had also installed a chain lock to the door but it is down on the floor. Margaret can't get enough of that chain! I think we are going to take it off soon.

We installed a gate between the den and the hall but are using toys and other items to block the wide doorway between the den and the kitchen. We have a huge gate for that doorway, too, but since we will be painting the den soon, we are not going to install it quite yet.

Margaret's fine motor skills and social skills are the ones that have really shown big leaps in the past week. She now will hand you something! I think it is the cutest thing ever when she is playing with a toy and decides to hand it to me. She has also taken to trying to share her favorite things with me. Frequently as she is sucking on her blankie (it gets totally wet and yucky), she will try to put the corner she has been working on in my mouth. It is so sweet yet so gross. And she likes to grab her bottle and try to feed me with it. She looks so proud of herself when she is doing that. It just melts my heart.

Eating. This is still an extreme struggle. The last time we saw her ST, she told me that at this point it doesn't matter what she eats, she just needs to do it. So we have been giving Margaret things I would have never even considered before all these problems... The "I'll never" foods. So far, she will take a couple of bites off of a french fry. She will try to get Spaghetti-Os in her mouth but hasn't quite figured out how to handle them. She ate three peas (which I was so happy about). She put a small sliver of turkey deli meat in her mouth. So these are improvements but we are still struggling. I just keep hoping that she has some sort of breakthrough. Formula is getting very, very expensive at her rate of consumption.

And we think (maybe) she said her first word (besides Mama and Dada, of course)... maybe. I'm not convinced and will need more evidence. We have a print of a black cat on our den wall. Saturday I was holding Margaret on my lap and she was whispering things, which she does when she practices new sounds. Then I heard it- a whisper. Cat. I looked down at her and she was looking up at the print. I said, "cat." She started grinning and repeated it, again a whisper, "cat". I said it again and she was so delighted! That same night, she had a very hard time sleeping (teething). One particular time, she was fussing so I picked her up for some cuddling. When I put her in the cradle hold, she looked up at me smiled her biggest grin and whispered "cat". The continued on to say OOOooooooo. So I'm waiting for her to actually say cat about our real cat. Then I'll know it is real.

We are finally getting to remodeling this house! For those that don't know, we closed on our house three days before Margaret was born. So between spending so much time at the NICU and having a new baby at home, we haven't been able to get around to any of the plans we made when we first made the offer on the house (the weekend before I went into the hospital). No more living with panelling, terrible wallpaper, outdated paint! I have big plans but will be happy just to get rid of the 1970's panelling and kitchen wallpaper. And, no, I'm not going to overdo it! ;)

I'm feeling better lately! Hooray! Next Monday is my second peri appointment. They are going to measure my cervix. A new thing for me. I'll let you all know how it goes. They may even be able to take a stab at the baby's gender. We'll see.