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That is straight from Mia...she wanted to write something on the blog, so that's what she wrote...if you can talk baby then you'll know what it says, probably something like, "I love my mommy and daddy...and my baby tad (it's a froggie toy of hers)."

She keeps on doing great!

Mia has been doing really well, she is now 14 pounds 6 ounces! Yay Mia! This morning we tried pears and she was initially not to excited, but then she ate a bunch and thought they were ok. I think she really likes eating by mouth, she's such a big girl!

Mia's teacher visited her today because she couldn't come yesterday. They had a lot of fun playing together. In the end Mia got to use glue for her art project, she liked this one a whole lot better than painting.

Mia is getting better with pushing up on her arms when she is on her tummy. She used to not be able to do it at all, but this week I've noticed a marked improvement in it and with using her left arm to push up also. We've been working on holding things in her left hand and have made quite a bit of improvement also...she can now hang onto something for a few seconds where she used to immediately drop it.

We also have started working on bye bye and I'll wave her hand for her and now it has adapted into "high five" because she likes to reach her hand out and touch yours when you hold your hand up...very cute. So the next time you see her, hold your hand out and say "high five" and she'll reach out and touch yours. :)

Today we saw the nephrologist...not to be confused with the neurologist...Mis sees a nephrologist because she was born with a kidney stone. When she was a baby they said that was common and that usually they dissolve on their own, but hers has stuck with her, so that's why we see a nephrologist. The good thing is we were able to see her in Bakersfield because just like the neurologist, they come here once a month to see patients. Anyway, she remembers Mia from the ICU and she thought she looked great. They don't want to do anything just yet concerning her kidney stone, they are just going to watch it for any changes. So in November they want us to do another renal ultrasound to see what the kidney stone looks like then. So that was a nice easy visit!

Mia also got weighed today and she is now 14 pounds 5 ounces. Slowly but surely we are getting there. She's really taken to eating two meals a day of solids, which is great...tonight she had a bunch of beans mixed with rice cereal and formula and she thought it was just fine, so that was great because up until now she hasn't liked beans one bit. And one of these days she'll sleep through the night...although I would say last night was pretty much it because we fed her at 10 and she didn't get up until 6ish. But it's never a consistent thing...we'll be really excited when it is consistent. :)

Hi everyone, I'm doing great...everyone says so...even my therapists. I really really really like to roll around, it's one of my favorite activities. It's kind of neat how it gets me places. My therapist told me I have to do the rolling thing for awhile before I get to crawling, so I'm ok with it. Last night I woke up crying because I was trying to practice my rolling, daddy turned me over and I was just fine...I went right back to sleep because I was tired. I love my daddy...he makes me laugh so much, but then sometimes I get the pickles...some people call them hiccups, but we like to call them the pickles. Mommy loves taking my picture and I'll roll up on my tummy anytime for a picture...I like getting my picture taken. It's my second favorite activity after rolling. I've been eating more of my vegetables, I've decided that I do like carrots also, I just needed to give them a chance...mommy hopes the same thing will happen with beans...we'll see. I'm still 14 pounds 4 ounces, but before you know it, I'll be bigger. Thanks for praying for me because it's working!

Love, Mia

When you've reached the end...stop...or at least turn around and go the other direction! Mia continues to roll around everywhere, it is her favorite activity. Which is great because now instead of me making her roll for therapy, she does it herself!

She also keeps on getting bigger, she's now 14 pounds 4 ounces...we keep telling her to keep eating! She listens occasionally. :)

Mia absolutely doesn't like beans...she tolerates peas mildly...and really loves sweet taters and squash. So we've moved on to mixing veggies and today she ate sweet taters and beans, which went down just fine.

Mia has been doing great...she just keeps rolling around and going on her tummy which is such good news!

Yesterday we saw the neurologist for the first time since being in the hospital. He thought that Mia looked really well. He was very pleased with her progress. In fact, he doesn't want to see her for another 6 months, which is great...we'll keep her on the same dosage of medicine because it is working and then reevaluate things in 6 months. He also doesn't want to do an MRI because they'd have to sedate her for it and he doesn't think it necessary at this point, but maybe later on down the road we'll do that.

Today Mia saw her teacher Miss Carmen for the first time since July. Miss Carmen was so impressed with how much improvement she's made in the last 6 weeks. We played and sang songs and then Mia got to finger paint a school bus...she didn't like it too much and started crying at the end, one day she'll like it better. :)

Mia also got weighed today and she is 14 pounds 3 ounces.

Yesterday we also went to feeding therapy and her therapist was so pleased with the progress in that area also. She now wants us to work at feeding her twice a day and trying to increase the amount she gets. Tonight she ate squash and finished 1/2 of the stage 1 container, which is about 1 1/4 ounces. We thought that was good progress!

Mia has made so much progress it is awesome. At physical therapy today we were told that she has met 3 of her 4 goals, so now we're going to make more. Those included being able to sit for 5-8 seconds, reaching out while sitting and bearing weight on her arms for 5-8 seconds. She's doing great and she keeps getting stronger. We serve such an awesome God, He continues to heal her!

After therapy Mia had a play date with her boyfriend Jacob. Jacob's mom had to take her other son to an appointment and I agreed to watch him because I thought it would be good for Mia to interact with another baby her age. Jacob was born about a week and a half after Mia was born, so they are so close in age. And he is a big boy, he's almost twice Mia's size, they'll make a cute couple someday...(as the mom's arrange the marriage between their children...) Anyway, my hats go off to any mom of twins because that's kind of what it felt like. Although at this age they can play by themselves for awhile so it's not like having twin babies. But at one point I needed to get Mia to sleep and then feed Jacob and I thought, oh no...but it was fine. Some of you are probably thinking, just put Mia in her crib...well, no, it doesn't work that way, we have an agreement, she let's me hold her until she falls asleep...we don't rock or sway, I just get to hold her and honestly, I love it...it goes against all baby books, but it's our special time and it only happens in the day...of course it makes it real difficult for me to leave her with others because it's just not the same...oh well, the price I pay. :) Anyway, Jacob was playing with Mia's toys and she was watching him intently and later in the day she was playing with the same toys in the way that Jacob was playing with them...monkey see, monkey do. And then this afternoon she just took off with the rolling thing, I can't remember if she saw Jacob on his tummy or not, but she just decided she was going to roll all over the living room...enjoy the videos!

Thanks for continuing to pray for our little girl, we know that God is at the center of everything happening here!

Today has been a really good day for Mia...of course, we were home! She ate carrots and peaches mixed up together this morning and thought that was ok. She is doing much better with solid foods, I am encouraged. She is still not eating a super lot, but we're ok as long as she keeps on gaining weight...even if it is slowly.

In the afternoon, Lisa went to visit her friend Eliza who showed her how to make her own baby food for Mia. It was great, they made sweet taters, butternut squash, and carrots...and Eliza already had some peas for Mia. So Lisa is excited to do her own baby food at home. Thanks Eliza! We'll see how Mia likes them...we're sure she'll love it.

LA LA LA

Yes, today we went to LA. We had to leave bright and early because we had a 10am appointment to put dye in Mia. I kidded with Brad that we had so much time between appointments that we might go to the ocean, he was jealous...he wanted to go to the ocean...well, ends up we didn't go to the ocean. :(

Our first appointment was to do the dye test through the vagina...and of course this would be our 3rd attempt, so we were hoping that three's a charm. Anyway, the first thing they said was "we want to put dye in Mia's bladder, in her vagina, and in her fistula...three different places..." We were not excited, but they wanted to make sure they were positive of the connection, so we agreed. The first one in the bladder proved what we already knew...there was no attachment there. And that went ok, Mia was strapped down to a table so she wouldn't move and she was being very patient considering all they were doing. Well, after that was the dye in the vagina and it was a difficult process for Mia, she was done with the dye game. Needless to say she cried and cried and cried through the whole process, which took 3 attempts in itself because it wasn't working. She cried herself so tired that I gave her a bottle soon after and she fell asleep. Anyway, the results said there wasn't a connection there either, which we knew was wrong because somehow she got poop in her diaper as a baby. So they said, let's do the dye through the fistula because maybe it's a real tiny opening and we'll only see it that way. Well, that proved nothing either, thankfully she slept through that test. So the bottom line is that we don't know anything further except that it's a bit more difficult at this point. They said they wouldn't do anymore dye tests because they keep yielding the same result, nothing. So we go see her intestinal doctor in a few weeks and we'll see what he is thinking then. Pray that he would have wisdom on how to go forward with this. And pray that it isn't something more serious for Mia to deal with.

After 2 1/2 hours of that game, there was no time for the ocean, just a quick lunch before our next visit to the helmet place. We got really good news there, her head shape in back is looking so much better, we are really close to a "normal" baby head shape in the back. As for the top, they said that only time will tell, so please keep praying that the front of her head will grow to meet the back of her head.

And then we came home...and we were so thankful to be home. It was a long day. But Mia did great considering all of it. And her Nana gave her a new toy that kept her occupied in the car the entire time, which was a lot of fun for her.

Mia continues to do really well. Her sitting is getting better and her arms are getting stronger. She still can't get herself into a sitting position yet, but we keep working on building those arm muscles.

Mia's eating solids is also getting better. She now knows that she has to move it to the back of her mouth to swallow...she's getting much better with it. She loves sweet potatoes...and yesterday I mixed peaches and apples and got a pretty good response, but today I think there was too much apples in the mixture and she scrunched up her face and said yuck. I tasted them and it was a bit tart, so then I switched to carrots, but alas it was too late, she was done with the eating thing for now.

Last night Mia slept through the entire night...this happens very rarely and was really nice, so it gives us hope that there is still a chance of sleeping through the night in the future.

Tomorrow we are off to LA to have the dye test done again (pray that it is successful, it will give her intestinal doctor a clear picture of where the lower intestine attached to the vagina) and then a helmet measuring...we think her head looks a bit better so we are curious what the numbers will say tomorrow. We'll post more when we know.

10 Months Today!

Mia is now 1 day shy of 10 months and 14 pounds 1 ounce! Yay, we made it to 14 pounds. She is also 27 inches long...she's one long string bean. And her new thing is to make herself laugh all the time.

Mia continues to get bigger, she is now 13 pounds 15 ounces. Thank you God!! For the past 3 days we have been trying "peas" with not much success...I'll put some in her mouth and she'll push it right back out and then close her lips...pretty much the bottom lip covers the top lip...it's rather cute actually. So today I decided to try green beans and got the exact same reaction. You know we used to call her Bean before I delivered and we found out she was a girl...you'd think she'd like beans knowing that...but no, bottom lip out over the top lip. So I'm starting to think she doesn't really like the green vegetables...because this afternoon I tried squash with her and she loved it. Opened her mouth wide for more...so maybe she just likes orange vegetables...well, we won't give up on the green stuff, maybe I'll try a couple bites of orange and then one of green...we haven't ever mixed it up like that...hmm...I'll let you know what happens.

Ok she didn't really put all the toys on herself, but I couldn't resist...she looked so cute!

Another LA Visit

Today we went to LA with Mia to visit more of her doctors. Mia's Uncle Paul drove so that Daddy could stay at home and work. Thank you Uncle Paul!

Before we left Mia got weighed today and she is now 13 13...yup, 13 pounds 13 ounces. Too bad it isn't the 13th also. :)

Our first visit was with some of her former NICU doctors, they like to follow their patients and keep track of how they are doing. They were so excited to see her, a few of them even came in today just because she was on the list. Her OT (Occupational Therapist) from the hospital came to evaluate her. She was so excited with how well she is doing. So they did an assessment of her in three categories: cognitive, social and motor skills. Socially she is average. Cognitively she is low average...and the OT told us that she had to mark her down on some of the questions because she isn't using her left hand as much and so really, if she didn't have her left hand issues she would have scored a lot higher. And then motor skills she is very low, but that's because she isn't crawling or walking yet. Anyway, the point of the assessment was to get a baseline so that when they see her again in three months they'll determine how much progress she is making. Overall though they were so pleased with how she's doing! We know she's a definite miracle, thank you God!

Oh and everyone loved her helmet...they thought it was the cutest thing ever. Thanks again Sam for doing such a great job!

Rolling...yup, she's rolling. Just a little bit, but enough that I put her on the blanket and come back and she's no longer on it. She's practicing the going onto her tummy and then back on her back. I know some parents are like, oh no...they're rolling, but we are so excited because it's another stage in development. I tried to capture it on video, but she loves to get her picture taken and she'll hold very still and forget about everything else she is doing, so I'll have to try to catch her when she doesn't know I'm looking.

This morning Mia started rolling over from her back to her tummy! She would roll over for a bit and stay there and then roll back over to her back. It was so exciting because this means we are one step closer to the crawling stage. The therapist told us that she needs to be comfortable on her tummy before she'll get to crawling, so that was just so exciting to see happen today! We just continue to be so thankful for God's mercy in healing our baby girl...we know He doesn't have to, but we are so grateful that it is happening.

Mia also weighs 13 pounds 12 ounces...so slow and steady, which is fine with us. :)

Hi everyone, I'm doing great. This is a picture of how Mommy and Daddy usually find me in my crib in the morning. They don't put me in this way, but I like to move around a lot at night and I usually always end up this way...I guess because my legs fit perfectly through my crib...I think it's funny.

Today Mommy gave me more sweet potatoes...she said I really really liked them. I ate quite a bit and most of it ended up in my tummy, not on my face. She said she's going to keep on working on the real food thing each day because it's time for me to learn. I like that.

Thanks for reading my blog and thanks for praying for me!

Love, Mia