Today at occupational therapy (for her fine motor skills...putting blocks in containers, etc.), her therapist was so pleased at how much she has improved...and I can see her progress weekly, which is so nice. Anyway, we were discussing that Mia is at an 11-12 month level, and so she's not so far off from her actual age...not yet 16 months. There was talk that maybe, if she continues to progress like she is, in another 12 weeks (that's how often they reevaluate) she might no longer need occupational therapy. I was almost in shock when she told me that! But Praise God at her progress! And, our dear friend Lita left a comment on how well she is doing considering what they told us she would NEVER do...and it was a powerful reminder of God's healing miracle in her little life. She's come a long way from just "eating, breathing, smiling, and laughing". We are forever grateful at the mercy God has extended to our little Mia...and so grateful to all of you who continue to encourage us and pray for her (and us too!). Thank you God!!!!

Yesterday Nana and I took Mia to LA for a follow-up visit with her NICU doctors. They always get so excited to see Mia because she was in the NICU for so long and we are there all the time that they have such a good relationship with her. So it is always fun to visit them. They love seeing how big she's getting and her blonde hairs...

One of their physical therapists did a development test on her again...she had one done around 9 months, so this was to see how much she has progressed...areas she might need more help, etc. They had these cute little square box chairs (I wish I had taken the camera and taken a picture :( Next time!) Anyway, she sat in one, like a little princess, all prim and proper, and the other one pulled up to her like a table. She loved it. They tested her to see if she could take blocks out of a cup, put blocks in a cup...could she find things under washcloths, she did pretty well with everything...she didn't always use her left hand, but when I forced her to use it, she was able to do pretty good. They had a problem solving thingy...a clear plastic box that had an opening on one side. They put a duck in it, so she could see the duck and had the opening facing her, she was able to reach in and get the duck out, but when they turned the opening to either side she wasn't able to do it. How snooky of them!

Anyway, she scored very similar to her last test, even though she was able to do much more, the bar was raised higher for her age. She's definitely behind (we knew that!), but she's furthest behind in gross motor skills (we knew that too!). Crawling, Scooting, Getting into Sitting, etc. We continue to work on those...the other thing though is that her language score was a bit lower, but that's because she's not saying much, so pray also that she would develop her language skills and learn some basic words. They said the next time they evaluate her (21 months) if she is behind in language they can write a prescription for speech therapy...we'll see what happens then. The test was also a little biased because she got marked down for not knowing the word "no"...but we never use the word "no" with her (she's an angel...), well, she's just not crawling and getting into things that she shouldn't get into. The test didn't recognize that she knows what to do when we say "turn the page" or "roll me the ball"...so they said at 21 months I can also place her where I think she is on the scale...mostly they were just concerned that she's not saying alot of other sounds besides, m's and n's and aye! So pray for her to learn those other sounds. :)

That was kind of verbose, good thing women have more words then men...Mia at least has that much extra going for her!!

Will you praise God with us!

So one of our struggles all along has been getting Mia to gain weight and eat food, well, she is now 18 pounds 7 ounces, she's gained 1 1/2 pounds in less than a month, that is phenomenal for our little girl, usually she barely makes 1 pound in a month, so we are so excited about her weight gain. Thank you God!

Mia has also slept through the night 4 times in a row, which is also amazing. And we are ever so grateful for that. We know it is beneficial to her and to us also. By the way, we haven't had to cry it out yet...still an option if there are nights of sleeplessness, but we are grateful she's doing it on her own.

Her head is growing slowly, another praise! And we continue to pray that the helmet will fix the step down in front and reshape her head properly. Thank you for continuing to pray for her, God is so good!

Please also pray for crawling and walking, we know it is possible, we just don't know when. Help us to be patient as we wait on God's timing for this!

Yesterday we went to feeding therapy and got some good advice about getting Mia to eat chunkier solids. The feeding therapist said that a "guru" in feeding therapy hates stage 3 baby food with chunks because children get confused and don't know if it is a solid or a purée. (Stage 3 is pureed solids with chunks.). He recommends going straight to feeding tiny pieces of food to your child, and I think that is true for Mia, so we will be working on that with her.

Two nights ago (the first day I tried one less bottle and more solids instead) Mia slept through the night! We were so excited, and we knew it was possible. Thank you God! Last night she made it until 4:20 and we weren't ready to cry it out, so she got a pacifier to help her back to sleep, but no bottle. So I think we've agreed she doesn't need a bottle and now we will have to decide when we are ready for her to cry it out...maybe tonight??? We will see.

She is also doing real well gaining weight, she is now 18 pounds 4 ounces.

Mia is doing well from her shots so far, which we are very grateful. We know her immunizations are important, but we don't want her to have anymore seizures either. Mia weighed in at 18 pounds 1 ounce this morning, she's getting to be such a big girl!

At the pediatrician's office yesterday, she told us she wants Mia to be getting 3 meals a day and no more bottles after 18 months...that's seems a bit daunting to us, but we're going to do our best to get there. Pray for wisdom on transitioning to more solids and chunkier solids. Mia tends to make herself gag with chunkier things, so pray that she'd figure out how to eat those things...we will be seeing her feeding therapist tomorrow and she should be able to give us more advice on this also.

Pray also that Mia would learn to feed herself. She will pick up food, but never put it in her mouth...she'll put toys in her mouth, but not food, so pray that she'd make progress in that area.

We are considering letting Mia cry it out at night also, instead of giving her a bottle, so pray for wisdom there also. We want to do what's best for her and getting her to learn how to sleep through the night is really important, so pray for us in that area too.

We are leaning towards not doing surgery on her skull, pray that if God wants us to do that, He would change our hearts. We aren't for certain, but that is kind of where we are at right now...we are definitely not rushing into another skull surgery.