Channing's Stats - 15 months

Channing had her 15 month well check on Monday. Here's how she's measuring up:

Weight - 20lbs 3oz
Height - 29.5 inches
Head - 46.2 cm

Actual Age (15 months)-
11th% for weight
18th% for height
57th% for head

Adjusted Age (12 months) -
39th% for weight
68th% for height
82nd% for head

Basically, we've got a candy apple on our hands. Long, skinny with a big head! Her doctor isn't concerned at all about her size or growth.

Channing is really close to talking her first steps. Last week, we had her first visit with a Physical Therapist to assess her walking. I guess Channing didn't like this development and since that visit has totally blown us away with her cruising and standing unassisted skills. In that same vein, the gate went up to prevent her from climbing the stairs.

Things she loves: Eating at the table with her friends at daycare (Her teacher told us that she throws a fit if she's not allowed at the 'big kid' table for lunch), being tickled, swinging on the back porch, Food! Food! Food!, Baby Babble and pretty much anything to do with DaDa.

Things she doesn't like: Breathing treatments with mom (oddly she sits perfectly still for breathing txs with Nana. . .hmmm), anyone helping her walk (this one's got an independent streak for real), stop and go traffic (but who does, really?), when her paci falls out of her crib.

Also, I'm about to schedule Channing's first visit to the dentist!!! Surely, this won't go well, right??

Flashback Friday - One year ago

One year ago tomorrow -

I sat in Channing's NICU room. Room 21. I got the results of her MRI and our lives were forever changed for the third time in 3 months. I never in my life had so many contrasting emotions welling up in my body at the same time. The MRI results didn't close the chapter on our NICU experience but it gave us one thing that we were stripped of from the beginning. HOPE! We had hope that someday Channing would walk and talk and play and reason. MOST importantly that she would live. I had prepared myself for the worst. I genuinely believed that Channing had HPE and the other (potentially) fatal brain defect. Even though the Dr. told us that TWO defects would be INCREDIBLY rare. I just thought "why wouldn't she have both? everything else has gone wrong". Mentally, I had prepared myself for so many possibilities. One being a funeral. Then I got those results and everything was different in an instant. The light was let in.

Today, Channing is great. She is on the cusp of walking and talking and she's getting to be so fun. She has us all wrapped around her finger. Her personality is definitely shining through these days. She's very demanding and knows what she wants. She doesn't take no for an answer. She loves to read books. She loves being tickled. She loves her grandparents something crazy! She's got a sibling rivalry thing going on with Truckie that's pretty cute. He picks up a toy, she wants that toy, she takes that toy from him. Then she waves it in his face. Luckily, Truck is a good sport about it all.

Today, I'm a really good. I don't cry like I used to, thinking about those days. Ok ok, I don't cry as much. Having those feelings and flashbacks randomly sneak up on me. My PTSD is slowly fading. I don't feel sorry for us. Actually I don't know if I felt sorry but I was mad for a while. I'm not mad anymore. We have an amazing life and yeah people have sucky things happen to them. I have to tell myself "Big deal! Get over it! Could be a lot worse" I'm definitely not at the point where I feel 'better for having gone through this'. I don't think I'll ever say that and I'll probably always be a little sad about the way things happened.

But I think that's okay too.

Channing 1 year ago

Irrational

Can I be petty for a minute? It's my blog so I guess I'm allowed. It's February. My favorite month of the year. MY birthday month. It's the month of Valentine's which I also love because I've always associated it with my birthday. Pink and red and conversation hearts. I adore it all. I've forever been in love with the month of February. So when my due date was February I was seriously ecstatic. I just knew it was meant to be. We weren't 'planning' it that way. Just happened. So so happy. And then Channing was born in November. NOT February. (Look beyond the whole prematurity thing) I told you I was being petty. It really really really bothers me that she wasn't born in February. Like I hate it. I don't have anything against November in and of itself. It's a perfectly fine month. One of my favorite people of all time was born in November. But Channing was supposed to be born in February and she wasn't and it bothers me.

Disclaimer: I do realize that in the grand scheme of life and Channing's prematurity that birth month means absolutely nothing.

In lighter news: Channing ate her first tater tot today. She loved it.

Flashback Friday

I love this collage that one of the nurses made for us. She put Channing in her Christmas stocking. I think I've blocked out exactly how small C was.

Check out this preemie. . .me! I was born 6 weeks early due to preterm labor. 4lbs 4oz. I don't think I look anything like Channing did/does.

Geez my posts are so boring these days. That's probably a good thing!

Some random shots of Channing: