Preemie Life - Nine Months Old, Six 1/2 months adjusted

Nine Months Old!  Can you believe it.  I'm not going to say the time just flew by because wow summer really dragged on a bit there with four kids at home but it amazing how long quickly she is growing.  On her nine month birthday she weighed in at a whopping 16lbs!  She is only in the 7th percentile for weight and 10th for height but when you look at her adjusted stats Cheetah rides closer to the middle.

Cheetah is a mobile little beast.  You will find her all over the house hiding out.  She loves under the table, with three messy older siblings there are plenty of scraps to find there.  At the shower curtain, if you stand up just right while mom is taking a shower you can suck water off the curtain...yum gross!  Under the computer desk.  Yesterday I had to rearrange all the chords to get everything off the floor.  Someone managed to give them shelves a shock sucking on the end of a charger...SCARY!  She likes to go in her sisters' room to chew on my little ponies.  You'll find her in Captain E's room trying to eat book and legos.  She stands at everything.  Making dinner has the added charm of her clinging to my pant legs.  She can slowly cruise the couch or your legs if you are sitting on the floor.  On Tuesday she stood for about five second unassisted until I shouted, "Hey look you're standing, let me get the camera.  She looked at me, lost her balance and face planted in the grass.  She likes to crawl outside the door (just like her older sister peach) and in the garage where he knees and toes get covered in dust!





Her eyes are still hazel but her hair has just a hint of curl and is starting to thicken up quite nicely.  One day last week I put a little gel in it to see if the curl would stay all day.  It was an adorable little mohawk.  One day last week Peach decided to put slime in her hair.  It was not nearly so adorable and had to be washed out, but Cheetah was a good sport about it :)  Cheetah tans really nicely well.  So it looks like we've got another brown baby on our hands.


Cheetah is one for exploration.  She loves to pull all the toys or books off a shelf, open up boxes, and rip open bags.  If there is a basket in the room she wants to know what is inside.  In the kitchen she loves getting her hands on cooking implements.

She is starting to recognize words like her name and no.  She jabbers at you like she knows what she's talking about for the most part there is nothing recognizable with the exception of the word mum.  She knows who her mama is and I am her favorite.  At night when she wakes up or is having difficulty falling to sleep she'll call out "mum, mum, mum," until she finds her way into my arms.

Most of the time though she is happy to be part of the games with everyone else.  Her siblings drag her around everywhere.  She is like a living doll, a live audience, and a playmate all rolled up into one.  They fight over who gets to hold her and if they get sent to time out will try to sneak her in with them. They love to turn on music for her because she will get excited, clap her hands and start to rock.  All of them enjoy picking her outfits out and trying to find shows on PBS they think she will like :)

Her mouth is her favorite way to test all objects.  As I mentioned before she likes to chew on chords.  She also eats paper, pretty much any paper she can get her hands and mouth on.  She chews on shoes, just like a puppy and at least once a day I have to fish some type of small toy out of her mouth that she managed to get her hands on.  She loves putting hair in her mouth.  Stuff on your head, hair balls she finds on the broom, makes no difference to her.  I also caught her this week putting an ant covered coca puff in her mouth. Her favorite chew toy, my new iphone.  I spend hours a day trying to keep that away from her.

She is my best eater of baby food as well.  She eats oatmeal, rice cereal, bananas, applesauce, pureed mango.  Dr. J even feed her a chicken medley which she ate with gusto.  Her bottle feeding skills are still pretty bad but I got her a sippy cup that she at least likes to chew on and pretend that she knows what she's doing.


I included a video of her last developmental peds visit.  When Preemies are born they are given their actual birthday and then on the day of their due date they are given an adjusted birth date.  That's why Cheetah is nine months old according to her actual birthday but 6 1/2 months adjusted because for the first two and half months of her life she wasn't out hitting baby developmental milestones but instead was hitting gestational ones.  The adjusted date helps everyone keep expectations realistic on what preemies should be doing and it stays in place until they hit two years old when most preemies have caught up.  Along with that date comes visits to the developmental pediatrician.  I love Cheetah's developmental pediatrian.  She is lively and fun, full of so much love for children and for life that it literally radiates off of her.  On our visit a few weeks ago the pediatrician told me she had no need to see Cheetah anymore.  She is doing everything she should be and is even on the front end of what she should be doing for her real age.  She called her the clinic superstar!  She told me she wanted to bring her student in to stump him for a little bit of fun, poor guy!  I know we have been super blessed and am so grateful for how well our little Cheetah is doing and how much happiness she brings to our family!

Cheetah the clinic superstar stumping the med student.



Just a sample of her rocking to music.