Evany is six month old today! Let me pause for a second to pat myself on the back for actually, you know, posting this on the actual day. That's rare for me. Go me! So yes, Vivi's half birthday is today. And in the last month or so, this girl has come into her own.
She is gaining weight like crazy...she's nearly sixteen pounds and a petite 25 inches long. As far as percentiles go, she's in the 50th percentile for weight and the 25th for height for a six month old, but when you take her adjusted age (she should be four months old, not six) she is in the 90th percentile for weight and the 75th for height. When I looked back at the other kids at four months, she's pretty much the same size at they all were, although she is shorter. She's a short, solid little girl. And when I say she's gaining weight like crazy, I mean it...she's put on 12 ounces this week. I'm not sure what to do with her. She's hungry a lot.
She's a great sleeper...the only one of my babies that doesn't insist upon being swaddled. She goes down wide awake and puts herself to sleep, and she transitioned to the crib easily and takes at least one nap in there during the day and goes to bed after a 7 o'clock bottle without a peep. She was sleeping through the night, but since she's apparently starving to death lately, she's been waking up once around 3 or 4 then going right back to sleep. It could be worse.
Evany is a very, very happy baby. Considering what dirty looks she used to give me, I never thought I'd see these big gummy smiles coming my way. She's a very loud and active smiler, and she is incapable of smiling without kicking her legs, waving her arms, and yelling all at the same time. She babbles a ton, which I'm really not used to, and while she's not exactly cuddly, she does like to sit on your hip and hang on like a monkey and see everything that's going on.
She's also, and this is pretty exciting, not delayed. It's exciting because Seth is still delayed, and he was less premature than Evany was. Her development falls right in between a four month old and a six month old, and I'm thrilled with that. She has great muscle tone and isn't floppy at all. The only issues we are still dealing with for her are her VSD and some pretty gnarly reflux that is presenting as really bad chest congestion that never goes away. Other than that, she's doing swimmingly.
I think she's little Miss Personality, don't you?
Of course, that's all technical stuff that doesn't really matter in the scheme of things. To get mushy, she's a gorgeous baby who makes me happy every time I look at her. I was worried, that after such a sad pregnancy and scary birth, that those emotions would somehow be a part of her, but instead she's an incredibly happy girl who loves absolutely everyone. Her siblings are all obsessed with her, especially the boys, and she's just a joy to have around. We really lucked out with this one!
When I think of what a dark place I was in six months ago, it seems surreal. Those days I sat in the hospital, not knowing when or how she would be born, then the rush that went into her very scary birth...there were moments when I, and I think several other people who knew what they were talking about, were pretty convinced that she wasn't going to make it. But she pulled through and she surprised us all. I'll never forget the moment her perinatologist came to me and said "Your daughter's lungs are very underdeveloped, and she has a serious infection in her blood. On paper, she's a really sick baby, but apparently, no one told her that."
Evany has surprised me every step of the way, and I can't wait to see what the next six months hold!
