Mya’s 7 Month Update

The boys are beyond excited that Mya’s “clicked one step closer to 1” while I’m over here just trying to slow down every second of time. Mya’s had A LOT going on over the last month, so buckle up…here’s what’s happening with Mya Girl this month!

Eating

Boy, Mya basically skipped right over the pureed fruits and veggies stage, and went straight to eating everything that we are eating (sans things that toothless little girl can’t munch through). We couldn’t seem to spoon those pureed meals into her mouth fast enough and it became more frustrating for her and I both. She wanted what I was eating, began reaching for my plate, and longingly stared at me as I took bites. Okay girl, you go ahead with your ear of corn and your bits of meatballs. I see you…and I get you. 🙂

Mya eats a breakfast, a lunch, and a dinner each day with us at the table. To supplement her food, she’s still nursing morning and night, and receiving 2 bottles in between. Sometimes I feel like all she does is eat, but I take one of those things away and she’s one unhappy babe. So for now, she’s feeding 4 times a day with 3 meals of finger foods in between.

Bottles are typically only 4-6 ounces still, so I feel like her nutrition is coming from her healthy foods she’s eating and her bottles/nursing are more just supplementing at this point. Her pediatrician set a goal for us to be working more towards a “foods first” approach by her 9-month appointment, so…look at us. We’re nailing it!

Sleeping

Well, she’s the best. I sometimes forget just how fortunate I am to have such a rock star sleeper on my hands.

I follow the sweet Catherine Giudici from Sean Lowe’s season of The Bachelor on Instagram. She has a baby girl named Mia that was born right around the same time as Mya. Just the other day, she posted a photo of Mia sleeping in her crib and her monitor app she was using clocked her in at somewhere around 10 hours of sleeping that night. Catherine had made a comment about how amazing this was and she was so proud of her little girl.

I saw this and obviously mentally celebrated both Mia and Catherine first, but then I was so struck by the fact that Mya has been doing that since before she was 8 weeks old. Again…she’s amazing and I (and my mind…my sanity…my under eye bags) are all so appreciative of her sleep. It’s not normal, it’s not expected, and it is most definitely celebrated around here!

As for napping, she typically takes two naps a day now, ranging from 1 hour to upwards of 3 hours at a time. It’s super unpredictable right now but rarely lasts less than an hour.

So her schedule is looking something like this…

7:30 – Wake-up, nurse, play, breakfast

9:30 – 1st Nap

10:30/11:00 – Bottle, playtime, lunch

1:00 – Nurse, 2nd Nap

3:30/4:00 – Bottle, Play, Dinner

6:30 – Bath, Bedtime Routine, Nurse, Down for the Night

Even as I’m writing that out, it seems like a lot of food, right?! Little peanut has already started the snack game like her brothers. I’m doomed. 🙂

Doctors, Doctors, and More Doctors

After I wrote my post on Mya’s 6 Month Update, I had her 6-month doctor’s appointment with her pediatrician. I was already armed with question regarding her eyes crossing and her legs still being slightly bowed.

In talking with her doctor, we both decided to move forward in seeking specialists for her eyes and hips. We don’t have an appointment for her hips until September, so I’ll keep you all posted on that as it comes. For now, all we see is a bowing of her legs that may or may not work itself out. Our pediatrician even said that some don’t turn straight until upwards of 2 years old. It’s not super concerning right now, but we’ll see in September.

As for her eyes, Mya’s left eye turns in slightly and it appears that she doesn’t have the ability to move it fully outward. Instead, she turns her head to see something to the left of her.

Just this past week, I was able to get in with an opthamologist and she had prelimary concern for something called Duane’s Syndrome, a misalignment of the eye in which a cranial nerve was improperly formed before she was born. Her eye actually doesn’t have the ability to move outward, regardless of simple interventions like patching or glasses. At this point, it’s assumed that the only “fix” for her eye will be to undergo eye surgery to manually tighten/loosen portions of her eye to allow it to appear more straight.

I have someone so dear to me that has Duane’s Syndrome so I’ve seen it before, and seen what surgery can do. I know how beneficial it is, how simple this outpatient surgery is, and how quickly the rehab is. I knew a lot about this Syndrome before and was slightly expecting those words to come out of the doctor’s mouth before she even began.

It still doesn’t make it any easier to stomach.

Eye surgery isn’t easy to stomach. A baby being put under anestesia isn’t easy to stomach. Having her feel the slightest ounce of pain isn’t either. But God beautifully made my baby girl, and every part of her is special, is miraculous, and is perfect. If she needs surgery to help her, we get surgery and God will be there with a knowledgeable surgeon. We’ll have the strength to manage, to heal, and to be thankful. It will all work out. I know it will.

So moving forward, we have another appointment with an orthoptist (someone on the ophthalmologist team that works more with an actual diagnosis) in August to begin a more thorough look at Mya’s eyes, begin doing measurements, and determining a plan of action. This could be a reoccurring appointment until we determine appropriate next steps based on improvements or things staying much the same. I’ll have a much better update the end of August.

So maybe she’s a little bow legged and looks like she’s always in a ballet third position. And her eye is adorably turned slightly. She’s hitting milestone after milestone, talking a ton, and is one of the very happiest little babes. I’ll take that any day.

Here’s what Mya’s been up to this last month…

• Remember that food that she loves so much? She’s starting to feed herself from her tray all by herself! #gamechanger
• Mya can flip herself over and over and over again, truly going from one side of the room to another in seconds. Equal parts endearing and terrifying. Why again do my boys have the smallest toy pieces? 😮
• She’s saying “dada” (rude…) and really branching out on her consonant sounds lately. “M” isn’t one of those sounds, so I’ll just be over here waiting impatiently for the day she can say ‘mama’…
• Bows and barrettes are still very much acceptable to her, and she’ll wear them all day long if we choose. But a pair of sunglasses? Instantly rips those off. Not looking good for those glasses if we need them…🤨
• We do patch Mya every day for at least an hour a day. I put the patch on, she feels it for upwards of ten seconds with her fingers, and then never touches it again. I think she’d let us leave it on for hours if we needed. Thank. Goodness!
• Her brothers are still her very favorite people in the world.
• This heat we’re experiencing is hell on earth for Mya Girl. She is not having it.
• And still no teeth for the babe. The boys got their teeth around 9/10 months so I’m thinking we still have a few months to go before she gets anything popping out. Not the easiest to keep trying foods when you don’t have any teeth, but I’m okay with keeping the teething issues away for just a little while longer.

I’m pretty obsessed with this little girl. She’s got me fully wrapped around her finger and I’m just fine with being there. Happy 7 months, Mya. 🤍

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