Mya's 10 Month Update ⋆ Growing Up Kemper

Baby girl turned 10 months this weekend! Can you believe that!? Today’s all about the sweet 10 month old things she’s mastering, how she finally said one very special word (🤍🤍🤍), and all about her final pre-op appointment that we went to just last week.

So let’s get started on Little Mya Girl and everything she’s been up to lately!

Sleeping

With the boys going back to school, she’s fallen right into a routine of a 7:00am wake-up, 9:00am nap, 1pm nap, and a 7pm bedtime. Every. Single. Day. I think we had one day where she fought a nap this past month and we were all like, “WAIT…WHAT IS THIS?! No! You don’t DO this!” When you get used to such a routine for so many months, you get thrown off kilter just a bit more when she throws you a curveball.

I haven’t mentioned it much in previous posts, but we are bracing her at night to help with her diagnosed hip dysplasia. Our orthopedic surgeon has us bracing her for roughly 12-14 hours a day, so we tried it the first night by bracing her at night while she slept, just hoping that it would work out that we could do at least some of the hours then.

She slept through the night the first night with the brace and we’ve never looked back. 🙂

We go back to have another x-ray on her hips the day before Thanksgiving, so we will find out then if the bracing is working and we can continue as we are doing now, or if we have to up the hours braced to a full 24 hours a day. Bah!

Eating

Homegirl loves her food! She eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the family, and has the occasional snack if we are at a soccer game or out doing something fun with the family. There have been a few times where she’s gone for the snacks over her bottle if given the choice, so I see the transition is happening slowly away from her bottles right before my eyes.

As for food choices, she loves almost all fruits and vegetables that she’s tried. The only one that I’ve noticed she consistently turns away is raspberries. She’s a fan of chicken, fish, and even the occassional bite off my hamburger. Her absolute favorite food is pasta of any sort (that’s my girl!).

At our last pediatrician appointment, our doctor recommended to us that we start to offer food first, then bottles. We are working towards at 12 months being able to easily ween her from her formula bottles to milk.

During mealtime, Mya does drink water out of a straw cup. I’m hoping that as we move closer to one, we can even put her afternoon bottles in her straw cup to slowly make the transition to introducing milk at one year. I can put all the pieces in place, but it’s always an unknown when it comes to these transitions. Only time will tell how finicky our girl will be!

Eye Surgery Update

As I mentioned in her previous eye update, both of Mya’s eyes cross inwards. Her official diagnosis at this time is Infantile Esotropia, which is an issue with her medial rectus eye muscles pulling her eyes inward due to being developed too tight. There are so many umbrellas that Mya falls under with this diagnosis: Strabismus because she has an eye issue, Esotropia because her eyes cross inward, and add a little cross-fixation because she looks at objects to her left with her right eye and objects on her right with her left eye.

Mid-November, Mya will have a surgery to have her two inner eye muscles removed from the eye and placed further back to hopefully allow for a full range of motion in both.

This past week, we attended her pre-op appointment with her eye surgeon to have further testing and measuring done on her eyes in preparation for her November surgery. Thankfully, our surgeon was able to determine final measurements, discuss the surgery further with us, and review all the outcomes we can come away from this surgery with.

Unfortunately, this may not be the only surgery Mya will face. Nor will this be the only eye issue she may ever deal with. We could possibly come out of surgery with straight eyes with full range of motion, we could come out of it with an additional surgery needed, we could come out of it where one eye drifts upwards, we could come out of it needing glasses, or we may come out of it without needing them. We just don’t have all the answers until we just try this first. Unfortunately, that first step to get the answers = surgery.

Each appointment I’ve had, I’ve talked to God and just asked that He allows me to leave the appointment with a certainty that this surgeon and this surgery is the right step forward. To give me confidence that I’m doing the right thing for my daughter, that this is the right person that will help her, and that this is the right time to do this.

At her last appointment, I got into my car and instantly started Googling her diagnosis, the surgery, and everything I could possibly devour online. In the very first study I read regarding the surgery, the determined “ideal surgical date” is at 10 months of age. Mya will be exactly that.

Our surgeon is patient, is kind, is honest, is knowledgeable, and is frankly exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. If you remember, this was not my first surgeon I’ve met. She is loving towards my daughter and my family, has answered every question and concern, and has talked to us as if we were her only patients that day.

God, Your wisdom is infinite, Your love and Your presence is felt, and I thank You for walking with me through this time. I am going into November with a calm and a reassurance because He has answered my prayers at every step of this journey with Mya.

All About Mya

She now stands up in her crib. 😒
Mya is on the move, and loves to ride anything that will make her go faster: Plasma cars, Tide-Along Thomas the Train, Cozy Coupe, Motorized John Deere tractor. She may not be able to make it move herself, but she’ll let you know if you’re not making it go enough for her.
Her brothers are still her very favorite people.
She plays peek-a-boo with you.
She can hold her own bottles now.
She’s gone and done it! Mya now calls me, “mama” and my heart grew three sizes that day. 🤍
Mya also says, “Night night,” “Yay,” “Ouch,” “Hi,” and makes the kissing sound every time she gives you a big, wet, open-mouthed kiss.
She claps her hands…and does the KC Chiefs Tomahawk chop.
Still. No. Teeth.
We finally got our first ponytail on Mya…and it is adorable.
She stands up on everything she can, tries to take steps while you’re holding her hands, and can crawl faster than I’m prepared for most days.

She’s strong, she’s stubborn, she’s loving, and she’s snuggly. She’s on the move and wants to be right by your side.

In the words of Jackson…

“I think we should start giving her coffee because I want her to be small forever.”