10 Months (and an allergist visit)

Anna is 10 months today. I really can't believe how old that sounds... so close to 12 months which means goodbye babyhood, hello toddlerhood. I am definitley not ready for that. Yet it's coming nonetheless!

The big happening this month was our first visit to the pediatric allergist. After Anna's pretty intense reactions when we gave her yogurt and peas, our pediatrician thought it would be good for us to see the allergist. We went in at 7:30 and didn't make it out until 10:30. They did a skin prick test on Anna's back, testing for 12 different types of food reactions. The process involves writing numbers on the back and sticking the numbers with separate pointy sticks. Anna handled the sticking very well. I was so proud of her! The child life specialist distracted her with bubbles and while she jumped at every prick, she didn't cry until the final one. The hard part was carrying her around for 30 minutes while the skin had time to react. She had a couple of large welts right away and they were bothering her so much but she wasn't allowed to touch them. Nurses and doctors would walk by and comment on how large her reactions were. My eyes welled up with tears but I tried to remain positive.

Here she is with a bitty tear after the testing was done. And here is her back:

As you can see, there were three major welts (apart from the top two controls). Any guesses?

Milk, eggs, and peanuts. Each one fit the largest measurement they had. Yay.

So there we have it. What did I do first? Come home and praise God. Because he is good. And he is way bigger than all of this. He loves Anna and this isn't his best for her. Allergies are often changing, so we are believing him for better things. But for now, she will be transitioned to soy milk and I will not be bringing anything with nuts into the house. Cross-contamination is too easy, she's known for picking crumbs up off the floor. We eat dairy in almost all of our meals, so I'm not sure how we are going to go about that once she's off of soy formula completely. I'm a little discouraged but trying not to get too down about it. I'm glad she didn't show any reaction to wheat, oat, or soy which are high on the list.

On a happier note, back to the other monthly stuff.

Anna wears mostly 6-9 month clothes right now, but still some 3-6 and one or two 9-12 items. She wears a size 3 diaper. I've noticed lately that she gets bored more easily (particularly with items she is familiar with) so I've been challenged to think of new opportunities for her to explore. Our place is completely baby proofed except our bedroom, so for the most part I let her toddle around wherever she wants to go. There are a couple of cords that I keep an eye on and give her some practice with "no touching" :)

We've been on lots of play dates lately thanks to some new friends and different opportunities to be around other babies her age. It's been cute to observe her unique personality in these settings. She's very slow and methodical and likes to sit back and observe what's going on. She usually does minimal crawling and simply watches the other babies.

She is still taking two naps but they have gotten shorter. Her morning nap is now only an hour long, sometimes 45 minutes, and her afternoon nap is 1-2 hours. She still goes down easily for the most part and it's a rare day that there is any fussing before nap time. All those days of gently teaching her how to fall asleep really paid off- she was a terrible sleeper in the beginning! Eek!

Anna is officially crawling this month! She went from army crawl to big-girl crawl. Sooo cute.

She's eating 3-4 bottles a day plus one in the early morning. She's cut back on her fluid intake the last month while adding more solids- she now eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We do a combination of pureed food and finger food as she likes them both ways. She drinks water with all her meals from a straw sippy cup, though I haven't been able to convince her that water is a good thing!

This is more or less what her days looks like:

7:30 Wake up and bottle (then she plays around the house)

8:30 Breakfast

9:30 or 10 Nap

11:00 Bottle (this is typically when we go out on an errand or playdate)

12:30 Lunch

2:00 Nap

3:00 Bottle (usually we go for a walk or play outside if it's warm enough)

5:30 Dinner

6:30 Bottle

7:00 Bedtime (waking up between 4-7 to fill her tiny tummy once again :).

Anna caught her first illness apart from two mild colds: Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease. What a nasty little illness. It was sad to see her skin covered in blistery sores, but she remained rather calm and pleasant considering. The hardest part was when she wanted to suck her two fingers which is her usual self-soothing mechanism. Those bitty fingers were covered in sores and it was really rough on her not having them as an aide.

She finally hit a "milestone" I wasn't sure she would ever get the hang of! She can officially do this:

Daddy made a fun little tunnel out of a cardboard box and she's had a grand time going back and forth a million times, thinking she's hot stuff.

She's pulling up, standing, and climbing very comfortably now.

She loves playing outside!

Bed times with Daddy.