{ava bird - 6 months}

Our sweet girl is 6 months old now. I can't believe it, it seems like just yesterday I was hovering over the toilet bowl and thinking, "this is going to be a LOOOOOOOONG pregnancy." And it was. But she is such a joy and light in our lives - always. Even in the middle of the night when she's crying for more food while she SHOULD be sleeping (little pill). And she is beautiful too. Of course, I thought that from the moment I saw her because she's mine but the truth is when she was first born her head was REALLY flattened and oblong from her horrible positioning the last two months or so in the womb, her face was bruised and swollen from a traumatic labor, she had "stork bites" on her forehead and eyes, and her chin was so far recessed from being pressed against my pelvis throughout the pregnancy that we were worried it would never pop out. I was so thankful that she was healthy and in my arms (as opposed to in the NICU) when they first handed her to me that I didn't much care about her physical charm. However, she grew noticeably cuter only hours after birth. And after a couple days she was an absolute doll. Actually, she still is. She's our perfectly lovely little lady and her engaging smile just warms my heart.

As for her oblong head, it took almost this whole 6 months to round out to the beautiful roundness that it has achieved now. She was actually diagnosed with mild plagiocephaly at 2 months old and there was much concern as to whether or not she would need to wear a helmet to help her skull to grow round. The flatness in the back of her head was symmetrical, which was the best scenerio possible in this situation, but it was so dramatic for a while that the skull elongated all of it's extra bone mass to the crown of the skull in an egg-like shape. At her 4-month check-up her head measurements were taken again and compared to her 2-month results and she had already improved by a lot. Her doctor told us to continue her physical therapy (which was really just an abundance of "tummy time" and shifting her head when she was sleeping in one position too long) and we'd check again at sixth months. He urged us to wait on getting her fitted for a skull-shaping helmet because it seemed the skull was working to round itself out on it's own. And - HOORAY - it did! She measured just right at her 6-month appointment and is even ahead of the class on her advancement in rolling and near-crawling due to all her tummy time.

She measured
26 inches (95th percentile) for height,
13.2 lbs (about 5th percentile) for weight.

So, she's tall and skinny. But that's how we make 'em, I guess (aside from Eli). Docs aren't worried because Dean was similar and because her height is growing at a good pace. We are firm believers (as is our Doc) that height is a better determining factor for healthy growth, so grow-on baby girl.