Mia was 4 months old last Tuesday; that’s one third of a year! I simply cannot believe how the time has flown since she entered into our lives. And like most new parents, life pre-baby seems like a distant blur.
We are really lucky that Mia is continuing to feed well, so well in fact that we have had to move up to the bigger sized bottles to keep up with her growing appetite. The past two afternoons she drained 5.5oz (160ml) in one sitting, which doesn’t sound much to most people but it looks like a huge amount for such a tiny wee thing. Vicki stopped expressing a few weeks back so Mia is now exclusively on formula and sleeping through the night from around 11pm to 7:30am. I’m not sure if these two factors are connected but they seemed to coincide with each other. At her last weigh in, two weeks ago, she was 7lb 6oz, and she seems to be stretching every day at the moment. It won’t be too long before we’ll be starting to think about weaning, and while I’m really looking forward to seeing Mia’s reaction to new tastes and textures I have no doubt this will bring with it its own set of hurdles.
We went swimming for the first time last weekend and Mia seemed to love the freedom of floating and being pushed through the water. She also really enjoys baby massage after bath time, so long as she’s not too tired, and we’ve started baby sign language which is proving a steep learning curve for all three of us!
She adores playing with her baby gym and will happily lie, entranced by the flashing lights and jungle sound effects, while practising her speedball technique on the poor, defenceless animals hanging from the bars. Head control is getting much better and we try to work in some tummy time each day, which Mia hates. But last week she surprised us by rolling over from her front to her back unassisted – a ‘trick’ which she is now getting the hang of and repeating with increasing frequency, much to our delight! As far as interaction goes, we get lots of eye contact and the odd half-smile, but we’re still waiting patiently for regular grins and giggles.
The photos throughout this post are from a few weeks ago when, after much harassment from Vicki and procrastination on my part, I finally got the photography gear set up in our kitchen to take some family pics. Vicki even convinced me to relinquish control of the shutter and get in front of the camera. Like many models, Mia will only work for short periods of time before bursting into tears, screaming incoherent demands at the ‘production team’ or falling asleep on set. So the group shots we had planned will have to wait for another day…
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I am the mom of a 33 year old son (Josh) born with WHS. He wasn’t diagnosed till he was in his 20’s because there was no such thing as this syndrome for most of his life. Everything in his life came as a surprise to us. He is an absolute sweeheart; is loved by all who know him. And an amazingly brave little fighter.
I just wanted to tell you that Mia is beautiful! If you have as much joy as we’ve had, and it sounds like she’s a cutie pie who’s raring to go, you’ll be lucky.
Good luck–remember to laugh a lot!
What a cutie! Glad you are not having the feeding issues that I am having with little Arin. You are not the only prograstinator as I still have not got Arin in for her first offical pictures and she is already 2 months old. Good luck with the new foods.
Mia is gorgeous, love the pictures! So glad to hear how well she is doing. Her feeding is amazing and her interactions are very appropriate for her age. Keep it up, Mia!
Thanks guys!
Debbie, it’s really inspiring to hear someone talking so positively about their grown-up WHS child – I’m sure I am not alone in saying that I’d love to hear more about Josh if you ever feel like posting.
I was smiling when reading your post because I can relate so much of this to Tyler. He loves batting at the elephant in his baby gym and even does the half smile. I showed my father pics of Mia and all he could say was, “WOW” because Tyler and Mia look very similar. I find it amazing how many similarities WH children have in their looks and mannerisms. Mia is beautiful!!!
Ross- great stuff. Mia is doing so well. What great pictures… The second picture reminds me of Kendall in this post: http://www.wolfhirschhorn.org/2008/03/kendall/update/. Thanks for all the contributions!
She is so beautiful!!!!! Great pictures and I’m so happy that you guys are doing so well:) I’ll look forward to your family pictures:)
Love to hear Mia is doing well! As always your pictures are so beautiful.
Way to go Mia! I’m so happy she is doing so well. The photos are beautiful! You have a gorgeous family. Thanks for sharing.
She is so precious, and the pictures are amazing! I hope that she continues to have success in eating and surprise you with her milestones. She sounds like she is doing FABULOUS! xo
You have been given a real live doll, big blue eyes, button nose, perfect cherub lips. She eats and sleeps well and you are enjoy her so much. She is developing at her own rate and in her own way. Thank you for sharing the positive aspects of your new family experience with us.