HaPpY 3 months Linnea!!

So much to report!!  I can hardly believe that we have had Linnea in our arms for 3 months now!!  She is growing so quickly and I am having to take it all in at the same quick pace.  It makes me sad - don't get me wrong I certainly want her to grow and catch up and meet all these milestones - but at the same time can it slow down just a bit - we just got her!!  Because we got her at an older age we missed out on so much of her life I just want time to slow down a wee bit!! She is such a joy and I can't imagine life without her here with us!!  This past week has been so full - she has made so much progress!!  Here are a few things that we have taken note of!

• Bonding - this will continue to a process and something we will consciously continue to work on but we have seen huge improvements here - she is starting to respond better to DP when he comes home from work and she really is loving her mama!!!  I have even noticed her responding better to the boys - they are slowly but surly becoming her brothers.  She does pretty well in small environments but when she gets in big crowds we can see her nervous habits come out - she likes to be pretty close to mama and this mama is not complaining!!

• Sleeping - oh how this has been a work in progress - we are on night three of being in her room and hopefully sleeping through the night.  Linnea's sleeping pattern has been really like clock work - she would go to bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and she would go to sleep fine - but in 3-4 hours around 11 - midnight she would wake up EVERY night and then continue to wake every 3-4 hours.  The last two nights she has not woken up at all.  Now she has tonight and I just went in and laid her back down - and calmed her down and she is back to sleep and hopefully for the whole night!

• Speech - boy have we made some progress here!!  She can now say "uh-oh" on command as well as "ah."  She tries to say "I/eye" as she is pointing to her eyes.  She can also make the "b", "t",  "da", and "p" sounds.  She whispers all of those sounds - but hey I will take any of it!!  When she waves her hand "bye bye" we are having her say the "b" sound and she does it most times!! DP heard her say "daddy" and of course his heart melted.  She has been saying "mama" she generally calls us all that so it is not specific quite yet and I haven't been able to get her to say it on command.  She is still doing very well in her sign language and has been initiating more of it herself lately - which is so exciting!! She truly wants to communicate with us. 

• She is ALL girl and I LOVE it!!  When we first had our boys DP was determined they would not be "sissy boys" and rightfully so and we have 3 rough and tough hard core boys.  I prayed Linnea would be the prissiest girl around and I so got it!!  I love it!!  She loves to be in the bathroom with me while I get ready and she has to be doing exactly what I am doing.  Here she is getting all "prettied up."

play makeup, sunglasses, necklaces, hairbows - need I say more!! Total GIRL!!!

Today we had our appointment at the ENT.  It went as well as could be expected for her.  Poor girl had a lot of wax in her ear that had to be removed before the Dr. could see anything and she did not enjoy that part of the visit.  She does indeed have a hole in her right ear and a good amount of fluid in her left ear.  She also has pretty big adenoids that are causing the fluid back up in her left ear.  So the plan now is to put a tube in her left ear, recheck the right ear  (she is too young to have the eardrum repaired right now) remove her adenoids and while she is sleeping get a better gauge on her hearing loss. It is possible that she may have a congenital hearing loss and might need some assistance like a hearing aid - but we will know more after the test they do. All this to say - her hearing loss is greatly impacting her speech - and once we get this all squared away - hopefully her speech will improve.  Poor girl just can't hear very well!!  So thankful for good doctors here and that she can get the medical treatment she needs!! 

Well I think is a good start for catching up the blog.  I have so many other things to post and I will in due time but for now - I am going to sleep while I can!!