Hannah - 5 months

Wow - am I behind?!  Hannah turned 5 months old...almost two weeks ago. 

She's such a SWEET little girl!  She smiles so easily and her whole face lights up when she does.  So precious!  She's started making some squealing noises as well when she's really happy.  This month she also started sucking her thumb.  It seems to be more of a coincidence than her actually purposefully putting her thumb in her mouth, but when she does get it in there she makes a sucking/slurping sound.  :)  It's so funny! 

Her next well-child visit isn't until she turns 6 months; however, I called and asked to come see the doctor because I'm still worried about her development.  I know every child is different and develops at different rates, but the problem I'm seeing is that she's NOT developing.  She's five months old and I haven't seen much, if any, progress in her gross and fine motor skills.  She still keeps her hands very tightly clenched; although she will open them at times, but the majority of the time they stay clenched.  She's not holding onto toys unless we pry her hands open and even then she just barely has a hold of them and doesn't seem to even realize she's holding anything.  She's not reaching for objects, she's not rolling either way, and when on her tummy, she can't really lift her head off the ground.  At her age, the doctor said she should hold her head at a 90 degree angle when on her stomach.  Also, her eyes tend to cross and just seem "off".  I don't even know how to describe them, but they just don't seem right. 

Sooo....I mentioned my concerns to our pediatrician and he was great.  He ordered a muscle enzyme test (a blood draw) to rule out muscular dystrophy (she already had that done and everything came back normal - yay!) and is referring her to a development specialist at the children's hospital.  At this point, she is scheduled to see the specialist on Monday, September 23rd at Dayton Children's Hospital; however, I've decided I'd rather take her to the Cincinnati Children's Hospital rather than Dayton Children's so now I'm waiting on a call from Cincinnati to get an appointment scheduled there.  Cincinnati is ranked #3 for children's hospitals in the US and Dayton's not even in the top 100....so I'd rather take her to the best.

Also, starting this week I've been taking her to our chiropractor and he's shown me ways to work with her at home.  He says it's really important that we stimulate her as much as possible by massaging the bottoms of her feet, rolling her wrists and opening/massaging her hands, rubbing her tummy and back, and then moving her alternate arms and legs up and down.  So I've been doing that whenever she's awake (and we're not out running to the grocery store, swim lessons, gymnastics, etc!).

Don't you just love that sweet little smile?!

We're praying that by working with her and massaging her that we'll start to see some improvements.  She's such a sweetheart!  :)  Oh, and since I took her to the doctor, they weighed and measured her.  So her five month stats are: 

Length: 24.3 inches (23%)

Weight: 13.31 lbs (20%)

Head Circumference: 15.7 in (8%)

I was encouraged to see that her head went up from 0.82% to 8%.  She's still my teeny-weeny, and I love it!  Maybe a softer and quieter demeanor will come with that smaller size...hmmm....  :)