Layla is going to be 10 months old on October 4th (where has the time gone?!), but her adjusted age will be 7 months. Currently, she is doing well and hitting all of her 6/7 month milestones, so we couldn't be more thrilled. She's rolling and scooting all over the place, exploring her environment, vocalizing, and we've just started teething. (OH GOD.)
There haven't been too many new developments as far as products go, but she is starting to equate bath time with play time, so she's started to enjoy having toys in the tub with her, which is what these favorites will mainly focus on. She is finally big enough to get a bath without her sling in (big girl status)!
Sassy Baby's First Books: How do I love these? Let me count the ways! 1. These are chewable. 2. These are washable. 3. These are colorful. 4. These are WASHABLE. I love them. They come with a bunch of different ones, including one that you can put pictures in, which I have yet to do, but really need to. Layla loves chewing on and yelling at these all day. Especially the one with the rubber handle.
Tiny Love Take Along Mobile: I forgot to list this a LONG time ago as a favorite, but this is still a very favorite of Layla's. She doesn't need to be rocked or sang to sleep...I zip her in a sleep sack, turn this sucker on, and she puts herself to sleep. When I get her up, she's usually trying to reach it and she smiles at it constantly. The BEST thing about this is that it's easy to remove and small so that you can travel with it. I would recommend this to anyone!
Sassy Soft Swimmers: Since she's started playing in her bathtub, toys have become essential. These small toys are great. The fish is a sponge and the octopus and crab are little squirting toys, which she thinks is hysterical. They're cheap enough that I can throw them away after awhile and buy different ones. I've seen enough YouTube videos to know what kind of grossness grows inside bath toys...
Fisher Price Jumperoo: I have searched high and effing low for a jumperoo that didn't require molding to scuff to shit and that didn't have a million different contraptions and toys dangling from it. If you remember, we've limited the amount of light-up toys she plays with, and a jumperoo without lights that won't fuck up your molding just doesn't exist...believe me...I've looked. So, enter this jumperoo. It doesn't demolish your molding, it doesn't have a million toys dangling from it, but it does have two lights in front. Simple solution...don't add batteries. She loves it, we love it...perfect! Plus I scored it for $10 on a mom-to-mom site, so...WIN WIN WIN!
The First Years Stack and Count Cups: I broke these out recently, and I'm glad I did because they are a favorite in and out of the tub. She's definitely not coordinated enough to stack (or count), but she's a pro at banging them together and chewing on them until they're filled with drool.
Sophie the Giraffe Teether: This damn thing. Yes, it's over $20, which no one ever lets me forget...including her doctor that continues to comment on it each time we visit. However, my kid loves it. It squeaks, which she loves, and its appendages are perfect for teething. It's a great distraction and keeps her content. In my book, that's worth $20.
So, a few weeks ago, Layla had a bilateral inguinal hernia surgery. She's had her hernias since before she left the NICU in February, but her urologist wanted to wait until she was bigger to perform the surgery, which I absolutely agreed with. According to her doctor and the NICU, hernias are incredibly common in preemies and are caused from having to push and have bowel movements long before they're meant to. She wasn't allowed to eat before the surgery, but thankfully it was so early in the morning that she was sleeping before we got to the hospital. When we got there, there were no tears, she smiled at everyone and was a total dreamboat. She didn't even cry when the nurse took her away. Tiny Love Take Along Mobile: I forgot to list this a LONG time ago as a favorite, but this is still a very favorite of Layla's. She doesn't need to be rocked or sang to sleep...I zip her in a sleep sack, turn this sucker on, and she puts herself to sleep. When I get her up, she's usually trying to reach it and she smiles at it constantly. The BEST thing about this is that it's easy to remove and small so that you can travel with it. I would recommend this to anyone!
Sassy Soft Swimmers: Since she's started playing in her bathtub, toys have become essential. These small toys are great. The fish is a sponge and the octopus and crab are little squirting toys, which she thinks is hysterical. They're cheap enough that I can throw them away after awhile and buy different ones. I've seen enough YouTube videos to know what kind of grossness grows inside bath toys...
Fisher Price Jumperoo: I have searched high and effing low for a jumperoo that didn't require molding to scuff to shit and that didn't have a million different contraptions and toys dangling from it. If you remember, we've limited the amount of light-up toys she plays with, and a jumperoo without lights that won't fuck up your molding just doesn't exist...believe me...I've looked. So, enter this jumperoo. It doesn't demolish your molding, it doesn't have a million toys dangling from it, but it does have two lights in front. Simple solution...don't add batteries. She loves it, we love it...perfect! Plus I scored it for $10 on a mom-to-mom site, so...WIN WIN WIN!
The First Years Stack and Count Cups: I broke these out recently, and I'm glad I did because they are a favorite in and out of the tub. She's definitely not coordinated enough to stack (or count), but she's a pro at banging them together and chewing on them until they're filled with drool.
Sophie the Giraffe Teether: This damn thing. Yes, it's over $20, which no one ever lets me forget...including her doctor that continues to comment on it each time we visit. However, my kid loves it. It squeaks, which she loves, and its appendages are perfect for teething. It's a great distraction and keeps her content. In my book, that's worth $20.
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Layla in her little hospital gown before surgery.
The surgery took about an hour, which gave us enough time to eat breakfast in the cafeteria, and then we were allowed to go back and wait until she woke up from anesthesia. All of the doctors and nurses warned us that babies are incredibly crabby and even scream and cry when they come to, so we were prepared for the worst. Until she woke up and smiled. This kid never ceases to amaze me with her strength. According to her surgeon, they do give babies a shot in the spine that helps numb the pain for 18 hours, so she didn't need any Tylenol for quite a while. We were able to feed her and they monitored her for about an hour and sent us on our way.
The simplicity of it all still amazes me. We had no complications, no tears, no pain, no sensitivity...nothing. It was all...very anti-climactic...which is such an incredible blessing in the life of a preemie. God has blessed my family and my daughter in so many ways and I am so thankful each and every day.
I am so overjoyed each day to watch her personality develop and learn all of her little quirks. She is truly one of a kind, and she has us all wrapped around each and every one of her fingers and toes.
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Princess Pout!
