9 months old

Emma turned nine months old yesterday, and I would like someone to tell me where the time has gone. Today she will get weighed by the visiting nurse. She hasn't been "officially" weighed for about four weeks now. I am looking forward to seeing what this number is that we've been following so closely. I am a technical person and love working with numbers, so it is odd to me that this number, the pounds and ounces of my child, is the number that has influenced so much of my life over the last nine months. I even have a spreadsheet with her weights charted over the last few months. Obsessive? No, I think this is just my inner geek coming out in the form of the need to make a spreadsheet for anything and everything.

She is still eating every three hours. I recently read that 70% of babies sleep through the night by the 9 month mark. Emma would sleep longer if she could, but we have to wake her up every three hours (three hours from start feed time to start feed time). I have no idea how long she would sleep if we let her. A full night's sleep is becoming a distant memory to me. There are times when we do fall behind on her feedings and these usually occur during the night or when go places. I certainly can't say that we've never fell behind on her feedings for the day, but she does get her 8 feedings per day in probably 88% of the time.

I think Emma has been making good progress over the last couple months. I am equally concerned for her weight as I am for her development. She is behind in her developmental age. She cannot sit unsupported, she cannot roll from her back to tummy, etc.

A little summary for those just chiming in and may not have been following since this blogs conception. Emma is classified as a "failure to thrive" baby, and has a mickey button for assistance with eating. She has not been diagnosed with anything, although she has had numerous blood tests, urine and stool tests, quick scan MRI, head ultrasound, full MRI, EEG, EKG, upper GI test, a chromosonal microarray test, and an EMG. I may be forgetting something her, but, to summarize, she's had a lot of tests to try to figure out why she can't gain weight and why she doesn't want to eat. She's been seen by a GI specialist, speech therapists, physical therapists, genetics, nutritionist, metabolic neurologic, neurologists, and others. She is currently on medications for reflux and muscle relaxer.