Charlee Jo // 10 Months

We're officially into the double digits...and it came too quickly! Especially this past month. We had a lot going on and so did the world around us. 

I'd love to tell you that her brothers help with these monthly posts but I'm not sure if help is the correct word to describe what actually takes place. Whatever it is, there is a lot of love happening.

WHAT'S NEW

• Sister still has approximately two hairs on her head and two teeth in her mouth! Kidding, she has a little more than two hairs on her head but we're still only counting two teeth.
• She makes so many sounds and baby babbling. Her voice can get rather loud if she feels like people aren't listening.
• Lately I've kept a basket full of her toys under the coffee table in the living room to try and occupy her while I get dinner or other things. She doesn't like to be in a room by herself, so this doesn't really help. However, I'll pull a few things out and she loves putting them back in the basket. In and out, in and out. 
• She is standing independently a lot. She can squat down and back up again without falling.
• She will hold onto something or someone with one hand and take a few steps. She's so close to walking.
• She thinks it's hilarious to throw her food or cups on the floor at dinner and be told no. She smiles and lets out a laugh. (her brothers think this is hilarious as well.)
• Since her surgery, she hasn't been sleeping great...again. She will wake at least once during the night and early, around 5am. I'll give her a bottle when she wakes in the morning.
• She is eating basically everything. I offered her some broccoli and she spit it out so fast. No way was she going to eat it. So far, that's the only thing she won't eat.
• She has began to open cabinets and pull things out. So fun.
• She really, really, really dislikes to be cleaned up after any meal. Just leave the food. There is always screaming and sometimes tears involved to clean whatever she has on her hands and face.
• She loves to play with her brothers. If we put her down and their bedroom door is open, she heads straight to their room. She wants to be in the middle of whatever they are doing.
• She's doing great with a sippy cup. So far, I've only offered her water but plan on starting to offer whole milk at dinner. She found her brother's juice sippy cup and it was gone in 11 seconds. She chugged it so fast and I just laughed. 
• I tried dropping her morning nap and she couldn't hang. I'm going to keep trying....
• Charlee Jo is still in size 3 diapers and wearing 6-9 months clothes.

PLAY // DEVELOPMENT

• Charlee loves to play ball. She throws it and chases after it. This occupies her longer than any other toy. 
• She is pulling herself up to play on everything without any assistance.
• She loves to open and close things.
• She wants me 98% of the time. She will find me, no matter where I'm at. Occasionally, when Travis comes home from work, she prefers him. She will follow him into the room and pull at him until he picks her up. It's the sweetest thing!
• She still stands at my feet and cries for me to hold her. She loves to be held, carried around, and talked to. I don't blame her, but we're working on being content.

SLEEP

Prior to surgery, she was finally sleeping through the night and napping great! Prior to surgery...

• We digressed. She was sleeping on her belly and now falls asleep on her back. I think this is part of it. I'm not sure if this is from the incisions, because her tummy wasn't comfortable after surgery, I'm just not sure. 
• She has been waking up a couple times throughout the night. I usually only have to go in once, to giver her the binky, and she goes back to sleep. Sometimes it's more like twice.
• She's waking earlier too. I've been giving her a bottle between 5 and 6 and then she'll go back down until around 8.
• She's been taking two naps a day still. Once at around 10:30 and then another one in the afternoon around 2. The morning nap is usually about 45 minutes. The afternoon nap is closer to 3 hours.
• She goes down for bed around 7:30.

KIDNEYS

On St. Patrick's Day, Charlee had surgery on her right kidney. When she was three months old, she had a UTI with resulted in three days in the hospital and a lot of tests. Since then, she's had follow up ultrasounds, MRI, VCGU(voiding cystourethrogram), and multiple doctor appointments.

Charlee has vesicoureteral re-flux on both sides, the bladder doesn't empty normal. Instead of the bladder emptying completely, urine goes back up the ureters (tubes from the kidney to the bladder) and into the kidneys. Basically, the urine goes the wrong way. The re-flux isn't bad enough that her pediatric urologist felt she needed surgery. However, there was a blockage in the right ureter. This was preventing urine to empty from her right kidney. 

After closely watching her kidney, her doctor felt it was necessary for surgery to repair the blockage. The surgery was about three hours. The pediatric urologist that Charlee sees is amazing. She told us that Charlee's right kidney is about 30%. The surgery was needed so that Charlee wouldn't loose her kidney function on that side. To repair the blockage, they had to remove the portion of the ureter and connect the healthy parts. They placed a stint into the ureter so it doesn't close off again. Charlee was scheduled to have another surgery in 4-6 weeks to remove that stint. However, due to the situation our world is in right now with the Coronavirus, her doctor has postponed that surgery until June. The reflux is still on both sides but can be outgrown. We have to continue to follow up with the doctor for that. 

We had so many people reach out to us over the past six months and I wanted to give a clear update! She's doing great and has been since we came home from the hospital.

10 MONTH PHOTO DUMP

We love our sweet girl so much!