1 Year

Dear Shobha,

It’s so hard for me to believe that an entire year has already passed. My itty bitty little baby is already a year old. How did that happen?! Just the last month has been remarkable. You change so much each month that it’s hard to keep up. My little girl is growing up so fast!

The biggest event of this past month has been that on April 15th your Ammachi and Appacha arrived from India to stay with us for a month before returning home to Colorado. The first day or two you were still very unsure, but after a few sessions of playing on the floor you took right to your Ammachi and Appacha.

This month has been so rewarding for me. You’ve really begun to associate “Mama” and “Dada” with me and your father. You call out in the morning or if you don’t want to be napping. You call out in your car seat or your high chair. My heart could just burst with joy every time you call me Mama.

Perhaps the most vital to the entire family has been something so simple as sleep. This month, at the recommendation of a friend of mine, I picked up the book “Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems” by Richard Ferber, M.D. What a life saver! We followed the suggestions in the book and it worked like a charm. The first night was the hardest. Normally, I’d nurse you until you fell asleep then put you down but the book said to put you down tired but awake. Immediately you started crying, the crying turned to screaming, and oh my golly did I have a hard time. That first night we were to let you cry for three minutes, then go in and check on you, soothe you but not pick you up, and leave after a minute or so. The next check was after an additional five minutes. You never made it to the third check time. The second night was a similar beginning, but you only needed to be soothed once. The third night, you never made it to the first check time. Since then you’ve gone from crying as soon as we put you down to now just settling in and going to sleep without so much as a peep. If only I could get your naps to go as smoothly. Perhaps that’s a task for next month.

This month you have really been so active. You seem less and less like a baby to me and more and more like a little girl. You’re still not standing on your own, but a couple times I’ve let go while you weren’t paying attention and you were able to stand alone for a couple seconds until you realized no one was holding you up and would slowly crouch down to sit. Because you’re not standing yet, and likewise not walking yet, you’re still spending quite a lot of time only a couple inches from the floor as you crawl all over the place. It’s remarkable to me both the variety and quantity of particles and hairs you are able to find on the floor, which you then immediately stuff into your mouth.

Because you were born premature and spent your first few weeks in the NICU, we have had a couple follow-up appointments with Developmental Pediatrics. There, they would ask your father and I questions about your accomplishments and your motor skills and they would use toys to evaluate your development. I’m proud to say that at your final appointment last week, you were given an A+ evaluation. At the time of the visit, your corrected age (the age you would’ve been had you been born on your due date) was 42 weeks. In most areas you were testing at the 48 week level and a few areas you were testing beyond the 52 week level. You truly are remarkable.

A year ago today I went from having a high risk pregnancy with uncontrollable pre-eclampsia to being a mother. A year ago today you entered the world at 8:04 pm, weighing in at a mere 2 pounds 9 ounces. A year ago today my life changed in more ways than I could’ve ever understood or predicted.

Love,
Mama