So, where are we now generally?

To make it short again, Lela is doing great! She is happy, she is babbling more and more, also more interested in all kinds of toys, … but the best is, her eyes seem to slowly regenerate and improve. Most of the time she is able to make out a person standing in front of her, seeing and grabbing little toys we hold in front of her head and I also had the feeling that she can recognize a smiling face and sometimes respond to it.

Teeth are still coming, but nights are a bit calmer now. Thank you, Lela!!! ;)

Besides that, she still has soft epileptic seizures from time to time which we try to get in control in collaboration with the UKE and homeopathy. Since they are getting softer and softer over time, we hope that they might be gone sooner or later - if not cured earlier. Also there is a huge relation between getting teeth and the seizures. The more teeth growing pain there is, the more seizures she has. Anyway, they are already that soft, as an unexperienced person, you wouldn’t really think it has something to do with epilepsy.

Also Lela made her first experience with the floor :)
It is still very very exhausting for her, but there were already small signs of trying to move forward.

Finally, after getting used to the new Hamburg area where we live now, continuing to arrange the new appartment and following our jobs, we took the chance to spend a day at the beach together.

It is now time to leave the last year behind and look forward. The worst is really over and slowly life comes back to all of us.

… but here we are after all that chaos, desperate moments, tears and hope in the first two months of our little daughters life. Looking back now only makes us stronger and now there she is: Lela completed her first year on earth and achieved so many skills, talents and personality traits. It is just a pure gift to her smile and grow.

So all the best to you, Lela … thanks for being who you are and keep on being as strong and eager as you have been before … and may your teeth grow a bit faster so your parents might get some more quiet nights sooner or later :D

Some more impressions:

Of course we have to observe it and in case the tensions get more again we have to start over, but currently it is a true relief that there is no need to proceed with Vojta.

Well, another little piece in the big puzzle is done :)

Also I should mention that Lela is doing pretty well. She recently started to discover items and examines everything briefly with her mouth. Furthermore I wouldn’t lie if I’d say that I recently heard her replying “Hello” when I was talking to her. Another great thing to see is the development of her eyes. A few months back she wasn’t able to react to the brightest light, … now she blinks when the camera’s flashlight is activated and follows her favorite big ball with the eyes when someone is waving it over her head. Just as I mentioned above … even if there are just one or two new pieces of the big puzzle every week or moths … they are all needed to make it complete!

Last but not least I might want to add that those Vojta exercises are by far not the very smoothest exercises you could practice with a child, but in the end it helped so much. We could literally watch Lela’s tension getting better week by week.

If you’d like to more about that, feel free to visit the offical Vojta website.

Problem is, she really doesn’t like to drink from the bottle yet, because she likes to prefer the breast.
So even if Lela doesn’t really drink when we practice with her, she prefers to manage it all by her own as you can see :)

Also it is about time to really get Lela to raise her head more, since this is important for everything else in development. Here you can see her in action. Everyday a bit more! :)

Almost every day there is something new she is able to do.
Progress is still kind of slow, but her development never stagnates … and we have all the time she needs!

By the way, so many people are worried if their child isn’t crawling with six months or walking with twelve. Every baby is different and should take as long as it needs. Why hurry?

Of course, parents should be always aware of their babies general development, but ask yourself one question:

When you had your first job interview back then, did the boss ever ask you: “When were you able to walk?” or “How many words were you able to speak when you were two years old?” :)

…

Also the first teeth are breaking through, so currently her mood is not always the best. But even if she has a bit of pain going through this, she is brave and does really well. What is that comparing to what she has already gone through!

Enjoy the little medley :)

To prevent further damage, Lela was treated with L-Thyroxine since she was in hospital. This medicament is used to recover the thyroid.
So, finally after a blood sample was taken by our pediatrist on last Wednesday and an analysis in the lab, the results showed that Lela’s thyroid was completely recovered! Finally after eight months - a fully restored and functional thyroid … and one medication less!

Most of you may think, that this is normal and every child does this, but considering all the “shit” she went through, Nurith and me were really astonished that she almost did it within the range when all babies start trying to turn over (4-7 months) … and to be honest when she came out of the hospital we weren’t really sure if she will ever make it to turn over at all. Now we have prove.

Lela continues to rock the house!!