11 months

Milestones:
-Marie finally got her first tooth! It showed up right around Valentine's Day, so at ten-and-a-half months. She may be working on one or two other ones, but it's a little hard to tell for sure at this point.

Not the most flattering picture, but it's the only one where you can kind of see her tooth.

-She's getting better at standing on her own, and has stood for maybe 30 seconds as her personal record.
-Marie colored for the first time. If by "colored" you mean "drew on a Magna-Doodle with some guidance from her darling mother."

Her first masterpiece.

-We've taken Marie to the library plenty of times, but she's always been in the stroller and the trips have been quick ones to pick up items that were on hold for us. This month, I actually carried her to the library and let her crawl around the cubes and play with the books for 30 minutes or so. It was a nice change of pace.

Current likes:
-Marie loves taking my lunch sack out of my old lady teacher crate, as well as pulling other items out of it and dropping things in.

The old lady teacher crate.

-Her favorite toys right now are diapers. She'll pull them all out of the bag and carry and wave them around. Fortunately, she generally only plays with clean ones, but if we leave a used one on the ground, she'll make a break for it.

I think we counted seven diapers on the ground that she was playing with.

-She continues to enjoy playing with my name tag. This led to a semi-panicked morning when I couldn't find it when I was ready to leave for work one day. (It was under the couch cushions.)
-Marie likes being bounced and going outside.
-She loves to eat still! Favorites include carrots, bananas, pears, peaches, and bread.

Current dislikes:
-For a period of time this month, Marie developed a fear of being tossed in the air. But only when Jacob was standing up -- if he tossed her from a seated position, she was fine. She's seemed to gotten over this, though, and Jacob can toss her without her crying now.

Daddy-daughter bonding.

-She doesn't really like her jumper anymore, which is unfortunate. We'll put her in there if I'm making dinner or we're trying to clean the apartment, and she isn't a fan.
-On a similar note, she gets fairly clingy after I get home from work, and she doesn't like it when I put her on the ground if I'm trying to make dinner.

Who wants to be productive when you have a baby to play with instead?

Other odds and ends:
-Marie still doesn't know how to clap. I'll try playing pat-a-cake with her, but when I try to bring her hands together she'll shake me off and then grab my hands so I clap instead. She does this every time. It's pretty funny.
-Her sleeping has gotten a little weird this month. For a while we were putting her to bed between 6:00 and 7:00 and she would sleep for a couple hours, then wake up and not want to go to bed for at least another hour or two. One night she woke up multiple times while we were still awake, and I think it might've been because she was cold. So we've started putting her in a sleep sack on top of her pajamas again. Then yesterday we gave her a third mini-nap around 5 and then she went to bed around 7:30 and slept through the night.  Fingers crossed her sleeping gets back on track!
-I'm so over pumping. I've stopped pumping in the mornings if she's woken up to eat, and I've decided that when she turns a year old, I'm going to stop pumping altogether. I'll still nurse her when I'm home, but she can have whole milk while I'm at work. That's the plan, at least.
-For the most part, we've been limiting the pacifier to naps and bedtime for the last couple months. Sometimes when I get her out of the crib, she'll spit out the pacifier because she knows she's not supposed to have it when she's awake. Of course, this does not stop her from seeking it out if she sees it in the diaper bag.
-I'm sure this is entirely coincidental, but Jacob and I both clearly heard her say "yum" during dinner one night. It made us laugh. She says "mama" and "dada" but I'm not convinced she means us when she says it.
-Marie has really taken to sticking her fingers in our mouths. If her interest in prodding teeth and tongues continues, I'm sure she'll have a bright future as a dentist one day.

She pushed this toy into the bathroom and was quite pleased with herself.

She'll shove the entire foot of this ant into her mouth and carry it around like a chew toy. Which I guess it is, if she's teething.

10 months

Milestones:
-Marie slept for 12 and a half hours straight for the first time last night! It was bittersweet because I wasn't even able to see her (aside from checking to make sure she was still breathing) before I left for work. But sleeping through the night was awesome, especially since the day or two before she woke up at 1:30 and it took me over an hour and a half to fall asleep again after feeding her. We'll see if this is a repeat occurrence or just a one time thing.
-Marie is able to cruise along furniture and pulls herself up on everything. Which leads to the following milestones . . .
-She received her first nosebleed after face planting on a wood floor and her first goose egg after slipping and hitting her head on the edge of our dresser.
-Marie has stood on her own for a second or two at a time, but not very frequently.
-She rejected her first food this month. Apparently she isn't such a fan of steamed broccoli (though she did eat it earlier when it was in broccoli-cheese soup).
-Marie can drink from her sippy cup while she's holding it and feed herself pieces of food pretty proficiently if they aren't slippery.
-She's discovered our DVD collection and has pulled out a couple. We've been able to stop her before she causes too much destruction, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time.
-Marie followed me into the bathroom for the first time this month. She also follows us into the kitchen.

Current Likes:
-Minestrone soup, carrots, peaches, pears, bananas, bread, strawberries, raspberries, and pretty much any other food besides the dreaded broccoli.
-Playing with her toys, especially her maracas and keys.
-Picking up minuscule crumbs off the floor and trying to eat them. We need to be more vigilant about vacuuming.
-Playing with buttons on clothes.
-Chewing and sucking on tags.

Current Dislikes:
-She still dislikes getting her nose, face, and hands wiped.
-Broccoli (Heather says she doesn't blame her, because "broccoli is nasty".)

Other odds and ends:
-She pretty consistently goes to bed at 7 now and wakes up for the day between 7:30 and 8:30. Lately, she's been going down for the night really well, but naps can be hit or miss. We think she may be starting to drop her second nap (too soon!), which is slightly unfortunate, but we really can't complain about the sleeping department.
-Still no teeth!
-She's stopped saying "mama" as frequently, and now says "yayayaya," "gaga," "hm hm" and my personal favorites, "ha ha" and "ho ho." Our little Santa Claus.
-One night when Marie's two-year-old cousin, Kayla, was over, we measured both of their thighs to compare. Marie's thighs were an inch and a half greater in circumference. We love our little chunk!
-Marie is really good about entertaining herself, and doesn't really demand too much attention. For the first 30 minutes or so after I get home from work, though, she likes me to be close by and hold her. I certainly don't mind!

A little father-daughter bonding time.

Love her eyes!

Cousins.

She doesn't mind the bib so much when it isn't around her neck.

We still haven't put any batteries in this toy, but she enjoys it just the same.

Contrary to what this might indicate, we have not been giving her any booze.

9 months

Marie is 9 months old today! She's officially been outside of me longer than she was inside, and that's just crazy.

Weight: 20 pounds, 4 ounces (80th percentile)
Length: 27 inches (25th percentile)
Head circumference: 45 centimeters (75th percentile)

Milestones:
-Marie is now a pro at crawling (which means she no longer rolls all the way across a room, much to my dismay), though she isn't nearly as fast as my neighbor's daughter who's the same age.
-She has started to pull up on things, including her crib bars, which necessitated the lowering of the crib a couple of days ago.
-Marie can feed herself some solids if the pieces are big enough and aren't too slippery. And if she has pieces of bread on her high chair, she'll shove them into her mouth faster than she can swallow them, so now we need to pace her with a couple pieces on her tray at a time.
-She's tries to drink out of a sippy cup while holding it on her own, but she needs help tipping it up.
-Marie met Santa Claus! She did really well with him, too. Especially after he gave her a candy cane in a crinkly wrapper.
-She celebrated her first Christmas! She wasn't really sure what to make of it, but she seemed to enjoy ripping the paper off a couple presents, at least.
-Along the same lines, she participated in her first nativity pageant as a sheep. (If you want to get technical, her costume made her look more like a bunny, but let's not split hairs here.)

Santa's hand is in front of his beard to prevent her from yanking it off his face.

Her pajamas have bunnies on them. I thought they were sheep. Whoops.

Opening presents!

Current likes:
-Splashing in the tub. She's enjoyed baths before, but now she loves them!
-Eating solid foods. She's eaten basically everything we've put in front of her, including bananas, chicken, pasta, ham, turkey, peaches, applesauce, corn, green beans, yogurt, and bread.
-Getting into everything. Nothing is safe around her!
-Playing with her toys, but especially playing with paper, receipts, and wrappers.
-Having freedom to crawl around. She isn't as content to sit on laps for long periods of time anymore.
-Grabbing (and chewing on) the strings from my sweatshirt.
-Playing with my watch or ring (while I'm still wearing them, lest you think I'm knowingly handing her a choking hazard and valuable and sentimental item just for funsies).

Hanging out in (and licking) the laundry hamper.

Exploring the jumper in a new way.

Current dislikes:
-Getting her bib put on. I think it might be because it pulls her hair a little.
-Getting her nose wiped or her hands and face cleaned after eating.
-Getting her diaper changed if I haven't fed her yet first thing in the morning.
-Being covered by the carseat canopy.
-Being left in her jumper if we leave the room.
-Falling from a standing or kneeling position and bumping her head. (Imagine that!)

She wasn't too happy after her nap. 

Nicknames:
-Girlie
-Sweetheart

Other odds and ends:
-Marie basically eats whatever we eat, so I've been trying to make sure we eat more fruits and vegetables ourselves (I've never eaten so many bananas in my life!). I gave her some baby oatmeal the other day and she wasn't such a huge fan, but that may have been because I made it too thick. (When it was runnier, she seemed to enjoy it just fine, but it also dripped everywhere, so I added more powder and then she figuratively turned her nose up at it.)
-Marie survived another road trip, this time to Arizona. She was fantastic on the trip down there and was still quite good on the drive back, though she was a little fussier. I didn't have many toys on hand, so I kept her entertained by handing her the trash from our lunch, including a water bottle, various wrappers, and an empty Pringles container. And then I kept cycling through those items as she got bored of them. It kept her pretty happy!
-We got into some bad sleeping habits while we were in Arizona for Christmas, because she slept in the same room as us and whenever she woke up it was easier to just feed her and go to sleep rather than to let her self-soothe. So the next couple days after we came back home were a little rough, but she's capable of sleeping ten hours without eating, like last night.
-I think she's basically settled into a two-naps-a-day routine, with the longer nap in the morning. Her morning nap is sometimes 3 or 3 and a half hours long, but it's usually around 2 hours.
-She could probably squeeze into size 3 diapers, but we've been putting her in 4s because we happened to have a box of those after we ran out of 3s. And they fit more comfortably, so, you know, bonus.
-She still doesn't have any teeth, but we suspect she might be teething because she's been drooling like crazy, runs her tongue over her gums, blows raspberries, and has been a little more fussy than usual. And I thiiiink I can feel something hard on her top gum (which surprises me, because I thought the bottom teeth are usually the first to come in).
-Marie does baby yoga, by which I mean she frequently engages in the downward dog position. Often on top of her wipes container or while nursing, these days.
-She rarely spits up anymore! A couple times a week, maybe, which is a big improvement.
-She jabbed her finger up my nose on Sunday, which gave me a pretty nice nosebleed. Guess we need to teach her to be gentle.
Marie says "mama" and "mamamamama" a lot, though I don't think she means me, by any means. She has said "dada" as well, but "mama" is the current fave to jabber. She also says "ba" and "ga".
-We've started putting her in 9 month clothes, though she still wears some 6 month clothes as well. And I may or may not have squeezed her into a 0-3 month sweatshirt to see if it still fit today. (It didn't.)
-She is sporting a mullet but I can't bring myself to spend 20 bucks on a haircut for her or to cut her hair myself. Also, her bangs are almost constantly in her eyes because clips don't stay put very well in her hair.

Pulling up on the ice chest and getting into mischief.

Just chillin' with Dad at Grandma Erickson's house.

See? Drooling. A ton. 

8 months

Marie turned 8 months old on Sunday!

Milestones:
-Marie learned how to crawl a week ago. Of course, my mother is taking all the credit for teaching her. Perhaps with some good reason, as there were definitely crawling demonstrations involved. (A plan for my mom to open her own private crawling school where she can charge a steep tuition may or may not be in the works.)
-We took our first road trip to California with Marie to visit my family for Thanksgiving. She hadn't been on a road trip since she was a month old, so we weren't sure how she'd do, but she's a champ! She didn't nap as well as she usually does, but she was pretty happy most of the way there and back.
-Marie can move herself from a crawling position to a sitting position and back again. We've found her sitting up in her crib after waking up from a nap a couple times now.
-She's starting to develop her pincer grip, which means we need to be even more vigilant about vacuuming.
-Marie can hold her own bottle, but she has trouble tipping it back far enough sometimes.

Current likes:
Playing with anything crinkly, rolling all over the place, getting into mischief, trying to feed herself, blowing raspberries, life in general. She is a happy baby!

Current dislikes:
Being hungry, being overtired

Current nicknames:
-Smiley
-Rollie Pollie Ollie

Other odds and ends:
-We used my parents' scale to weigh Marie and she clocked in at 20.5 pounds.
-The night before we drove back home to Utah, we spent the night at my aunt's house and I shared a room with Marie for the first time in a couple months. She is not a quiet sleeper! She wasn't fussy, but before she fell asleep she kept rolling around, slamming her legs down, and scratching the sides of the Pack 'n' Play.
-Marie has tried a bigger variety of foods, including various soups, pork fried rice, bread, cereal, peaches, and a sampling of ice cream (her daddy is a softie). Whenever she sees us eating something, she wants to partake as well. She still isn't fantastic about eating foods with chunkier textures, but it's a work in progress. And we've finally ordered a high chair, so it should be easier to feed her once it arrives. (Holding her on our laps and trying to keep our clothes clean is just a little tricky.)
-Diaper changes have become more challenging, as she tends to roll over once the diaper is off.
-Marie currently wears size 3 diapers and 6-9 month onesies.
-Still no teeth or any real sign of teething, which is just fine by me.
-Marie generally goes to bed between 7:00 and 8:30, wakes up once before I go to bed to eat, and then sleeps until another feeding before I go to work between 5:00 and 7:00. Yes, the long range in time makes it tricky to anticipate when I'll be able to head out the door. After the morning feed, she'll sleep for another hour or so.
-Lately she's taken to pursing her lips and exhaling heavily through her nose, which I think is pretty funny. She also gets this really serious look on her face when she's concentrating intently.
-She gets giggly right before bed, which makes it hard to put her down! Oh, we just love her to pieces!

7 months

Marie turned seven months old on Thursday. We become even more smitten with her every day. (Cheesy, much? Perhaps. But true.)

Milestones:
-Marie has started sitting up on her own, though she isn't very stable yet and can't hold the position for very long.
-A week after her surgery, we moved her into her own room, and we've been sleeping better for the most part as a result. The day she turned seven months, we transitioned her from the Rock 'n' Play to her crib, and it looks like she's going to be a tummy sleeper like her parents. And bonus! As a result of sleeping on her stomach, her hair gets way less tangly now.
-She slept through the night for three glorious nights in a row! She can usually go from about 9 in the evening to around 5 in the morning without eating, which is pretty fantastic. (What would be more fantastic is if she would stop waking up around 2, crying for a minute, and then going back to sleep, because then I sometimes can't fall asleep for an hour afterward.)
-We started solids but haven't been super consistent with giving them. She doesn't seem to ingest too much, but so far she's tasted avocado, oatmeal, sweet potato, carrots, peas, and applesauce.
-She's rolling all over the place these days! We have to be quick with diaper changes or she'll roll away before we're finished. Distracting her with a toy or a package of wipes helps keep her on her back sometimes.
-She'll push up on her hands and knees but hasn't made any real attempts at crawling yet.
-Marie visited her first pumpkin patch and attended her first ward Halloween party this month.
-Marie has started making few consonant sounds (like "ba" and "ma") instead of just vowel sounds. I'm holding out hope that her first word will be mama! She's getting more vocal, which has been pretty exciting.

Current likes:
Playing in her jumper (thanks Daniel and Carly!), playing with her keys, lifting her legs and slamming them against the ground while laying down, playing with crinkly things, looking at Daddy, listening to "I Love You a Bushel and a Peck", being bounced on our knees, getting rocket rides, splashing in the bath.

Current dislikes:
Getting the eye ointment put in her eye, falling asleep anywhere besides home (which makes church and outings super fun sometimes).

Other odds and ends:
-Her eye has been cycling through periods of looking great and then getting red and swollen again, so we took her back to the ophthalmologist on Friday, who said it's likely that the interior (?) stitch is irritated and inflamed, but she doesn't think it's infected. She prescribed some antibiotics which should hopefully help, but in the worst case scenario, they'll have to remove the stitch. Which sounds like more surgery. Fingers crossed it doesn't come to that!
-Marie still fits into some 3 month pants and pajamas and many 3-6 month outfits, though we may box up some of the smaller onesies soon.
-We bought Kirkland brand diapers at Costco since there was a coupon, but she got a diaper rash shortly thereafter. I'm not sure if it's correlational at all, but it's the worst one she's had so I don't know if we'll buy that brand again. She's still in size 3 -- I put her in a 4 at night once and she soaked right through it because it was too big, I think.
-We haven't really been doing the baby food thing, so we've been steaming vegetables or giving her chunks of soft fruit to gnaw at mostly. When she has a steamed carrot, she'll start sucking on it like its a pacifier and it's basically the most adorable thing I've ever seen.

At our ward Halloween party. You can't see her wings very well, but she's a parrot.

Trying out avocado for the first time.

We call this her watermelon outfit. 

She loves her jumper!

She seems thoroughly unconcerned by the creepy thing behind her.

Instilling a love for pumpkin patches early on in life.

Happy girl!

Surgery day

Monday, September 29th, was surgery day. I had previously requested the whole day off of school and found a sub. We didn't receive instructions about the surgery until the Friday before, when we learned that we didn't check in at the hospital until 2:30. At that point, I could have cancelled the sub and my time off and requested a half day instead, but it seemed like more of a hassle to go through the process, so settled for taking the whole day off.

We were told to give Marie a bath and put her in clean clothes to reduce the risk of infection at the surgical sites, so we did that in the morning. I was allowed to feed Marie until 11:30, and then she was only allowed to have Pedialyte until 1:00. When I gave her her last feeding, I was a little nervous because she didn't seem super hungry and wasn't eating too much. I gave her some Pedialyte around 12:20 but she didn't care for it and only drank around an ounce.

That morning we also received a phone call from the ophthalmologist, who asked us if we wanted to proceed with the procedure because our insurance wouldn't cover the amniotic membrane transplant, which would act as a bandage for the eye procedure. When we had received the letter from our insurance a couple months prior, we called the eye doctor's office and were under the impression that they were going to appeal it for us. So receiving this phone call the morning of the operation was a little stressful! Jacob called our insurance company that morning and they said we had a certain number of days from the time the claim was denied to send in an appeal, but to expect the claim to be denied. We decided to go ahead with the operation anyway because I had already taken the day off and because the surgery had already been rescheduled twice at that point.

Right after checking in.

The skin tags on this ear are less noticeable.

We arrived at the hospital and checked in right at 2:30. Somebody came to check her vitals and we changed Marie into the hospital clothes. A nurse came to examine Marie to make sure she was healthy enough to proceed with the surgery. We were a little nervous because Marie had been coughing off and on the previous two days, and we were hoping that wouldn't be cause for them to cancel the surgery. Everything checked out, though, although they had a hard time getting a blood pressure reading. Marie was starting to get fussy, as she was getting hungry and tired. Jacob kept blowing on her stomach to try to cheer her up, and Marie alternated between laughing and crying.

We were eventually taken to the pre-op waiting room, where we were told that the surgeon was behind schedule and instead of having her surgery start at 4:00, it might not start until 5:00 or 5:30. This was especially disheartening because Marie was practically starving already and we weren't allowed to feed her still. We closed off an area of the room with a curtain and tried to calm her down. I may or may not have started crying as I was holding Marie, because I felt awful that she was hungry and I couldn't explain to her why I couldn't feed her. After a while Jacob took her and managed to get her to fall asleep in about two minutes. We put her on a cot as she napped, and I started grading some papers that I had brought with me.

Around 4:30 or so the anesthesiologist came by and told us what he was going to do: place a breathing tube, give her gas to fall asleep, give her an IV, etc. Then the ophthalmologist came by and explained her procedure as well. Since Marie was having two surgeries, they were able to switch the order of the doctors and they'd be able to start sooner than expected. The plastic surgeon also came by and quickly marked the areas he'd be operating on with a purple marker. We signed some consent forms, and by 4:45 we took Marie to the entrance of the operating room where we handed her off to the anesthesiologist.

We then went to a different waiting room, where we were allowed to eat. (No one was allowed to eat in the check-in or pre-op waiting rooms, as the patients had to fast and that would be unfair to them.) We had packed some sandwiches, granola bars and apples, so that became our dinner.

About an hour or so after Marie went into surgery, the ophthalmologist visited us and said that the surgery went well. She was able to remove most of the small mass (dermoid cyst?) that was by the eyelid, as well as reattach the lids to the bone and each other. She was also able to manage to complete the procedure without the amniotic membrane transplant, which meant we didn't have to worry about paying for it out of pocket. She went over the instructions to care for the eye (ice packs for the first 3 days, warm compresses thereafter, and eye ointment three times a day), and then she left. At this point we were waiting on the plastic surgeon.

Before too much longer, the plastic surgeon came out and told us that the skin tag removal went well. He put Marie in arm restraints so she wouldn't try to scratch at her stitches. He told us to keep the area dry for 2 days and to schedule a follow-up visit in two to four weeks.

At this point, we had to wait for Marie to wake up from the anesthesia, get her breathing tube removed, and have her vitals stabilized before we would be able to go in and see her. We were told it might be half an hour or so before that happened. Eventually the receptionist went home for the day, so she informed us that when the phone rang, we could answer it and if it wasn't for us, to call out the name of the patient to the room so the appropriate parents could get on the phone.

After only 15 or 20 minutes, the phone call came that we could go see Marie! She was resting on a bed that seemed pretty large for a baby, and her arms were spread straight out to her sides. She had a plastic eye patch taped to her face, and her eye looked pretty bloody, which we were told was normal. She was crying weakly and she seemed pretty groggy still.

I was able to feed her, and she ate well, despite us being told that most babies aren't coordinated enough to really eat after surgery. She fussed a little bit, but for the most part she was a champ, even when the nurses had to take her blood pressure again. We had to wait for her IV transfusion to be completed, but after an hour or so a nurse went over the discharge instructions and said she would take us to the pharmacy to pick up the prescriptions so we could go home.

We were looking forward to going home, because it had been a long day, but at the pharmacy we learned that one of the doctors forgot to sign the prescription for the painkiller, and she had already left for the day. Since hydrocodone is a controlled substance, the on-call doctor was unable to just call it in -- the prescription had to be physically signed. That doctor had said he (or she) would try to make it down as soon as possible, but s/he was at a different hospital and it had already been half an hour since s/he said that. Our nurse, who was pretty amazing, said she would walk the prescription over to that other hospital and get it signed so we could fill it. We went back to where we were waiting when Marie came out of surgery and continued to wait.

Marie was getting fussy, because she was tired, and I was getting grumpy, because I was, too. We ended up waiting over an extra hour to get the prescription filled. By the time we got home, it was almost 10:00. I was exhausted but still had to pump because I stubbornly refused to do so at the hospital (mostly because I didn't want to ask anyone where an appropriate location to do so would be). After pumping, I changed Marie's diaper, and for the first time in months she peed while her diaper was off, soaking her pajamas. This meant we had to clean her up, take off her arm restraints, change her pajamas, and put her arm restraints back on before we could go to bed. We also had to give her a dose of Tylenol to stay ahead of the pain -- we were to alternate between Motrin and Tylenol every three hours. We finally got to bed around 11.

Overall, Marie has been great. We kept her on pain medication for the first two or three days, and we never did give her the prescription pain killer that we waited so long for. But of course. She is not a fan of getting the eye ointment applied to her eye, nor to putting the eyepatch on or taking it off. She doesn't seem to mind the arm restraints too terribly, though recently I've been keeping her out of them as long as she's wearing the eye patch. She had a follow-up with the ophthalmologist last Monday, and her eye isn't infected, which is good. Her incision is still pretty pink, and the stitches from her skin tags have yet to dissolve. Or maybe they have, but they've been covered in super glue or Dermabond or something which is stubbornly clinging to her skin still. (Which is all well and good, I suppose. The edges are just barely starting to peel off, but we're leaving it alone.) She's happy and healing nicely! We sure love our Marie!

A couple days after surgery.

Almost two weeks after surgery.

In which I paint myself in an unflattering light

When Marie was born, the first thing that Jacob and the doctors noticed was her copious amounts of dark hair. The first thing that I noticed when they placed her on my chest was a mysterious blob on her cheek. "What is that thing?" I wondered to myself. I felt ashamed as soon as I had the thought. I had just given birth to a baby that we had hoped and prayed for, and instead of marveling at the miracle that we were given, I was noticing an imperfection.

The blob on her cheek turned out to be a skin tag, one of five on her face. The other four were located right by her ears, two to a side. Her right eyelid was also formed slightly incorrectly; the top and lower lids weren't attached and formed a curved shape instead of a point.

These two factors -- the skin tags and the eyelid -- caused the doctors at the hospital to tell us Marie may have a condition called Goldenhar syndrome. We were told the syndrome is associated with kidney failure and hearing loss, and they ended up whisking Marie away to conduct a renal ultrasound.

Want to stress yourself out? Try Googling "Goldenhar syndrome" alone twelve hours after giving birth while your husband and baby are elsewhere in the hospital. Tears streamed down my face as I saw images of children with facial deformities and read about the various symptoms.

The ultrasound showed that Marie's kidneys functioned normally, and she passed her hearing test, so those were both positive things. An ophthalmologist came to examine her eyes (which involved propping her eyelids open with some device and caused both Marie and I to sob), which revealed that the actual structure of the eye was fine. We were given a recommendation for a follow up visit with an eye doctor at four months and went home.

Around the time Marie turned two weeks old, I was a wreck. I was convinced she had jaundice, was worried that she had Goldenhar syndrome, and was paranoid about taking any pictures of her that showed her skin tags. I was self-conscious for her; I didn't want friends or strangers to look at Marie's face and wonder what was wrong with her. I tried taking pictures that only showed the left side of her face or using her clothes or a blanket to cover the skin tags up. I was jealous of mothers whose babies were born free of abnormalities. I loved (and still love!) Marie, don't get me wrong. But I hated the idea that others might form judgments about Marie based on her skin tags and didn't think it was fair that my sweet baby had birth defects.

At her two-week appointment, we received a recommendation for a plastic surgeon. We were able to make an appointment with him when she was about a month old. He examined her, said the skin tags were actually called "accessory tragus," and then said that she did not have Goldehnar syndrome.

What a relief! The past month of angst and worry melted away as we learned that Marie's "symptoms" were merely cosmetic and could be fixed with surgery.

On a side note, throughout my pregnancy we were unable to see Marie's face on any ultrasound we received. I'm not sure whether the skin tags would have been apparent on an ultrasound, but I do think this was a blessing in disguise. If I'd had to worry about the possibility of our then-unborn baby having Goldenhar syndrome for months on end, I'm not sure how I would have functioned.

We tentatively scheduled a surgery date with the plastic surgeon, and when we met with the ophthalmologist three months later, she agreed that she could coordinate schedules with the plastic surgeon so Marie would only have to go under anesthesia once. We ended up rescheduling several times due to various circumstances, but last Monday surgery day was upon us.

Stay tuned for part two of the saga, surgery day.