Happy first birthday, Salem Grace!

Happy first birthday, Salem Grace!! There are not enough adjectives in the English language to describe our love for this little girl. When I was pregnant, I would worry - “what if this baby doesn’t fit in? What if we regret having her? What if she changes the family dynamic in a negative way?” Those worries could not have been more unfounded. Since the moment she was born, the entire family fell completely in love with her. She filled a void none of us knew we had. The twins adore her. They have never once been jealous or mean towards her. They dote on her and are so helpful.

Salem has the sweetest, happiest little personality - when she feels well. Which sadly, she had a rough start. She ended up in the NICU with low blood sugar and had to stay 5 days and come home on oxygen. Once home, she developed an extreme dairy intolerance. It caused her lots of discomfort. She couldn’t tolerate my breast milk, even when I went off all dairy (and eventually I was only eating rice and turkey and my milk dried up), we tried goats milk from Germany, every kind of sensitive formula they make (so expensive!) and eventually we were able to get her thriving on soy formula. At 10 months, she started to be able to tolerate all of the breast milk I had in the deep freezer. We had to use DigestZen and massage her tummy every time we changed her diaper and do leg pumps. We had to use a couple different medications when it would get really bad. She would cry a lot and she didn’t sleep well. But when she  wasn’t in pain - she was just so happy and sweet! It was sad to know that she was just always so uncomfortable. When she’s sick, it exacerbates all of her symptoms. So the tummy pain comes back, she has issues with gas and vomits all the time. Her sensitive tummy just can’t handle the mucus when she’s ill. She’s also been a horrendous teether. She gets fevers, throws up, cries, doesn’t sleep… she’s got 5 teeth (her top and bottom front two, then she skipped the next ones and got in her left canine!). She got her top 2 while we were in the hotel in California for Trevor’s training, at about 7 months old, and she was throwing up, not sleeping at night, not taking naps during the day and totally inconsolable throughout the day at times. I remember thinking, she has an entire mouth full of incoming teeth. I am not going to survive more teeth coming in. Luckily, the first two have been by far the worst. She still fevers, throws up and wakes up at night and is just in lots of pain, but it hasn’t been as bad with the following 3 teeth. She started sleeping through the night more than half of the time at 9 months. That was a blessing! I was losing my mind with lack of sleep. She was on the brink of crawling since 6 months. She sat up in her rock and play at 2 months old, and we were impressed since the moment she was born with her neck strength. She hit all the sitting up milestones super early, so we thought she would crawl and walk really early. When we went to California at 6-7 months she was almost crawling. She advanced so quickly, and then she just stopped. She didn’t end up crawling until maybe 9 or 10 months. She started climbing the stairs like a pro at the same time. She could stand up and take steps with us holding her at 8 or so months, but again she didn’t start taking steps on her own until the end of 10 months. At one, she can walk quite far and she stands for long periods of times sometimes, so she is 100% capable of just walking like a pro, but she doesn’t. She’ll only walk between Trevor and I when we make her. She will walk between the couch and table. Her balance is great and she can walk, so whenever she decides she is ready she will just take off. It’s driving me nuts, because she is into absolutely everything and doesn’t stop moving, but she crawls. So she’s getting her hands all germy and I’m having to wipe them down, or not let her move when we are out in public places. Her walking won’t change anything - she’s already walking all around furniture and gets into everything. The only thing that will change is her not getting germs all over her hands every time she moves. So I am so ready for her to just stop crawling.

She has the cutest, hammiest little personality. She loves to make us laugh. She loves the twins. She loves to give them hugs and just follows them around all day long. It’s been really nice for me, they entertain her. Starting as little as 2 months, I could put her in her bumbo and she would sit in the playroom and watch them play while I got stuff done. They are mostly very patient with her, but once she started crawling they would cry and complain they she was ruining what they were making. Sometimes I’ll be in the office sewing and i’ll hear them yelling that she’s ruining things, and then Savannah will carry her into the office, plop her down, and run to continue playing. Salem will crawl out of the office, up the stairs and into the playroom and they just repeat the process over and over. I think it’s so funny. She just wants to be with the twins all the time.

When she was younger, her favorite place in the world was on her changing table. I think because her tummy hurt so much, when we changed her diaper we did oils and massages and leg pumps and it really helped her feel better. Now, she hates it! We lay her down to change her diaper and she loses it. Putting clothes on her is such a battle. She screams like she’s being tortured and tries to roll off the table. It is ridiculous.

She likes to eat. We have eggs for breakfast every morning, which she loves. I make sweet potato with it often and she doesn’t like sweet potato at all. She likes meat. She loves fruit.

She’s been a pretty rough sleeper overall. I read back on the twins’ 1 year post, and I remember Oliver being a horrible sleeper/napper and Savannah being awesome, but I didn’t remember just how bad he was! Salem is in the middle. She sleeps through the night mostly and is usually pretty easy to get down. For naps, she often just refuses to take them. With the twins they needed naps so badly. They didn’t go from two naps to one until 2! Even now at almost 5, they still really need naps. I don’t have them take one in their beds most days, unless they are really cranky, as they tend to go to bed a lot later at night. But if we are in the car for more than 10 minutes anytime after noon, 99% of the time they fall asleep. It’s hilarious because they will nod off and the baby will stay awake the entire time. She doesn’t fall asleep in the car often. I forgot to mention as well, she went through a phase where she would scream in the car every single time. To the point she would vomit. It was so insanely awful. I couldn’t go anywhere. Taking the twins to school was stressful since she would scream the entire time, and then often puke. This lasted a couple of months. I really couldn’t go anywhere with her during this phase.

Now at one, she’s the happiest, sweetest little thing. We still have to be super careful about dairy and with her tummy. She has the sweetest, cheesiest grin. She knows how to tickle which is adorable. She says momma and dadda. She also said “happy” on her birthday all day long! It was so cute! She is the light of our family and we just adore her!

For her birthday, we had a party in our backyard. This is the first birthday we’ve ever hosted at our house. We have always had all birthdays or family gatherings at Elaine and Bill’s. But with grandma selling her house, this is the first time we haven’t had a pool party! It was really weird. We are grateful to all of the family who came out and celebrated our sweet girl with us!