official 9 month update

...or we could call this "everything you never cared to know about my baby."

my last formal update for baby was at six months. i skipped doing an update at seven months because not much had changed. missing the eight month post was pure negligence. it's okay. i doubt any future kids will get a post like this. ever.

march 13-19, baby experienced southern california. san diego, the zoo, anaheim, LA, two hockey games, and a lot of beaches. it was a lot of driving and missed naps/no schedule but she did really great and we are continually thankful that she is in love with her carseat.  march 20-28 was the week of misery in colorado where baby was 100 times fussier than she's ever been in her whole life.  thank goodness she got over that.

hockey

beach

misery in colorado

after weeks of rocking on all fours, saturday, march 19, baby crawled for the first time! she was so super slow and really really wobbly at first but after about a week she was really good. it took her at least a week or two before she would crawl more than 5 or 6 feet and then she realized that actually, the possibilities are endless! now, she's pretty fast and she crawls all over the place.

a week later (around march 25 or so) baby mastered changing positions from laying down to sitting to crawling and back again. i was reeeally excited about this because it's what i call a "useful milestone." this really extended her independent play time because i can leave her alone and she doesn't have to be sitting up OR laying down the whole time. she can be a mover and a shaker to her little hearts content.

baby girl got her first tooth february 27 and her second tooth about two weeks later.  two little teeth on the bottom.  they look so cute although i do miss letting her gum my fingers though.  she still does it sometimes but it's just not the same with those two little razors so close by.

click to enlarge to see her little teeth!

she's also quite the talker.  she'll make consistent sounds like "ma ma ma" and "da da da" but my favorite is the little gibberish she makes up.  especially when she's singing it or whispering it.  i can actually hear her whispering to herself at this very moment.  it is soooo cute.

as far as eating goes, it changes all the time so this will be a jumble. baby is not really a huge fan of eating.  she could care less.  if i nursed her for two minutes and decided that was all/gave her two bite of oatmeal and that's all/skipped a meal of solids altogether/never fed her when she woke up she would not care.  like not even bat an eye.  and i'm being completely serious.  most meal times are just me trying to force feed my child while she tries to climb out of her highchair.  everything changes all the time but especially eating.  and sleeping.  but that's a different paragraph. baby cereal in order of preference goes oatmeal, multigrain, space space space, rice. she'll eat the rice cereal alright but with the multigrain, and oatmeal especially, it's like christmas morning for her. i'm fine with that though because they're better anyways. she opens up real big to eat.  for a while she was doing cereal and a jar of fruit for breakfast, jar of fruit and jar of veggies for lunch, and cereal (normally oatmeal) and jar of veggie for dinner before bed.  not always full jars, but sometimes.

spinach puree

ever since baby got sick (tuesday/wednesday of last week, april 13th, second time ever, how's that for keeping the books straight?) though, she'll take a bite or two and then spend the rest of the meal shaking her head, pursing her lips, and trying to grab the spoon. if you trick her into opening her mouth then she'll eat the food just fine, but for some reason, she just won't open her mouth on her own.

about two weeks ago, we started giving baby real solids aka "finger foods/table foods."  we started her out with puffs (holy crap those are pricey at $2 for a small container!  seriously less than 2oz) and quickly moved to toasted O's ($2 for a big 14oz box) because i'm cheap. then we did some banana (baby's favorite so far), peeled and diced grapes (liked those quite a bit too), and kiwi (not a fan, although i can't blame her because it was pretty sour). a few months ago, i gave her mashed up avocado and she didn't like it (i think because it wasn't pureed) and i plan on trying chunks of those again once the price goes down (as of a few days ago they were still $2.50 each and i just can not pay over $2 an avocado. can. not. we've also given her small bits of pineapple, cantaloupe, and other fruit you'd find in a fruit bowl when we've been at bbq's and other activities like that. she was most enthusiastic when we gave her a giant pineapple chunk to suck on and she quickly inhaled the whole thing into her mouth. twice. after those two bouts of excited panic, we learned and just threw it away. another time baby girl, another time. so in the meantime we're really loving the ability to keep her occupied with cheerios (which is her favorite, along with bananas). another "useful milestone." she is so quick at grabbing the little O (with the cutest little pincher fingers you've ever seen!) and popping it in her mouth!

nursing is still going great. she went through a stage for a while where she was getting ridiculously distracted by everything even with her surroundings completely still. so now when i feed her, it's in the glider in her room and nothing is in sight or within reach. i even took away the burp cloth hanging over the arm of the chair because if she grabs it once, feeding is over.  most of the time i even keep the light off/blinds down.  it's necessary.  and i enjoy that quiet time.  i do not do a single thing but watch her eat.  no phone, no book, no music, no computer.  absolutely nothing.  that was how i did it for literally the first five months of her life.  just because i loved nursing so much and i wanted to soak it up.  so i apologize to emmy, liza, and whoever else i abruptly ended phone calls with in the name of completely devoting that time to nursing baby girl.  so now i'm back to that.  partially out of necessity of having such an easily distracted (where on earth did she get that from?!?!) baby, and partially because i realize that i'm on the downward slope of nursing her.  i don't have plans to wean her anytime soon but i know the afternoon feedings will probably go when she starts drinking regular milk.  a few days ago i thought about how our nursing days are more than half over and my eyes literally welled up with tears.  sad.  that's when i have to think about how much she loves to pull and yank on my hair while she's nursing.  i can not accurately describe the extent to which this is a constant struggle.  when she can't get to my hair though, she'll pull her own which wasn't a problem until this last week because now her hair is long enough that she can pull it out!  in clumps!  so i try to discourage that and redirect her to her ear.  playing with her ears is her third choice activity while nursing and it is precious to see her pulling/playing/holding her ear.  the best is when she falls asleep with her hand cupped over, holding on to her ear.  not sure why, but i think it's adorable.

mid january, i weaned baby off of her third nap so she was just taking two 2 hour naps.  but ever since our two weeks of travel last month for spring break, sleep has been terribly inconsistent.  i know it's my fault though because i have her skip her morning nap so often so i can get out of the house and do other things.  so now sometimes, even when we're at home, she may not be tired enough to nap in the morning.  so every day is different.  for example, yesterday she napped for 45 mins in the morning and 45 in the afternoon and woke up crying both times (normal for her when she doesn't get a full length nap) and it took her over an hour to get to sleep each time.  the day before that she woke up for the day at 7 30, down for nap at 9 30, up at 11 15, down for afternoon nap at 2 00, awake at 5 00, and down for the night at 8 30.  a day's total nap time could be as little as 1.5 hours or as much as 5 (although that was very rare).  anyways, some days i feel like it drives me a little bit nuts, but really it's worth it to have that flexibility and know that my baby can get by with so little sleep for days like last saturday when we were out all morning and all afternoon and only had time to stop at home in the middle for a quick 30 minute power nap before waking her up to go to a birthday bbq.

apparently they were just laying down together and both just happened to fall asleep

nighttime sleep is much more predictable.  over the past three months the norm is to wake up and nurse once during a 12 hour stretch at night.  she will have times where she'll go three or four nights in a row where she'll sleep the whole way through, but then we'll go on a trip, or she'll get sick, or start teething, or something that will throw her off again.  and it takes a while to recover and bounce back.  i don't mind though.  call me crazy, but i'm kind sad on the mornings i wake up at 8, and realize that i missed our quiet, middle of the night cuddle time.  also, for the first time ever, she's had a few times (okay, mostly just during that week of misery in colorado) where she's woken up during the night and put up a fuss about going back to bed.  that was totally foreign because before that, she'd never, not even one single time, not gone directly back to sleep after nursing during the night.

oh. my. precious.  i am in love.

this section is about poop.  feel free to skip it if you wish. i'll think you're crazy for it though. because i love poop. and i'm loving baby's poop right now. eating solid food has done great things for her diapers. they are clean and concise and rarely ever stink. i thought her diapers would smell worse when solid food was in full swing but it is the opposite for her. i only know if she's poopy if i feel a lump in her diaper. or if she's grunting with her rosy cheeks. ;-) it is fabulous.  it honestly makes me want to do cloth diapering because poop cleanup would be nonexistent.  but, for other reasons, i still have my reservations.

baby girl is doing really well with her independent playtime.  i set up a pack in play upstairs in our hallway and put some fun toys in there.  in she goes whenever i need to do something like go to the bathroom or get ready for the day.  it's so much quicker to put her in there and put my contacts in, then to put her on the floor and check on her every two seconds.  i also try to put her in there for about 30 minutes once a day for "independent playtime" so she's used to being contained, having a limited/set amount of toys, being left alone for an extended period of time, and entertaining herself.  she does really well and since i've been doing it, i've noticed that she's more self sufficient at other times as well.  this is something i'll definitely have to keep up with her and make sure to be diligent about with future kids.  it's amazing.

baby girl sometimes still likes her jumper.  if she's in there, she'll be happy jumping for a long time.  but half of the time i go to put her in there, she'll squeal or cry until i put her on the floor and let her crawl around instead.  crawling around and pulling up on things (which she did for the first time on april 3) are definitely her two favorite activities right now.  she is extremely self sufficient and independent.  i can sit her on the floor in our living room and she'll crawl right over to her toy corner to get all of her stuff out to play and i can make dinner, do dishes, or get stuff cleaned just so long as i peek at her every once in a while to make sure she's being safe.

baby has a special love of belts, electronic cords, cell phones, computers, hair, and even honey's shoes when he leaves them out.  she isn't showing any favoritism towards any of her actual toys right now.  i think she's been enjoying them all pretty equally lately.  she loves listening to music (country and neil diamond), dancing (she doesn't dance on her own yet though), walking (when she's holding on to our hands), peek-a-boo, stroller rides, car rides, swinging, and kids.  i'm sure she probably has more things that she likes but it's hard to know since she's pretty content with everything so there's not really a big range from crying to laughing to let us know her preferences.

i'm not sure that there's anything she downright doesn't like.  she is sooo extremely tolerant.  she won't put up a fuss at all if it's freezing cold, really hot, or raining on her head.  i'm really trying to think of something that she hates every time and i don't think there is anything.  even that nose bulb sucker thing.  she dislikes it about 80%, but then the other 20% she'll be perfectly still and maybe even help me hold it while we suck her nose out.  it's pretty incredible.

i love the bedhead.

she seems pretty indifferent to bath time.  she's really good about it when i douse her head and get tons of water in her eyes and she'll hold her rubber duckies the whole time, but she's not splashing all over the place, laughing, or giggling at all.  last week she managed to poop in the bath tub (i'll spare you pictures although you can feel free to use your imagination!) for the first time ever.  luckily we bath her in a little bucket in the tub so i just pulled her right out and dumped the dirty water down the toilet.  but still.  poop?  in the tub?!?!  it was pretty funny.

okay, here are some of the specifics.  baby is still wearing all of her same 0-3 clothes but is starting to also fit into bigger clothes without growing out of her old ones.  in the past few days she's worn dresses as small as newborn and as big as 9 months.  how mysterious.  she is wearing 6 month sleepers and a size 2 diaper during the day and size 3 at night.

4.19.11 - 9 month appointment

15 lbs 4 ounces  9%

28 inches  61%

hc 42.2 cm  12%

so really, to summarize, she's just a really happy baby and crawling and pulling up on everything in sight.  the doctor said she thinks baby will be walking before her first birthday but who really knows, she's moving around just fine as is.  i call this stage her puppy dog stage because at least ten times a day i comment on how she's just like a little puppy dog with how she gets in the recycling, exciting crawls around the corner to me just panting with a big grin on her face, and those eyes.  oh how i love those giant puppy dog eyes.  she's just my little puppy dog right now.  it's definitely the most challenging stage so far (mostly because of eating and getting into things and being in a constant state of change) but it's also the most fun.  i love this little girl so much.  she makes me positively giddy.

talk about the longest post ever.  now i'm remembering why i don't do these more often.  anyways, baby girl really always just makes me think of that quote about never stepping in the same river twice.  she is never the same kid twice.

my typical view.  the curious little puppy.