Emma: 9 Months

Sweet little squishy,

I am thrilled to say that you are FINALLY feeling better!  You were sick for nearly your entire 8th month of life, so this was a welcomed change.  You are back to napping pretty well (2x per day) but nights have continued to be a struggle.  We started letting you cry it out a little in the middle of the night this month.  The first night we started you woke at 3am and I nursed you for a very short feed and you went right back to sleep.  Then you woke at 5am and Daddy tried to rock you back to sleep and changed your very wet diaper.  That didn't work so we let you cry for 15 minutes or so, which was SO hard to listen to!  I decided to give you a small bottle of pumped milk (in hopes of breaking the nursing for comfort habit) and you drank only a little bit of it.  I put you back down and you cried for about 10 more minutes before falling back to sleep around 6:15am.  It was so hard hearing you cry and knowing that if I nursed you, you would fall back to sleep peacefully.  However, this was one of those moments where I had to focus on the bigger picture and choose the harder option.  The following night we decided it was time to drop to only one middle of the night feeding.  It was a tough night with some crying, gas drops and a bottle of water, but you did it!  On the third night you woke only one time to eat and slept the rest of the night peacefully!  AMAZING!  Unfortunately this was not the end of 2 middle of the night feedings forever as you still had a few nights where you needed 2 feedings, but this was definitely a turning point.  Last night you made it the whole night with no feedings for the first time in your life!  You still woke up once, but I just held you for a few minutes and you went right back to sleep.  Huge progress!

At the beginning of this month we started giving you only finger foods and squeezy pouches of baby food.  You LOVE feeding yourself and eat much more when you can do it all yourself.  The only bummer with this new found freedom is how messy you get, often requiring a bath after mealtime.  Some of your favorites are sweet potatoes, green beans, mango, any carb, peas, and blueberries (not your favorite, but this was your first month ever trying them).  You have a horrible habit of throwing your sippy cup of water onto the floor after every single sip.  This creates a fun game of go fetch with mommy at every meal, which you seem to enjoy.  Stinker!  :-)

Your second tooth broke through this month (bottom left), which explains why you are chewing and sucking on everything these days  You learned how to climb up several steps with no help, have been cruising along the furniture, finally started crawling on your hands and knees, and scoot everywhere on your bottom.  You are a mover!  You are absolutely obsessed with the tv cabinet - always opening the sliding doors and pulling things out.  You started saying the "p" sound this month and have been very noisy the past few days.  I'm guessing that you will be getting another tooth soon, based on how fussy you have been the past couple days.

Baby girl, you are absolutely precious.  You remain a serious baby with limited smiles and giggles, but when you do show us that gummy grin, it melts our hearts.  Your open-mouthed kisses are my favorite and your crazy hair that sticks straight up reminds me that you are still just a little baby, which I love. 

9 Month Stats
- Clothes: 9 & 12 Months
- Diaper: Size 3 during the day & size 4 at night
- Schedule:
7 or 7:30am - Wake, Nurse (5 min), Solids, Play
2 Hours after waking (9 or 10am) - Nap
1.5-2 hours later (11 or 12pm) - Wake, Nurse (4-5 min), Solids, Play
2-2.5 hours after waking (1 or 2pm) - Nap
1.5-2 hours later (3 or 3:30pm) - Wake, Nurse (4 min), Play
6pm - Solids, Bedtime Routine (bath as needed, pjs, diaper)
7pm - Nurse (3-5 min), Bed