9 Months!

WOW.

So many things have changed in the last 3 months. Abigial is 18.4 lbs (50th percentile), is 27 inches long (25th percentile), and her head circumference is 18 inches (90th percentile). The Dr isn't worried that she used to be in the 75th for weight and height since she's so much more active now. And she's thinking she might be just about to start a growth spurt. I think her body composition might just be changing. She's a strong girl.

We started with solid foods at 6 months, mostly pureed foods in pouches. By 8 Months little lady preferred to feed herself so we improvised and started giving her some baby biscuits to start off with and finishing up with the purees. I thought I would make all of her food but when it came down to it, I wanted her to have the variety of the pouches and I don't feel bad about it one bit.

We started dabbling in Baby Led Weaning, where she feeds herself as much or as little as she wants. So every meal is a combo of whatever table food we are eating- healthy stuff like salad, veggies, meats, some breads, plus at least one of her pouches. She prefers to hold the pouch herself and suck the insides out. She knows how to use a straw and a sippy cup and drinks water out of those.

At around 7.5 Months she officially started crawling. She didn't want to do it unless she was going to do it right. Only cross-body crawling for this girl! That seemed to make her much happier because she could just go get what she wanted instead of trying to communicate and having me guess and get it wrong over and over.

She loves music and wants to practice banging her hand on things along with the beat. She also likes to sing along and loves when we dance around with her. She has a few favorite books: I Love You Through And Through (I love that one), Brown Bear Brown Bear, Baby Loves Peekaboo (I think that one's a little creepy), Peekaboo Sophie, and the Opposites book. She loves turning the pages and working on her fingers grasping small things. She also loves shaking maracas.

And dogs. Anytime she sees a dog she must go say hi. She really likes to pet kitty Eucie and talk to her.

She had her first illness- Brochiolitis, and I had my first 'crazy mom' episode. She'd been congested/fussy for a couple of days. I thought it was a cold and was letting her fight it off. Then the Monday before Thanksgiving, she sounded really bad, and didn't want to play, only wanted me to hold her. I called the Pedi and got their 'we are closed' message. I assumed they were closed all week for the holiday. We stayed home all day.

Tuesday, she was worse, so I tried calling the Pedi again. Still the 'we are closed' message. This time I tried again an hour later and they answered. I was advised to leave a message for the nurses line. 4 hours later, I still hadn't heard back, so I drove over to the office and told them to work us into the schedule for the day. We were going out of town the next day and I needed to know she was ok. That's the 'crazy mom' part- I didn't follow the rules or make an appointment! They tested her for RSV (thank goodness it wasn't that!) and gave us some herbs and stuff to help her immune system work through it. By the end of the week, we were partying in Houston at the Children's museum!

This is really a fun age. She smiles and laughs more, its easier to figure out what she wants, and it's just plain fun to see her exploring, learning to use her body, and trying new foods. It feels like the fussy baby is long gone, and I don't even remember her being that way. 

She's sleeping 7pm-7am (if she wakes up in that time, I don't know about it), with 2 naps a day. A few weeks ago we had to do some sleep training because as she started eating more solid food I realized that she doesn't need to be nursing in the middle of the night, she just wants me to come in there. She's gained weight normally, she's eating 3 meals a day in addition to nursing, so I know she won't starve. 

It sounds so harsh, but the bottom line is- she needs her sleep and so do I. It's better on both of us if we sleep a long time at night. So we are sitting at around 5 nursing sessions a day, 3 meals, and sometimes one snack; 12 hours of sleep at night; and a smiling, learning girl during the day. The first night of sleep training was terrible. The second was better, and the third better still. By the 4th night, she was sleeping through and so was I. I finally feel like a normal person again after catching up on all the sleep I've missed up until now.  

Things look good around here!