9 months old!

Well. Bella has officially been out of the womb for as long as she was inside of it!

Can you believe our happy little munchkin is 9 months old?! September absolutely whizzed by. Fall is in full swing, and our little girl is full of giggles as she gets to know the world around her. We are in this amazing phase where she will absolutely crack up laughing at things that she is taking in for the first time, such as, daddy “juggling” 6 of her blocks, Titan running down the driveway to fetch a ball, and armpit tickles. All three of those happened just in the past week. The world is pretty amazing to Bella right now!

So, let’s try and recap this month.

SLEEP: All in our household have had a great month of sleep. When Bella is sleeping well, so are mommy and daddy! I think she slept through the night (approximately 7-7) for the entire month, up until the past 3 nights when she has started to fuss at 5 or 6 am. Thankfully that isn’t too bad because I can just nurse her for 5-10 minutes and she’ll go back to sleep until I wake her for school. Hoping this is just a short phase and she’ll go back to her 7-7. It might be time to start putting her in her pajamas plus sleep sack instead of just the sleep sack now that it is getting chillier. As for naps, we are still at two per day for the most part. On the weekends, she naps pretty well in her crib at home – sometimes for up to 2 hours. At daycare, she rarely naps more than an hour at a time due to all of the noise.

FOOD: We haven’t introduced too much in the way of new food this month. We did give her a little bit of egg yolk while in New York, and I’ve been allowing daycare to give her a little bit of citrus fruit, both of which she has seemed to tolerate. She still loves bananas, applesauce, and sweet potato. She went on a butternut squash boycott recently. She loves avocado if you spoon-feed it to her. We’ve been giving her toast which is a favorite to feed herself. She had her first fish last week when we gave her a little salmon. She enjoyed it but seemed to have trouble chewing it, so we might wait a few weeks to try that one again. Its definitely time to start introducing more meat into her diet, and we plan on discussing the best way to do that with the doctor this Friday.

double fisting broccoli!

GROWTH: We won’t have the official numbers until her pediatrician appointment on Friday, but we’re guessing she is still pretty small. Bella can still fit into all of her six month clothing, and we just put her in her first 9 month pants the other day. They are a little long but seem to otherwise fit. She is definitely petite!

these pumpkins are way bigger than me!

MOVEMENT: Bella is still pretty content to just sit still. She can now do a full spin seated or on her tummy, but we don’t seem very close to crawling. If she is reaching for a toy from a sit, she’ll go to her tummy now, but other than some accidental backwards movement, crawling doesn’t seem to be happening. She can stand holding on to her crib or onto the low shelving at school, so who knows, she may start pulling up before she crawls!

i haven’t really figured out how to move from here

TEETH: We are still at 4 teeth, just as we were last month. It looks like the top middle teeth may come in soon, but nothing is poking through just yet.

NURSING: This is an exciting milestone for me. I said at the beginning that my original goal was to exclusively nurse until she was 6 months old. My next goal was to make it to 9 months, and I’m happy to say that we have arrived at that point. I’d definitely like to make it to 12 months, where she could transition straight to whole milk instead of needing formula. It has been a challenge with my work travel, and my pumping amounts are definitely lower, but I’m still hoping we can make it. She is definitely efficient now, and typically only nurses for 10-15 minutes at a time!

feeding myself a bottle of pumped milk while mommy was out of town

LOVES: Pulling handfuls of hair off of Titan. Grabbing mommy’s hair and necklaces while nursing. Flapping her arms up and down at her side when she is excited. Feeding herself puffs at restaurants. Sticking her pointer and middle finger in her mouth to self soothe when mommy picks her up.

so excited to go outside at daycare!

FAMILY & FRIENDS: We’ve been able to visit with many family and friends this month. Its so nice for Bella to be able to meet and play with everyone! We spent several days with my extended family in New York/New Jersey, Lance’s mom and stepdad came to visit this weekend, and we enjoyed a weekend in the DC area with my best friend from college, Jen. Around home, Bella has had several playdates and attended her second baby shower!

Grandma Charlotte makes me laugh!

PSU babies

Uncle Ben has lots of hair to pull!

fun at the baby shower

out for a walk with baby Kaden

This has been such a fun month. While we are excited for Bella to become mobile, life is definitely easier right now when she isn’t. Overall, she is such a happy girl.  It seems like she rarely gets upset for no reason now, and it is much easier to identify what she wants when she cries (typically either to be held or to be put down for a nap). It is so much fun to watch her get to know the world she lives in!