My baby girl is already 3/4 of a year old! My how time flies! She definitely thinks she's old now, too. This month has brought on our newest adventure - mobility!
It didn't take Henlie long to figure out this crawling business. For the longest time, I thought she may be one who skipped crawling all together as she hated being on her stomach but loved holding onto fingers to stand and walk. However, within a couple of days, she had it figured out. July 16th, she had backwards motion down, but forwards was still elusive. The next day, the 17th, she managed forward motion. What was it that finally convinced her to go forward? A nasty bone the dog had lying on the floor. Yuck. Since then, she has gotten more efficient and can go longer before needing a break.
We took these after church on Sunday - the lighting that time of day sucked, and she wasn't terribly happy to sit and get her picture taken. That's why she has the brush :)
My next surprise in her growing independence came only a few days later. On July 20th, I left her playing contentedly surrounded by toys and a diaper box in her room (diaper boxes make great toys) while I took a shower. When I got out, I checked on her, and she had pulled herself up with the diaper box, and managed to get around to the other side! I didn't know she could do that yet :)
How I left her....
How I found her....
As for food, we have gotten a bit more lax about what she can try. (Mini Nilla Wafers were a freaking life/sanity saver on our trip to St. George.) Henlie also shares more off of our plates, depending on the food. She is a really good eater for now. She hasn't had an aversion to anything or refused anything since ham in a jar. She has had small pieces of lunch meat ham, though, and done just fine. Some things apparently weren't meant to be bottled :) She can also feed herself finger foods (helpful with those Mini Nilla Wafers!) She can pick up Cheerios and pieces of bread and get them in her mouth. It's cute to watch :) A lot of times, to ensure she gets the food part, she eats her fingers too.
This is all she really wanted to do when I was trying to take her pictures. No sitting for this girl!
Along with this food business, she has gotten to the distracted nursing stage. She still nurses about as often as before (sometimes more when she's having a rough night), but not for as long. This has killed my supply. Pumping at work has always been a struggle, but now my morning pumping is just as bad most days. Oh well. Three more months and I won't mind if she gets most of her liquid elsewhere :)
This month, she also had the worst runny nose. Matt thought maybe she was sick, but she acted fine except for the leaking of her face. Sometimes she gets stuffy and wakes herself up from sleep from not being able to breathe well. She hasn't really acted sick at all, so there must be some other cause. For awhile, we thought it might be a tooth. She plays with her lower gum just left of center, and Matt says there is a bump there, but it has been a week or two now, and no tooth has erupted yet. I'm not entirely certain it is the cause of the runny nose. Or that we can really call this "teething." At her check-up, Dr. Fullmer didn't see any teeth yet, either. He figures it is just a cold. Fortunately, she's doing lots better now!
I finally got some smiles by playing peek-a-boo from behind the camera. See her crazy hair? That's what happens when you're fussing and slide down the chair!
Mentioning sleeping, my good little sleeper has turned into an awful sleeper! I try putting her to bed earlier, and she just wakes up an hour later. That is, if she actually went to sleep. Her sleeping patterns are all off. I've been really lucky that she hasn't woken much at night for most of her life, but this month has been a struggle! One night was particularly bad. I'd just gotten home from work at like 11:30pm, and she woke up. I nursed her and held her, and she finally went to sleep. I fed the dog, and food hitting the metal bowl woke her again. We nursed, and then she was done nursing, but not done screaming. When I finally put her down, I couldn't leave or she would cry again. I slept about an hour on her floor before she woke. After that, I was able to make it to bed, and she woke once more at like 4:30am. Then she was up her usual time between 7am and 8am.
Since Henlie's growth spurt last month, she has caught up in her clothes. It's weird to me because I'm used to her being about two months behind (ie. wearing 3-6 month clothes when she's 7 and 8 months....) She is in her 6-9 month clothes, and she's actually 9 months. Crazy :) Probably by next month, most of her 6-9 month clothes won't fit either. In fact, in a few things, she's wearing 12 month clothes (which is expected come 9 months, but weird for my petite baby). She has some shorts and a skirt that she can wear already that are 12 month. I also bought her a pair of 12 month PJs, since all of her PJs are only supposed to be good through 9 months. (Finding PJs I think are worth buying and that aren't, you know, Dora, is insanely ridiculous. Especially when I am cheap and don't want to order from Carters lol. This is why she only has one pair so far. Even walmart.com doesn't have any 12 month in stock of styles/designs I'd buy her.)
July 24th - first night in her new 12 month PJs. Had to use the flash, hence the face :)
We went back to Dr. Fullmer for her 9 month check-up on Monday, August 5th. She gained another 1 1/2 pounds. She now weighs 16 lbs. 8 oz. (22%). Her height is 27.25 inches (35%), and her head circumference is 17.25 inches (50%). Instead of hanging out below the curve, baby girl has surpassed the bottom curves and is hanging out on the middle curves. I figured she should at least be close the curve after her 8 month weight check, but who knew? And her weight when from less than a percent to double digits! Dr. Fullmer doesn't really know where she'll end up because she is still growing faster than the average kid, who by now, has had their growth taper off. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!
She is doing great. Developmentally, she's on par with average 10 month olds (the detailed questionaire they gave us to fill out was designed for 10 month olds...) She looked to me when Dr. Fullmer was listening to her heart and lungs, which is a good developmental sign. Only downside to our visit (besides getting her ears checked...she didn't like that one bit) was they didn't have her vaccinations recorded from her 6 month visit. She got them, though, so they were just going to record she got them all for us. (Different nurse than usual last time....) Aside from our monthly weight checks for her baby book, we'll go in again at 12 months! Three more months! Craziness.
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