Mom: Baby Stats at Nine Months

Yesterday Susan turned 9 months old.  NINE MONTHS OLD!  How did this happen so fast?  She has been out longer than she was in.  And WE HAVE HAD SO MUCH FUN!  Sure there are a  lot of things that we had to power through - it will be that way for the rest of our lives.  The worry reflex will never go away.  But I wouldn't trade these last nine months for anything.  Watching Susan grow and try new things is amazing.  She really does change every single day.  

She had her 9 month check-up today.  She is right on track and on schedule.  She loves her doctor and we love her doctor too.  We didn't  love our first pediatrician so we switched right away.  That is one thing I would say to new parents - trust you instincts.  If you don't like the way you or your baby is being treated, or if the doctor seems to think your concerns are a big joke, switch doctors.  As new parents, you don't know if something is serious or silly and you want your doctor to take you seriously.  Except for that one horrible experience before Thanksgiving, we have been very happy with Duke Peds.  

Here are her stats at 9 months.

Weight: 23 lb.s 6.3 oz. (99.5 percentile)
Height: 30 inches (100th percentile)
Next appointment: 3/21 for her one year check up!
Teeth:  Six!  The fifth tooth erupted right before Thanksgiving and the sixth erupted this past Monday.  Now she has 4 teeth on the bottom and two up top.  We have tried to tell her that teething is not a race.  But apparently she doesn't care.  
New Foods:  Watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple, broccoli and cauliflower.  We also helped Susan learn to self-feed.  Our first try was the night of the Christmas tree lighting.  She would take the puffs, look at them and throw them on the ground.  She has come a long way since then.  Now she eats her O's (Cheerios) and Puffs like a little champ.  She is also a master at the sippy cup.  I do think this is where daycare has been helpful.  Her dad and  I were not having a lot of success with the sippy cup.  She was having a hard time tilting, but now she drinks water like a champ!
Bottle: 3 times a day, 8 oz. each.  We decided to wean her down to three bottles around the same time we started self-feeding.  Susan LOVES her bottle.  I mean, if there were such a thing as Bottles Anonymous, she would need to attend the program.  And we would like her to be off the bottle as close to a year as possible.  We are going to wean her down to two probably around 10.5 months.  Once she really has the sippy cup mastered.  And once meats and other proteins are firmly established.
Clothing: 12 months
Diaper Size: 5 - With this last round of teething, Susan was having A LOT of blow outs.  And she was blowing out onto her adorable Christmas outfits.  Thankfully, I found this awesome recipe that removes stains from carpet and clothes!  It works better than any commercial stain product I have found.  So I was able to save her clothes, but we were tired of her coming home in her spare outfit everyday.  So even though she hasn't reached the weight of size 5 diapers yet, they fit her body better.  And the Blow Out/Soiled Clothes cycle has ended.
Sleeping: Between 10.5 to 11.5 hours at night.  She usually goes to bed between 7 and 8.  If she has not had great naps at daycare, she goes to bed a little earlier, around 6:00.  When not a daycare, she has two naps, one mid-morning and one mid-afternoon.  These usually last around 1.5 to 2.5 hours.
Favorite Toys:  She loves the ball.  I taught her to play ball ( we roll it back and forth) and she loves to do that.  Sometimes she gets so excited she hops on her butt. She also loves this bead rollercoaster toy that a friend let us borrow until Susan is too old for it.  She can pull up on it and explore every facet of it.
Likes: She loves to clap her hand and play ball.  She love peek-a-boo.  She really enjoys crawling around and exploring the house.  Now that she is so good at crawling, she just goes everywhere she wants.
Dislikes:  She doesn't love having to go in her pack and play if we need to do something and can't watch her.  She will sometimes even throw an all out fit.  We just ignore it and then she realizes she isn't getting her way and starts to play happily.  She still gets bored pretty easily.  We are both excited for the new toys that Santa is bringing for Christmas.  She is ready for more advance stuff and hopefully that will help with the boredom.
Milestones:  As Chris blogged in his last post, she is now babbling and talking.  She says "mama" all the time and sometimes she even says it at me.  She also says "baba" and "wawa" and a couple of others.  No "dada's" yet but we are working on it.  Chris also taught her how to "give five."  If we hold out one of our hands, she will slap it.  And she can wave.  She doesn't always wave when we wave at her, and sometimes she just starts waving for no reason.  But she can do it.  She is cruising a little but not a lot.  She is much happier to just crawl around.  We have to finish babyproofing because she pulls up onto everything.  This includes kitchen cabinets and drawers.  So we need to add those.  And we need to add the gate to the top of the stairs.  We have one; we just haven't installed it yet.  Basically, she is a textbook baby who is right on track with everything.  We are so blessed!

Beautiful smile!  Quite possibly the happiest baby alive!

Short attention span.  "Oh the light!"

And we lost her.  The tree and ornaments are much more interesting then her 9 month photo!