9-month well visit update

A week+ overdue, oh well :)

So I was a little off on baby's weight... turns out she is only 18.5 lbs. Her growth has definitely slowed down. Her length is 27.25 in, bringing her down to the 38th percentile (she was still somewhere between 50-75% for weight). Maybe this means she will stop outgrowing her clothes so quickly! Everything at her check-up was great. They were even very happy with her progress with solid foods, and said if she is able to eat finger foods don't even worry about cereal and purees! The doctor we saw said to feed her whatever we are eating, just make sure it is "cheerio-sized" and squish things like peas so that they aren't choking hazards. This hasn't been going so well, because for some reason she doesn't like little bits of food- only big chunks (besides blueberries, which are her favorite food). She does so well with the big chunks, I'm not worrying about it too much.

I've still got a couple of weeks' worth of some amazing baby food (planned to make my own, but got a huge bag of the stuff from a family friend). It's so good, I would be happy to eat it so it wouldn't go to waste, but baby likes it too so I'll let her have it. It's nice to know that it's fine to give her whatever we are eating, though, and makes meal-time that much easier. I was worried about dairy, salt-content, fat, etc. but apparently it's all okay, because a serving size for her is only about 1tbsp, and she still gets most nutrients from nursing. The only rules are no shellfish nuts, egg whites, or straight milk. Easy enough.

In case anyone is curious about the food I mentioned, it's Sprout organic baby food.

She loves the fruit flavors...new flavor for today is the pasta with lentil bolognese.

Not much has happened since my last survey update, but I'll do it again anyway:

Age: 9 months, 1+week.

Stats/Size: 18.5 lbs, and is now wearing both 9month and 12 month clothes, probably about half of each. I don't know how she outgrows clothes when her length only changed by a half inch in 3 months!

Sleep: Eh... she seems to be trying to cut out her second nap. I'm not ready for that! No matter how hard we try, most days she just refuses to fall asleep for it, and after an hour and a half of trying, it is too late anyway if we want her to go to bed at a reasonable hour. When she doesn't get a nap, she goes to bed around 8-8:30. She then wakes up to eat sometime between 12-2, and again around 6. Not fun, but she does go back to sleep until about 8:30, 9am, which is nice on the weekends. But I would prefer one night feeding and two daytime naps.

Eat: Great, she's been eating at least two meals of solids a day- breakfast and dinner at the dining room table while I eat too. I love eating together! Still nursing 5 times (4 daytime, 1 night or 3 daytime 2 night)

Getting Around: Cruising fast. She know walks with her little push-walker thing or anything else she can get to move. The other day it really looked like she was about to take a step toward me from the couch... scary.

New People: Some friends of friends last night, who had 3 year old and 4 month old daughters. She loved the 3 year old, they played a ton. New babies are starting at daycare too, as her friends move up to the 1-2 year old room.

Best moment this week: no single moment, but we have been getting tons of laughs, hugs and kisses- I LOVE them.

Worst moment this week: hmmm maybe just the time wasted trying to put her down for her afternoon nap.

What I miss: Not much... sometimes when I am rocking with my sleeping baby I get sad that she is already so big, and miss when she was tiny, but she is so much more fun now- I think it is more just sad how fast the time has gone already.

What I am looking forward to: warm weather!!! I know it's still a while, but I am sick of being stuck indoors and miss playing in the yard and going to the park.

One more picture... I think out of about 130 pictures I deleted 125 haha... hopefully I'll figure this new camera out soon so I can start posting more pics. Right now I'm still working on how to focus on my baby instead of her clothes and toys!

Babyproofing

We have not been all that serious about baby proofing so far, but we have done a few things so I thought I'd write up what we've done and what we still need to do... maybe it'll help keep me accountable.

I kinda feel like some bumps and falls are okay- they will teach baby beaver to be careful and to figure out how things work. For example, our coffee table has a small wooden shelf and glass top, and it rolls. We planned to take the wheels off but didn't get around to it right away, and within days of being able to stand our daughter figured out how to pull up on the table with no problem. It only took her a couple of attempts before she figured out how to apply her weight so that the table would not roll out from beneath her. We intervened so that she wouldn't get hurt, but could not believe she learned so quickly! My mother-in-law is very worried about the table rolling and tried to convince us that we need to do something about it, but once we realized that taking the wheels off isn't even an option, we decided to leave it be. Baby has been pulling up on it for 2 1/2 months now, and there haven't been any injuries so far! Also, she has figured out how to get up using the lower level, and then reach up and behind herself to grab the glass top and then stand in a way that she doesn't even bump her head. It doesn't sound all that impressive, but I was amazed watching her figure it out!

The point of this long example is that we have decided that some things are not all that dangerous and can provide learning opportunities for cautious behavior, so I think our baby-proofing has been pretty minimal.

Here's what we've done so far:

-outlet covers. easiest and cheapest baby-proofing step, no reason not to do it.

-get rid of power strips and try to hide power/electric cords or make them as unnoticeable as possible

-reorganize pantry so that doors can be kept closed (didn't think this was that important until baby almost pulled a heavy can of tomatoes off the shelf)

-gate kitchen so that dog food can be on whatever side baby is not on, and to help confine her while I am cooking or doing dishes (luckily our dog has absolutely no issue with food aggression/jealousy for people, even babies- but the food is the perfect choking size and for some reason is the most appealing thing ever to baby. Plus, can't be too careful even with a very well behaved dog)

-block off bookshelf in office: we really, really need to anchor it to the wall, but even once that is done it is nice that she can't pull everything off (which would be within the first minute of being on the ground)

-top-of-stairs gate: probably the most important thing we have done, although I still don't feel as safe as I would like about the stairs.

Wow, when I decided to write about this I thought we had done a lot more!

Here's what we still need to do:

-gate off basement door, since we leave it open way too often (more stairs)

-tether the office bookshelf to the wall

-move all cleaning chemicals from bathroom and kitchen to basement

-cabinet locks for kitchen cabinets that have shelves holding heavy things that could be pulled down... not going to worry about most of them

Things I am still deciding on:

-corner covers for tv stand- she tends to let go when standing near this a lot, and I worry about her hitting her head on the corner. But I don't know if it is really necessary or how long she will be unstable standing hands-free...

-drawer locks in the nursery. She has already started pulling the drawers open and is really great about not pinching her fingers (although I'm sure it will happen and I don't have a huge problem with it-learning experience). I am worried about her pulling all of the drawers open and making the unit unsteady- I'm not sure if it is possible but maybe it could tip forward and fall on her. Also, I worry about her climbing the open drawers like stairs.

I'm sure I'm missing some important things, but these are my lists so far. I've found baby proofing is waaay more work on a daily basis.

-There are new shreds of the dog toys on our living room floor constantly, so every time we play in that room I have to clean them all up, and hide the toys because for some reason they are way more exciting and yummy than baby's toys. This becomes difficult to keep up with when the dog immediately finds her toys and brings them to baby to play. Again, we are super lucky that the dog has absolutely no jealousy/aggression issues with baby/people and her toys, but it grosses me out when they go right into her mouth. Baby has already learned "no, those are Lili's toys", but doesn't always listen.

-Anything on any surface within reach (almost all of them now) is fair game to our daughter- and she loves ripping paper. This has helped me with keeping my work confined to my desk, but books, magazines, mail, etc. are often out and we have to run to get them before they are chewed on and pulled apart.

-cleaning in general is a greater priority. When everything, including the rug and floor, are kissed and tasted constantly, you start to pay more attention to how long ago it was that you mopped.

We still need to watch her every.single.second. because it seems like no matter how few seconds it was since we vacuumed, there is some new chunk of dog toy in her hand, or some power cord calling her name. Luckily it's a lot of fun to watch her play, it just makes it hard to get anything else accomplished.

All this being said, we try our hardest not to intervene and hover when baby is exploring. We keep a very close eye and grab tiny things about to be put in her mouth, but otherwise I think our daughter feels like she has complete freedom to grab/taste/touch/climb/push/pull/scratch/bang/etc. anything and everything, and it really seems like she is constantly learning and discovering new things. I can't believe that she is still getting to be so much more fun every day!

9 Months!!

My baby has been here for the same length of time as I was pregnant with her... actually, I guess even longer, since the first two weeks you aren't really pregnant. Anyway- that seems really long to me. She seems really old already!! I thought I had at least a year before she became a toddler instead of a baby, but she already seems to have outgrown the "baby" title. Everything she does is so intentional. Every look she makes has so much meaning. Sometimes, even her babbling seems to be genuine attempts at communicating! She seems like she barely even needs me anymore- she always wants to be on the ground doing her own thing, she prefers to feed herself, although she will let us feed her now, she even seems to be able to communicate which books she wants read to her (and which she doesn't). It is crazy how grown-up she already seems. I actually get really happy when she is sleepy or fussy for whatever reason, and comes to me to cuddle and be held. I am hoping the next three months go by really, really slowly and I can keep the few baby tendencies she still has for just a little longer...

Age: 9 months!

Stats/Size: Still wearing 6-9 month clothes, 9 month clothes, 6-12 month clothes, and even some 12-month pants and 9-12 month clothes. Will find out her official weight and length on Friday.

Sleep: Pretty good. She still can't go all night without getting hungry, but she usually goes a good 6-8 hours before waking to eat, and has been going right back to sleep after eating again. We've been having some trouble getting her to fall asleep at night, and have started putting her down awake. She is usually okay for about 5-10 min, and then starts crying. We go in, pick her up and rock her to sleep,then put her down again. Then she wakes up again. We wait for her to start crying- usually she just fusses and complains for a little while. Sometimes she falls asleep, sometimes she cries again and we repeat the procedure. I can't let her cry- it is just too sad- but I am able to let her fuss and complain. She fusses and complains when we hold her, so it's not really that different. So far she seems to be getting better at falling back to sleep on her own, and I'm hoping that she eventually learns to fall asleep on her own from the start. If not, I have to admit that I really don't mind rocking her to sleep, and usually don't want to put her down right away when she does drift off :)

Eat: doing SO much better now! She eats whatever we eat that I think is healthy enough to give her, and also has some rice cereal or oatmeal with fruits or veggies in it once or twice a day. I love dinner time when we all sit together and enjoy our food! Now I think I need to get her on some kind of eating schedule, and I think the doctor will tell me that she needs to have more (quantity-wise) solid foods during the day. She still nurses 4 times a day, once at night.

Getting Around: She crawls way too fast. Maybe I'll do a short post about baby-proofing so far... we haven't done enough. Cruising has been getting more adventurous. She goes from table to puzzle cube, couch to wall, etc. She lets go for seconds at a time to clap or hold something, and is great at grabbing back on or getting down on her own. It is crazy.

New People: Mr. Beaver's cousin and his fiance came for an unexpected visit, so she finally got to meet them! He was the best man at our wedding and is like a brother, so it's nice she finally got to meet this uncle.

Best moment this week: Hmm... hard to pick out a moment. It was fun to see the excitement on baby's face when she started walking with her walker, although I was pretty scared it was going to get away from her and she would fall flat on her face (it didn't). I guess seeing her dance for the first time the other night was pretty great :) I'll have to try and post the video below.

Worst moment this week: One night she woke twice to eat... that's all I can think of. It's been a pretty good week!

What I miss: sleeping in! Every now and then drinking alcohol... especially when my mother-in-law visits ;)

What I am looking forward to: My girls-weekend in less than a week!! They are awesome and coming here so I don't have to leave or travel with the baby alone. It is always a great time! Hopefully we don't get a blizzard this time. Oh, and related to this, seeing my friend for the first time since she has gotten pregnant! Soon our baby will have a new friend!

Weekly Wisdom: always have a video camera ready:

Happy New Year!!!

Finally an update :)

I can't believe that it is already a new year... this past one has been pretty great, but it flew by. I can't believe we have had our baby girl for almost 9 months already. I can't believe how grown up she is. I can't believe that she will be turning a year old so soon, and that any day now she will be walking and will start talking.

Every day Mr. Beaver and I marvel over how much personality she has, how happy she is, and how smart she seems to be. She copies almost everything she sees us do (which has been great for getting her to eat!), and she loves when people copy her or react to her actions. Her favorite things to do are waving, clapping/patty cake, and playing peek-a-boo with anything big enough to hide her face. She is so cute- she does it so fast sometimes when she is excited that we don't even have time to play along :) Sometimes she will find ways to play even if she doesn't have a blanket or something to hold up- she will hide behind something, like my shoulder if I'm holding her.

Other things she does all the time is clapping- she is able to make noise- and she shakes her head "no" because it usually gets some laughs. She has started standing on her own once she gets her balance, and she is really good at "cruising", or walking while holding on to stuff. She can walk forward and backward pretty quickly when just holding onto our fingers, and she gets so excited. She babbles a lot now, finally making "mama" sounds! She loves to watch us dance, and tries dancing along or drumming her hands on things to the music. Her favorite thing to play with is the dog (lili), especially her tags and her feet, and she loves to give her kisses, which makes it hard to keep lili from kissing her back. I could go on and on about her, but I think this is enough for now! We just can't get over how amazing she is, and how much she seems to learn and do every day.

Even though I am sad that 2010 is over and seemed to go by so fast, I know that this is going to be such an exciting year for our family! I will hopefully be graduating and getting a job, Mr. Beaver will be transferring full-time to a more challenging position within his company, as I mentioned before- our baby girl will be 1!!, and many other fun family happenings. I just hope that we can find a way to make time go a little slower :)

I don't usually do resolutions, but I do have a few goals for this year: improve my work habits so that I can finish my dissertation and move on with my career, get better about doing all of the things I'd always planned to do with our baby (sign language, play groups, etc.), learn to use the new camera I got for Christmas(!), and get more organized in all areas of my life. There are tons of other things I could list, like posting here more often!, but I think this list is pretty ambitious already.

I hope that everyone else had great holidays and a wonderful start to the new year!