Tag Archives: 9 months

Neola Bethany: 9 Months

20 Feb

NINE months!! So hard to believe!

Size

Neola will go to the doctor for her next well-child checkup when we get back from Florida, and I will come update this then. But we weighed her while we were packing for our trip and weighing suitcases, and she was right around 20 lbs.

She’s still wearing size 3 diapers, but we’ll probably buy size 4 when we run out (which will be a little while as we just bought a box from Costco right before we left for Florida).

Neola is wearing all 12-month clothes, and starting to wear some 18-month too.

Sleeping

The only notable thing in the sleep department for this month is that Neola is officially out of her Rock n Play! Before we left for Florida, we had Neola start sleeping in her Pack n Play. Since she’s not close to crawling really at all, we felt comfortable using the infant insert for the Pack n Play (a shelf that keeps them up higher). We also positioned the Pack n Play in a similar spot as her Rock n Play had been, and she really didn’t skip a beat with the transition. So that’s really encouraging!

But she still wakes up 3-5 times a night. I am very thankful that she almost always nurses and goes right back to sleep, which only takes 15-20 minutes. And during those rare times when she doesn’t go right back down, she’s never crying (unlike some of our other children at this age…). I think the biggest issue with her sleep is that my milk production isn’t the best. Down here in Florida, I got (what we think was) influenza, and had a fever for about 36 hours. That didn’t help my milk production at. all. (There were a couple of nights when Neola wouldn’t even let me put her down.) We tried buying formula and giving her a bottle, but she just chewed on the nipple. So I guess I will just try to stay hydrated, eat some oatmeal, and deal with it.

As far as napping, Neola has been a good sport about taking naps in the car here in Florida. I’ve been trying to time it so that we leave to go do something when she needs her first nap, so that she gets a decent nap in the car.

Her second nap is sometimes in the car, and sometimes back at our house. And she still takes a third nap, so that kind of varies as well. To get her to nap at the house though, I have to be nursing her. If she refuses to fall asleep nursing, we have to drive her around. (Hello Starbucks at 4:30 PM.)

Once we get back to Minnesota, we’re going to really work on getting Neola to take naps on her own.

Eating

Neola is still eating primarily purées and baby cereal, though we are starting to branch out into other soft foods, like mandarin oranges, peaches, blueberries, and cheese. She is getting better at picking up food like puffs with her fingers.

Neola has 4 teeth (the 2 in the middle on the bottom and the top), and the next 2 teeth on the top (the lateral incisors) are really close to popping through.

She has bit me a few times nursing but thankfully it’s not a regular occurrence.

Development & Personality

Neola is a pro at sitting up now, and sometimes leans so far forward for something that she ends up on her belly. She can hold her weight up with her arms for 10 or so seconds, and I’ve tried getting her to bend her legs and stay up on all her hands and knees, but she won’t do it.

Neola’s favorite thing to do these days is grab fistfuls of our faces or necks, and those little nails are sharp! Goodness!

She also loves to kick both legs up and slam them down on the floor together — reminds me of when I used to bounce myself up to my feet from my back on a trampoline. We can hear her doing that in her Pack n Play, and she also does it during diaper changes.

She enjoys going for walks in the stroller, but won’t fall asleep unless she’s 1) really tired, and 2) in her carseat clipped in the stroller. I’ve had limited success with her in her Ergobaby. She really just doesn’t like facing in, I think because she’s so curious and because she really loves kicking her legs. I tried buying a cheap baby carrier down here so she could face out but it put all the weight on my back, and I just don’t want to spend a lot of money, when we’re so close to no longer needing one.

Neola still shrieks loudly when bored or tired (and with the echo in our house here in Florida… plus Corbin’s yelling… 🤪😵‍💫).

Neola has gone swimming 4 times in Florida so far! Her first time was in a 93-degree private pool 🙌. She protested briefly but then loved it. The second time she went was in a natural springs, which was around 72 degrees. Third time was a public pool around 80 degrees. And the fourth time was our community pool, which was only 70 degrees! The more she goes in the water, the more she likes it, which is good, because we go swimming at the beach a lot in Minnesota during the summer!

Neola is also fascinated with leaves, grass and sand. So you can’t just put her down outside anymore!

We can tell Neola misses her jumperoo — we miss it too! I’ve been trying to give her time standing up and jumping on my lap, but we will be happy to get home to all our baby gear!

And that’s Neola at 9 months, in Florida!

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Corbin Travis: 9 Months

24 Dec

Corbin was 9 months old on December 22. He’s getting to be such a little man!Size

Corbin doesn’t have his 9-month appointment for another couple weeks so I’ll have to come back and update this with his height and weight stats. He’s still wearing 12-18 month clothing and size 5 diapers. I don’t know what size shoe he wears because we haven’t had him wear shoes yet 🤦‍♀️. We put a pair on his Christmas list.

Sleeping

In the last couple of weeks, Little Bud has settled into more of a “schedule” — he now wakes up at the more reasonable hour of 7 AM, stays up 3 hours between naps, and usually takes two naps a day lasting between 1.5-2 hours. His bedtime is around 6:30/7:00 PM. He still wakes up once a night between 3 and 4 AM, and almost always goes right back to sleep after I nurse him. Sometimes he needs me to rock him, which I am more than happy to do because #babiesdontkeep.

Corbin still sucks his thumb, but only when he’s hungry or tired. Most of the time, we put him down in his crib awake and he falls asleep on his own. He loves his crib projector, which plays music and projects images onto the ceiling.

Corbin got another tooth on the top (4th on top, 6th overall), and is getting another one on bottom (3rd on bottom). Teething makes him a little crabby, and hard to get to sleep, but otherwise, he is a very easygoing, happy baby!

Eating

Corbin usually nurses right when he wakes up, before each nap, and before bed (so roughly 4 times a day). I’ve also started giving him a 4 oz bottle of formula before nursing him, since I don’t produce much milk anymore (though Corbin does still like nursing).

Corbin also eats solid foods about halfway through his awake time, so breakfast around 8:30 AM, lunch around 12 noon, and dinner around 4 PM. I say “around” because I just feed him whenever he seems hungry, and when it works for whatever else we’re doing at the time. I definitely don’t have the brain power to keep track of things like I did for either one of the girls!

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this yet, but I’m pretty sure Corbin is lactose intolerant like Annabelle, so I’ve started buying him lactose sensitive formula and feeding him soy yogurt, and stopped feeding him cheese (which is unfortunate, because he loves cheese).

Corbin’s favorite foods are baby cereal/oatmeal, avocado, puffs, peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, and yogurt. Other new foods he tried this month were blackberries, PB&J sandwich, and fish.

Development

Just in the past week, Corbin has started army crawling in addition to steamrolling, so he’s now into everything–and he’s fast! He also puts everything in his mouth (like most other babies) so we have to be extra vigilant about keeping small things out of his reach–challenging with two other kids who make messes, and have small toys like Barbie accessories and Shopkins. It’s nice, though, that the girls are both old enough to at least understand that he can’t have small things.

Corbin can clap his hands, hold toys in both hands, and roll onto his belly from sitting. He still can’t really support himself standing (even when we stand him up leaning against something), but he has improved from a month ago, so we just have to keep working with him on it.

Corbin still likes to squawk and squeal but hasn’t made any consonant noises like mama or dada.

His favorite toys are anything that fits in his mouth, but he’s also fascinated by wheels (our toy stroller, toy shopping cart, and Barbie car are favorites). He also likes to dump out our bin of Duplos and find the cars.Corbin loves to hit/throw things against the floor to make noise. One evening, he was sitting in his high chair hitting the end of a plastic baby spoon against the tray. Every once in a while, he’d accidentally hit his other hand with the spoon, and start crying. It was hilarious.

The girls love to carry Corbin around, and don’t hesitate to pull him across the floor if/when he’s getting into something he shouldn’t (like Christmas presents or dirty shoes). Corbin takes it like a champ, though sometimes he does get mad if you take away a toy he was really enjoying.Corbin still loves going outside, and our usual routine in the winter now is to walk down the driveway to get the mail (we have a long driveway), and then swing for 5-10 minutes on our swing set. If we ever get some snow (!), I’ll be able to take him sledding a bit too. He liked it before our snow melted!

And that’s Corbin at 9 months!

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Pregnancy #3: 9 Months

28 Feb

It’s the home stretch, baby! I’m 36.5 weeks along and ready to DO THIS THING!IMG_7166OB Appointments

I’m going every week now. At my appointment this past Tuesday, my doctor verified that Jellybean is head down (yay!) and swabbed me for Group B Strep. Since my labors with Emma and Annabelle were so similar, I’m pretty much expecting the same thing this time around (though who knows, Jellybean could surprise me!): positive for Group B Strep, water breaks in bed, lack of natural contractions leads to Pitocin, labor happens slow and steady (with Emma, my labor was 12 hours; Annabelle, 8). This time, though, if labor is slow (as in, I have time to get pain meds), I’m planning to get an epidural with just half the meds to start — enough to take the edge off but still let me feel what’s happening. I didn’t get an epidural with Annabelle and was so absolutely exhausted by the time she was born, I felt almost delirious. And then to start taking care of a newborn and 2 other kids? :\

Symptoms

I’m still tired but my daily naps really help. My main complaints at this point are just a general feeling of heaviness/whale-like-ness, acid reflux, and Braxton Hicks. Holy cow, the Braxton Hicks. It’s hard to appreciate them when they do nothing in the way of dilation. But my doctor said that Jellybean’s head is low, so maybe I have Braxton Hicks to thank for that (my doctor with Emma said they helped with that). They’re mostly just uncomfortable, but some of them are actually a little painful, and I get them a lot at night, which sometimes limits my sleep positions.

As for acid reflux, I’ve been taking Zantac morning and night, and that has helped some, but not taken care of it. My doctor said I could take Tums at the same time, and I did notice a difference when taking Zantac before dinner, as opposed to afterward (now I just need to remember to do that).

I’ve gained about 25-30 pounds so far.

Clothes

After seeing their ads pop up on Instagram a bunch, I bought a couple of dresses from Wren & Ivory that work now for maternity, and can be worn after baby comes too. So far, I am very impressed with them! The fabric is super soft, they both fit well, and they wash well too. I bought the Liza Floral Faux Wrap in Mauve and the Floral Maxi with a Twist in Raven. IMG_7035I’ve also continued my quest for maternity leggings and ordered these under-the-belly ones from Amazon, and love them. They don’t attract dog hair like magnets, they haven’t pilled at all even after washing, and I can wear them even after baby comes! I’m planning to buy a couple more pairs. I also ordered these maternity leggings but ended up returning them because the top elastic around the belly was a little too thick and tight at this stage of pregnancy, and I’d also rather spend my money on something I can wear even after baby comes.

Food & Cravings

Probably my biggest craving during the last month has been cereal–specifically Honey Bunches of Oats with Strawberries and Honey Nut Cheerios–and glasses of milk (especially when eating PB&J mixed in oatmeal). I’ve also been digging canned mandarin oranges (but I have always loved these), grapes, and blackberries. I just realized during this pregnancy how much I love blackberries. I can polish off a pint on my own in one sitting.

Exercise

I’ve pretty much thrown in the towel at this point. Just picking up the girls’ messes every day is plenty. I’m looking forward to getting back into running outside this spring though, and would love to train for a race, but that depends on how good of a sleeper Jellybean is.

Nesting

As much as I would love to have Jellybean’s nursery perfectly organized and ready for him to make his debut, I know it’s an exercise in futility because of the girls. They get into eve. ry. thing. So we hung a couple things on the wall, bought some diapers that are being stored in the closet, organized baby clothes in the makeshift bookshelf dresser, and are calling it good. #thirdkid

We focused more of our energy on other house projects. We finally finished redoing our master bedroom–only took us 9 months. We bought a bedroom set and painted last July, I replaced our lamps and comforter at Christmastime, and we finally got things hung on the wall and curtains + rod replaced in the past couple of weeks. I’m planning to do a separate post on our bedroom soon.IMG_7173We also made a playhouse for the girls under our stairs. The previous owners left a giant TV behind that was built into the wall. When we got rid of the TV, we had a giant hole to deal with. It stayed like that for oh, about 2 years, until I finally had the idea to just close the hole off with a homemade chalkboard. Easier than sheetrocking (which is our long-term plan, to be done at an unknown time in the future), but better than nothing. We turned the spot they had used for a DVD player and stereo into the kid door (there’s a real door too), added plexiglass to the speaker hole, and added some trim to the outside wall to make it look like a house. We painted the inside bright pink and bright purple (the girls’ choices), added some wall stickers and battery-operated lights from Costco, and three weeks later, voila! A playhouse. IMG_6209IMG_6315IMG_6565IMG_6863IMG_6866IMG_6870IMG_6878And that’s pretty much it for 9 months!

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Annabelle Lyn: 9 Months

8 Jan

Annabelle was 9 months old back on December 27 but just now had her 9-month checkup. Apparently, you have to wait a certain amount of time between shots and one of her earlier checkups got pushed back. We should be back on track now though!
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Size

At about 9.5 months, Annabelle is 19 lbs 11 oz (71%), 28 inches tall (57%) with a head circumference of 18.66 inches (99.5%!). At 9 months, Emma was 19 lbs 10.5 oz and 28 inches tall — pretty much the exact same!

Annabelle is wearing 9-12 month clothes and size 2 shoes. She has tiny feet and hands just like Emma did, but a big noggin!
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Eating

As of 9 months, Annabelle has figured out how to drink with a straw and bite down on a sippy cup so there is hope for weaning her someday! I plan to keep nursing until at least a year, probably even longer. I think 18 months is my cutoff point though.
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But before I can wean her, Annabelle needs to start eating a lot more solid foods! Ever since Thanksgiving when she got a stomach bug and we backed off the solid foods for a while, she has wanted nothing to do with them. She’ll eat a teething wafer here and there but refuses yogurt now and only tolerates a few bites of other purees she’s previously liked. Now that the holiday mayhem has died down, I’m going to focus on giving her more variety to see if she likes something else.

Annabelle did get two new teeth this month, so that brings her up to six! She got one on top and one on bottom to the left of the middle ones (when you’re looking at her). I would think that the right-side ones wouldn’t be far behind but who knows.
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Sleeping

Because of teething, that stomach bug and a nasty, crudy cold with horrible cough and congestion, this past month has been the worst nighttime sleep of Annabelle’s life for both me and her. Most nights, she’s been up 2-3 times. Some nights, it’s been 4 or more. Thankfully, I can just nurse her for 15-20 minutes and put her back down but it’s still hard having my sleep interrupted that many times. Unfortunately, the week of Christmas when we were down in Rochester was the worst week of all. Annabelle had a horrible hacking cough and couldn’t go more than an hour at a time between fits. And Emma had a cold that triggered her (what we think is) asthma. And Travis was wheezing and sneezing from his cat allergies (even though my parents haven’t had cats for years and got their ducts cleaned). And we were all in one room. It was awesome. So needless to say, I would appreciate a break from sickness and teething!
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On the bright side, Annabelle decided on her own that she was ready for the crib. A few nights when she was really congested, she took a couple hours to get down for the night and fussed whenever we put her in her swing. So finally, out of options, we put her in the crib and let her cry for 10 minutes. (I generally don’t do “cry it out” when they’re sick but we didn’t know what else to do.) She fell asleep and slept in there the whole night! And the rest was history. I am floored by how easy that transition was. We still do use the vibration pad in a pinch because it really helps lull her to sleep but even that isn’t a necessity like it once was! We did have to order a new one though because she burned out both the vibration on her swing and a vibration pad.

One benefit of Annabelle being sick this past month has been all the baby snuggles. Travis and I both (but him more than me) have gotten to rock Annabelle to sleep — something she hasn’t let us do since she was a newborn! Travis has especially loved it because it just creates a bond.

No matter how poorly Annabelle sleeps though, she always wakes up happy and smiley. Nothing gets this sweet little girl down! (Except maybe bonking her head.)

She still takes two naps a day, for about an hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.
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Development

Annabelle still has no interest in crawling, scooting, moving, rolling, whatever. She loves the jumperoo still and enjoys sitting up to play with toys. But she does not like her belly and does not appreciate being put on her hands and knees. Annabelle still tips over a decent amount while sitting up so we make sure to put pillows behind her. She’s not pulling up on her own, and can’t really hold herself up in a standing position either (she’s steady if we help hold her up). Our pediatrician has recommended that we get her evaluated by the Paul Bunyan Education Coop (same organization that evaluated Emma for speech) for delay in gross motor skills so we might do that. It’s free, they come to our house and we’ve had a good experience with Emma’s speech therapy.
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At 9 months, Annabelle’s favorite things to play with are:

* Things that fit nicely in her mouth for chewing on, like spatulas and teething rings, made of silicone, rubber, plastic or metal (so, everything)

* Things that crinkle or jingle, like plastic or metal keys on a ring or chain — she likes to slap them against her leg to make noise

* Sippy cups filled with water (mostly just for chewing on)

* Anything that looks interesting and not like a toy, including paper, phones, baskets, boxes, straws, food containers and lids, tablecloths, glasses, plates with food on them (not interested in eating it though), and pens. You can’t leave anything within 2 feet of her or she will grab it!

Annabelle is very tolerant of other people holding her but if she’s tired or hungry, she wants mommy. Several times, she’s been mildly fussy while others are watching her but once she spots me, she loses it. She has also started reaching/lifting her arms for me to pick her up.
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Other things that happened this past month:

* Annabelle’s second trip via airplane, this time to Denver
* Annabelle’s first Christmas!
* Annabelle seeing and feeling snow for the first time (not a huge fan) and taking her first sled ride around the yard (no pic, Mommy fail)
* Annabelle started using consonant noises and said “mama” as her first word! She got on a roll for a while but then stopped. Now she says “dada” a lot.

And that’s Annabelle at 9 months!

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Emma Grace: 9 Months

7 Jan

Emma has learned a lot of new things in the past couple of weeks. Here’s what she’s up to at 9 months:

Size

Emma had her 9-month pediatrician appointment yesterday and she is now 19 lbs, 10.5 oz (74th percentile) and 28 inches long (66th percentile). She’s wearing 9- and 12-month size clothes.

I’ve been on a mission to find a pair of shoes that fit Emma’s feet and don’t constantly fall off. She has really small feet and every pair of shoes I’ve gotten her are either still too big or fall off after 5 seconds. After seeing a friend’s baby wearing them, I finally bought Emma a pair of Ministar Designs at Target. They stay on!

IMG_5307 (Large)Eating

Emma got 3 new teeth this month! The 2 middle teeth on the top and the one to the right of them.

IMG_5339 (Large)When she got her bottom teeth, she had 1 bad week of sleep and then was done. But these teeth have taken forever to come in – about 3 weeks. At the same time, Emma also had a bad cold with lots of congestion – she coughed a lot and sometimes, coughed so hard that she gagged and even threw up. Poor girl. She’s been pulling on her ears a lot too, and actually cut them up a bit with her nails, but the pediatrician said that her ears look fine. That’s good but I wish I had an explanation for why Emma still seems crabbier than normal.

I’m pretty sure Emma also went through a growth spurt recently, as she went from eating 1 container of baby food 3x a day to 2 containers for lunch and dinner. I think this means that we need to start feeding her more substantial foods, instead of just fruit and vegetable purees with some yogurt here and there. Emma has tried cheese, turkey and chicken, and likes them, but it takes forever for her to chew them. But she has gotten really good at feeding herself Cheerios and puffs so I think we’re really to start doing more finger foods.

IMG_5306 (Large)Emma has also started indicating when she wants to nurse by pulling at my shirt, leaning her head down and sometimes biting! She has only bit me while nursing once (thank goodness) but she has bitten me randomly a few times. Those little teeth are sharp!

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Sleep

With the teething, cold and growth spurt that Emma has been going through, plus being away from home for 2 weeks, her sleep for the past 2-3 weeks has been pretty terrible. She woke up 1-3 times per night while we were with my family for Christmas, and then 3-5 times a night when we were with Travis’ family. It was really nice having grandmas and grandpas to watch Emma in the morning while Travis and I got some more sleep.

Nursing comforts Emma in the middle of the night better and faster than anything else, so I’ve been nursing her almost every time she wakes up. I’ve probably created a monster now, so once I’m a little bit more caught up on sleep after going without it for an entire night on our drive home, I’ll start weaning Emma off her middle-of-the-night feedings again.

Other than that, sleep is pretty much what it was at 8 months.

20131215_083957Development

Talking and rolling is where I feel Emma has grown the most in the past couple of weeks. Right around 8 months, Emma started rolling over to play on her tummy all on her own, and she has continued this. She’ll even stay on her hands and knees and rock a bit, but we have to put her there. She’s rolling enough now, though, to require much more attention on our part – and faster diaper changes!

20140106_140045She also loves standing and has started to pull herself up on things. I’m pretty sure she’s been practicing this skill in the crib because every time I go in there, she’s crammed all the way in the corner, and one morning, her sleep sack was busted open. (So we are retiring the sleep sack.) At church the other day, she was standing up holding on to the couch in the nursing mothers’ room and discovered a new game – lean back, let go to stand all by yourself and mommy catches you before you fall over!

As far as talking goes, Emma loves the ‘buh’ sound. Maybe because we call her Biscuit and say “Buh-buh-buh-buh-buh-biscuit” to her all the time? She also says “ma ma ma”, “da da da”, “yah yah yah”, “blah”, and my favorite, when she’s going to bed, “aye aye aye”. It’s so freaking cute! I’ve tried to record her but she stops talking every time I get my phone out.

20140106_140107Emma loved being pushing around fast in the walker at grandma’s house. Their kitchen has an island that was perfect for cruising around. She’s a pretty good sport about most things, but if she’s not in the right mood, even things that she usually enjoys and giggles at can make her cry – like getting her neck blown on.

Emma has started to raise her arms to be picked up, and lean toward me to be held when being held by someone else.

Loves:

  • Standing
  • Grape Tylenol and Hyland’s tablets
  • Playing with kitchen utensils and small toys that have good spots for chewing
  • Being held upside down, and being held on one hand in the air (these are daddy’s tricks)
  • Spinning around in her high chair
  • Eating, especially feeding herself
  • Singing The Wheels on the Bus (we help her do the motions)

Doesn’t Like:

  • Being thrown up in the air
  • Her carseat
  • Being alone or not getting attention
  • Being licked in the face by dogs a lot
  • Getting her winter coat put on
  • Wearing things on her head

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