Richfield Family Review: 9 Months

As promised here is the full recap of the month. It seems like a lot has happened, but I think it's because March is a long month after the "short" month of February. Or maybe a lot happened :-)

Eating - the main change now is that she only nurses before going to sleep. She is way too distracted to nurse anywhere but her room. A couple of times a day we give her a bottle of formula which she takes about 2-4 oz, so not a ton, but I still feel like she needs to get more nutrition in her. She loves eating real food and does not really care for being spoon fed. Most meals she just grabs the food and shoves it in her mouth while making a "Mmmmh Mmmmmh" sound. Sometimes she drops food out of her mouth while making that noise! Meal times are fun for her and Eddie as they like to make faces and noises back and forth to each other. Real fun for Mama as she sits in between them . . .
Sleeping - it's getting better, very slowly . . . right now we mostly get up once at night with her. The timing varies - some nights at 9:30, sometimes not until 2 am. She usually is awake for the day around 6:30, sometimes slightly earlier and sometimes a little later. She still takes two naps - her morning nap is at 9 am and then her afternoon nap is at 12:30. For all of our sleep issues, I do want to mention something positive. She has been super easy to put down to go to sleep. It really started when her bedtime consistently became 6:30. She nurses to sleep and it usually takes about 10 minutes - maybe 15 and she is out. When I am not around, she will take a bottle and usually fall asleep just as easily. Today when putting her down for her nap, she was wide awake but done eating. She clearly wasn't happy being held, so I put her down in her crib wide-eyed and didn't hear a peep from her. I am so glad there is some good news to report. Maybe soon, she'll be sleeping through the night?
Moving - this month she started pulling herself up. I was hopeful it would take her longer, but of course not my child. And now the cruising of furniture has started. She is getting pretty steady and has started taking our foot stools for a little stroll. We are getting the little walker that Eddie used from my parents this weekend, so it's probably only a matter of time before we are in big trouble. But I can still hope that she won't walk before she is one, right?
Teeth - another tooth finally popped through on top! She has 7 total, but I know she is teething now, so I am expecting at least one more (perhaps on her bottom) to pop through. She is quite uncomfortable right now, poor thing. But I love her smile with all of her teeth showing!
Playing - Eddie and Edith are definitely little buddies. They do like to play together. They do this thing where they crawl around on the floor and go into rooms and sit there and laugh and then crawl around some more. They love crawling into our room and the bathroom - both places that are out of my sight and off limits. Eddie sometimes will go into the rooms and actually call "Edith" so she'll come in by him. She likes any toy that Eddie plays with, so that can be an issue. If she doesn't get what she wants, she will cry as if the world is coming to the end, but she is easily distracted (sometimes), so giving her another toy will usually help. She loves to crawl around and explore and really likes to pull herself up to standing to check out new places.
Other - She likes to clap and I think sometimes she does it as the "more" sign, but it's hard to know. She can also give high fives. She likes to mimic noises, especially ones that Eddie makes - like when he imitates a fire truck or a dinosaur. Uncas plays a game where he pretends to eat her fingers and she thinks its the funniest thing in the world. It's the first thing we have been able to do with her that makes her laugh as hard as Eddie. He can really get her going. She has figured out how to work a lot of the toys that we have - far earlier than Eddie ever did. And even though I don't feel like we read as much to her, she does like books. When we read, she likes to touch and point at the pictures. She can be very happy, except for when she is not. And she will let you know if she doesn't like something - it's loud and clear!

Trying to get pictures of her this month was a joke! I have a feeling the next few won't be any easier! I actually took some a couple days early because I liked her outfit. It didn't go too well.