9 Months Old!

My big girl is growing so fast! It is very hard to believe that 9 whole months ago, I was waiting around the house just willing a contraction to happen. It never did of course, because this independent girl does things on her own time! Of course, since I had an induction and then later a section, she was actually forced to be born, but still, she was just waiting for the right moment.





I feel that she is doing the same with her crawling as well. She still doesn't show many signs of wanting to crawl or pull up, but slowly but surely, I'm sure it will happen. She can reach as far out as possible for a toy that has been placed purposely out of her reach, and if she can't get to it, she gets really mad. She will walk her hands out a little in front of her, but just will not get that bottom off the ground. The same goes for standing up. I can stand her up against something and she will stay and hold on and has even gotten to where she will sit back down (or fall down, whatever) but if you put a toy up on the couch or coffee table, she will reach for it like she wants to stand up. All in good time, I feel.




At her 9 month check-up, she weighed 20 and a half pounds which was the 75 percentile. Her weight is finally slowing down since she has been in the 90th or above since she was born. Her length is 27 3/4 inches which is in the 50th percentile (that's moved up)!

We found out that she had a double ear infection (super) and that her doctor likes to use the word "delay" a lot. Because Ella is not crawling or pulling up yet, she is afraid that she might have a developmental delay in her gross motor skills and she wants to review her progress again in 6 weeks. Needless to say, we were not happy after that visit. In my heart of hearts, I don't feel like there is a problem and since this is coming from the same doc who wanted to get us all riled up at 1 month old with the possibility of Sturge-Weber Syndrome (another delay syndrome - which turned out to be the hemangiomas), I feel like it is time to find a new doctor. Time will tell what we will want to do.

Here are the new wonderful things that Ella is doing and showing that she is progressing well in other skills (her teachers at school think she is advanced...who doesn't want to hear that?):

• waving bye-bye
• shaking her head no when you ask her a question (we have lots of fun with that)
• giggling and giggling and giggling
• saying mama and dada (mostly dada) all the time
• buzzing her lips
• feeding herself puffs and holding her own sippy cup
• can push buttons on toys on command; place balls in a tube (it's a toy at Nannie's house)

Some not so wonderful things Ella has started:

• waking up at 4:15 am...and again at 5am...and again at 6am (we don't get up with her, but she just talks and plays with her mobile, which she has learned how to turn on the music)
• Growing lots of teeth (wonderful and not so wonderful at the same time...glad they are coming in, but I think that is what is causing her to wake up more) - 5 teeth to be exact, 2 on top and 3 on the bottom (and crooked at that...ha)!
• Throwing temper tantrums - she has learned to buck her whole body, throw her head back against her high chair (or me), and throw her legs down really hard if she is lying down. These are not fun times and we are trying to use a firm "no", but I just don't have the heart to do that just yet. I am so going to be the softie and Lee is going to be the disciplinarian...I can already see it!

That's pretty much the summary of the past month. Mostly we like to play in the floor, eat lots of Daddy's good homemade baby food, and go walking in the stroller...a lot! That probably has something to do with why she doesn't want to crawl too! Oh well, she will do it eventually and then the hard part of taking care of a baby will definitely begin!!