Wednesday, August 15, 2012

9 Months!


Alexandra is nine months old!  I can’t believe it – more time out of the womb than in it!  She’s doing great, just thriving like crazy. 

CRAWLING!  Everywhere – loves crawling, and pulls herself up to her knees.  This new-found freedom makes her so happy.  She’s pulling up to her knees, and is so close to pulling herself up to her feet.  If we help her, she loves to hang out standing, and will even shuffle here and there a bit.  We took an online test about her personality (like the old Cosmo quizzes, but somehow different…) and the quiz classified her as ACTIVE!  For sure.  No cuddling, unless she’s drinking out of a bottle, and even then she wants to look around.  Always wiggling around, trying to move.  She loves chasing me and the dogs from room to room, always wanting to be around us.  If she sees one of the dogs lying down, she’ll go up to its side and crawl up onto it, but keeping her knees on the ground.  Then she grabs on, and jumps up and down, but on her knees.  It looks a bit like she’s trying to hump the dog!  Such huge grins, always!

EATING:  such a good eater.  She usually has 5 bottles per day, with 6-7 ounces in each bottle.  Plus she has 3 meals per day, two with purees or chunky baby food, but at dinner I now give her table food.  It’s actually quite handy – she eats all our leftovers!  Last night she had grilled chicken, steamed broccoli and plums.  I just cut them up into little pieces, and she feeds herself.  Served with a sippy cup of water, which she loves.  She has also figured out how to drink out of a regular straw, which is quite handy at restaurants.  And she likes to try to drink out of my glass, but that usually involves lots of water down the front.  So we usually practice that in the bathtub when I take a bath with her on the weekends, which she LOVES!  Also, she has her first tooth – finally!  It’s so cute, and I’m happy to report that teething wasn’t too bad.  A little grumpier than normal, but it didn’t interrupt sleep or anything. 

SLEEPING:  Great sleeper, as always.  Sleeps all night, just about every night.  We are down to about one wake-up at night per month or so.  During the day, on weekends, she takes great naps.  She’ll have two naps each day, for about 1.5-2 hours each nap.  But during the week at daycare, she barely sleeps at all!!!  I hate it, and I’ve talked with the daycare people about it, but they don’t know what to do either.  She will hang out in her crib just fine, but the problem is she’ll spend the entire time jabbering with her friend Abby.  That’s right, she has a best buddy already.  The nice thing is I work with Abby’s mom, so we compare notes all the time.  I’ve even suggested splitting up their cribs so they can get more sleep, but the daycare people said I was being mean – they like spending time together.  Plus if she sleeps next to another child she’ll just jabber with them too…  The problem is they don’t really see it as a problem.  She’s in a great mood, all day long, with or without naps.  Most days she only sleeps for 30-45 minutes at school.  And yesterday she didn’t have a nap at all!  But she’s happy!  The problem is she falls asleep on the way home from daycare, I transfer her into her crib, she sleeps for an hour or so, wakes up, has dinner and then a bottle, and goes back to sleep.  So besides a 45 minute total waketime for dinner, a little play, and then a bottle, she is essentially sleeping from 5:30 pm when I pick her up to about 7:00 am the next morning!  I guess I should just accept this, as she seems happy.  But I never get to see her!  It’s like I don’t have a baby at all – I just have a baby who sleeps and eats a little at my house!  I miss her terribly, and it makes this working thing even harder…

I live for the weekends with my baby girl, as we have so much fun.  She’s started to make fabulously high pitched squeals!  This drives some people crazy, but I love it as it usually comes with huge smiles.  But my favorite thing that she has just started doing is waving and clapping.  If she sees someone new, she’ll wave with both hands – huge full-arm waves.  And then start clapping.  I love it!  It’s her first social greeting!!!

We leave on Friday for a weekend trip to Denver to see family, and I’m very excited.  I can’t wait to see the family and our friends interact with Alex, and see how much she’s grown.  Plus I’m very excited to spend some good time with her since I have a 4-day weekend.  But I may have to fight her grandma for time…  But the good news is we have a babysitter for some evenings of fun!  We already have two evenings planned for after bedtime.  I may be tired this weekend from staying up late and getting up early with Alex, but I think it will be a great time.  I only hope Alex sleeps well and is ok on the flight!  Wish us luck!







22 comments:

  1. She is super adorable!!! Happy 9 months! You ae doing really well with the food and time with her, really happy all is going well, time for number 2 :)

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  2. So sweet, she looks so happy!

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  3. I love her face! And yes- straws are key. Makes transitioning to a cup a cinch! Have a great vacation!

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  4. How cute is she!?! I love those last 2 of her holding her feet and the puppy right there.

    Way to go with Alex being a super sleeper and eater! Em still wakes to eat at least once, but most of hte time 2x at night. I hear ya about the not enough time with them in the evenings. Some nights, the only time I get with her is nursing, but she could be 1/2 asleep for that too!

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  5. I love when you post pictures of your adorable girl, she is so gosh darn cute!! Sounds like she's doing well with everything too. Does your heart hurt when she waves at someone and they don't wave back (or don't see her?) Mine sure does when that happens to Chloe, it's so sweet and innocent, you better wave back to my daughter people!!! haha! Have a great time on your trip!

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  6. SOOO CUTE! I can't believe how much she does! It seems impossible that my Alex will be doing that much in just six months.

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  7. Awww...she's such a cutie! Good luck on your flights this weekend!

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  8. oh my goodness, she is sooooo cute

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  9. Aw cutie pie! Is that a Bernese you have there? Those dogs are such sweethearts! Best of luck with the trip - I've been amazed watching our girls on their first big vacation, how much the new environments seem so good for them. Enjoy it!

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  10. What a cutie! I'm worried about exactly what you describe happening when Mira starts daycare. No nap and then sleeping the whole time I'm home almost seems inevitable. Oh well, your weekends sound fantastic!

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  11. She's absolutely adorable!! I love the picture of her where she's looking over her shoulder. It looks like you've caught her in the act of doing something she wasn't supposed to be doing.
    Reagan is on the exact same nap schedule and is super busy when she's awake. Her and Alex would be good friends!

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  12. Sounds like she has the gift of gab. So cute that she 'talks' to her friend in daycare instead of napping!

    Good luck with the flight. I hope she behaves and you guys have a great trip.

    She's too adorable. You should post more pictures of her!!

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  13. I cannot believe she is 9 months already! Wasn't she JUST born??? So cute- she is definitely happy and thriving!

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  14. Happy 9 months little Alex! I remember LOVING that age...and the good news is that I've loved every age since too =) Hope you have a great trip to Denver!

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  15. 9 months! She is a charmer. I can't believe how big she is and crawling. Wow! I imagine her gabbing about her awesome mom at daycare. You are raising such a happy baby there. Good luck on the trip and report back. I will be taking our first trip at six months and will need all the tips I can get.

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  16. What a cutie and growing up so fast, she is 3/4 of the way to one year!!!!!

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  17. Wow, I can hardly believe it! Time flies. I remember when you got your BFP! She is soooo adorable!!

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  18. What a cute, cute, cute baby!!!! She looks so happy!

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  19. Wow, nine months already! She is adorable!! And it sounds like she is doing fabulously, have fun in Denver.

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  20. I love this update. It sounds like Alex is a wonderful child. And how lucky are you that she's a sleeper? That's awesome. I hope your trip was great and that you got to spend some quality time with Alex and your husband!

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  21. It's so fun reading your posts about her b/c she and Stella are so close in age. It's amazing how quickly they are growing up!

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  22. Aww she is so adorable! Love the update! Your LO is just one month older than mine!!

    www.lilmsadventures.blogspot.com

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