The Anderson Family: 9 Months

9 months....I was pregnant for 9 months...Elizabeth has been alive for 9 months...wow.

At the doctor today the nurse was asking me if Elizabeth got her Hep B vaccine in the hospital...I had to rack my brains because that seems like SOOO long ago. But it was really only 9 months. Time is crazy like that.

So here are her current stats:

Height: 26 7/8" (25%)
Weight: 16lbs 4oz (10%)
Head: 17" (25%)

As you can see, she is still my very petite little girl. Her weight actually fell off of her growth chart which had been holding steady at the 25th percentile. :( Now she's in the 10th. I actually was worried that I was OVER feeding her. She drinks 7oz of formula 3 times a day and 8oz in her last bottle before bed. I also started giving her a full container of baby food 3 times a day as opposed to a half. On top of all that she loves to snack on puffs and yogurt melts and has started eating table foods as well. Obviously I had no reason to worry though, because all this food is having the opposite effect it seems!! Dr. Dehlavi recommended upping her bottles to 8oz and continuing everything else I'm doing and we'll check again at 12 months.

What else is new:

Crawling: Elizabeth still prefers to scoot on her belly. She can crawl on her hands and knees and does so very well...but she only does that maybe 40% of the time. She'd rather be on her belly scooting around. Silly girl! She is still quite the little climber...anything that is up off the floor is fair game to climb on to. She has discovered the entire house now and her favorite places to go are the kitchen, the breakfast room and the laundry room.

Standing: Elizabeth easily goes from position to position (back to stomach to sitting to rolling to crawling to standing....) and is VERY good at pulling herself up. She loves to make a beeline for wherever we are so she can pull herself up to see what we are doing. She loves to pull up in front of the TV, especially if Baby Beethoven is on. Her favorite places to climb or stand are the TV, couches and refridgerator. :)

Eating: I pretty much said this already. Takes 4 bottles a day, baby food 3 times a day, with snacks and/or table food in between. This will change this month.

Sleeping: Takes 1-2 hour nap in the mornings, 1-2 hour nap in the afternoons, and a 30min-1hr nap in the evenings. Sleeps at least 10 hours through the night without waking.

Clothes: Wearing 6-9 month clothes and size 2 or 3 diapers

Speech: Elizabeth is quite the little talker...she loves to just make sounds and talk jibberish, especially if someone is mimicking her. Her favorite word right now is dada and she says it all the time. We're working on getting her to associate dada with Jake so she knows what she's saying. She also says ba, ga, gi, ma, na, wa and Pa Pa swears she says papa! She is getting to wear she is actually talking more rather just making noises.

-Everything goes in the mouth...and she chews and swallows it if I don't catch her. She loves paper and will eat away at it so I've had to put all the magazines and such out of her reach. This is a constant battle because she can find even the tiniest speck of something on the ground and will put it in her mouth.

-Is our little water baby...bath time and swim time have to be the best things that have ever happened to her. She is fearless in the bathtub. She started climbing out of her infant tub and slipping so I just decided she was ready for the regular tub alone. She loves to play with her toys and splash in the water and crawl around in the tub. Not that I would, but I can seriously never leave her alone in the tub.

Development:

Still no teeth and no tears. Not too worried about this right now though.

Picks up toys, moves them from hand to hand, holds two toys at a time

Understands when we say "no." She stops what we're doing and looks at us and if we're not firm enough, continues on what she's doing. :) We'll work on that too!! How on earth do you tell a 9 month old with a cute face no?!

Laughs up a storm when she is tickled or playing with her favorite toys.

Loves reading books with mommy

Mimicks sounds she hears (laughing, coughing, talking, etc...)

Can feed herself finger foods and hold her own bottle and sippy cup

As you can tell, Elizabeth learns and changes on a daily basis. It is so amazing to me how babies develop so quickly. In the past month alone she has learned so much and continues to want to learn more. She is so inquisitive and curious just like her daddy. She is fearless and adventuresome...but also stubborn and determined. 90% of the time we have the happiest girl on the planet. We are so grateful for our little Lizzie and can't wait to see how she grows and changes over the next month!!