Clara 9 months

I blinked and Clara turned nine months old.

Eight months was here and gone before I could even think about it. . .

Here's a few snapshots of our cutie. (I should have known better than to try and snap pictures while she was suffering from ear infections, crazy congestion, croup and cutting her front top tooth. No killer smiles this month. Poor kid.)

9 months on February 2, 2013

I love love this profile shot :)

Loves: Bath time, playing with her beans and macaroni noodles (OT homework), watching a Baby Einstein or Baby Bach before bed, playing in her bed when she wakes in the morning or after a nap, reading books, sitting up in the grocery cart, and basically loves sitting on the floor playing with just about anything (Ring toys, blocks, piano, Sophie the giraffe, anything! Not hard to entertain this girl!). I also really think she loves going to OT on Fridays. She never fusses, always plays hard and then conks out within five seconds of getting in the car every single week.

Does not love: The nose aspirator (had to do this a lot lately!), eating anything green other than spinach, taking her vitamins or any form of medicine.

Eating: She still takes 4 bottles a day (about 6 oz each) and eats a breakfast, lunch and dinner. She eats the most at breakfast and dinner, eating about one and a half or two containers of baby food. She usually is not too interested in lunch, so I'm lucky if I get a few bites in her (maybe 1/2 a jar?). She hasn't figured out how to bring a cheerio or puff up to her mouth, nor is she showing interest in our food, so for now we continue on just jarred stage 2 baby food. Ive tried sticking a puff in her mouth which results in her making an awful face and then spitting it out (not really spitting, I guess drooling it out, ha).

Sleeping: Two naps a day is pretty standard now. Both of these naps are getting shorter I have noticed. She goes to bed between 7-8pm, just depends on when she wakes from her second nap. Some nights she will go all night sleeping solid. Other nights she will wake within an hour of going down for bed and cry, thinking bedtime was just a nap (or that is my guess?) and then it takes her a while to get back to sleep (usually a few hours). Some nights she will sleep solid and then wake anywhere between 3-5am for a while (this is the trend recently), maybe eat if she's fussy or maybe just play if she's happy, and eventually get back to sleep and later wake between 6:30-8am for the day. Monday night for example, she went to bed at 7:30pm, was up for two hours from 4-6am, then slept solid from 6-8am. Maybe all of this is the dreaded sleep regression everyone talks about at this age? Or a mix of teething and being sick. Who knows. I'm really not too worried about it.

She can last 2.5 hours from wake time to first nap, and then three hours until next nap and three hours from last nap until bedtime. There has been a few times she has stretched four or so hours to bedtime and she seemed to do ok, although she passes out the second we start giving her a bedtime bottle. :) Her schedule/nap times are a bit unpredictable right now, since her morning wake times are so varied. I'm just rolling with it. 

Development: I recently gave an update on her development in my Dear, Clara post. She is slowly making progress in all areas and we are so very thankful.

A few other things. . .
She has successfully pulled her paci out AND PUT IT BACK IN two or three times.
One top tooth has officially cut the gums although it's looking a little off center to be a central incisor. . . maybe it's a lateral incisor??? I hope. Poor kid.
She is reaching her arms up in air more and also out in front of her more. That is fun to see!
Two BIG HUGE milestones to note at 9 months are sitting up in her bed (has happened 4x's that we know of) and mimicking back our facial expressions.

Check it out. . .

I had a video of her mimicking Brandon's facial expressions but can't get it to load. Will have to add it later.

Weight: 17 pounds 10 oz (28%)
Height: 27.25 inches (39th%)
HC: 16 inches (1%)
BMI: 17 kg/m2

Size 2 diapers
Size 3 overnight diapers
Size 9-12 mo clothes
Size 1 or 2 shoe (although the whole shoe thing is so confusing that we usually just do socks)
Still on reflux meds, but will try again to wean her off after this dose runs out.
She's spent a good portion of this month sick, poor baby. The croupy cough is killer. :(

Adventures: She goes to Sonshine class at our church on Tuesday mornings (9:30am -12pm ish) while I am at ladies Bible class. She loves it! I truly think she loves playing and watching the other babies do their thing. She even takes a nice little nap most mornings while there. Here's a pic of her fav toy at Sonshine class.

That about wraps up 9 months! Our girl will be ONE YEAR before we know it!