Eleanor at 9 Months

As of this morning, Eleanor now weighs 16 lbs 12oz (25%), has a head circumference of 17 1/4" (50%) and is 28 3/4" (75%) tall. 
Compare her to William at 9 months

This month has been all about change and transition. Like everything else with this kid, this transition period interrupted her sleep in big ways. Fortunately however, unlike last month, it mostly just affected her napping rather than her nighttime sleep. These days she is 'only' getting up twice each night, and then up for the day between 7 and 9 am. If she happens to get up at 7, I have been bringing her into our bed and unlike Will at this age (who thought mom and dad's bed was party central), will actually fall back to sleep for about 30 more minutes. This allows me to snooze a little bit more, as well as get some much appreciated cuddle time with her. Most mornings though shes awake after 8am, which is lovely!

The naps however have NOT been lovely. Usually shes up for the day at around 8:30, and wants to take her first nap at 10:30-ish. She will sleep for about 30 minutes and get up at 11. Then she goes down at 2pm, and instead of sleeping for an hour or two like she used to, shes often been getting up after only 20 minutes. This is not ideal. I do go back in there and try and shush and rock her back to sleep, and I am successful about 80% of the time, and then she'll go back to sleep for another 30 minutes or so. I cannot wait until this phase is over and she returns to a more decent nap schedule.



Aside from sleeping, she has been developing in big ways this month. Her personality continues to come out more and more. She is a very happy, content little girl and mostly just loves watching her big brother. He absolutely delights her and can do nothing wrong in her sight. He often makes her laugh. She is now old enough that they can somewhat play together, and she LOVES playing trucks with him. Its the delight of her morning when he shares cars back and forth with her. Its so adorable to watch them play together. One of the cutest ways that she shows her excitement, is when she does what I like to call the 'hula,' with her hands. Her hands start twirling and waving up and down, and then her little legs start kicking and then she starts bouncing up and down, and thats when you know she is REALLY thrilled. Full on giggling usually follows. And no surprise, Will is the best person in the family at eliciting this response from her :)

In the physical development department, she has made some tremendous strides this month. Much of it happening practically overnight! She can now sit totally unassisted for as long as she wants, and the new big thing is that she can get into a sitting position completely on her own. So she now has so much more control over her body, going from being on her back, to her belly, to sitting and back to her belly, in seconds. Its bizarre for me to go into her room at night to respond to her cries, and there she is sitting totally upright. We even had to lower her crib to the second level down so she wouldn't accidentally fall out.

Naturally the next step after this is crawling, and indeed, she has begun to army crawl around the living room toward whichever toy she see fit to grab. It is kind of half army craw, half inch worm style, but its effective and she is quick! I will really be in trouble when she starts crawling for real. At least now I know I have a couple of seconds before she reaches her desired quarry, soon enough that lag time will be nil! She is even starting to try and pull up on furniture and people, but she doesn't have the strength yet. Part of me is glad because I am not ready for two mobile kids, but the other part of me is excited to see all of the fun she and Will are going to have together once she can move more quickly and freely.

These physical developments have also extended to the solid foods department. She has been able to pick up and drink out of a straw sippy cup for a few months now, and now can grab puree pouches and suck out of them completely on her own. This new found independence and control over her eating has had a positive impact on the amount she consumes. Suddenly she is MUCH more interested in solids and whereas before I would struggle to get even one ounce into her, she will now take up to 3oz at a time! Its amazing. She is also working on her pincer grasp (shes not totally proficient but will be soon) and has gotten two more front teeth (on the top). These two things have allowed her to eat a wider variety of food and I have been sharing more of our adult foods with her (which she LOVES). So far her favorites are potato fries, asparagus, mum mums and any kind of fruit (berries and melon have been big hits). She has also been taking a LOT more milk at bedtime and at her dream feed. Before she was taking about 6oz at bed and maybe another 2-3 at the dream feed, but during this food frenzy time period, she would take 9oz at bed time, and another 5-6 oz at her dream feed. Just in the past few days her milk consumption has gone back to normal, but for a while there I was shocked at how much she could put away each night!


All of this eating did translate into a little bit of growth though, thank goodness! Her weight has now stabilized and she is no longer dropping in percentiles like she was a few months ago. She is still a petite little thing but at least I am less worried about her not growing and developing properly. She seems perfectly average in the development department and is just going to be a small little thing in the weight department for the foreseeable future. She is fairly long for her weight though and even though shes pretty light, she is fitting into 9-12 month clothes like she should be. So all in all I am feeling a lot more calm and confidant that she is going to be just fine! And that relief is priceless!


Speaking of her weighing more, she was starting to get too heavy for her portable car seat, and she was also starting to get sick of it to the point where she would cry when I put her in it. So I decided that the convenience was no longer worth it and that it was time to put her into a 'big kid' convertible car seat. She actually got Will's old seat and he got a new one. I was not expecting her reaction to be one of pure, unadulterated joy. Her first twenty rides in the new seat were so exciting to her, that she literally squealed and giggled and shouted for joy the entire ride. I think she gets a big kick out of being able to look out of the window and actually see stuff. So far from objecting, now that she is out of the old infant car seat, she could not be happier. I have taken to carrying her in the ergo when we go places like the grocery store, as she still doesn't quite have the core strength to handle sitting upright in a cart that is moving. But I forward face her in that carrier and she is just thrilled to see the world. Now I feel guilty for keeping her confined in that old seat for so many months prior to this!