baby girl: 9 months

When I read other people’s posts about their babies reaching certain age milestones, I always think to myself how fast that time has gone.  Like my baby will never get to that point.  Guess what?  She’s already 9 months.  When did that happen?!  When did she get so darn old?!  Ha!

Milestones + Accomplishments

MacKenna is still not crawling-crawling, but she is army crawling like a pro.  And girl moves fast!  She’s also sitting great but isn’t quite strong enough to pull herself up on anything.  We have a little longer until she’s really mobile, but I know it won’t be too much longer.

She is also imitating everything we do now.  Not only can she clap (and will clap when other people clap – we caught her clapping to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a few days ago [it was recorded]), but she will put her heads above her head when you say “big girl” and make noises with her hand and lips and tongue.  It’s too funny!  We’re currently teaching her how to wave bye-bye and give kisses.  I should note she learns all of this when in her high chair at dinner.

We’ve made huge strides in the solid food department.  She’s still not a great eater and will hardly pick up anything with her fingers, although her pincer grasp is there.  So, she is spoon fed yogurt and some fruit/veggie purees, eats avocado out of the mesh feeder, and will eat pretty much anything off of our fingers.  While she’s not really feeding herself yet, she is at least learning how to chew big bites of food on her own.  Not the ideal situation, but she is learning new tastes + textures and we are OK with that.  Her new favorite is spaghetti with meat sauce (yes, we are feeding her meat).

We are also giving her water at most meals.  The pediatrician suggested this after we had already been doing it, so it just assured me we were doing the right thing.  And with it being so hot out, I think it’s helped keep her pretty hydrated.  She doesn’t drink out of a sippy cup but is GREAT at using a straw, which according to the pediatrician helps with speech development.  I have a feeling she will be talking before she’s walking!

What We’re Working On

• Picking up foods and feeding them to herself
• Sleeping through the night – with the extra water she is drinking, she is overflowing her diaper (we’ve been using disposables a lot with traveling and they don’t seem to hold quite as much as the cloth).  Does anyone have any advice on how to fix this problem?  We would both really like to sleep through the night and not have to change a wet diaper at 3 AM every night.
• Teeth – MacKenna is teething really bad right now and has a good bump starting to show on her bottom 2 teeth.  Also another reason why we’re not getting much sleep.

Mama’s Miles

Well, I completed my Runner’s World Summer Run Streak on July 4th, running 38 days straight.  I ran 147.83 miles and 20 of my 38 runs were with the jogging stroller.  After that, I took an entire week off of running due to our SoCal trip.  The runs I did do after that were awful.  AWFUL.  I felt sluggish, tired, just terrible.  I actually thought I might be pregnant because I hadn’t had a run that bad since I found out I was pregnant with M.  (Don’t worry, I’m not.)  What I figured out was that I wasn’t eating nearly enough to fuel my runs (and the heat/humidity didn’t help).  In California, we were eating breakfast and then one big meal and snacking.  I went to bed hungry a lot and when I would get up to run, I was hungry + tired.  No food = crappy runs.  Lesson learned.

I’ll be doing a Body After Bump post next week to let you know how that’s going.  I’m also happy to announce that I’m going to Best Body Bootcamp!  My strength training has been a lack luster lately and bootcamp is just what I need to get my butt back into gear!  I can’t wait!  Registration is open until Friday, so you still have time to join me!  You can win prizes… ;)

Random Tidbits

• Doctor’s visits:  only 1 – her 9 month appointment.  She is doing great and the doctor really boosted my confidence by telling me what a great job we were doing.  Phew!
• Current weight:  13 pounds 13 ounces.  The doctor assured me that she is gaining perfectly, she’s just petite.
• Currently clothing size:  I’ve come to the conclusion that MacKenna is skinny + short (with chubby arms + legs).  She is still in 3-6 month clothing, but can also still fit in some 0-3 month, although she’s pushing it in the length on things.  Needless to say, all the clothing we received from showers a year ago aren’t the right sizes.  Boo.
• Breastfeeding:  Still going.  MacKenna nurses 4 times a day and gets 1 bottle (either all formula or a mix), usually at night.  Thankfully she is taking bottles again.  With my new job starting next month, I’m not sure how much longer I’ll get to continue breastfeeding since I don’t know if I’ll have time to pump.  But, I figure I can still nurse her in the morning and at night until either she weans/I wean her or I dry up completely.  We’ll see how it goes though.
• Loves:  hair (especially mommy’s long hair), clapping, taggies, anything with texture (she’s very tactile right now), flirting especially with little kids
• Dislikes:  Mommy saying no (oh yes, she’s learned this), getting her diaper changed because she can’t roll over

With all the traveling we’ve been doing lately, we’ve had a lot of people come up to us and tell us how beautiful she is.  We even had some people take a picture of her while waiting in a line at Universal Studios (no no, they didn’t ask – they just took the picture).  While we think she’s gorgeous, we are just in awe of all the love our little baby girl is getting.  She is the light of our life.  She is such a beautiful, happy, loving baby and I thank God every day for her.  We are so lucky to have her in our life!