Somehow, Claire is nine months old today!
It's safe to say that when you have your first baby, you 100% have no idea what to expect. Even if you think you do. Even if you have spent lots and lots of time with other people's babies. Even if you have read all the books. Your own baby is different from all those other babies, plus it's a 24/7 job. There were many, MANY moments in the early days when Brian and I wondered when the real parents were going to show up and take over. We felt like we had no clue what we were doing.
That's all to say...it's so much easier now. It isn't EASY, don't get me wrong, but we've hit our stride. I know it won't be this way forever---life with a kid means everything, good and bad, is a phase---but we're enjoying it as long as it lasts.
A little rundown of our lives:
SLEEP
Everyone's favorite baby topic. We generally put Claire to bed between 6:30 and 7, and she gets up around 6:30 or 7. Some mornings she's up at 6:15 (like today). Other times, she likes to snooze until 7:30. We try to adjust her naps accordingly, and it usually works out fine. She sleeps all the way through the night about 2-3 times a week right now, and wakes up once between 2 and 5 on the other nights. I'm still nursing, so I'll usually just feed her, and she'll go right back to sleep.
She naps twice a day, once at about 9 and again at about 1, but that's pretty flexible. Naps are anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but she seems to like the 80 minute mark the most.
EATING
She still nurses anywhere from 5-7 times a day, but I really don't keep track or have much of a schedule. When I'm at work, she'll take 2-3 bottles over the course of 9 hours. This is steadily decreasing as she eats more solid food.
She LOVES food. This is surprising to no one, I'm sure, since Brian and I are both fans of food ourselves. We do a mixture of fruit/veggie purees and pieces of whatever we have around. She's a big fan of the pumpkin + whole milk yogurt combo, and she loves those baby puff things. Otherwise, there's not much she refuses to eat. We put cooked beans on her highchair tray, and that keeps her occupied for a while. That study recently came out about the benefits of early peanut exposure, so I've given her squares of peanut butter toast (a hit!). Also pieces of scrambled egg. We had an unfortunate puking incident after I gave her some avocado last week, but, other than that, things have mostly sat well with her.
MILESTONES
She is really, really close to crawling, which I've been saying for a month now, but now it seems like she's TRULY days away. She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth. Even still, she manages to get around just fine by rolling or pulling herself across the floor. I've seen her get herself up into a sitting position on her own once, but she hasn't done it again. She loves to stand and does a pretty good job maintaining her balance near the furniture even when we let go.
She's a pretty quiet baby overall. She's babbled only a few times, and tends to spend most of her days watching the world, particularly when she's around people she doesn't know very well. I'm trying not to stress too much about this---her non-verbal communication skills seem solid to me, and she both understands us and expresses herself quite well. We'll see what the pediatrician has to say at her appointment this week, but I'm going to trust that she'll start talking to us when she's ready.
Other fun stuff:
-As previously mentioned, "so big" is one of our favorite activities
-clapping
-giving kisses
-laughing--she's adorably ticklish, but what she'll actually laugh at changes by the day (yesterday, Grace the cat was hilarious)
Likes:
watching/petting the cats, splashing in the tub, trying to escape her post-bath diaper change, the itsy bitsy spider, walks in the stroller
Dislikes:
getting her face wiped off after eating (OMG the torture!), getting dressed or undressed, not being held when she wants to be held, Mommy or Daddy walking out of sight
Claire is our sweet, joyful girl. She makes us laugh with her spunky, observant personality, and we are thrilled to have such an enthusiastic third member of our trio.
It's safe to say that when you have your first baby, you 100% have no idea what to expect. Even if you think you do. Even if you have spent lots and lots of time with other people's babies. Even if you have read all the books. Your own baby is different from all those other babies, plus it's a 24/7 job. There were many, MANY moments in the early days when Brian and I wondered when the real parents were going to show up and take over. We felt like we had no clue what we were doing.
That's all to say...it's so much easier now. It isn't EASY, don't get me wrong, but we've hit our stride. I know it won't be this way forever---life with a kid means everything, good and bad, is a phase---but we're enjoying it as long as it lasts.
 |
| Shoe in one hand, attempted sock removal in the other. |
A little rundown of our lives:
SLEEP
Everyone's favorite baby topic. We generally put Claire to bed between 6:30 and 7, and she gets up around 6:30 or 7. Some mornings she's up at 6:15 (like today). Other times, she likes to snooze until 7:30. We try to adjust her naps accordingly, and it usually works out fine. She sleeps all the way through the night about 2-3 times a week right now, and wakes up once between 2 and 5 on the other nights. I'm still nursing, so I'll usually just feed her, and she'll go right back to sleep.
She naps twice a day, once at about 9 and again at about 1, but that's pretty flexible. Naps are anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours, but she seems to like the 80 minute mark the most.
EATING
She still nurses anywhere from 5-7 times a day, but I really don't keep track or have much of a schedule. When I'm at work, she'll take 2-3 bottles over the course of 9 hours. This is steadily decreasing as she eats more solid food.
 |
| Going to town on a slice of apple |
MILESTONES
 |
| Crawling is exhausting! |
 |
| Hanging on to the couch |
Other fun stuff:
-As previously mentioned, "so big" is one of our favorite activities
-clapping
-giving kisses
-laughing--she's adorably ticklish, but what she'll actually laugh at changes by the day (yesterday, Grace the cat was hilarious)
 |
| Her favorite face these days? |
watching/petting the cats, splashing in the tub, trying to escape her post-bath diaper change, the itsy bitsy spider, walks in the stroller
Dislikes:
getting her face wiped off after eating (OMG the torture!), getting dressed or undressed, not being held when she wants to be held, Mommy or Daddy walking out of sight
 |
| Also loves sucking her thumb |
No comments:
Post a Comment