Growing Up Lanese: Lilly Belle: Nine Months!

Yay! Our sweet girl is getting so big - she was just a little excited about this mornings photo shoot ;)

This is one of my new favorites. I finally captured her. She makes this face all the time.

Excited that I let her hold Minnie :)

Couldn't wear our sticker today because I couldn't even get it close to her without her freaking out trying to get it from me.

Within seconds, she had flipped herself like this to get a better view of Pocahontas!

And...I wasn't fast enough (don't worry, she had this in her mouth for this exact captured second).

9 Months Old

Weight: 17 lbs.

Health: Lilly now has two adorable little teeth; both on the bottom. She had a bit of an ear infection/throat yuckies (pus on her tonsils) so she was on Amoxicillin and started feeling better right away. She is a trooper through teething too. Even when she was sick and teething, she was still always in her usual happy go lucky mood.

Sleep: Whats that? Same as last month. Lilly's still waking up at least 3x a night to nurse. I - am - exhausted. I love nursing her in the middle of the night though, is that weird? Sometimes we fall asleep, and other times I let her nurse and then lay her down and pass out immediately...knowing I'll do it again in a few hours - Or sometimes...an hour later. We are just 24 days away from being back into our own apartment again so I'm crossing my fingers that Lilly & I will be getting sleep again soon! Matt sleeps through most of it ;) Unless I notice she needs a diaper change - then he's on duty.

Social: I cannot believe how much our little girl has changed this month in this area. She loves people. Matt thinks she will be outgoing like I am. She especially loves kids! Wherever we go, she waves at everyone (yes, she can wave now-it's adorable!) She is still pretty loud, but I think it is pretty awesome that she's not afraid to let everyone know she's there :) During music class, Lilly has become quite the little class entertainer (you know that makes me ecstatic!) Girlfriend loves to "sing" at all the most quiet of times. This includes in the middle of church, which Lilly Belle and I have now attended twice and loved it! Lilly Belle got to play at her friend Jax's house for a few hours this month and the report back was that she loved being with the kids. I need to schedule her more playdates! She is really "talking" now and makes all kinds of noises. We love our little conversations with her.

This is a big section this month as I feel it's where she changed the most. Man oh man is she fun! Lilly Belle can now "dance" on command if there is music on. It's the best-thing-ever. She really doesn't get as much stranger anxiety as she did last month. As I mentioned above, she really loves to wave at everyone. At a recent trip to Costco I wore her facing out in the Bjorn and I'm fairly certain she waved at every single person in there ;)

Schedule: We don't really have a set schedule, just more of knowing what she needs and making sure she gets that everyday. We know she needs a nice long (2 hours usually) morning nap and the same thing again in the afternoon. Then we do bedtime still beginning at 6pm and she's always down for the night by 7pm. If we have her up any more than that, girlfriend becomes our little monster.

Diet:  Lilly still nurses all throughout the night and then every 3 hours throughout the day. She is now eating 3 meals/day. She eats Ella's Kitchen & Plum Organics pouches. I gave up on trying to get her to eat my homemade purees. I tried adding meat last time and she freaked so I just need to clean them all out and start over, but I'm waiting until get our own place to start over. We have really introduced a lot more snacks for her as well. She eats Mum Mums, Puffs, Cheerios, little squares of avocado & little baby cookies. I can really trust her a lot more with finger foods. It is amazing how quickly this changed from last month when I was spazzing out with it all. She also learned how to drink from her Lollacup this month and loves to drink water with her meals and on hot days. We are still working on getting better about this, but with her still nursing, I know she's okay when I forget. On the topic of nursing, she is fading a bit with it during the day. Our daytime nursing time is now only for maybe 5 minutes each time. When she nurses long during the day I soak it in and love it so much! I have a feeling she is going to be done nursing soon and I'm dreading it like the black plague. I'm not ready for that at all yet. Sometimes she will start nursing and after a minute or two be like "meh, I'm done" and push away all excited ready to play. I always try to offer it at least a few more times before I give in and let her be done. I really want to nurse her until she's one. Prior to this month and all of this happening, I wanted to nurse her until she was like 18 months but now I don't know if she'll let me. She is great at eating her pouches and we don't even use a spoon anymore, she can do it by herself with us holding it.

Clothes: Mostly 9 month clothes now, but she can still fit in all of her 6 month onesies.

Baby Gear Love: We still swaddle Lilly her. We were going to stop, but found it's how she knows it is bedtime so we still do it. Usually by the 2nd feeding of the night she has gotten out of it but we start out that way. She really loves to play with her toys now. We use our shopping cart cover, Ergo & stroller the most. She's still in her infant carseat & we still use her baby bathtub but she sits up in it.

Crying: Lilly cries when it's nap time (about half the time). She also cries when she is over-tired. Same like last month.

Likes:  I think her favorite things are still music, water & her Mommy/Daddy. She loves going to her Kindermusik class each week and could still stay in the bath for hours if we let her. Lilly Belle loves Peek-a-Boo & tickles. She is just such a happy baby. It's hard to pin point what are her favorites because she is just so easy going and happy.

Dislikes:  She still freaks out when I drop her off and still (since she was born) doesn't like putting her arms in her sleeves.

Milestones:  Wow. This month was full of them, once again. As mentioned above, Lilly now waves, claps & dances. I could watch her do all 3 of those things all day long. I get such a kick out of her knowing what we're saying. It feels good to communicate back and forth with her. We say "Yay Lilly!" and she claps or "dance dance dance" and she shakes her little body from side to side all happy. She is getting really good at standing while holding on to the couch & ottomans. She likes to let go to grab onto my hands. She still isn't moving her feet to "walk" with us yet, but I'm okay with that! She is still trying to figure out the whole crawling business. She can turn in circles and go backwards but has yet to move forward. And, once again, I'm okay with that. Finger foods was a big one this month. She is such a little talker as well. We are loving this age right now. I'm really starting to miss her being teeny tiny and have that "aw..." feeling in my tummy when I see tiny babies BUT I am soaking up every second of our sweet little Lillian right now and love having this one on one time with her so so much. Our life is just right, right now. Forgot to add- just this morning, Lilly Belle pulled from sitting to standing! She used her activity cube :) yay!!

These are only pictures from my camera, I'll post the ones from my phone later. Theres so many!

Changing her diapers has now become a daily rock paper scissors match ... doesn't this look like fun? Lots of rolling, arching...even when we take the basket down ;)