I took Abby in for her 9-month checkup today. Her stats:
18.69 lbs, which puts her in the 48th percentile
28.25 inches, which puts her in the 75th percentile
She is healthy and growing well. She loves to stand, and will even take a step or two if she is holding on to furniture or hands. She isn't really crawling, but she can pull herself around a little bit. It's not quite an army crawl, and she doesn't make it very far. She doesn't really roll. In just the last couple of weeks, she has learned to roll from her back to her stomach. Sometimes she can roll from her stomach to her back. She doesn't do a complete roll, though. The pediatrician told me not to worry because she can sit and stand, so she's two milestones ahead of rolling.
She's a happy baby. She is serious with people she doesn't know, but as soon as she sees someone she recognizes she gets very excited. She loves kisses - getting them and giving them. She loves her sister, most of the time. She makes lots of happy sounds and is starting to make consonant sounds -- ba ba ba, ma ma ma, etc. She also waves.
She has two teeth, both on the bottom. She doesn't have any hair, and if she follows her sister's lead, she won't until she is 2.
She likes to sleep with the blanket pulled completely over her face. One specific blanket: a fleece blanket with satin edging that my mom made for Sandy. If she has her blanket over her face, she will go right to sleep. If she doesn't, she can scream for a very long time.
She loves to eat solid food and can eat just about anything. She likes to feed herself and she definitely does NOT like to be fed. She starts crying as soon as she sees a container of baby yogurt because she knows I'm going to try to feed her. So, most of the time, I just give her some of whatever we are eating and let her go at it. It's a little messy. She loves vegetables. One of her favorite things is when I give her a handful of frozen corn or frozen peas. I think the cold feels good on her gums. She also likes chicken flavoring. She loves chicken and rice - I don't give her any of the chicken, but she devours the cream of chicken-soaked rice. She also loves chicken-flavored ramen noodles. She's will also drink water out of a sippy cup, although she is still nursing for most of her liquid intake.
She loves books, dolls, and electrical cords. Yes, we really have to watch her, because if she can grab the cord to a laptop or lamp or anything else, she does. And, of course, it goes right in her mouth. I'm not sure what we're going to do about that when she becomes mobile.
She has just (almost) started sleeping through the night. About 2 weeks ago, we finally decided to cut her off from eating during the night. Bill had to get up and soothe her for the first week or so, but she's finally resigned herself to not eating so now I can go back to getting up with her. She still gets up once or twice a night, but it's a considerable improvement over the eating every 2 hours that she was doing. She and Sandy are in the same room and Sandy gets frustrated when Abby cries in the middle of the night. The other night Abby was crying and Sandy said, "Abby, stop crying! Daddy is trying to sleep JUST LIKE ME!" Then Sandy rolled over and went back to sleep.
Happy 9 months, Abby! It has gone by quickly!
Abby has two teeth on the bottom. She's wearing a shirt that says "bit o' trouble."
Sandy is so good to share with her sister. If only we could get her to ask before she gets things to share with her. What a mess, eating licorice in their church dresses. But at least it was after church. Good thing they are so cute!
