Macie at Nine Months

Macie hit her nine month milestone on the day of Ephram's birthday party.  December was such a busy month for our family, and we saw quite a bit of development in Macie too.  She showed more familiarity with us as she started to reach for the person she wanted to pick her up, gave us giant waves that turned to controlled movements by the end of the month, and could identify each of us by name.  Her reflux symptoms finally started to back-off, but teething was a constant pain for her.  She showed us her musicality as I found that she would happily listen to me play the piano anytime for 15-30 minutes, and then she started dancing and drumming to music everywhere.  She became more clear in her preferences and had so much fun with everything that Christmas entailed.

Stats:
Chronological Age - 9 Months
Adjusted Age - 7 Months

Weight: 17 pounds 3 ounces (30th percentile)
Height: 25.75 inches
Head Circumference: 46 centimeters (91st percentile)

At her nine month appointment the doctor was happy with her progress, as was I.  We were not provided with the percentile information for height this time.

Milestones:

• Reach up to be picked-up (36 Weeks)
• Recognizes family names (36 Weeks)
• Dances to music (37 Weeks)
• Starts to wave (38 Weeks)
• First complete roll without stopping (38 Weeks)
• Drums to music (39 Weeks)

At nine months, Macie still wore 6-9 month clothing and size 3 diapers.

Feeding:

Macie continued to nurse on demand for her milk.  Foods introduced during this month included: 

• Carrots
• Applesauce

We did not add more foods because Macie was having digestive issues through the month that we were working through.

Macie got much better with the sippy cup during the month.  We tried three brands until we found one that worked best for her.  (Nuk)

We continued to give Macie Zantac to treat her reflux, but reduced the dose to .3 ml twice per day.

Sleeping:

Macie's sleep patterns during the month continued to fluctuate greatly.  She took two naps during the day, one 1-2 hours in length and one 2-3 hours in length.  Her naps were primarily taken in the swing.  I had the swing moving and a noise machine playing water noise in the background, which helped lengthen her naps.  

At night she continued to struggle because of teething pain.  She woke to nurse 2-3 times a night.  Every now and then, she would wake and cry for 30 minutes - 2 hours, with or without requesting milk.  Unlike Ephram, Macie would not breastfeed as a soothing mechanism.  We did a lot of rocking, bouncing, and I did a lot of singing.  I introduced her to my rotation of songs that Ephram gave me good practice on: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Tell Me Why, Little Drop of Dew, Skidamarink, God Gave Me You, Baa Baa Black Sheep and I am a Child of God.  For Macie I added Would You Like to Swing on a Star, and Snuggle Puppy.  If she wasn't asleep by the end of that rotation we worked our way into Beatles tunes.  Her favorite seemed to be In My Life.  Macie did stop sleeping in the swing at night and moved into our bed.  Her reflux had improved enough that she could sleep flat and that allowed me to take care of her without losing too much sleep.

I was much more tired in December then any previous month with Macie.  But still, it was nothing compared to the first 12 months of Ephram's life.  I was positive the teeth would break through and we would sleep again.

Teething:

Macie cut two more teeth in December, making a grand total of six teeth by the end of the month - four on top and two on bottom.

Favorite Things:

• Eating (pears were still her favorite)
• Playing (the baby computer and My Pal Violet were her favorite toys)
• Grabbing any piece of technology anyone near her was using (tablets and phones preferred)
• Flipping through books on her own (The Night Before Christmas was her favorite)
• Dancing
• Drumming
• Waving to everyone.  Over and over.
• Riding in the car (as long as it doesn't stop)
• Wrapping paper
• Taking baths
• Singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider and If You're Happy and You Know It
• The blanket her mommy crocheted for her

Least Favorite Things:

• Getting teeth.
• Getting teeth.
• Getting teeth.

Here are some pictures from her ninth month!