9 Months and Cruising!

Lucy had her 9-month doctor's visit the other day. Here are her stats:

Height: 27 1/2 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 15 lbs 5 oz (5th percentile)
Head Circumference: 44 1/2 cm (between 50th and 75th percentile)

She hasn't seemed to have grown as much compared to her last visit but the pediatrician didn't seem concerned about it. We just have a petite little girl. It's been a little confusing for me because I think that I was a little worried about her relatively low weight at the 6-month visit that I really started to push the solids. But then Lucy backed way off of breastfeeding and I didn't want that so I decreased her solids. My understanding was that as she grew, she would maintain her breastfeeding and just add solids on top of that. I went to a La Leche League meeting where I was greeted with the same advice as I was doing but I sometimes feel like the information is a little biased toward breastfeeding over everything else. However, I followed their advice/my initial instinct and was actually quite lax in her meal times, sometimes skipping her solid meals if we were busy or out of the house with the expectation that she would make up for it in her breastfeeding if she were really hungry or the next time I fed her. But after this 9 month appointment, I think that I am going to be much more disciplined with her solids. It just seems like everything with a baby is trial and error, especially your first.

One thing is for sure - she is an incredibly active baby and along with her crawling, is now pulling herself up on her own and cruising. She babbles like crazy and it almost sounds like she is singing. She is very curious and loves to explore and get into everything. She has a special fascination with the dishwasher and when I was turned away for a moment, had crawled on top of the open door. She almost jumped into the tub last night as soon as she saw Brandon filling it with water but he was able to catch her before she did. Bath time is another favorite for her. She is definitely showing a lot more interest in books and is even starting to sit still for them (for a little while at least).

Feeding time is wearisome these days as she has learned that she doesn't need to swallow and can spit the food out. Peas and green beans are the usual problems although she loves her fruits. But finger foods have been all the rage now that she has mastered the pincer grasp and she loves crackers, cheese, bananas, and pears (and that's about all I've given her so far). I kinda want to be done with the pureed baby foods and cereals and just give her finger foods so I don't have to deal with the mess.

In other news, her schedule has been very erratic for the past month it seems. So anyone who was wishing my next child was the devil child after reading this post can rest easy - we have our problems with this one. Lucy had never been the best daytime napper but we could always count on a great 10-12 hours of fairly uninterrupted sleep each night...until December. This kinda coincided with my going to the gym where I think that Lucy picked up a cold at daycare (unless she got it at church). She had it for about a week and her cough was so bad that it would wake her up at night. Then, she cut one tooth and was up all night in pain (unlike her first two teeth which came up pretty easy). Then she got better, then got a cold again, then cut three teeth all in one night! Then it was the holidays and we were out late at night, naps were sometimes optional, and family was in town which made for some hectic days. Lucy was waking up every night, multiple times and often just an hour or two after we would put her down for the night. We thought that once we got her back on schedule with her naps and feedings and things calmed down, she would start sleeping through the night. Well, all of those things may have contributed to her poor sleeping habits but once we thought we had addressed them all, she was sleeping worse than ever and I started to sleep with her in the extra bed which seemed like the only way anyone in the house was going to get sleep (even though the quality of my sleep really suffered). We even started to let her cry it out but that just doesn't work so well at 2:00 and 3:00 AM when a minute of crying seems like an eternity. It was so unlike Lucy.

I explained my concerns to the pediatrician at Lucy's appointment but was met with a, "I think that you just need to let her cry it out - this often happens to babies that are nursed to sleep..." even though I have been nursing her to sleep forever and it never interfered with her sleeping through the night until December. But then, the culprit was discovered. The pediatrician checked Lucy's ears and exclaimed, "Oh, she has an ear infection - in both ears!" Poor girl - mom and dad were too busy thinking up every other possible explanation about why she wasn't sleeping through the night anymore, except that one. I actually did ponder on it a bit before but came to the conclusion that it couldn't be because she was so pleasant during the day and surely, it would be more obvious. Well, we got her prescription for antibiotics and things are improving a little - hopefully, a lot more in the next few days. We got the okay on acetaminophen for the teething pain as well, so let's cross our fingers. I don't how much longer I deal with these sleepless nights!