Hannah – 9 Months

Stats

Weight: 19 lbs
Height: 26”
Diaper Size: Size 3 in Huggies
Clothes: 12-month outfits and moving into 18-month sleepers

Hannah got a clean bill of health at her 9 month well-check! Her stats put her right in the middle of the chart for weight and smidge on the short side for height. She is comfortably wearing 12 month clothes and only needs 18 month sleepers because they’re made so abnormally short/skinny. For comparison, at 9 months L.J. was 23 pounds and in the 75^th-95^th percentile for everything.

Personality

I love seeing more and more of Hannah’s personality emerge as she grows! She’s able to communicate more of what she does and doesn’t want each day.

She’s a very happy baby and an absolute delight to be around. She has smiles for days and is very interactive with anyone who is familiar to her. She’s a chatterbox and her ability to have a “conversation” with us, complete with animated facial expressions, is completely adorable.

She’s a bit more reserved when we are out and loves watching the world go by. My absolute favorite new thing this month is her penchant for burying her head in my shoulder when she meets someone for the first time. She is not shy, but is appropriately wary of unfamiliar faces.

At home she is as curious as they come and into everything. I’m going to have to read up on child proofing! L.J. was curious, too, but not one to explore beyond his toy area. Hannah thinks the entire house is her domain.

Mike, L.J. and I all fall into her “most favorite” category, but if she’s upset, tired or out of sorts it’s generally me that she wants. Poor Mike – I think his feelings get a bit bruised when he tries to comfort her but she won’t stop fussing until she’s in my arms (at which point she quiets almost instantly).

Playtime

Hannah is on the move!! At the cusp of 9-months she began to army crawl. She is so close to actual crawling and practices regularly.

She likes her toys and L.J.’s toys. It depends on the day as to how apt he is to nicely share with her. It’s tough for him – we work so hard to teach sharing and taking turns, but Hannah just grabs what she wants when she wants it. He doesn’t quite understand that she is too young for sharing/turn taking. We have to pretend to have Hannah ask for a turn or say please/thank you to L.J.

The biggest obstacle is L.J.’s tendency to simply grab something out of her hands when he wants to play with it – which results in a very indignant shriek from Hannah. That and the fact that three year olds have no concept of personal space…Sister Bear has been used as a pillow more times than I can count…

Sibling dynamics will always be a work in progress, I suppose, but by and large they love being around each other and each of them in their own way is very eager to truly be able to play with the other one.

Her favorite toys at 9 months are the top of the Leapfrog music table and a wooden safari animal puzzle. Musical toys are her favorite! Raffi the WubbaNub giraffe and his friend Mini Monkey have returned this month. Hannah thinks they make the best teething toys! She likes to put the pacifier in her mouth and then put her thumb inside the pacifier, essentially sucking on both simultaneously.

Like L.J., she loves being outside and she loves the swing!

Eating

Real food continues to be high on Hannah’s priority list. She practically dives at any plate of food within reach. This month we started school lunch, which is a very mashed and somewhat modified version of whatever is being served to the older children. Her teachers report that it’s one of her favorite times of the day and she eats with gusto.

She gets a combination of table food and baby food and this month we’ve added in whole milk yogurt. Her favorite baby foods are Beech-Nut’s Apple Pumpkin jar, Gerber’s Pear Cinnamon Oatmeal jar and Plum Organics Broccoli/Apple and Spinach/Pear/Pea pouches. Her favorite table food is either pasta or peanut butter smeared on a rice cake.

We upped her bottles to 6 ounce feedings and that has (mostly) resolved her night awakenings. She’s gone from 25 ounces/day to 28-30 ounces/day. Amazing to think that 3-5 extra ounces can make that much difference.

Sleeping

Still a great sleeper! She is in bed around 7:45 and wakes up between 6:30-7:15 (depends on how well she ate before bed). On the weekends she still takes two naps, generally preferring a long morning nap and a shorter afternoon nap.

Milestones/Firsts

Army crawling
Three top teeth emerged
Hair is growing like crazy!

Letter to Hannah

Dear Hannah,

My busy little bee! We’ve so enjoyed seeing you transition into the “almost toddler” stage as you get closer and closer to your first birthday. L.J. is so eager for you to be able to play with him, and you are just as eager to join him in the fun!

As you grow, you take after your brother more and more. I was curious to see how alike you would look as babies – some children are unmistakably siblings – and the older you’ve gotten, the more you and L.J. fall into that category. We get lots of comments that “you look just like your Mommy!” and “you look a lot like L.J. did as a baby!” In the spirit of honesty, another very common comment is, “Wow – she’s a lot smaller than L.J. was!”

Your dimpled smile – now peppered with beautiful little pearls of teeth – is one of my most favorite things in the entire world. Oh how I love seeing you smile and seeing the love written all over your face when you see your family. It is mutual, sweet girl. You have completed our family in ways we didn’t even know were possible.

Much love,
Mommy