trying to get pictures of this kid on the stupid quilt pretty much had me fuming. when on Earth will I learn my lesson and not plan to have some sort of regular photo shoot? oh yeah, probably never...
How in the hell is my baby less than three months from being one? That is simply insane. Chris and I still are baffled by the fact that she is going to turn in to a 'real little girl' like Ryann. I feel like I'm just going to have a preschooler and a baby forever. As sad as I am that she is growing up, I'm slowly but surely getting quite excited for Elsie to be a little older. Life keeps getting crazier, but more fun too :o).
Elsie's nine month check-up fell right on her monthly birthday, so at exactly nine months she weighed in at 17lbs 5oz (24th percentile) and measured 27 inches (31st percentile) long. She is slowly dropping in the percentiles, but hasn't completely dropped off her curve and is still growing, so nobody is really concerned. They did measure her length like three times because they thought they got it wrong (she was actually in the 69th percentile at six months), but my guess is that she is just going to be on the shorter side, and/or they had it wrong at six months. My sister has never hit the five foot mark, so I wouldn't be surprised to have a shorty in the family. She is wearing 6-12 month clothes, size 3 diapers and size 3 shoes. E also sprouted a second tooth October 12th.
Let's back up to that doctor's appointment for a minute though. It was a COMPLETE disaster. I had both girls by myself (which isn't the end of the world but not ideal, obviously). We get back to the room, I situate Ryann with a book, the nurse starts asking the questions, and Ryann's nose starts bleeding. Yay. Then the other nurse tries to measure Elsie's head, and she starts screaming. Then Ryann decides she needs to go to the bathroom. We get back in the room, I give Ryann the ipad, and we move on. Then they told me they were out of the nasal mist and Ryann would have to get an actual flu shot. Not a huge deal but I hadn't prepared her for that. She did pretty good, but she started crying after she got her shot, and it was bloody boogers since her nose was bleeding before. Elsie cried throughout her check-up, and then screamed during her shots. And then Ryann started crawling around on the floor while I was nursing Elsie to calm her down. It was SO MUCH FUN. Not at all. But it's over and we survived.
The doctor said overall Elsie looked very healthy. To be cautious with anything that might contain rice or oatmeal. To start her on miralax here and there to help her system keep up (along with regular prunes in her diet). And she decided to wait until her 12 month appointment to worry about her tear ducts. My fingers are still crossed that they will decide to clear up on their own by then.
Elsie is still nursing about six times a day. I keep thinking we'll be able to drop one or two of those sessions soon, but girlfriend will crawl over and try and shove her face down my shirt, so I guess she isn't ready. She is also eating three meals a day, but only maybe 5 ounces of puree total throughout the day? I'm not really keeping track. She loves to eat. The good news is that so far it is still just the Earth's Best infant cereals that she has had any issues with. I was all proud telling the doc that she has eaten a little bit of wheat bread and some crackers without a problem, and she reminded me that those probably aren't made with rice or oat flour... thanks for bursting my bubble! I'm truly starting to believe that it is just something in the Earth's Best products though. Who knows, only time will tell. We introduced the Gerber little crunchies (which are made with mostly corn), just to see how E would do with chewing and swallowing food, and she loves the stupid things. She also loves to much on apple slices and just this morning she ate some bits of pancake. Time to add more table foods because she is doing great with it! She has also almost mastered drinking out of her sippy.
Sleep hasn't changed much from last month. She is up for the day between 6:30-7, goes down for an hour or so nap between 9-9:30, is up for about three hours, naps for another 90 minutes or so, and is in bed usually by 7pm, 7:30 at the latest. The only thing that has changed, is that I've caved way more than I wanted to with nursing her to sleep. She CAN put herself to sleep, but now that she is super mobile, it can take forever for her to decide she actually wants to nap. And with Ryann having activities at certain times, I kind of need her to take her naps at certain times, so it is a lot easier to just, well, force it. She is waking up once in the night, and I always feed her. Sometimes she falls asleep nursing then, sometimes she puts herself back to sleep in the crib afterwards, and sometimes I wind up back in her room an hour later because she just couldn't get herself to sleep. I am looking forward to no longer being her sleep prop, but honestly? I LOVE the snuggles. She isn't a snuggly baby, so the only way for me to get some is to nurse her to sleep. So it is pretty much a selfish thing :o). But I do it out of love!
And yes, Elsie is a VERY mobile baby now. Her crawling speed is picking up every day. She is pulling up on everything and trying to climb everything. It took her maybe two tries to master going up stairs. E is constantly getting in to trouble :o). The honest truth is I HATE this stage. Taking care of her is simply exhausting, especially with Ryann around. E is always trying to get to whatever Ryann is doing, and for the most part I'm trying to get Ry to understand that she either has to play in her room or be prepared for Elsie to get in to her stuff, but I also don't want to let E destroy her creations or drawings or whatever all the time. And I'm always worried that Elsie is going to fall and get hurt. Yes, eventually she'll learn and get stronger, but sign me up for the padded room and baby helmet. That would make me feel a little less worried.
Like I said I'm sad to watch the baby slowly disappear, but man, some of the things E is starting to do are so much fun! She enjoys playing a 'chase' game of sorts with Ryann, as well as 'yelling' back and forth with Ry. A couple of weeks ago she started playing peek-a-boo too. The first time we saw her do it was with the kitchen rug, she pulled it up in front of her face, held it there for a bit, and dropped it down with a huge grin. Repeat repeat repeat! She also loves to play it with her towel after bath time. And speaking of baths, she somewhat recently truly discovered how to splash, and can make quite the mess. Bath time is pretty well loved in our house. She does her own little version of dancing when she hears music. Her favorite toys are anything that isn't her toy, or anything we don't want her to touch. That is real fun, obviously.
Over the past month Elsie has become OBSESSED with our cats. She chases them all over the house, tries to kiss them and just gets super excited when they're around. She babbles more and more and we swear she is trying to say 'kitty'. She'll kiss pictures of cats in a book, and loves cat stuffed animals. It is funny to see her preference for cats emerge. I completely understand the interest in the moving fur ball in the house, but I'm surprised that she can pick them out amongst toys and in books. And speaking of books, she still doesn't really like me to read to her, but she is more interested in books in general now, so maybe we're getting close to a reading stage? Fingers crossed on that one.
Elsie loathes diaper changes, as well as getting dressed, and pretty much turns into a crazed lunatic when I attempt either. As of late she generally winds up without pants on, simply because it isn't worth the fight of trying to get them back on. She also hates getting her nose or face wiped (not surprising), which is unfortunate since she has an incredibly runny nose right now. E is also starting to get kind of pissy when we take something away or move her away from something. Which also means she doesn't exactly let Ryann get away with hogging all the toys anymore either. I think Ryann is really in for it over the next couple of months...
There are probably a million more things I can write about, but overall I just love Miss Elsie to pieces. She is super cute and learning new stuff every day. Can't wait to see where we're at next month. Love you so much Elsie Jo!
