Just popping in to say hello! I am due for our 9 month update and struggling to find time to write it. So I’m going to have to make this one much more brief than usual, but I guess it’s better than nothing!
Baby talk:
Baby talk is in full force. She says dada, mama, yaya, nana, baba, etc. on the regular. It’s super cute! She calls Eric, me, Sketchie all dada right now…haha…but occasionally she’ll say mama when looking at me (or when crying)!
She loves to scream at the top of her lungs when she’s tired. I call it a protest cry! It sounds like AHHHHHHHHHH, AHHHHH, AHHHH.
When she’s happy after a good sleep, she “sing-songs” her baby talk (see this video). Melts my heart every single time. I said to Eric it’ll be so sad when she doesn’t talk like this anymore! It’s such a cute stage. I’m glad we caught it on video.
She still loves to growl. She growls when she’s being a “stinker” and wants to play or be silly.
We just never know what sound is going to come out of her mouth! She is quite vocal!
She still likes making “poooooof” noises by blowing air through her lips.
Her personality is emerging more and more these days. She is very active, always wants to be moving, and dislikes being held more and more. She stopped going in carriers and wraps months ago because she just squirms and wants out. She is happiest when she is on the move and playing. Loves going out and seeing people so we try to do that lots! We’re also joining a baby activity class soon. She is also very curious, observant, playful, and easy going (with a fierce stubborn streak). When she wants something, she wants something. Sounds just like her mama!
Waving:
She LOVES to wave. At us, the cat, strangers. It’s maybe the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!!! Melts my heart.
Sleep:
She has slept through the night about 4-5 times over the past 9 months (but who’s counting?? haha…ME!). However, she is only waking up to feed once a night now. It could be worse, but I’m ready to start sleeping again. I often struggle to get back to sleep after the overnight feed so I can be up over an hour before I’m finally back to sleep. My mind is on my work usually, so I need to find a way to turn off. I feel pretty burned out lately.
Before 8 months hit, Adriana used to go down to bed quite easily. The past couple months putting her down at night has been a struggle. She will often fuss or cry and refuse to go to sleep. Sometimes it’s a good 1-2 hours before she is finally asleep. She seems to be going through big developmental leaps right now so I’m sure those don’t help. We have never sleep trained and I hope things improve naturally.
Still taking 2 naps a day. Lately she has been refusing naps once in a while which she never did before. It’s still hard to read her sometimes. Is she sleepy or not? Overtired or not tired enough to nap? I would’ve thought we’d have it down by now, but every week it changes! We take it day by day. When she does nap they tend to be 1 hour each. Once in a while we’ll get 2 hours out of her, but 1 hour is the norm.
Breastfeeding:
I’m still nursing on demand. I think she went through a growth spurt a few weeks ago and she was eating every hour or so. Very tiring on both of us!
Teeth:
No teeth yet. I can’t believe it. I think we have finally given up saying, “I think she is going to cut her first tooth any day now.” Maybe she will be one of those late bloomers that cuts a bunch of teeth at 11 months?
Food:
Solids have been very challenging. We are doing a mix of purees and baby led weaning. (I don’t think you have to choose between one or the other). She doesn’t seem to be super interested in eating yet though…it kind of breaks our heart because we put so much time and effort into making homemade purees and steaming finger foods, and most of it is thrown out or spit out.
We’re still working on the sippy cup. She loves to blow into it (to make a loud bubbling noise and then all the water shoots out) instead of sucking the water out. She is such a stinker, I tell you!!! I think she gets a real kick out of it.
We gave up on bottles. It just wasn’t happening after trying for 7+ months consistently. That’s why we moved on to the sippy cup. I’m hoping she will take to the sippy cup soon. I honestly can’t believe I have been exclusively breastfeeding for 9 months now! We have her 9 month check up next week and I’m going to talk to the doctor to see if she has any tips.
On the move:
As I mentioned in the 8 month update, she is crawling. She’s quite fast now and we have to watch her like a hawk! She’s into everythaaaaang!!! We did some baby-proofing last month, but there will be more to come.
Celebrations:
I mentioned in a blog post that we celebrated my grandparents 50th anniversary last month. Over 100 guests came out…it was like a wedding! So awesome. It was such a great day. Anyway, at the end we had a huge family photo. Adriana was already over-tired and needing a nap badly, so she yelled AHHHHHHHHH AHHHHH through the entire photos. We got some pretty hilarious photos of my mom and I trying to soothe her (while avoiding a hot flash, no doubt). These are the photos you look back on and howl!
Father’s Day was also awesome! I treated Eric to a huge pancake breakfast, and Adriana got him some nice sentimental gifts.
Well that’s all for now. My sister and her family are visiting the next couple weeks so we’re looking forward to having them here with Adriana! I’m feeling quite burned out with my recipe development for the second cookbook (I’m about 90% done…the last bit is always the most difficult), so I think it’s just the mini break I need.
Hope you are enjoying the start of summer! More soon.
I haven’t had a baby for 14 years, but my sister just had my niece a week ago and props to breastfeeding moms who get ANYTHING done besides nursing and sleeping!
You should try to give her a cup with a straw. My two little ones never drank from a bottle and couldn’t figure out sippy cups, but they were able to drink with a straw which was a huge relief after exclusively breast feeding for 6 months.
I was going to suggest a straw too. You can find straw-topped zippy cups in stores. Straws are better for babies’ oral development than regular dippy cups anyway.
I can totally understand your frustration with solids! I have been adding solids since my baby boy was four and a half months (he was eating a lot, every hour and a half and was never enough). Rescently he began to refuse a lot of the solid foods that he used to love, and everything goes in the garbadge, it can be very frustrating considering the amount of time I spend making him food!
Have you tried giving Adriana cereals? My little guy looooooves oatmeal the best, I add some breast milk after it’s done cooking.
Just two cents of mine about the sleeping problems…I herd that when babies crawl/try to walk too much close to bed time it can be hard for them to fall asleep. Have you tried maybe some activities before bed time (at least two hours prior) that limit her crawling? I am sure you guys have tried a lot, just an advice that I know helped my sister when her girl was in this phase.
Thank you for sharing these updates, I love reading them! :)
My little girl (now 17 months) never took a bottle either! I went back to my full-time job as an attorney when she was 3 months old and she would go 10+ hour days without eating/drinking anything. Terrible for her caregivers, and terrible for me to see her so hungry at the end of the day. Not to mention watch all my pumped milk go down the drain. She made up for not eating during the day by eating lots in the evening and lots at night–never had an issue gaining weight. Eventually, her doctor told us to try a dixie cup. It worked, so we bought a few silicone measuring cups the size of shot glasses, and she drank out of those during the day. Messy, and odd, but it worked!! She started taking a sippy cup by 10 months or so and she weaned around 12 months. I am due with my second on Thanksgiving, and my husband is going to start feeding this baby a bottle of pumped milk on day #1 (and every day after) to try to avoid the same problem! But, if that doesn’t work, we always have our milk shot glasses :).
I feel for you about the baby that loves breastfeeding – my son was like that. He finally slept through the night (7-8 hours) at 9 months. He did it once (!?!) by fluke, and at the 9 month check-up the pediatrician that we see (and love) said he could do it now consistently – so after a rough 3-4 nights of me working with him (I slept in his room during the transition), he just started sleeping on his own, and it basically stayed that way onward. My other two babies were completely different – Baby 2 slept through the night @ 4.5 months b/c Dad just slept in the other room when I was away on work travel, and Baby 3 just started sleeping through the night on her own at 5 months. And, with the other two, our life and work routines were different too. I breastfed all of them, and they all had different timing on how much they ate, who took a bottle, sipply cup, wanted solids.
You will have to figure it out for yourselves. Everyone’s family is different, and every baby is different. Don’t spend too much time analyzing it. You are doing a great job! You don’t see any 18 year olds who don’t have teeth, aren’t sleeping through the night, and still take a bottle. So, just do what you are doing. Adriana is lucky to have you both as parents.
Hi Angela,
I love AGS’s comment: all 18 year olds are just fine ;)
I don’t have kids myself, but I know my mom breastfed me until I was 9 months and she only stopped because she had to due to mastitis. So many people around the world breastfeed kids longer than a year. I can imagine though that it is all very tiring, with writing your cookbook!
Could an afternoon or morning to yourself help? Can somebody watch Adriana in between breastfeedings, so you can do something that is purely for you, whatever refills your cup right now? Even if it’s just taking a few big breaths?
We all love another cookbook from you, but not at the cost of your health and sanity!
Love your comment Mieke! Your health Angela is so much more important!
Hi Angela,
I have an 8 month old right now, and I feel you on the food situation… it is so tough! I’m also working a lot from home and it’s a struggle to find the motivation to make food for her when it just gets tossed on the floor. She is not interested in putting food in mouth – period! haha… I try to keep being easygoing about it, though. I think as a society, we tend to worry too much. If we didn’t have all the outside influences, we wouldn’t know any different :) We are EBFing and she loves it. Wouldn’t take a bottle, either! We gave up too.
I love reading your posts as I tend to see a lot of similarities ;) The joys and struggles are real!
And seriously, echoing what Mieke said above, no rush on the cookbook from our end! It’s not worth the burnout. We are patient :) and love the idea of a couple hours just to yourself. It doesn’t happen often for me, but when it does, so rejuvenating! (it’s hard to be away from our little one because she is seriously into her mama right now and no one else!)
I have read that at around 9 months babies often have seperation anxiety. Maybe that is why Adriana does not want to go to sleep so easily now. I had trouble falling asleep after feedings in the beginning. Now I think I sometimes nurse whilst still sleeping and I hardly ever have trouble falling back to sleep again. My son is almost 5 months and we still co-sleep. He will need a crib soon instead of his co-sleeper bed. We are going to buy a simple Ikea one that opens up at one side, so we can put that against our bed and still sleep together. I often fall asleep with my son in my arm during a feed, which means he can feed on demand without waking me up. I can only fall asleep like that accidentally otherwise it would be an ideal sleeping situation.
If you can’t fall asleep because your mind has to settle down, maybe you could try a meditation app like Buddify. I find this works when I have to settle down before going to bed.
Hi Angela,
Some things sound very familiar! We have a 22 month old girl, who cut her first tooth on the day before her first birthday :) She’s slowly getting more.
She also used to sleep through the night between 3-6 months, then did it only a handful of time between 6-12 months, also to feed once quickly. Luckily she now sleeps through most nights. And I can also relate to having a hard time falling asleep again. That hasn’t changed yet. Let me know if you find something that helps!
Hi, Angela! Boy, I can so commiserate with you on the sleep deprivation. My younger child, now almost three was waking up to nurse once through the night most nights until just under a year ago. I have since day weaned her. I totally believe in child-led weaning and had that approach until about three months ago when I realized she might still be nursing at five years old if I didn’t encourage it a little. So I did and she fussed a bit but we basically did it cold turkey with minimal drama and so far no lasting trauma! And damn it, now I miss those special times! Solids were easy for us and she loved everything but is more picky as a toddler. I have a few friends whose children didn’t eat solids until well past a year old and it seems like it was a texture thing. If she takes to the silly cup, then thank the Lord for smoothies. That’s one way I know I can always get some good extra nutrition to my girls. Here’s a tip that worked for us with the soppy cup for my younger daughter: I bought one with a “straw”, then took a regular plastic straw cut in half, drew liquid into it and covered one end with my finger, out the other end in her mouth. She sucked the breast milk out of it and we repeated a few times then went back and forth with the cup. She caught on very quickly and we never used another bottle. That was around 10 months old. Anyway, as always, good luck with everything. I always had trouble getting back to sleep after middle of night feelings, too. Are you type A like me? It’s a burden, but we’re the people who get shit done, right?:) Looking forward to the next cookbook and love these baby updates!
PS…My older daughter started teething at four months and first tooth appeared at six months. The younger started teething at three months and first tooth appeared at thirteen months. Oh, and above, she’s not day weaned but totally weaned.
Please ignore my typos. I know all who are reading are smart enough to auto-correct it as they read:)
Thanks for the update! I also love some of the comments.
Every baby is so different. My 19 month-old had 8 teeth by 8 months, but had very similar sleep issues. The worst was right around 9-10 months, when she was still nursing to sleep (and very difficult to detach and get into bed without waking her…I’d spend an hour, every night, nursing and re-nursing her to sleep, only to then night-feed her 3 times a night!). By 10 1/2 months I was totally burned out. But I also realized that it was entirely comfort nursing and not hunger nursing, so I decided that she was ready (and I was in desperate need) to sleep all night long. I hated the idea of “sleep training” and leaving her to “cry it out,” so our compromise was to put an air mattress next to her bed, NOT nurse her to sleep anymore (nurse her just before bedtime), put her down awake in her crib and stay with her/hold her hand, stroke her and comfort her through the bars while she cried, until she fell asleep. It took about an hour. I’ll admit I couldn’t do it – my husband had to – but after 3-4 nights she got used to it and stopped crying and started sleeping through the night (almost – there are always regressions, but we almost never went back to night feedings).
Now she’s 19 months, just recently weaned since I’m pregnant, and sleeps “like a baby” (ha, whoever invented that expression clearly never had a baby) 10 hours a night (we still have to lie down on the air mattress with her until she falls asleep, but at least there is ZERO drama…she’s happy to go to sleep in her bed). Those “old days” seem long gone, but I remember all too-clearly how hard it was! Hang in there, and follow your gut as to what is best for both of you. :-)
Thanks for the update! It is always fun to read and I see so many similarities with our 9-month old girl (such a mover, too!). Have you tried a straw cup? We also have a bottle-refuser and with the sippy she only wanted to chew on the spout. She took to the straw cup right away (Zoli-Bot) and now also likes a Camelbak bottle. I haven’t tried giving her a full BM feed out of it, but hopefully one of these days we will get there. She does take a BM “snack” from it in the afternoon instead of nursing on some days. As far as the napping goes, have you seen the 2-3-4 schedule? I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but it has worked really well for us and naps are longer and more consistent and she is really tired by bedtime and falls asleep quickly (usually, haha). For night nursing, if you think she doesn’t really need the feed at night, what I did is very slowly lessen the amount she was nursing each night. I just counted in my head so I didn’t have to have a timer with me, but reduce by 1 minute (or 30 seconds) each side for three days, then 1 minute less for three more nights and so on. We got down to her only nursing 1 minute each side and then she started sleeping through consistently. As she ate slightly less at night, she increased what she ate during the day to make up for it. You are juggling so many things, I hope you can get a little break this summer!
Sorry to be so long-winded, I just thought of a couple of other things: 1) We also had pretty decent luck with the Munchkin 360 cup for water, it mimics drinking out of a regular cup 2) along with baby movement class, swimming “lessons” or time in the pool always makes for a tired baby in this house 3) if she can stand being held for even 5 minutes before nap, we have found that a walk around the house (looking out windows, at art, etc.) while singing some soft lullabies has helped as a good pre-nap wind down …
Hang in there, momma! You are in the home stretch, and sleep, brain functioning, and energy will be back before you know it. You are a great mom!
I love your baby updates Angela!
Have you tried a straw cup? Our little one is almost 11 months old and was able to drink from a straw much earlier than the sippy cup. If he doesn’t want to nurse or drink from a bottle he will often drink milk from a straw. He particularlly loves “to go” type restaurant cups with a lid and regular tall straw. Not sure if it makes him feel grown up or what but it works!
We also struggled with solids at first until I gave him one of those food pouches. It seemed to help him get adjusted to new flavors and he still loves the food pouches plus green smoothies which he must drink from a straw of course. I’m learning I just have to keep trying new things, it sure can be exhausting though!
Hi Angela! Always a pleasure to read your baby updates. Glad things are going well, enjoy every minute!
I realize you may be totally over suggestions at the moment… but I have to give serious props to the COMO TOMO bottles. They mimic the breast in feel and function (well besides the ability to actually make milk). MY EBF baby loves these bottles and they allow me to work fulltime and EBF. My son is just a week younger than your little one.
I cannot wait for her to love food so I can learn some yummy recipes.
Dear Angela,
Good to hear from your two, girls! She sounds amazing! Isn’t the best to see their evolution? I think i will miss this phase so much
Our little girl (each is a week younger than your Adriana) are going very well in both puree and baby led weaning (we have the same impression that we can have both together). She is now starting not needing the grains to be purred any longer. She is becoming able to chew grains well-cooked and soaked nuts and seed (smashed) now.
May I ask what are the recipes you are doing for her? I love to get new ideas (by the way, i have beeing doing several of your recipes to her)
Xoxo
Amanda
Love the update! My baby is 7 months, and still wakes twice for feeding, but compared to before, that’s great. We split these wakings, so in reality it’s only one wakeup per night for me. But definitely with you on having a HARD time falling asleep after that, ugh.
I’m hoping to introduce a sippy soon. He currently takes both boob and bottle (we went through a nursing strike recently and I thought that was the end, but now we’re good).