9 months

5 days late on this, but UGH! It's HARD! Each month that goes by she gets older & it's so bittersweet for me! I remember the day we brought her home & I just wanted time to stop SO badly! I didn't want her to be any older than 1 day old, then no older than 2 days old, next thing I knew she was 1 week old & that made me a bit sad - my fresh new baby was 1 week old, then came 1 month, so on & so on & now I find myself coming home to this vibrant 9 month old who is into EVERYTHING! It brings tears to my eyes to think about it. It really stinks that babies have to grow up. I know, I know...she's still very much a baby! She can't even talk yet (well besides saying "dada" and "mama"). But she's crawling around, has this personality, she laughs every time she sees the cats! I remember wondering if she even knew I existed.

Friday, we went to her 9 month well check. It was pretty informative & awfully nice to finally have a well-check that didn't involve shots! Abigail grew 2 inches! However, her weight gain dipped down quite a bit. Which is slightly concerning. The doctor wasn't overly worried, but it may be a sign that she's not getting enough nutrition from my milk. Coincidentally, the doc asked me if I'd put any thought into weaning. I laughed & told her, "Not until this past week when she began BITING me every time I nurse!" (and by biting, I mean I have been genuinelly concerned that she may actually bite my nipple off. She has bitten several chunks out & I have scabs to prove it - not a pretty situation!) Apparently 9-10 months is a pretty common age for babies to wean themselves. They're less interested in laying still to nurse & more interested in everything else going on around them & would prefer to eat real food that they can feed themselves. So, between her biting behavior, the unimpresive scale results (18lb 3oz), and the fact that now is probably a good "natural" time to wean, we're going to head in that direction. We started supplementing formula a lot more over the weekend & she has had zero problem with it. I, on the other hand, am a hormonal & emotional wreck. But I don't really want to talk about it. I'd prefer to eat endless amounts of potato chips, cookies & m&m's.

The doctor also said Abigail should be eating more finger foods, eating meats, dairy, more variety, 3 meals a day instead of 2...it's a whole new world! And a lot more work! I think this is part of the down side to making your own baby food. It's tough to keep up with the variety. If I was buying jarred food, I could get 10 jars of 10 different flavors/combinations. But instead, I have to buy 1 sweet potato, a pack of expensive organic/no hormone lunch meat that she'll probably only eat 1/4 of before it goes bad, etc. Who knew I'd be wishing for the days when all I had to worry about was nursing her when she got hungry. Now it's a big production involving baby food, finger foods, meats, pasta, yogurt, oatmeal! sheesh! Also, the doctor noted that Abigail has 6, that's right I said SIX, teeth coming in all at the same time. This explains the biting issue.

Brandon went to Toys-R-Us this weekend to buy Abigail a toy. It was a big deal because he wanted to go by himself, and pick out a toy just for her, from him. This was a first. It was so cute to see how excited he got. Of course he went a bit overboard...he bought her a shopping cart to help new walkers...Abigail is still perfecting her crawl/pull up to stand! haha! But, it was worth it - Abigail LOVED the box! If she could speak, she'd say, "thank you so much daddy, for the $40 box!" Sigh...so much for him claiming he "WILL NOT spoil her!!" HA!

We had a great weekend! Abigail played in her baby pool, worked non-stop on her standing, we saw both sides of grandparents, Abigail got her first jewelry box & first jewel (yeah - let's glaze over the fact that gma C gave a 9 month old a gemstone & her own jewelry box. No need to delve into that one), cat tails were pulled, blueberries were eaten - it was fun! However, over the weekend, Abigail came down with a bad cold. I had it last week, so I must have passed it along to her.
Monday morning she woke up with her left eye crusted shut...great! So, back to the doctor we went, just 3 days after her last visit. Surprising scale results though! Abigail gained over a HALF POUND since Friday (18lb 10oz)! And that's after 4 giant poops over the weekend, hahahaha! So, it looks like introducing more formula was the right answer. She was prescribed eye ointment, and we were told she coudln't go back to daycare until Wednesday. I can't say I minded being "forced" to work from home Monday & Tuesday. Even though she has so much going on, she's surprisingly cheerful! She's completely content as long as I'm within 5 feet of her. The teething & not feeling well has her acting a bit clingy, so if I go so much as 6 feet away she freaks out. But all's good as long as I stay within my boundaries. She's so bossy!