Nine Months!

I can't believe my sweet girl is nine months old already! Where has the time gone? In just a few short months, she'll be 1 and Kyran and Karyssa will be first graders!

We had her check-up Monday and things look good, although she's still tiny. Here are her stats:

Weight: 14 lb, 7 oz (under the 3%)
Height: 25.5 inches (4%)
Head Circumference: 42 cm (6%)

At 9 months, Kyran weighed 14 lb, 10 oz...more than Gemma does now! Karyssa was 13 lb, 8 oz, so still a good bit shorter. This has helped me realize that my kids would have been the same tiny sizes no matter how far I carried them or how big they were at birth, so that has really helped me.

Gemma is constantly rocking on her hands and knees, and has experimented moving her hands and legs a few times, but isn't crawling yet. I suspect it will truly be any day now. She also accidentally sat herself up from the crawling position the other day. I'm not sure she knew how she did it, and seemed quite surprised to find herself in the sitting position!

She is still sleeping in the bassinet in our room at night, but since she's getting close to sitting on her own and to weighing 15 lbs, we'll be making that transition soon. She still naps very well in her crib during the day.

I think one reason we've put off the transition so long is that Jason has always used the closet in Gemma's room, and we now have to move things around so that his stuff can go in "my" closet. This will not be an easy task.

As with Kyran and Karyssa, 9 months means table food! I was blown away to hear all of the changes in allergy recommendations. Six years ago, strawberries were 15 months, peanut butter was 2 years and shellfish was 3 years. Now, all of that is at 1 year and the only thing we have to avoid at that point is choking hazards. For the next three months, we just have to avoid nuts, shellfish, honey, egg whites and choking hazards, and in two months, we can start giving her whole milk.

We attempted to give her a Baby Mum Mum Monday evening, but she wasn't very interested. Right now, she seems more interested in picking up the food than she does actually putting it in her mouth. She has also stopped taking bottles, so the only milk she gets is from me and what we mix in her food. We are going to try to get her to drink milk out of a sippy cup. The transition was very easy for Kyran and Karyssa at one year, but they always took bottles after nursing, so they were more used to it. 

Gemma is still just such a happy baby. She lights up when we enter the room, or smile, or sing, or just about anything else. I do think she's getting ready to cut more teeth, because she has been a little fussier recently.

She is going through a mommy phase right now. With the exception of Jason and Uncle Ronnie (who we saw again this past weekend, more on that later), she doesn't want to be held by someone else if I'm in the room. If I'm not there, she's usually ok, but as soon as she sees or hears me, she is immediately reaching for me, lip quivering or even full-on crying. With my mom, she just likes to go back and forth. I think it's a game with her!

This is very new to me. Kyran and Karyssa were used to being passed around so much. There were two of them, so I didn't get to hold them as much, and there was always a baby for someone to hold. I think Gemma's experience with me has been much different, since she's my only one and has had me mostly to herself during the days. 

I'm still so in love with my baby girl and love watching her grow every day!