9 month stats

It's been busy around here! Alison is 9 months old, crawling EVERYWHERE and cutting her first two teeth. Given the pain of teething she's been handling it pretty darn well. I know I've neglected to update so I wanted to bring everyone up to speed.

9 month Stats

 This post is incredibly late, I know. Due to Spring Break and scheduling conflicts we just got Alison in for her 6 month check up & shots on Friday. The Pediatrician was very impressed by her growth and her sitting posture :) 

• Age: 9 months & 9 days/ 40 weeks and 1 day
• Weight: 18lbs 4 oz (25%) as of 7/2/13
  
• Height:  28 3/8 in. (75%) as of 7/2/13
• Head Circumference: 17 in. (25%) as of 7/2/13
• Hair Color:  Light Golden Brown
  
• Eye Color: Blue  
• Diaper Size:  Size 3
• Clothing Size:  9 - 12 months 
• Teeth : Bottom 2 have broken through the gums
• Mommy's Favorite:  Playing "So big", reading books together (she really loves to read!!), mealtime, nursing
• Daddy's Favorite: mealtime,playing "so big", chasing each other in the walker, when I get to put her to bed at night :)
• Favorite Toys By Month:

• October= monkey rattle

• November= giraffe music box stuffed animal

• December= bumble bee toy
• January =  knit doll
• February = wooden teethers
• March =  her "box of fun" (Thanks Megan!!)
• April = bunny book 
• May = Baby dolls
• June = Her walker
• July = books with baby faces

• Sleep: Wow, what a wonderful sleeper we have! Last night she slept through the night *truly*, not waking before 6:30 am, even to eat! Normally she goes to bed anywhere between 6:30 pm & 7 and sleeps til 4:30-5am, gets up to eat and sleeps til 7:00-7:30am. She's taking two naps, between 1 1/2 hours long and 3 hours at 9am and 2 pm. She wakes talking and goes to sleep all on her own. What an amazing difference from a few short months ago. We know nothing of sleep deprivation and, like I noted above, she's even handling teething well. Way to kick butt, Alison!!
• Feeding:This girl LOVES to eat. We know that solids are just for fun before one, but she has really taken to them. We've stopped the purees and are doing strictly finger foods three times a day. Some of her favorites are bananas, turkey, peas, blueberries, and sweet potatoes. I have to place food one at a time on her tray otherwise she shovels it all in! Breastfeeding is still going SO great and she's even become less distracted. Feels so good to still be nursing!

I'll leave you with some of my favorite pictures from the past few months :)

Visiting Grandpa (my dad)'s bench for the first time 6/1/13

Hanging out with mom 6/12/13

Happy Father's Day, Daddy! 6/16/13

Happy Fourth of July! 7/4/13

Having fun at the Children's Museum 6/28/13

 

On the Move!

Just this morning our girl started a full on army crawl. I knew it was coming soon and I am really proud of her but I know I'll miss the days of putting her on a blanket while I get some chores done.

Here she is, just this morning. Of course I filmed just a short snippet of her army crawl but trust me - its on. Just two days ago this was her trying to move around -

She had been "stuck" at this stage and so frustrated she couldn't move any further. She wanted to move but couldn't quite figure out the logistics.

And for laughs - here is video I "accidentally" captured on her 7 month "birthday" of her back-scooting to me. It was the only time she ever did this and as you can tell from the video, I found it hilarious. She booty bounces all the time during a diaper change, this was just the first (and only) time she used it to move.

Look at me! 6-9-13

Lastly, she started standing her her crib over the weekend. My little containable baby is no more. She's getting bigger by the minute!

Hitting the books.. again.

I thought all of my baby gear research was over now that Alison has been here for 8 months. This week I learned that's not the case. Although she still fits in her infant seat, I have started to look into her convertible seat and that's when I hit a goldmine of new information.

It didn't take long before I realized that our car seat, installed and inspected by a "trained" car seat technician (local firefighter) was IMPROPERLY installed. That's right, Alison is now 8 months old and she has been cruising around her entire life in a car seat that was not properly installed. Worse still? It sounds like its a very VERY common issue.

I won't go into the intricacies as to how it was improperly installed but I will urge you to re read both your car seat and car manuals because, although we followed them to a T, the wording was a bit confusing. Apparently our car seat was okay to be installed the way it was (with LATCH in the center of the vehicle) but our car wasn't compatible with that installation (are you confused yet?)

Okay so I wanted to make a post sharing some of my new information and hopefully someone will read this and be inspired to check their child's seat. Even if to make sure they are harnessed correctly.

1) Federal law states that all children under one AND twenty pounds or more need to be in rear facing car seats. Not one or the other BOTH.
2) Further, it is highly recommended by the AAP to continue to rear face your children for as long as possible - 4 years if you can, because it truly is the safest way for children to ride in a vehicle. 
3)  When rear facing, harnesses are to be at or below baby's shoulder, when forward facing, they are to be at or higher than their shoulders. 
4) (Probably the most shocking to me) It is highly HIGHLY recommended that baby's who travel on airplanes do so in a carseat. Does that sound over the top? Think about it - most aircraft crashes or issues happen during take off and landing and also include turbulance. "Lap babies" are basically projectiles waiting to happen. I never thought that we are told to stow laptops and even our peanuts - but baby is to stay in our lap and we'll just hope for the best if we crash going 150mph on the runway (yikes!)

There is a ton more info that I have been gobbling up and I still haven't landed on our will-be convertible car seat. I know its uncouth to tell other mothers to check and recheck matters that concern their children's safety (no one wants to offend a momma, right?) but please, look into it. Spend an hour researching at some of the links I provided and find some on your own. You may be set but you may need to make adjustments. Either way, its better to know your sweetie is the safest they can be when traveling.




Helpful links:

• Car Seats for the Littles: Their facebook group is also really helpful and knowledgeable
• Find a certified car seat technician near you here
• The importance of rear facing
• The picture guide to car seat safety

First La Leche League Meeting

Tuesday night I went to my first ever La Leche League meeting. I have been meaning to go to one since I was pregnant (whoops!) and nearly 8 months into parenthood I finally took some time out to go and I'm glad I did.

The main reason why I hadn't gone before was timing - the closest meeting to us starts at 6:30pm which is around Alison's bedtime. She isn't keen on bottles still (totally my bad) so I wasn't comfortable leaving her for an extended amount of time. I would have loved to bring her but I feared she would get too fussy and the thought of that made me too anxious to try. Needless to say, we're now comfortable with our routine enough to know that after I feed her (for the night), she won't be up for at least 5 hours, but usually 10 (I know, we're lucky!!) So Tuesday night I fed her, crossed my fingers, and let daddy take care of bedtime. 

I happened to be the only mom there (out of half a dozen) who didn't have a child with them. The rest of the women mentioned that their children have a much later bedtime so this meeting time suited them and they enjoy spending this time with them - made me miss my girl that much more! It was nice, however, to have some "me time" away from the house.

The meeting went great - we talked about how breastfeeding has made us a better mother and then moved on to troubleshoot a variety of issues that had come up. I asked about Alison's distracted nursing, while another mother lamented her low supply, and yet another mom, pregnant with twins, came to start the support early. Each woman had a different experience with breastfeeding and was truly unique. One of my favorite things about nursing has been the "sisterhood" that it brings and being able to help other mothers. I really did enjoy myself and can't wait for the next meeting at the end of June.

Currently

Making me Happy: My sweet family. Alison is currently hugging (and "kissing") us and it just about melts my heart every time. When I rock her to sleep she puts her head on my chest and holds on to me so tight until I put her down. Moments like these are what I live for! Thanks to the long weekend, we got to spend a lot of time as a family. Becoming a mother and seeing my husband as a father has really strengthen our marriage. Hard not to smile all the time! 

Excited For: I know I talked about this in my last "currently" post but its finally arrived: I'm excited for this weekend's trip to see my mom and for a friend's baby shower. Embarrassing confession: The furthest I I have traveled with Alison since she was born has been 40 minutes from the house (for another baby shower) and I was with my husband. This trip is just shy of 2 hours and we'll be at it alone. This will be the first time she has slept somewhere other than here in our house so that gives me a little anxiety. Overall, however, I couldn't be more thrilled. Additionally, I finally will get to visit my father's "grave" (he was cremated so instead of a grave he requested a bench at his parent's grave site, where we scattered his ashes). And I am worked up daily about that. I miss him immensely. 

Thinking About: Our summer plans. We aren't a beach going family but I have a feeling that will change some now that our girl is here. I want to start making plans for us to visit different places as well as sign us up for a class or two. One thing about staying home with our girl that has been a struggle is trying to vary our day some. It has gotten better the older she has gotten but I am so excited to be able to do some fun, interactive things with her. 

Reading: I'm reading Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and I am waiting for it to pick up. To be honest I put it down about two days ago and need to start reading again. I like it alright (my favorite genre is biographies) but this book hasn't started to interest me quite yet. It has great rating so I am hopeful.

Watching: We just started watching the new season of Arrested Development. I think we're about 5 episodes in and so far I think its alright. Some reviews aren't buying into the new season at all but I don't think its been THAT bad. We're trying not to "binge" watch it - which is easy to do with Netflix - and I think that has helped us from being too cynical.


Another blogger note: I've been having trouble adding photos to posts from my desktop. Not to mention the formatting issues which are SO ANNOYING. I swear its one thing after another with this blog. 

Playing Catch-up

first things first - sorry for the horrible mess that is my last post. I am running into difficulties making posts from my ipad. The fonts have to be tweaked manually and its been tedious and annoying. I've tried using blogger's app as well as updating through the website via my ipad and virtually nothing helps. I am frustrated because I much prefer using my tablet over our desktop but the mess that it churns out makes me not want to post. That being said... Hello! We have been in such a great groove lately and its been difficult to want to sit down to update. Alison is not sleeping so well - down at 6:30pm, up at 5am to eat, sleeping again until 7am. Her naps are also beautiful. Two 1 1/2- 2 hour naps at 9am and 2pm. I can finally cook and clean and READ. If it weren't for my silly ipad issues I would also be updating more frequently. Lately we have been enjoying the park, going to the library, seeing friends, and have even made a few trips to our Children's Museum. I am loving the freedom that scheduled naps gives us, not to mention our girl is so happy and full of curiosity now that she is getting wonderful sleep. My husband and I love that we get grown up time to be with one another now that she sleeps soundly, too. I'm making a list of posts I'd like to make within the coming weeks now that I have time (and will) to do so. Any blogging momma can attest to those times when there is nothing she wants to do less than blog. When our days were erratic I was definitely one of those mommas. Here is to another great week!!

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day (weekend) was simply wonderful Saturday, my Mother-in-law AND my Brother-in-law graduated from college (different local universities), so we had the family together to celebrate both their great accomplishments as well as Mother's Day. As with other holidays, my mother came down and I was so happy she did. My husbands grandparents were also in town which is always a treat. The weather wasn't the best, but we did get some sun along with the rain. All of us hung out on the porch and marveled over Alison's growth and accomplishments - Shane's grandparents had t seen her since Christmas so it was especially great for them.

Sunday we went with my mom to a local county park to have a picnic. It didn't go without some issues but it was wonderful all in the same. I received some beautiful cards, flowers, and even a cute bunny rack from my momma. Once my mom left, Shane, Alison and I enjoyed our time together as a family.

Family of Three - Mother's Day! 5-14-13

Mom and Me 5-12-13

It was fun to reflect on the day one year before. Mothers Day 2012 was wonderful - we hosted a BBQ for our family and revealed Alison's gender and pre-picked middle name (still hadn't landed on Alison, though :) ). I remember anticipating what Mother's Day would be like once our girl arrived and I can verify its even better than I expected. 

I hope you had a wonderful Mothers Day, too!!!