9 month checkup

I was so kindly reminded today by Harper's Grandma that I haven't yet updated the stats to the right of the page nor given the details from Harper's 9 month appointment. Thanks Jane. :)

Here's the stats:

18lbs, 13oz (50th percentile)

28 inches (60th percentile)

As expected, Harper is doing very well. She's right on track developmentally with all her verbal and physical advancements. Her doctor commented on how happy she seemed and what a sweet personality she seems to have. I of course agreed. :)

We got the green light to move her to 3 solid meals a day, which means her bottles are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Her rough schedule goes something like this:

Wakeup: nurse

9am: breakfast

noon: lunch

3pm: breastmilk bottle/nurse

6pm: dinner

7pm: nurse

She's doing great with the change and is a very impatient girl when waiting for her meal to be served! She's a pro now at picking food up and feeding herself, so I let her whenever the opportunity allows. She loves to eat pasta, peas and green beans by herself. Her other favorites are squash (of course), pumpkin, avocado and any of the Whole Earth organics jarred food we feed her. We also give her a sippy cup of breastmilk with her meals and she takes a few swigs when she feels like it. Breakfast is almost always a banana with any combination of appleasauce, peaches, pears, or blueberries. Soon we'll probably move to actual oatmeal for breakfast. Growing up so quickly!

We've made it 10 months now, so we'll definitely continue nursing until at least a year. I haven't decided when I'm going to start weaning, nor can I figure out which one of us will be ready to be done first. I'll probably begin the process with stopping the middle of the day pumping session at work right around her first birthday and see how long it lasts from there. I imagine once I do that, I'll probably have about a week before I notice my supply start to decrease significantly.

Since she's already 28 inches, we're getting very close to the point of having to get her a new carseat. We figured we had a while since her carseat goes to 30 pounds and 30 inches. Yikes! Only 2 more inches and she's technically "outgrown" it! We'll purchase a couple of convertible carseats for each of our cars and continue to keep her rear-facing for a long while as it's the absolute safest position for an infant.

Some of her milestones recently include officially saying "Mama" with intent and we think she also says "Dada" too. She definitely knows her name, knows who Mama and Dada are and even knows the dogs names. She waves bye bye and I believe she has just begun verbalizing it as well. She smiles at just about everyone who looks at her and loves when strangers stop to talk to her - which happens quite frequently. She's pulling herself up onto everything and is now beginning to cruise along the furniture. She's finding much more interest in the things around her other than her toys so the Pack n Play has begun to come in very handy when I'm vacuuming or have to leave the room for a moment. It's a good thing she loves being in there and rarely complains when I have to contain her. I'm trying to let her have more freedom around the house and really the hardest aspect of that is keeping the floors clean. Sarge is beginning to shed his winter coat so this is a bigger challenge than usual, but we're both trying to keep on top of it.

Pending any unplanned visits before then, our next appointment is the Monday following her first birthday. It'll be here before we know it!