9 Months Old

Helen is 9 months old today!

Here are some highlights from this past month:

• She now has two teeth (see third photo).
• She’s a little better about cuddling now – she’ll actually lay her head down on my shoulder! One day she laid her head down on her favorite blanket and cooed (see second photo).
• She’s definitely trying to copy my words now. When I fix a smoothie for my breakfast, I say “Brrr, cold!” and let her touch it. She says “Buh, kuh,” in response. There are several more sounds that she tries to copy, but I won’t bore you with the details.
• Still not sleeping through the night. When will it end?!
• She can walk with a little walker that Dad made for her (see this video). She stood for half a minute unsupported before sitting down yesterday; she took half a step yesterday as well.
• She started banging two objects together earlier this month, and yesterday she clapped her hands for the first time. She also learned how to wave earlier this month.
• Helen loves books. She’ll sit on the floor and turn the pages all by herself.
• She loves animals. When I was watching a video while nursing her, the lady in the video picked up a kitten. Helen immediately recognized it, sat up and started cooing.
• She still doesn’t love food. Some new ones she’s tried are carrot, apple and cream.
• She definitely has a preference for me, and no one else will do sometimes. I’m glad to feel needed, but it can get a bit annoying when I’m trying to cook supper. :)

And that’s all the mommy bragging I’ll do for now. ;)

5 Responses to 9 Months Old

1. Beth 
   November 16th, 2013 at 9:10 pm
   I like the shoes in picture four! ;) It’s fun hearing all the updates . . . isn’t it amazing to watch them learn and grow?
2. Judy 
   November 17th, 2013 at 8:15 am
   Have you tried the “sleep training” method where you just make sure all is well with her when she wakes and then simply don’t go to her when she should go back to sleep? It can be a couple of nights of a learning curve for her (and you too) but eventually she will figure out that she’s in charge of soothing herself back to sleep. There are lots of resources and discussions on this on the web, just google “sleep training for babies”. Hope this helps Erica! Thanks for the cute photos of Helen!
3. Megan 
   December 9th, 2013 at 10:55 am
   Traveled over from pinterest–this post is a few weeks old, but I just wanted to encourage you that you’re an awesome mom :) And to link to an article I literally just read that I hope is a word of encouragement from the Lord:
   http://breastfeedchicago.wordpress.com/2013/05/24/5-cool-things-no-one-ever-told-you-about-nighttime-breastfeeding/ . You may have heard most of them, but just an uplifting reminder that you’re always the best thing for your sweet babe :)
4. Erica Lea 
   December 16th, 2013 at 1:14 am
   Megan: Thank you so much for the encouragement! And that was a very interesting article – I hadn’t heard quite a few of the facts. :)
5. Erica Lea 
   December 16th, 2013 at 1:18 am
   Judy: We’ve actually just started to sleep train Helen. It was becoming obvious that her nighttime feeds were a habit. It’s been two nights (only one FULL night), and so far so good. She cried a bit the second night, but nothing too horrible. Fingers crossed that this works – I would love to be able to sleep more than three hours at a time. It’s been a long, long time.