Emilia's 9 Month Update!

Emilia is 9 months old today!  Seriously, where does the time go?!

Height/Weight: She has not had her height or weight officially checked since her last developmental check at 8 months although we did notice a little growth spurt (yay!) and she has grown 4 centimetres!

Routine: Emilia's routine hasn't changed all that much since last month.  She usually takes about 2 naps a day, one shorter 1/2 hour nap in the morning and then another longer one (normally about 2 hours) in the afternoon.  She nurses about twice in the day and then again at bed time and two more times at night.  She eats breakfast, lunch & dinner with little snacks sometimes in between...depending on how much she's eaten during the day.

    

Sleeping: Emilia is now sleeping in her own crib in the nursery!  The transition was actually a lot easier than I expected.  I started off with getting her used to her crib during her daytime naps and then gradually worked her up to her night time sleep.  What I will usually do is feed her in the glider in her room with the night light on and then settle her into bed with an item of clothing I have been wearing all day long so she has the familiarity of my smell.  She does still wake twice a night to feed at around 10:30/11pm and then again at 5am.  The 5 o'clock feed is what kills me!  Hopefully when she increases her solids intake we will be able to skip that one!  A few times we did have difficulty getting her to settle down and on one particular occasion it took about an hour which was rough going but we stuck with it!  

Having said all of this, last night we did break the rules a bit because our lovely YouTube friends Benji, Judy & Julianna arrived from America and at around her bed time so Emilia's routine was out the window...oops!  We were so exhausted and I knew that today was going to be a full day of travelling & sight-seeing so Emilia just slept in our bed to ensure a full night's sleep.  However tonight she is back to her own bed...yay!

Eating: As I said previously, Emilia eats three square meals a day with small snacks in between depending on how much/little she ate at her meal times.  She usually has cereal and milk for breakfast, a bunch of different veggies with some wholegrain pitta or a half a bagel for lunch and then whatever we are having for dinner.  She now loves to drink water from her sippy cup and snacks on fruit, Ella's Kitchen organic cheese & tomato puffits and organic fromage frais.  She takes two daytime feeds of breast milk right before both naptimes, and then again at night.

Sizes: Emilia is wearing 9-12 month or 12 month clothing and size 4+ nappies.  

Milestones

• Her first words include mama, dada, baba and sometimes she even says what sounds like "hiya!"
• She will high-five or wave good bye if you catch her in the right mood!
• She now loves to play peekaboo herself, with a blanket or bedcovers.  
• Emilia now has 6 teeth with another two bottom side ones coming up as well!
• Pulling things out of boxes and putting them back in.  This is her new favourite thing to do...she is obsessed with pulling my makeup or lipsticks out of a box and then putting them all back.  It's so cute to see!
• She is definitely very mobile.  I would not say that she is exactly crawling yet but she moves around like a ninja!  She backwards crawls, rolls over multiple times, climbs up onto things and can get from lying down on her tummy to sitting position quite easily.
• Sleeping in her own room is a huge milestone and probably the one I'm most proud of this month :)

9 Months Postpartum

I just wanted to touch on my body at 9 months postpartum as I realise I stopped updating you guys on that after a few months just because I thought it was getting a bit repetitive but this month I actually have some things I'd like to talk about!  

I finally got my first postpartum period back at 8 months but as of then there's been nothing.  I took a number of pregnancy tests but they all came back negative so I'm not sure if it's the breast feeding that's just messing up my cycle or what...it's so confusing!!  

I also mentioned before that when I slowed down the breast feeding with Emilia and she started eating more solids that I gained about 4-5lbs...I have still yet to lose that!  It's not a huge deal to me but my body is definitely different than before as all of my weight gain now goes right to my belly area and also I find it harder to lose.  My diet has not changed at all but I think the breast feeding initially caused me to lose a lot of weight fast - even to the point where I was a little too skinny.  Now I am still at my normal pre-prego weight as I always have fluctuated around 5lbs but it definitely shows in my tummy area!  Here is the belly at 9 months postpartum and 119lbs.  Sorry my jeggings are super high up...ha ha ha!

That's it for this month!  I still can't believe we are in the 9th month...I know I keep repeating myself but this first year is just flying by!

Stay Stylish!