9months

9 Months

At the 9 month doctor visit Etta weighed in at a mere 19 pounds 3 ounces (50th Percentile) but measured 30 inches (off the charts). Weight-for-length she hovers at the 5th percentile, so is very, very lean. The doctor wasn’t concerned, but when I change her diaper and see her flex her washboard abdomen as she attempts to roll away, I worry that I’m not making enough of an effort to feed her solid foods. In addition to one vaccine, Etta had a hematocrit, or blood test to measure her iron level. The normal range is above 32, so her level of 34 meant that I didn’t need to give her any supplements. Etta cried with each jab, but was quickly comforted and easily distracted.

Pulling hair

The hair on the back of Etta’s head is over an inch long now, whereas the hair on the top of her head that mysteriously shed when she was five months is about 1/3rd of an inch. Etta loves to run her fingers through the hair behind her ears, or above the nape of her neck. She especially likes to rub food in it at mealtimes, necessitating daily baths. One night I heard Etta yelp over the intercom, so I went into her room, peered into her crib, and found her arm behind her head, a fistful of hair entwined between her fingers. She was pulling her hair in her sleep!

"Here, take this…"

When I sit on the floor to play with Etta and hand her a toy, she’ll look at it briefly and then hand it back to me. Playgroup these days is a toy snatching free-for-all with the babies spying a toy in someone else’s grasp and lunging for it. This week Etta amazed all the other moms by passing toys willingly to the other babies (whether they wanted them or not!). I know that Etta’s "generosity" is just a phase, and that before long she’ll be forcibly snatching toys with the best of them, but even so I try to reinforce her gesture by saying "thank you" when she hands me something.

Sunbathing

We’ve had some hot, sunny weather, so Etta has spent time in her small wading pool on the back deck. I filled it with fresh water each morning and by noon the bath thermometer read 105 degrees. I’d pull the pool into the shade of the table umbrella and let her sit and play with her toys in the water after lunch. She’s at the perfect age for the pool because she is old enough to sit reliably and splash without toppling, but young enough not to crawl out or try to stand up.

Passing through

For weeks Etta had been good about playing with paper without eating it. One day this week I retrieved the mail from the mailbox before heading out on an errand and Etta swiped a postcard from the pile. She refused to give it up, and it was a sturdy cardstock that wouldn’t easily tear, so I let her continue to play with it while in her carseat as I drove into town. After about ten minutes of driving I heard choking, and immediately my arm flew into the back seat and I was able to reach into her mouth and feel paper, which I swept quickly out. Somehow I managed this maneuver without taking my eyes off the road, and the event passed by the time I was able to pull over. On inspection of the postcard and the piece I’d pulled from her mouth, she’d managed to swallow a two by half inch piece of the card. The piece hadn’t torn away from the card, she’d simply gummed it until it was soft enough to separate. The next day I found the section of card, still pretty much intact, in her poopy diaper.

Sitting Pretty

Etta learned to get herself up to a sitting position for the first time. It used to be that I’d put Etta down on the carpet to sit, but once she flopped forward onto her belly she was able to roll and scoot, but not get back to sitting again. She’d been strengthening her abdominal muscles by trying to sit up or roll away every time I changed her diaper, but the way that she’s learned to sit up now isn’t like an athletic sit-up. She starts on her belly, puts one arm out to push off as if to roll over, but then brings the other arm under to push as well while twisting up into a sitting position. Within a day she was doing it effortlessly, even when half asleep in her crib.

Up on all fours

After weeks of lunging forward from a sitting position and ending up in a bellyflop, Etta has discovered how to position her legs such that she is up on all fours, at least momentarily. She doesn’t have the strength or coordination to crawl just yet, but the concentrated look on her face shows that she wants to. At playgroup all the other babies except for her and one other are crawling, and some are even walking, so she’s certainly observed what to do.

Independent Play

We’ve made the family room a safe area for her to play, turning the low bookcases into toy storage, moving the CD racks to another room, putting a small table in front of the stereo cabinet, and putting the long coffee table across the hearth. She is free to roll and scoot across the carpet, which I have to vacuum almost daily to pick up the bits of bark that are carried in on the cat’s fur and people’s shoes. When I see Etta focusing on the carpet and extending her fingers to pick out a treasure (this morning it was a stiff cat’s whisker) I usually rush over to intercept but she sees me coming and increases her speed accordingly. She gets a mischievous look on her face as her hand goes instantly to her mouth. She knows she’s not supposed to put it in her mouth, but she hurries to do it before I can prevent her from doing it.

As long as one of us is nearby and in sight, Etta is often happy to play independently for over an hour. Each evening I pick up all her toys and put them back on the low bookshelves so that in the morning she starts with a clear space. Throughout the day she makes many trips to the bookcase to select a toy or book, which she’ll then roll off to play with for awhile.

Etta is particularly interested in books and struggles to turn the pages. She has about five cloth books that she flips through quickly as they are so familiar now. I recently bought her a small board book with "notched" pages so she can easily grasp one page at a time to turn. Before bed and at least once during the day I sit and "read" to her from the other board books. "Reading" usually consists of holding the book open so she can turn the pages.

Grinding and teething

This month Etta’s top right front tooth (her third tooth to cut) was struggling to emerge. It would cut partially through the gum, heal over, then cut again. Finally, after a week, it cut all the way through for good. It is huge compared to the bottom teeth, and coming in at an angle. The tooth next to it is likely a week or more away. Etta did a little more chewing and drooling than usual with the tooth cutting, but most remarkable were the facial expressions she made in the days after the tooth came through. Her tongue was exploring the new terrain and thus she often had her tongue half out of her mouth or flicking around her gums. She also has been sucking her lower lip and humming a lot.

Now that Etta has opposing teeth (one on top and two below), she’s discovered that they can be ground together to make the most intriguing sound. It’s a sound that drives me up the wall so I rush at her with a teething toy or water bottle to distract her.

Toward the end of the month she was particularly fussy, refusing to go to sleep. During the day she was happier, but she kept putting her tongue inside her lower lip so that she looked like a ball player with a wad of chewing tobacco. Then I noticed why: a white sliver of tooth had emerged next to the bottom two teeth. She now had four teeth: one on top and three on the bottom. She spent the next few days exploring the new tooth with her tongue and looking quite odd in the process.

Return of the "curse"

I got my period this month, exactly 14 days after noticing fertile mucous for the first time since Etta was conceived over 18 months ago. Now that Etta is sleeping through the night and nursing only four times a day, I’m not surprised that my fertility has returned. We’re not using any protection and are hoping to conceive again immediately, although it took us well over a year to conceive Etta, so it could be awhile. Some books suggest that the taste of breastmilk changes during menstruation, but Etta hasn’t seemed to notice.