9 months

I finally realized why when I was pregnant time seemed to crawl.. why (almost) 41 weeks seemed like 41 years.. I was being taught to enjoy the little moments because once a baby is born time flies. Because I blinked and my baby is 9 months old.

I've loved every minute I've had with Emma, no matter how hard some minutes have been. She is the reason we get up in the morning. Even the nights we yearn to have a free minute to ourselves, we find ourselves missing her and wanting her to come home. We both marvel in the how much we love our little girl. We are so excited to see what the next minutes, hours, days, months, and years hold....

Emma's growth and development
weight= 21lbs 12oz (90th percentile)
height= 28.5in (79th percentile)

At this age you can expect your infant to sit alone, pull to a stand, stand holding on to things, jabber and imitate sounds, crawl, wave bye-bye, and begin to show separation and stranger anxiety. Over the next few months he will start to combine syllables, say mama/dada, walk w
with his hands held, and bang objects together.

Emma can sit alone, pull to a stand, stand holding on to things, jabber and imitate sounds, wave bye-bye and hello, and she has been in "stranger danger" mode since she was about 4 months old, haha. She refuses to crawl :( but hopefully soon she'll get over that or she'll start walking. Our backs are about to break, she's so heavy!!

Your infant will now begin to explore how things work, enjoy playing peekaboo and pat-a-cake and being read to. It is important to give lots of praise and many opportunities for exploration. If using a pacifier, it is a good time to start restricting its use to only when your baby is in his crib (or giving it up all together), so that his interest in it will decrease.

Emma takes an antibiotic by an oral syringe every night. After I've pushed the last of the liquid into her mouth she will take the syringe from me and play with it. About a month ago she started putting it to our mouths to imitate how we just gave her her meds. Such a smart little cookie :) Emma loves playing peek-a-boo and pat-a-cake. We read and play with books before naps and at bedtime. The child will not take a paci no matter how hard I try so no worries about that!

Most infants at this age take two naps during the day (length of naps are usually very variable between different children, but naps are usually 1 - 2 hours each) and are able to sleep for the majority of the night. If not, check to make sure that he has a good bedtime routine and has developed the proper sleep associations. He may start waking again at times of stress, illness or after learning a new task (such as walking).

Emma takes two (1.5-2 hour) naps a day but she can make it through the day on just one (3-3.5 hour) nap. She has slept through the night (99% of the nights) since she was 2-3 months. When she's teething she wakes up in the middle of the night to jabber to herself but puts herself back to sleep most of the time.