9 Months!

Every month I say this, but I can't believe how fast time is going! My big baby is 9 months old! She's in the 75th percentile, weighs 20 pounds 5 ounces, and is 27 and 3/4 inches. She had her two bottom teeth come in and then the top two started poking out. Those top two were rough! She was such a sad baby! A couple days ago, I noticed a sneaky third bottom tooth poking out. I don't know where it came from. One day the spot was pure gums, the next a whole tooth was there!

Eila has been going through a nine month sleep regression. Nighttime has been filled with lots of tears (from both me and her) and naps have been pretty much non existent. This little baby will be dead asleep in my arms. I can jiggle her, do the arm drop test, take her paci out. . . and as long as she's in my arms, she's good. But as soon as she feels her body touch her crib, it's loud, tearful screaming. We've tried Dan putting her to bed instead, rocking her to sleep (usually she goes to bed awake), moving bed time earlier/later, letting her cry for a few minutes, and basically nothing works. The past couple of night have been a little better- not so much crying but still lots of waking up. I hope her sleep goes back to normal soon.

Part of the reason, besides whatever other sleep issues are going on, is Eila has also been refusing a bottle lately. She drinks 2 or 3 ounces while I'm at work and then waits until I get home to nurse. I know she's not starving during the day because she loves to eat solid food, but she still gets a lot of calories from milk (at night now).

Besides her sleeping/eating weirdness, she's such a fun baby! She loves to pull herself up and move around the room. She will spend big chunks of the day learning - it's so fun to watch her! For example, she spent a big part of the day standing up and throwing her sock (that she pulled off her foot because that's such a fun game). Then sit down, pick up her sock, stand up, throw it, and repeat in the same spot before moving to a new one and doing it some more.

She loves to be on the go, tap toys together, throw toys, snuggle her bunny (we finally got a backup, just in case), babble and yell! Her favorite foods are banana pancakes and anything anyone else is eating. She thinks drinking from a glass is super cool and always looks so proud when we let her have a sip of our water.

We did a test: we put Bunny and back up bunny down by Eila. She touched them both, picked them up, examined them, and then picked Bunny to snuggle and chew on! It was so cute! 

Happy New Year!

2015 was quite the year- part of me is sad to see it go and part of me is happy to watch it leave.

Eila and I did some painting and then turned her artwork into a new year's crown! We said "Happy new year!" at 6:00 pm, right before she went to sleep, watched Jurassic World, and went to bed. I somehow stayed up until midnight while texting my friends and eating snacks in bed - it was actually kind of nice!

Dan and I talked about whether or not we have resolutions for 2016. I'm not totally set on it, but I think I want to focus on letting go of things I am not in control of. I tend to get stressed when things that other people are in control of don't go the way I have imagined. For example, when I'm at school, I want people to care for Eila exactly the way I would. Realistically, I know this is impossible because they are not me. I get stressed when I get updates on her day and who ever is caring for her does something differently than I would. I know she's safe, loved, and generally happy, but it's still not the way I want things to go. I feel like I have a lot on my plate right now and I think I'm trying to cope by trying to plan everything everyone does. It's not really helping my stress level go down, so I think I just need to let it go.

Aside from that resolution, I think I want to do more things for me and my mental health. Maybe I'll get more massages. Maybe I'll try to go more kickboxing classes. Maybe I'll try to paint or read or write (or all of those!) more.

I hope I'm ready for whatever 2016 has in store!