Scarlett and Clark - 9 Months

9 months! What?!?! How are we here already? 3/4 of a year. A close friend of ours just welcomed a new baby girl last week. There's nothing like holding a newborn to make you realize how little your babies aren't. As much as I love newborn baby snuggles, I am all about this age with Scarlett and Clark. They are mobile! They are crawling, climbing, opening and closing doors, discovering everything they can. We've done some minor baby proofing, but it is probably time to start locking up our cabinets.

 

Eating is a major focus of our days. The babies are eating 3 meals per day, and occasionally a snack as well. Breakfast is fruit and cereal or some other breakfast carb, occasionally eggs. Lunch is turkey, cheese, or yogurt and vegetables. Snacks are some type of baby food. Either a pouch, puffs, yogurt drops, etc. Dinner is whatever we are eating or steamed vegetables. Clark is not crazy about pouches, but Scarlett sucks them down. They have both decided they love water and gulp it down when given a straw sippy cup.

I mentioned during their 8 month posts that we are being extra cautious with food introductions. Scarlett still develops a rash if dairy gets on her skin, but no problems ingesting it. We tried peanut butter this month on two separate occasions. The first time Scarlett developed a full body rash. The second time she had no reaction at all. She did only have one bite the second time. They tried banana walnut oatmeal, and this caused a rash to develop for Scarlett, presumably from the walnuts. Clark has shown no reaction to any foods. When the babies were in for their 9 month well check, Scarlett had blood drawn to check for peanut and tree nut allergies. We are currently awaiting those results before we decide how to proceed.

We have been trying to transition from 4 nursing sessions during the day to 3. Some days it goes well, other days the post afternoon nap nursing session is a must. On days they do nurse after their 1pm nap, they skip their snack. They are both still nursing once or twice at night. Scarlett is usually up twice, and Clark once. The only time he is usually up before 4 am is if she wakes him.

Sleep is still pretty much the same. Naps at 9am and 1pm. They nap anywhere from 1-2 hours per nap. Nighttime sleep starts at 7pm. Clark wakes up between 4 and 6am and then is back to sleep until 7 or 7:30. Scarlett is skipping her 11pm nursing session much more frequently. She also wakes between 4 and 6am and then goes right back to bed until 7am. We dropped their cribs and got rid of their musical mobiles and crib bumpers this month. As soon as we got rid of their mobiles, Scarlett started sleeping longer more often. They were able to turn on their mobiles themselves and I thought that would help put them back to sleep if they turned on their music. In reality, the mobiles were making them more alert when they did wake, and making it harder to fall back to sleep. I definitely don't miss hearing Scarlett's mobile multiple times per night.

Clark

• crawls on hands and knees
• can go from crawling, to sitting, to standing with no issues
• is pulling up to his knees and sometimes feet
• is determined to figure out how to climb the stairs
• has his two front bottom teeth, and is about to get his top two any day
• just got the all clear to stop iron supplements
• is wearing size 12 clothes and size 4 diapers
• bites arms, legs, ankles, anything he can get his mouth on
• is like a big mouse. He loves cheese
• weighs 20 lbs 8oz
• is 29.5" tall

Scarlett

• is army crawling her way around the house
• loves to dance, and by dance I mean rock back and forth to music
• sings "ba ba ba ba" in response to Harrison singing to her
• loves closing doors and playing with the bottom drawer in our bathroom
• loves yogurt, and gets upset if you're eating some and not sharing
• is starting to show increased interest in story time
• wears size 12 cloths and size 4 diapers
• weighs 21 lbs 4 oz
• is 28.25" tall
• is holding at 2 teeth with no signs of any new ones making an appearance soon
• wakes up and immediately dirties her diaper almost every morning. Happy morning surprise for me ;)
• is spunky! I'm pretty sure when she is older she will be the ruler of the pack

Now that we're closing in on a year, it's probably time to start planning their first birthday party. Planning a party for a birthday that falls between Christmas and New Years has me a little intimidated. I'm not even sure when to fit in a party around all of the holiday festivities. That's a topic for another day though, and a challenge I'm sure we'll figure out. For now, happy 9 months babies! We are loving seeing your personalities develop. You are both so happy and full of life. Each day with you is truly a blessing.