Wiedeman Littles: Clara Irene: 9 Months

Only three months away from having a one year old!! Despite her lack of interest in sleeping, she is a mostly content baby. Multiple people have said that if they were guaranteed an easy baby like her, they'd have more! (Me too, people! And maybe if I was younger...)

This past month has been a good one for her- slightly more mobility (she can sit and spin herself in a circle), her first tooth popped through, and she has somewhat consistently slept through the night. She's tried lots of foods (I'm horrible and don't track what new foods I introduce to her!), and she's even eaten bits of the meals I make at home. Luke also has given her little bites of his ice cream, so dairy and sugar are already on her radar.

Height and Weight: When sitting her on the scale at home, she's 15.4 pounds. We have a well-check scheduled for the beginning of April, so we should get a more official weight and height then. :)

Diapers and Clothing: She is in size 2 diapers and just in the last week I pulled out her 9 month bin of clothes. I don't have much in just size 9, but I pulled out spring/summer things that are 9 month or 9-12 month. If she's like Noelle (which so far their growth charts are looking pretty similar), Clara will probably be fitting the 9-12 month things at the beginning of the fall. But who knows- maybe she'll have a major growth spurt and jump up on the scale! She also has no problem fitting in her six month sized things at this point.

Sleep: Oh sleep! In the past three weeks or so, she has had quite a few nights of sleeping ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE NIGHT! When I only get up once to pee, I feel so much more rested than when I'm up for 20-30 minutes to feed a baby! However, there are nights where she is up, and I'm trying to figure out if it's actually hunger or if it's because of teeth coming in. But at least we're headed in the direction of more sleep!

Naps are still usually very short. Every once in awhile, like maybe every 10 days, she'll take a nap longer than half an hour. She even took a three hour nap the other day that I had to awake her from so we could pick up Noelle. Many days, her only naps are in the car. A couple of times when the weather has been warmer, if she falls asleep in the van, I'll leave the garage door open and van doors open and let her keep sleeping. Thankfully she generally functions well on little sleep!

Eating: Every month I think, this is it, we're done with nursing. But we keep making it through another month. The other morning, I tried nursing her first thing, but she was very distracted by Jonah. Then, because we were out and about most of the day, I didn't end up getting a chance to nurse her again until bedtime. I could tell there was a decent amount for her, and she fell asleep nursing instead of with a bottle. She gets 5-6 bottles a day with 3-4 ounces in each one.

I try to feed her "meals" at least twice a day, and this past month she got oatmeal with almond milk, italian chicken and potatoes, mashed up beans, goldfish, and she had her first taste of a Chick Fil A nugget and french fry!

Social/Milestones: Sleeping through the night and her first tooth are probably the most exciting! I feel like she's been teething for most of her life, and I can finally see the first little tooth on the bottom. I cannot remember if it took this long for the other two to get teeth! Lately I've been giving her a dose of Tylenol before bed to hopefully help with any teething pain.

She still doesn't move much. She'll stretch her arms out as far as she can when she's sitting to reach for something, and a couple of times has fallen forward on to her stomach. She gets so upset whenever that happens! If she's sitting near a table or chair, she'll grab on to it and pull herself closer to it, but is nowhere close to pulling herself up. When she's sitting, she can spin herself in a circle so she can at least see what is going on all around her.

Likes: She still likes bathtime, watching her older siblings, eating food, being out and about, and being held. She is pretty much held or entertained all day long. Clara loves watching Jonah be a goofball and will often laugh out loud at him. She likes being dipped backward, and any little animals (Zoe, a dog at the house we go to for Bible study) walking around.

Dislikes: Clara does not like being made to sit by herself for long periods of time. She has been known to last close to 40 minutes sitting and playing with toys while I workout on the treadmill, but usually she's fussy after 20-30 minutes. It does help when the big two are also playing in the room to keep her focused on something else.

Fun things: She went to her first Easter egg hunt today! She really just watched everyone else do the running around and collecting, but it was at an assisted living home, and one older lady in particular came over to say hi and Clara just held on to her fingers. It was so sweet! We had house guests this past week, I took her on a stroller run when she was awake awfully early one morning, she sits in the stroller without the car seat (and seems much happier that way!), and has been on all the little stops for treats around town.

Pictures from the last month