Nine Months

Gretchen turned 9 months old on February 11th. Nine months! She's almost been outside of me as long as she was inside of me, which blows my mind! 

I'm posting her stats since birth so that we can see how she's grown throughout the past 9 months: 

Birth:

Weight: 9 pounds & 4 ounces

Height: 21.5 inches 

2 Months: 

Weight: 14 pounds & 4 ounces

Height: 23 inches

4 Months: 

Weight: 17 pounds & 15 ounces

Height: 25 1/4 inches 

6 Months: 

Weight: 21 pounds (98.97 percentile)

Weight: 26.75 inches (78.28 percentile)

9 Months: 

Weight: 23 pounds & 14 ounces (98.57 percentile)

Height: 28.75 inches (86.63%)

Gretchen is talking up a storm now. In fact, if you say something to her, she usually will mimic you. The following are her newest words or phrases:

"Hi Dad"

"Mama"

"Dada"

"Dog"

"Jack"

"Cookie Jar" 

"Wow"

She probably says other things, but those are the things we can understand, but of course they don't actually sound the way we would say them. You just have to use your imagination, as "dog" sounds like "og" and "Jack" sounds like "yak," but I'm incredibly impressed. She's so smart and surprises us every day.

She cruises along the furniture by holding on and walking fast. I'm trying to prepare myself for the day she just takes off, which I'm sure will be any week now. 

We have been attending the Peekaboo Play Center in Westbrook weekly, and also making an extra effort to get together with my friend Jenn and her son, Grayson (12 months). I think that Gretchen learns a lot by spending time with an older baby. They play really well together and it's a joy to watch them grow up together (Jenn and I grew up together, too, but not at that age). 

Gretchen's sleeping patterns are still terrible, but she does go to bed and take her naps on a semi-consistent schedule. Her schedule is currently something like this:

Wake Up: 6:30 AM - 7:30 AM

Nap: 9:30 - 10:30 AM (somewhere in there and she naps for about 1...MAYBE 2 hours)

Nap: 2:30 - 3:30 PM (somewhere in there and she naps for about 1...MAYBE 2 hours)

Bed: 7:00 - 8:00 PM (somewhere in there and she sleeps off and on all night...but wakes up several times throughout)

She has been fighting her sleep like nuts, but we're going to get through this. It's hard, but I think that each and every parent struggles with something while raising their child or children. We're fortunate that she is such a great baby in every other aspect. It makes the sleepless nights that much better, because she's so happy. 

We are anxiously awaiting the warm spring and summer months! We can't wait until we can get the stroller out and take nice long walks, or maybe I should say I can't wait.