9 months

Emily turned 9 months last week.  Where is the time going?  My baby is such a big girl now, she doesn't even look like a baby to me anymore.  I can't believe that in addition to the 9 months I was pregnant with her that she's been with us now for 18 months.  It is true, once you have kids, you have no idea how you lived without them before.

A few days before she turned 9 months I noticed her first tooth coming in.  Yay!  Or so I thought.  I was so excited to finally see a tooth, I've been looking for them since she started drooling around 3 months.  I was even surprised to see that she was handling it quite well, she would cry more than usual, if I took a toy away, or if I left the room when she didn't want me to she'd cry, but that was about it....until the end of last week.  She cried at the drop of a hat, she's difficult to console, and she's all stuffy and snotty because of the teething.  She sneezes a lot and always has snot all over her face, so I try to clean her up but she hates it and cries even more.

I hate it, I feel so bad for her.  So I assume that in addition to the one that has already popped through, she probably has a few more waiting to cut through and causing her a lot of pain.  I ran to the store the other night and bought her more Tylenol (cause you can never have enough infant Tylenol in the house), baby orajel, boogie wipes and Hyland teething tablets.  My purchases must have screamed "I am a new mom".  But the lady in front of me was even more frazzled.  Her son lost a shoe and she was freaked that she lost it in the store somewhere, then he wouldn't sit in the cart without crying so she had to hold him, then she forgot to ask for another receipt so she had to ask the cashier to reprint it.  She apologized to me for taking too long and I said that's ok, mine is probably crying at home right now.  She was like thank goodness, someone who gets it.  Then she started to walk away without her bags and the cashier had to call her back and I could tell, on top of being frazzled, that she was embarrased too.

She seemed nice, I wish I wouldn't have been weird to stop her and ask to be mommy friends.  I had to laugh one day on the bump some women were discussing how to get another mom's number.  They sounded like a bunch of guys talked about getting some chicks number, but it was just a mom who wanted to hang out with another mom.

Just two more days until Christmas, I cannot wait to watch Emily open her presents.  And watch her play with them, I feel like she's getting a little bored with her toys.  I'm also excited to see what she gets....people keep telling me what they got for her and I'm just like shhhh, I want it to be a surprise for me too.  The jumper/exersaucer thing we bought for her is huuuge so we ended up putting that one in the basement for when we're down there, and using a smaller one my aunt had given me.  But she was able to rip off two of the three toys on it and seemed bored, so I took it back to Once Upon a child to sell it and buy a new one, but they didn't have any!  They usually have a ton, so I sold hers back and couldn't get her another one.  So I checked a resale place by my dad's house but they only had one boring looking one and it was too much money for being second hand.  My dad and stepmom hadn't gotten their big gift for her yet so I picked out one I liked and they bought it for her for christmas.  It's all pink....I had been trying to get big things gender neutral in case we ever end up having a boy, but whatever.  I don't care anymore.  I am glad the carseat and strollers are all neutral, but if we ever had a boy I'd just buy him a second hand jumper and sell the pink one.  Same with the highchair.  It's too bad they don't make the fabric to buy and swap out the pink for the blue since there is obviously nothing wrong with the plastic underneath.

Emily had her 9 month appointment today.  Everything was good, and I loved that she didn't need any shots.  I am not sure I could handle her screaming and crying over shots and teething.  So the doctor said I can start feeding her more solid food meals and cut out her midnight bottle.  Actually she kind of gave me a funny look when I told her I woke her up for the bottle.  I figured she was too old to be getting a bottle in the middle of the night, but I tried cutting it out a couple months ago and just giving her more in her bottles, but her little tummy couldn't handle the big bottles at the time, and then she'd get constipated from not getting as many liquids.  I think she can handle it now though.

But the best part is, that means I can go to bed whenever I want.  Many nights, like tonight, I could go to bed right now (11:30) or sooner, but I had to stay up till midnight to feed her, and then I would miss my "window" of being tired and end up staying up till 2 or 3 and just lay there, tossing a turning.  But now I don't have to wait up, I can just go to bed whenever I am tired.  She normally went right back to bed after her bottle, but some nights she would end up wide awake after and then be up for an hour or two.  So another reason to be glad we can stop that.