9 Month Update

CORA

 If we were graphing Cora's sleep habits, they would be all over the place from birth to 7 weeks, then a consistent line from about 7 weeks - 7 months (!) and then a crazy pattern again from 7 months to now.  Oh well.  She used to be super easy to put down for naps (i.e. we just laid her down and walked out of the room) and only wake once between 7pm-6am.  Now it's an effort to get her down for most naps and she wakes 2-5 times nightly.

I think there are probably lots of reasons why, one of which is the fact that she's about to pop out her top two teeth (and maybe one incisor as well). I know that has to hurt!  Possibly as a result, she's nursing more (including a regular two feedings in the night).  I've read that when a baby teethes, they can be less interested in solids and more interested in nursing because it feels better.  This seems to be the case in the last two weeks.

Schedule (on a typical day)

• Wakes to eat around 12 and 4; Jacob tries to get her back down, but many times it's only nursing that does the trick
• Up between 5:30-6:30
• Breakfast of fruit and oatmeal- I hand her a loaded spoon to feed herself and help direct her - she actually does a pretty good job
• Morning nap about 2.5 hours after she wakes - for me, she usually goes right down and sleeps a good 1.5-2 hours; her sitter has had lots of trouble though; she makes multiple attempts, but some days Cora fights it until she just passes out late morning
• After nap, she gets water in sippy cup or nurses depending on if I'm around

• Lunch
• Nurse and nap around 1:30 - these naps used to be 3 hours, but now are usually 2
• Snuggles with Jack, walks, playtime in the doll house or downstairs
• Dinner
• Bath, Nurse, Bed by 7:00

Tricks

• Waves hi
• Claps her hands when she's happy or when you say "yeah!"
• Makes dada, baba, mama sounds and I believe she does associate some meaning with them even though she doesn't "name" us yet (as in she says the dada sound all the time but when she's crying in her bed, she'll say 'mama' until I come)
• Bounces to the beat anytime there is music
• Smiles all the time, including every time she sees Jack ("jack jack")

• She loves chewing on Jack's cars and LEGOs.  He actually handles this well.  He is very concerned when she picks up something with wheels and always says immediately "Cora has something with wheels on it," to which we respond "Can you give her something that doesn't have wheels on it?"  He takes this seriously and switches out her toy.  When she's really up in his business, he sometimes asks us to "put Cora in her chair," but he never gets mad at her, so that's been nice!
• She crawls all over the place and just recently pulled herself up to a standing position.