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| Avocado is yummy! |
9 Month Stats:
Age: 9 months
Weight: 21 lbs. (85th %)
Height: 29” (92nd %)
Favorite toy: Fisher Price laptop
Favorite toy that’s not a toy: iPod, cell phone, electric cords
New foods: yogurt, yellow squash, asparagus, chicken
Favorite food: avocado, butternut squash, or cinnamon rice cereal
Least favorite food: yellow squash
Number of teeth: 8
Makes her smile: when her Daddy gets home from work, when he makes faces at her, or when he dances silly to her Elmo boom box
Makes her laugh: saying “woah, woah, wooooaaaah!” while acting like you’re dropping her
Makes her cry: slamming her finger in a door, falling over while sitting
Favorite place to be: worming her way across the floor towards something she wants (especially if what she wants is Dixie)
Can say: “Gaga”
Milestones: worming her way across the house, sitting up on her own, slept through the night
Clothing size: 12- 18 months
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| Clapping her hands, excited to know how to sit up! |
Worming, Sitting, & Spinning
At the beginning of the month, Payton learned to “crawl” on her stomach. Basically she looks like an inch worm. She does a push up and then scoots her body forward, landing on her chest/stomach. At first she would only worm her way across the room if there was something she really wanted to get to, like a cell phone or TV remote control. But by the end of the month, she was scooting herself all over the house. In fact, she started worming herself around so much that she developed blisters on both of her feet!
The day before Payton turned 9 months old she learned to go from her stomach to a sitting position on her own. She was so proud of herself to have learned this new trick and each time she would sit herself up she would get a smile on her face and shriek with joy.
Another thing Payton learned this month is that, in addition to jumping in her Jenny Jump Up, it is also fun to spin around in circles in it. It makes me dizzy just to watch but she seems to enjoy doing it. Mary (Charles’ sister) and Lil’ Evan (his nephew) came to visit from Thibodaux, Louisiana and they really got a kick out of watching Payton spin herself around in her Jenny Jump Up.
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| "Little Evan", Payton, and Charles |
Finger Foods
A big development for Payton this month was that she learned to eat finger foods. At the end of her 8th month we had tried giving her sweet potato fries but she didn’t seem to know what to do with them. The first week of her 9th month Payton had success eating a soft, ripe pear. She soon also learned to enjoy sweet potato fries, soft ripe peaches, chunks of banana, soft steamed vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and asparagus, and very small pieces of chicken. We still feed her purees twice a day but while we are eating our dinner, we give Payton finger foods to keep her occupied. As a special treat when we go out to eat, we’ve shared our French fries with her and she really gets excited about those!
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| Payton and Hank |
"Going to Grandma’s"
Payton and I spent a week at my parent’s house the last week of June. When going out of town, Payton still refuses to nurse on the road and fights sleeping in the car. So when we got to my parent’s house, she was extremely hungry and overly tired. But she also tends to refuse to nurse or sleep when she arrives in a new location. So for the first evening there, she was a cranky mess until she settled down and fell asleep. The rest of the time there she did fine, although she was showing some signs of separation anxiety.
My brother Albert and his wife Erin and son Hank also spent the weekend there. Payton is still bigger and taller than Hank, who is 2 ½ weeks older than she is. But whereas Payton was struggling to scoot across the floor, Hank could crawl quickly, pull himself up on anything, and walk while holding onto furniture. Pretty big differences for cousins so close in age!
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| Cute cousins! |
During the week visit, Payton learned to walk in a baby walker. We don’t have one at home so she has never had experience using a baby walker. At first she kept trying to jump up and down in it because that’s what she does in her Exersaucer at home, but she soon learned not only how to walk across the room using it, but even how to run and make turns in it!
My parents live out in the country (on Lake LBJ) and one morning we woke up to discover there was a newborn baby fawn right up against the back porch. All day long we looked out at the fawn and we worried about it. Even though the fawn was in the shade, it was still hot out and we couldn’t imagine it would be normal for a newborn to go so long without nursing. We were pretty concerned that the mother wouldn’t come back for it, being that it was so close to people (and with all of us over to visit, there were even more people coming and going from the house than normal). But as dusk approached, we watched as the mother deer stood from a distance, seeming to look for her baby. And before too long, the mother deer came close enough to the baby that the baby ran to her. The fawn nursed for a minute and then the two left together. It was such an amazing thing to witness!
During our week at my parent’s, Payton enjoyed swimming in a baby pool in the backyard and going out to eat each day for lunch.
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| Payton and my parent's dog "Baby" |
The 4th of July
The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I love everything about this holiday: it’s in the summer, the long days this time of year, swimming in warm water, the delicious summer foods, getting together with family and friends, and of course, the fireworks. This year we didn’t get to spend it with family or friends but I did get to spend it with my two favorite people: Charles and Payton. The day started with me dressing Payton in a cute red, white, and blue dress that her Aunt Debbie gave to her and then going to the San Luis Hotel to take her picture. I knew the San Luis has lots of green grass and pretty landscaping so I figured it would be a nice place to take pictures. Even though it was only 8:00 a.m. it was already so hot and the sun was shining in her eyes, but I still got a couple of cute pictures.
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| Happy 4th of July! |
That afternoon we went to The Spot for hamburgers. It was fun to see all the children and adults out enjoying lunch with their families, wearing their red, white, and blues. For dinner Charles BBQed.
Payton went to bed for the night at her usual bedtime, around 7:00 p.m. Charles and I took turns walking out to Seawall to check out the scene. There were SO many people here this year. The entire state of Texas is in the worst drought in recorded history and so many towns, Austin included, had to cancel their firework shows. As a result, towns that were able to still have their fireworks like Galveston, had larger than normal crowds. We watched the firework show from our front porch and Payton slept right through both the loud booming of the fireworks, the car alarms that were set off from the fireworks, and our dog Haven getting scared from the fireworks and scratching on her door, trying to force his way into her room. Maybe next year she’ll be able to stay up and watch the fireworks show, but this year I was thankful she was able to sleep through them.
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| Licking LaLa's wall to see if it taste different than the walls at her house. |
Sleep
Up until the week at my parent’s house, Payton was nursing once in the middle of the night, sometimes not nursing until 4-5 a.m. During the week at my parent’s house, she was waking to nurse a couple of times during the night. I think this was a combination of not nursing as much as normal during the day (too many distractions) and also needing to be comforted when waking up in a crib that isn’t her own. Just a little over a week later (the week before she turned 9 months old), Payton slept through the night for the first time. She went to sleep around 7:30 p.m. and slept until 7:30 a.m., only needing her pacifier put back in at 10:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m. So she slept eight hours straight between her pacifier wake-ups. From that night on, she has needed her pacifier put back in on occasion but she has not once needed to nurse in the middle of the night. She nurses right before going to sleep for the night, around 7:00 p.m., and when she gets up in the morning, generally around 7:00 a.m.
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| In her crib-- just woke up |
Another big development on the topic of sleep is that Payton has started taking her naps in her crib instead of in her baby swing. The week Payton turned 9 months old, I decided that she was getting entirely too big for her baby swing and that it would be a good time to transition her to taking naps in her crib. She’s always done a good job of sleeping in her crib at night but she seemed to need the motion of the swing to put her to sleep during the day. The first couple of days of napping in her crib, she would only nap about 30 minutes and then would wake up and not go back to sleep. But by the third day, she was taking 1 ½ hour naps twice a day in her crib without any real trouble. I’m so relieved to finally have her napping in her crib instead of her swing.
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| Spending time with her grandfather |
9 Month Doctor’s Appointment
At Payton’s 9 month check-up we found out that she’s still pretty big for her age (not surprising). She is 29” tall (92nd percentile), weighs 21 lbs (85th percentile), and has a head circumference of 45.5 cm (88th percentile). Again she scored low or borderline low on all milestones except for problem solving, in which she scored high. The doctor recommended that we contact Early Childhood Interventions to have her screened to see if she would benefit from any of their services. Luckily, just three days after her appointment, Payton started doing things like pulling herself up to a standing position and being able to pick up small objects with her fingers. So basically, in a matter of just a few days, she seems to have really caught up on her gross motor skills and fine motor skill milestones. It almost seems like each time the doctor says she is behind, she quickly plays catch up.
We again discussed her risk of having a food allergy since Charles has a food allergy and she gave me the go ahead to start feeding her most foods. She told me to wait until a year to give her eggs and cow’s milk. And she said as far as nuts or peanuts go, to wait until she is 4-5 years old before trying to introduce them. The doctor also said at 2 years old she can have allergy tests done to determine if she may be allergic to them.
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| Wow, look how tall! |
Everything is big on Payton except for what the doctor said are unusually small ear canals. Just like at her 6 month appointment, the doctor again couldn’t see the ear drum in her left ear because of wax in her very small ear canal. Payton again scored borderline low on her communication milestones. Although she can now say, “Mamama”, she isn’t babbling much and doesn’t attempt to repeat consonants sounds. Because the doctor still couldn’t see the ear drum and she is still behind on her verbal milestones, the doctor felt it would be best to have her hearing checked to make sure everything is okay. We can tell for sure that she does hear, but we needed to be sure that she can hear clearly and that her hearing isn’t the cause of her delayed speech.
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| Payton loves the beach! |
Audiology/ ENT
So the following week I took Payton to UTMB hospital to the pediatric audiology department to have her hearing checked. Two tests were performed on Payton. The first was a sensor that they put in her ear that determines in she has fluid behind her ear drums. The sensor indicated that she does have fluid behind both ear drums. The second test that was performed was a hearing test. They had Payton sit in my lap in the middle of a small sound-proof room. On either side of us was a speaker with a dark box above it. The doctor sat in a separate room in front of us behind a dark see-through window. The doctor would push a button that would make a sound effect in one of the speakers (they sounded just like the sound effects they use for adult hearing tests). If Payton turned to look in the direction of the sound, then as a reward the dark box would light up and inside would be a stuffed animal playing the drums. It reminded me of a mini-sized Chucky Cheese Pizza show. Payton enjoyed the test and overall did well. They determined that her hearing is in the normal range.
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| Beautiful eyes :) |
From there we were referred to an ENT to discuss the fluid behind her ear drums. We went to the appointment the following week and since my parents were in town, my mom came with us. The doctor there also confirmed that Payton has very small ear canals and that she couldn’t see her ear drum because of the wax. The doctor was able to use a curette to remove the wax while a nurse held Payton’s head still, I held her arms down, and my mom held her legs. Payton screamed and was upset, not because the doctor was hurting her, but because she didn’t like being held down. The doctor was pretty funny…. She got really excited when she got all the wax out and then kept bragging to other people in the office, “Only 9 months old and she had the wax removed from her ears! Take her picture and put it on the wall!” Other than removing the wax, the ENT confirmed that she has fluid behind both ear drums. She feels like since Payton failed her newborn hearing test twice, she may have been born with this fluid behind her ear drums and for whatever reason it’s still there. She also feels that the fluid behind the ear drums may be why she’s having some speech delays since it can cause sounds to be muffled. The doctor’s decision is to have us wait two month and then follow up with another appointment with audiology. If at that time Payton still has fluid behind her ear drums and is still showing signs of speech delay, we will need to discuss having tubes put in her ears to drain the fluid. We are definitely hoping in the meantime that things clear themselves up on their own.
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| Teething rings are yummy |
Despite fluid behind the ear drums, Payton is a happy and healthy 9 month old who is growing and changing every single day. She has been smiling and laughing more than she ever has and is a joy to be around!
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| Bye for now! |
