Ella 9 Month Update

Stats:

• Weight: 18 lb 6 oz  - 54th percentile 
• Height: 30.3 inches - 99.8th percentile  (we measure in cm and it was 77 cm but I converted)
• Head Circumference: 17.3 inches - 55th percentile 
• Diapers: Size 3 
• Clothing: Disney 6-9 month, Spasilk 9 months, Steelers 6-9 month, Leveret 12-18 mo ones yet.  Carter's 9 month dresses and 12 mo onesies. I've put her in a few 12 mo things just because I have them. They are a bit wide though. Sometimes the neckline is far too large on the tank top type dresses. Most of her shorts are size 12 months. The 12 mo pants are entirely too loose. She's been wearing 12-18 month socks for a while now. (Everything is the same as last month) I did go to smaller sizes in a few things again since I bought onesie extenders. Now the onesies are just barely long enough but still too wide.

(stats were taking 1 day late!)
Sleep
Ella is more consistently waking up daily near 6:30. I miss sleeping in until 7 or 7:30.
Half the time I run (which ends up being 1/4 the days) she naps around 9 for about 15 minutes.  Maybe once or twice this month she napped in the morning at home.  She usually takes a 2 hour nap in the middle of the day. It tends to start at 12 unless she is fighting it then it starts later. There have been times it has lasted 3 or 4 hours. It lasts long more than it is short but sometimes she still naps less than an hour.  I don't think she's had a 3rd nap at all this month.  Then she goes to sleep at night after nursing and 1/3 the time falls asleep on me and the rest she goes to sleep on her own in her crib. She's been much quicker at it but still has random days that take her a half hour to fall asleep.

Eating
She is now nursing around 1.5 hours a day. She continues to have pumped milk a few times a week.  Mostly when we leave the house. A few times while we were home late at night because she seemed so hungry. I think she was having a growth spurt this month.  This reduced time is not reduced time for feedings though since I'm giving her baby food 1-3 times a day. She rarely eats purees anymore. She eats a lot of foods that we eat. She loves to feed herself. 

Halfway through the month she was going through a growth spurt and wanted to eat all the time.  The last week of the month she wanted to eat while napping or she'd wake up. That was annoying.

Sample Schedule:
She still doesn't have a specific nap time or food time yet. It is so hard to plan anything but it is getting easier. She wakes up between 6:15 and 6:30 daily it seems. She used to sleep later. 
She may or may not nap around 9. This is usually during a run but sometimes it is at home. This nap is no more than a half hour and more like 15 minutes. 
She most often naps 12:30-2:30 but she can start her nap as late as 2.  She eats solids when we eat dinner around 6 or 7. She will have solids around 3 some days at home. She has solids around 4 or 5 on Wednesdays when we are at the park. She will have some snacks depending on when we are at the park so that time varies but being on a blanket is consistent for her. 
Her bedtime routine starts by 7:30 I'd say but usually earlier. It ranges between 7 and 8. We read her not the clock.

She nurses after she wakes up most of the time and before she goes to sleep again. Her bedtime routine is different. She requires both of us and she cries the entire time we change her diaper and put on her sleep sack. She is no longer swaddled at night. She only stops crying to get Vitamin D. Then I'm in the chair and Dave asks her to find me but they only rotate and she gets excited to see me and nursing is fine. (I guess the crying is only for the initial part of the bedtime routine.)  She either falls asleep on me or is put in the crib after she is done eating. She then puts herself to sleep. I still keep track of how long it takes her.

Special Moments:

On August 21, Ella crawled 6 steps with her belly off the ground. (This was the start of her expert crawling.)
On August 26, she shimmied along the couch to get my camera. I am not sure this would be crawled cruising but she did make it. 
On August 30, I discovered she likes her upper back tickled. She also clapped for the first time. 
On September 3, her bottom left tooth broke through. 
On September 4, her bottom right tooth broke through.
On September 8, she saw Dave walking home and recognized him and waved.  We taught Ella to give a high five. 
On September 9, she became a good waver. 
On September 11, Ella was cold at the park. I thought this was noteworthy since she has never been cold.
On September 12, Ella put the red ring on the ring stack. We also discovered Poly trapped in Ella's room an hour after Ella was in there. Poly was meowing and immediately ran to her litter box after I let her out. 
On September 13, Ella cruised along the couch.   I think this is the day we started to teach her high five and she learned immediately but only did it to Dave.
On September 14, we started trying to teach Ella some sign language.
On September 15, Ella put the red ring on her toy after being prompted.  She also bit me while nursing!
On September 16, she clapped appropriately during When You're Happy and You Know it. This was a huge shocker because I barely work on clapping so she barely does it then to do it when she should in a song is nuts. 
On September 18, she held up her hand and said high five. It wasn't super clear but we knew what she meant. Later she was acting like she wanted to talk to Dave's phone so he turned on Siri for her. Ella said "hi" and Siri said "hello, Dave" after so Siri knew she said hi!  While nursing Ella said "I bub" when she was done. Bub might be similar to done. I only remember to teach her sign language half the time but I say the words too so I think she's learning the words more.
On September 19, she climbed up her first slide. (The slide was made for climbing.) I put her on to crawl up but she went over to the edge and brought herself to standing then waited for my hands to help her walk up.

On my app, I have a lot of documented first foods but there's no need to mention them all. Ella likes a ton of foods! Ella got a lot better at cruising along the couch and walking while holding her hands throughout the month. 

9/21

Development:
Ella improved her crawling all month and I believe she crawls like a pro now. 
She started pulling herself up to standing often. Now if you try to sit her down on the ground she wants to stand and you have to try hard to get her to a seated position.
She has waved more times but not all the time.   She waves as a greeting to Dave often now. Her goodbye wave is quite delayed.
We taught her high five and when she does it, she smiles so big.  She has also said high five and held up her hand. (She did this to Dave when I was holding her but another time another mom heard it and commented so then I figured it wasn't all in my head.)
She has continued to help us dress or undress her. We tell her to help get her arm out and she does. But now sometimes I'm trying to dress her and she pulls her shirt right back off.  We also ask her to help get her arms in the car seat and strollers and she does. She helps get her arms in her shirts too. But now that she has done this sometimes she'll be sitting there and start to disrobe.
She's way more talkative this month.
Ella prefers food she can feed herself to purees. 

Other Tidbits:
Likes
She still likes to play a lot! 
She loves to army crawl around. She likes being more mobile.
She especially likes if she crosses a barrier like getting into the hallway. Then she giggles like she knows something is up.
She gets so excited to get her Vitamin D at the end the night.
She likes to sit by herself and play. She also likes to move from spot to spot to play then sit again.
She likes to be held when she wants to.
She likes to talk and smile at us. 
She likes it when I sing to her which sucks because that cheers her up a lot but songs are hard and I definitely won't sit if anyone else is in the house.
She loves to squeal really loud when she's close to Poly. (This scares Poly away so then Poly doesn't get her fur pulled.)
She loves to grab everything and put it in her mouth. 
She loves when you get out Tylenol. She tries to help get that syringe in her mouth. 
She likes to eat actual food. She much prefers to be able to feed herself over eating purees. 
She likes to swing. She likes to be thrown around. She loves to be dead lifted. I think she likes all things that are like a dare devil.
She likes to stand. 
She likes to accomplish something new and then she gets so excited.

9/21

Dislikes
She hates her bedtime routine now!
She hates when you take something away from her that she shouldn't have and protests!
She doesn't like to nurse if I'm talking or if anything is going on. 
She doesn't want to nurse during the day without being swaddled if she wants to fall asleep next.
She doesn't like to be anywhere she doesn't want to be. She could be happy on the floor playing then change her mind and you better pick her up or she's crying.
She now hates staying still on the changing table. She rolls over. She squirms about. She really also hates all diaper changes.
She hates to be left alone without a warning that I'm just going to the other room quickly for something. (With a warning she is fine.)
She hates to wake-up to a person that is not me.
She won't go to sleep without nursing first if we are home.

Fun Facts
Longest time sleeping: 12 hours 17 minutes  (737 minutes)
Days with a sleep greater than 5 hours: 31 (all)
Diapers used (from September 1-19): 6.4 per day (decrease from last month)
Time spent nursing (from September 1-19): 99 minutes (1:39) per day (decrease from last month)
Feeding average per day (from September 1-19): 1.4 oz (increase from last month) (this is just pumped milk)
Time spent sleeping (from September 1-19): 13.5 hours per day  (decrease from last month)

Favorite Toys
Toy Table (She stands at it and it has things to play with on it. I'm not sure what it's called now and too lazy to look it up.)
Blocks
Walker
Books (I count them as toys) 
Exersaucer
My camera (not a toy but she thinks it is)
My phone (not a toy but she thinks it is)
My computer mouse (not a toy but she thinks it is)
Cords (not a toy but she thinks it is)
Rings
Little music thing (we call it her ipod)
Toy Smart Phone
Everyone else's toys at the park

Favorite Songs
All of Me
When You're Happy and You Know it
Almost all songs when Dave sings them to her

Favorite Books
Trains go (prefers it when Dave reads it to her)

9/21

My Update
I'm not sure what to even say anymore. I still have a bigger belly than I used to but I feel like overall I look more like I did before. When I wear shirts from before, I look awesome when the day starts and then with lifting the shirt up to nurse by halfway through the day it looks like a sloppy stretched shirt and I hate it.

9/21

I repeat what I said last month: I feel like there is so much more. She's always changing but I just can't think of it now sitting here. I need to learn to write these as the month goes on. This month I feel like I missed even more than I thought I might have missed last month.

Some pictures were taken on the 21st since the first photo shoot just didn't go well. Those pictures are captioned with the date.