9 months!

… Well, plus a week… I’m going to say I was waiting to post until I could tell you about her doctor’s appointment & you will politely nod your head like you believe me 😉

Libby’s been out as long as she was in now. Which is crazy. I feel 9 months have gone even faster than the pregnancy 9 months went, and I felt like those nine snuck up on me pretty quickly. At the pediatrician this morning, Libby is still solidly off the height chart at 31″ long (tall? I guess they’re not “tall” until they stand on their own?) & weighs 21.5lbs, which puts her in 90th percentile for weight.

She is slowly becoming more & more mobile, testing out crawling, but not really comfortable with it yet, just starting to be able to go from lying on her back to sitting, and trying to pull up on things on her own, but not quite strong enough yet. She gets a little frustrated. It’s hard for me to know when to let her ride her frustration out to try again herself & when to help her.

At playtime, she still loves rattles & noise-makers…

…and her new favorite thing is to get the toys out of the box herself.

And first day at the pool!! SO CUTE!

We went to Casandra & Everly’s neighborhood pool & if we weren’t so busy making sure they didn’t drown, there would be about a gazillion more pictures because these girls loved the water & were totally adorable doing their little baby splashing in their little baby swimsuits.

She’s also gotten more teeth, and seemingly getting even more. One more popped up on the bottom & now her two front top are also visible but not fully grown. I think she’s getting another one on the bottom pretty soon too. So. Much. Drool. At least it’s summer now because her little top is wet all the time. I basically gave up on bibs because it seemed like wearing them just meant I then had to wash a top & a bib instead of just a top.

Despite the teeth, we’re still eating babyfood puree. I keep trying to introduce finger foods but she’s more interested in playing with it than eating it. And when she does get it in her mouth, she usually chokes. So puree & breastmilk it is for awhile longer it seems.

The big thing this month has been getting out & about. I finally got us in Mommy & me yoga classes as promised, which is pretty much exactly the adorable chaos you would expect from a yoga class with 8 to 24mo olds. We go to a studio called Blooma, which caters to mommies and even offers childcare for adult-only classes, but I haven’t taken one of those yet. I go on Tuesday mornings with Libby, and I even have been getting Brian to take her instead of me on Saturday mornings! I sooo wish I had pictorial evidence, but there are sadly no yoga photos to share.

At the suggestion of my friend Casandra, I’ve also joined a group of mommies who wrap – like baby-carrying wrap. The group is called Nashville Wrappers and I know what you’re thinking – “Where is the YouTube video of the comedy sketch you have clearly created based on this?” and trust me, I just haven’t finished writing it. It is seriously a whole thing you can be into with it’s own vocabulary – it reminds me of filmmakers in LA discussing camera equipment or window tinters talking brand & technique. Joining felt like the first day at a new job or something, you just follow along & do your best to blend in. So far I’ve gone walking in the Opry Mills Mall with them a few times (I’m a mall-walker you guys. I told you I wouldn’t know myself after giving birth), one official Babywearing International (I told you it’s a thing!) Nashville Chapter meeting, and one playdate. I’ve met a lot of cool mommies, but I’m a slow one to make friend-friends if that makes sense. And I’m also not one to fan-girl out on stuff very often, so my lack of immediate enthusiasm for building a “stash” (part of that vocabulary thing – seems to mean all the wraps & carriers you have?) may hurt my chances of connecting with these mommies. Don’t get me wrong, I love wearing Libby, I have my Ergo, the Moby wrap was super useful when she was a newborn, and I do absolutely now want a ring sling, but I think that’ll do it for me probably? I dunno, I just reread that sentence and realized that to all of you without babies that probably reads like I’m already a baby-carrier enthusiast in denial… so we’ll see. By next month, maybe I’ll be posting my “squish” and my “stash” on instagram & selling & buying wraps on Ebay. But I doubt it because that would involve my learning how to properly use not only the wraps, but also instagram & Ebay, and I don’t see all that going down.

Between yoga and the baby carrying meet-ups, it’s been really nice being around other mommies more and getting Libby a chance to be around other babies 🙂 Plus, a good next tip-toe into getting more exercise. I had told myself the 9mo mark is where I need to start getting serious again about getting back into reasonable shape & pull back on the calorie count. However, I didn’t really expect to still be breast-feeding 4-6x per day, meaning I’m still hungry. All. The. Time. So more exercise, less dessert & fried stuff, but probably still gonna keep my portion sizes of good food bigger for awhile. I’ve only got about 10-15lbs to drop to hit pre-pregnancy weight of 145-150ish (for those of you that met me in LA, or haven’t seen me since high school, that was a 135-140lbs MC which is teetering on the under-weight BMI line for me & I’m not aiming for that… in high school, it was the result of late puberty but early height, in LA I think it was probably from drinking whiskey and calling it dinner? Or walking for transportation as much as possible because gas was insane expensive?). Really though, more than weight, I’m concerned about cardio & strength, because if I learned anything from pregnancy it’s that I wished I was in better cardio shape and had a stronger back. And if I learned anything from childbirth, it was I wished I had more lung capacity and even stronger abs. And if I learned anything from having a baby for 9mo it’s that I need stronger muscles pretty much everywhere to keep up. So now I’ve just gotta step it up.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.