nathan - 9 months old

Another month has passed and yet again it has gone quick, quick, quick! Nathan is 9 months old today, three-quarters of the way to being a one-year-old. I think 9 months is a big milestone because now Nate has been in the world for as long as he was in utero. I'm not exactly sure why, but this feels huge to me.

Nate's ninth month has been busy, with family days out and lots of activities. The weather has changed from snow in the beginning of the month to gloriously sunny days at the end. We visited Nate's uncle Rob in Coventry and I started back at work as well, so a lot has happened! 

On our trip to Coventry

So how is Nate doing? Well, Nate is now a clapping machine! He claps whenever he hears music or if we start singing "If you're happy and you know it". It's incredible to see him comprehending something we say and acting on it. I love it. He is also chewing on his cheerios now and actually swallowing them; last month he was only putting them in his mouth and spitting them out, so this is great progress.

If you're happy and you know it...

In terms of movement, Nate is focusing on refining his standing up skills. I am not sure now if he will crawl or walk first because he still cries after being on his tummy for a while. He just hasn't figured out the whole crawling thing. But he can almost pull himself to standing on the sofa. And he loves to stand and play with his new activity table. He does still lunge forward when sitting, but hasn't been able to get into a hands-and-knees position yet.  

Nate still loves to copy sounds and actions. He will try and imitate us when we are speaking to him and really tries to say words, but they all end up sounding like "ba ba". He loves playing with labels and poking round things like holes, buttons, even my nostrils (!) - I am a little weirded out by that one (but maybe it's a normal baby thing?)

Last week we decided that it was time to face Nate outwards when using our stroller. I kept delaying moving him from facing me because I loved staring at his little face when we went on walks, but a few weeks ago I could tell that he was trying to look around me to see what was going on, so I thought it was time. We took him to an antique's fair near our house on his first outward-facing journey and he loved it. 

Off to the antique's fair

We also only yesterday took him out of his baby seat in the bath and put in him an upright bath chair! We knew he was too big for his baby seat for weeks and weeks, but both my husband and I loved his little baby seat and I think we didn't want to admit he had outgrown it. I feel bad now that we kept him in the baby seat for so long because the first time we put him in the chair he had such a blast splashing and playing with his toys.  

"Can't you see I'm clearly too large for this seat?"

There has been no change to his sleeping yet. He is still up once a night, but what I find great is that he goes down very easily at 7pm and usually (but not always) wakes up around the same time for his night feed at 4am-ish. Although not ideal, the fact that the nights are pretty predictable make everything soooo much easier.  I have been told by a breastfeeding supporter that breastfed babies are generally able to go through the night without a feed once they are 10 months old. So I am clinging onto the hope that in a month or two we will all be getting a full night's sleep.

Next week we are off to France for a 2 week holiday in the sun with my husband's parents. We are all so excited to get some quality family time and to show Nate some new places.