Life at Nine Months

Tear. This is her last single digit month.

What can I say about this girl? She's accomplished so much in this last month. Well, accomplished everything but crawling. What she does is scoot herself on her bottom to move from one area to the next. She's so close to actual crawling, but for whatever reason, she's just not doing it. This might be a good thing. But she has mastered feeding herself little cereal snacks, one by one into her little mouth. We practiced this one very late night, a night in which she woke up, ate at my breast, detached herself and started babbling on and on, as if she was Jake's drunk girlfriend from Sixteen Candles. She stayed awake for like three hours that night. Not fun. But in that time I figured I might as well teach her how to feed herself. And she did, so I guess we got something accomplished in the late night hour.

What else? Oh, yes, she's learned to pull herself up to the sofa. She did this twice and fell over twice. She's also began waving goodbye and saying "buh-bye," but sometimes it's "buh-buh" or "buh-baa." And sometimes her wave goodbye is more like a "come to me" motion. We're still working on it. She's also doing this thing where when she's in someone else's arms and I motion for her to come with me, she turns her head and body back into that other person's body, as if rejecting me.

So Lucero is a funny bird. As soon as I readjust myself to her new habits, she goes and changes things up on me. One minute, she prefers falling to sleep with her head resting on my shoulders, the next minute it's back to the crook of my arm. And speaking of sleep, well, I hate to bring this topic up again, but just so you fully realize what I'm dealing with:

She sleeps on the same bed with me, but with pillows surrounding her, so she won't roll. We've been doing this since she was one month old. Truly, I thought we would have a place of our own, thus meaning a room and crib of her own to sleep in. Well, see what happens when you assume? So she's been sleeping with me for eight months. She knows that if she lifts her head, she can see me laying right next to her, which means when she wakes in the night, she expects me to be at her beck and call. Now her new thing is rejecting the pacifier, like crying, practically screaming in displeasure that I would actually offer her a pacifier instead of the real thing. This child of mine is on my breasts sometimes four times a night. It's like she's a newborn. So now she has a new bad habit.

But back to the sleeping part...she has never fallen asleep on her own, except for maybe in the car seat. Every book or article I've read on developing good sleeping habits for babies says they need to learn to put themselves to sleep. Ok, then I've got a major problem here, 'cause my child is nine months and is no where near that and I'm just sitting here wondering, how do I undo that in a nine-month old baby? (Elizabeth, I tried to check out Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child book. My library didn't have it, but they ordered it and so hopefully it'll arrive soon, so I can start reading it.)

The trouble with implementing a new nap or bed routine is that I don't have my own home yet and a room and bed only for Lucero. If that was the case, I think I could apply these practices a little better. 'Cause here lies the issues:

1.) Since we share a room, I can't just put her to bed when she falls asleep and then me go about my evening until I'm ready to hit the hay. If she wakes up and doesn't find me next to her, she wakes and thinks it was only a nap, meaning she'll be up til the wee hours when I'm ready to be in bed. I have to be literally by her side in bed in order for her to stay asleep. If her pacifier falls out and she's stirring herself half-asleep searching for it, I have to get it and place it back in her mouth before she wakes herself up. This is why I can't leave the room.

2.) If she wakes and I'm not in the room, I can't just leave her to her own devices, hoping she'll put herself back to sleep. She's not in a crib or playpen, so there's nothing there to hold her there, which means she can roll herself off the bed in a crying fit, which she's done once before when I was in the shower that one time. (To MZNutterman, I actually do have a play yard thing, but it's buried in the garage right now. However we're so close to getting a home - I hope, cross your fingers - that I'm continuing to wait until then to implement a change to her sleep, but thanks for offering yours.)

3.) Because her father doesn't live here with us, he comes to visit whenever he can and due to his long work hours, he could drop by at nine in the evening and not leave until eleven, maybe later, maybe sooner, you never can tell. There lies the other problem: no fixed bedtime routine, as in there's no set time for her to go to bed. If we shared a home with her father, this might be easier to deal with, because at least he would have more opportunities to see her besides in the evening after work. Then again, sometimes X is just as much the problem. He's not a rule-follower, so if I say, "No, the book says not to veer from the bedtime routine." He will say F the book, maybe not exactly in those terms, but pretty much. And why? Because he doesn't get it. He doesn't get this will make all our lives easier. Lucero getting her rest means I get my rest, which means I'm a happier camper, which means I'll be less crabby and resentful towards him. Everyone wins.

Ok, so this is what I'm dealing with when it comes to Lucero and her sleep issues. If I repeated some stuff, I apologize. I just wanted to put it all out on the table in case someone was lost or missed a previous post.

On to her latest specs:
Weight 17lbs 11oz
Height 27 3/4"
Head 17" circumference

And here she is

P.S. Sorry, if this sounds like a lot of complaining about my child. I do love her dearly and she does have some tender moments. I'm just going through a phase with her and need a place to voice it.