This update is combined for two reasons. The first is that I always seems to neglect these monthly updates until days before her next monthly-birthday, and secondly, these two months are very related – splitting them up would have been too confusing for me and thus you, and I care about your feelings. So without further adieu…
It finally happened. After weeks, maybe months, this whole mobility thing clicked. And it was literally like a light switch was flipped – one day, nope, next day, yep. Pretty amazing when you think about it, the idea that she can now crawl around on her own. Then, less than a month later, she began standing (with support of course). It was as if her arms and legs gained enough strength to pull little body up overnight, literally. The cats are no longer safe from the huffing and puffing of a little attacking infant and we need to be that much more aware of the air space around our ankles (that’s a long way down for me). I suppose it won’t be long before she begins testing her limits, and our nerves, as she starts walking.
Another byproduct of her new mobility is that everything, and I mean everything, is finding its way into her mouth – the fireplace, chairs, table, couch, DVD player, oven handle, floor, cat scratcher, EVERYTHING! And she doesn’t discriminate. Even the toys and books at her bi-weekly play class at the local community college aren’t safe from her little chompers. I suppose broadening her culinary pallet is a good thing, but this certainly wasn’t the original plan. But hey, I suppose it keeps her immune system sharp.
And speaking of pallet, Isabel has been introduced to real food, and this girl can eat! We aren’t talking about purees (which we worried she’d never graduate from), that was sooo two months ago, but real food – cheerios, blueberries, chicken, beans, corn, melon, turkey, and broccoli. She sits in her high chair gingerly pinching bite size pieces to shove into her toothless mouth, fisting others as if she was hoarding for the winter, and dropping the rest on the floor for the cats. She DEVOURS hummus and has learned how to drink from her very own Cal CamelBak water bottle. Yep, the indoctrination has started.
But to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And said reaction is occurring with naps. We have heard screams emerge from Isabel that we didn’t know existed, confronted protests we didn’t know someone so small could put up, and felt her clingy pull not yet exhibited. She is going through something. A phase. But a phase like no other we have experienced (either that or we’ve just forgotten). A phase that has lasted longer than most of her other phases. Her new found awareness, coupled with new physical and mental developments, is affecting her in ways we were not used to, nor could we have expected.
She was never a marathon napper, but she was always a consistent, no-fuss napper. Until recently. All the research points to her transitioning from three to two naps per day – but it’s the Internet, so everything is contradictory and ambiguous. The Internet also talks about this elusive “wake time” (ie. how long a baby should be awake before the next nap) which I’ve determined is part myth and part reality, whereby finding the sweet spot is about as possible as gaining access to Hogwarts without being a wizard.
The nap saga has spanned about two months now, a daily struggle that I am largely a bystander too, doing what I can, when I can, providing moral text support from work or the train. Some days are better than others, but this transition really sucks.
So you’d think that we would have barricaded ourselves in the house right? Ha!
We decided to take advantage of Mrs. FWL’s summer break and travel a little. Well, traveling with a 9 month old is much different than a 4 month old. They now remember what home looks, smells, and sounds like. And that’s not what she saw in the middle of the night when she awoke in her travel crib on TWO trips. (Yea, we thought the first time was a fluke, so we tried again…)
Trip One was up to the Bay Area just as she was turning 9 months. Not more than a day after we left, BabyCenter sent Mrs. FWL a nice little “Your Baby is 9 Month’s Old Today!” email essentially saying we were doomed. (It actually said that babies shouldn’t really go on trips around 9 months because their development is wreaking havoc on their sleep and general temperament.) Oops. We were 350 miles from home, staying with soon-to-be parents, toting around a ticking time bomb. Sure enough, Isabel didn’t sleep through either night, waking up at 3am TWO nights in a row and had to be nursed back to sleep in our bed – something we hadn’t done in nearly seven months. Needless to say, we were not prepared to deal with that (remember the whole routine thing suddenly changing…?)
Trip Two was to San Diego. We were optimistic, but knew in the back of our mind that a repeat performance was possible. And sure enough, Isabel went on stage at 1am this time. Ok, so of course we thought Mrs. FWL could rock her back to sleep, maybe nurse her, and she’d be good. Nope, this girl was wired, ready to go, and it took over 3 hours to get her back to sleep. So Isabel slept on her first air mattress (at least it was one of those fancy ones).
But you know what, throughout ALL of this, I think I’ve seen her smile, laugh, and express herself more in a two month period than I have since she was born. Those that know Isabel, can attest that she’s a serious baby. It takes work to get her to smile. She’s an observer, taking stock of the situation before jumping in, keeping largely to herself for most of her play class before finding other babies to play with. But despite the hoops she’s made us jump through, and the stress she has caused, seeing her toothless smile and hearing her giggle somehow makes it all better. In the moment, when her hair-raising scream sends ripples through your entire body, it definitely sucks, but watching her grow, explore, mature, laugh, and test her boundaries reminds us that this is what matters.
Leave a Reply