I took Nora in for her easy 9 month appointment. No shots needed, so just a quick visit to confirm that she is still at the top of the growth charts at 24lbs and 31". I looked back and she is 3 POUNDS bigger than the boys were. It's funny because I always thought Charlie was huge, and then Levi was bigger than him and now Nora puts them both to shame. On the flip side, Levi was super active by this age so I'm sure his growth just slowed a bit by this age. She is wearing 18 month clothes.
Her growth may slow down a bit now too, because she is on the move! As I suspected, she skipped over any sort of creeping or army crawling and went right for crawling on all 4's. After much coaxing by the brothers, one day she just took off and now she gets all over the house. She's still pulling up on things up to her knees but has no desire to stand. She just sticks out her butt and pulls her legs up. But now that she can crawl, she gets into lots of things. Her favorite things are digging out the baskets of clothes under the boys' beds, the toys under the TV and pulling off the bottom of the fridge, which Levi did constantly. She also crawls out to the entry, getting down the little ledge, but she can't figure out how to get back up. We just have to watch her closely out there because a.) there are 3 doors for Levi & Charlie to come barreling thru at any second and b.) there's almost always a plethora of dirt on the floor.
So she crawls, but still will not roll over! (Actually in the last week she has rolled over pretty frequently). She has always been a back-sleeper and when she would wake up, she wouldn't roll over to sit herself up, so she would just hang out on her back. She finally figured out how to roll over and now will sit herself up when she wakes meaning we finally lowered the crib over the weekend. Now that she's so mobile in her crib it's a lot harder to see her on the monitor. She has been sleeping on her belly a bit now too that she's figured out how to roll over.
Wants to get up...can't figure out how to roll over...
Her favorite word is "oh oh" and it's adorable. Whenever she drops something she'll say it. She is almost always a happy and content baby. She gets so excited & squeals with delight when she sees 1.) Charlie 2.) a phone or remote 3.) a sippy cup 4.) food and 5.) when the boys are outside if I walk by a window or door with her and she sees them out there she just screeches! Love it. She is an expert clapper and waves at herself in the mirror, occasionally at others.
Woah, I haven't mentioned sleep yet!! That's because it's going pretty well. She's sleeping well most nights from 9pm-7am ish and is taking a morning nap and an afternoon nap. The length of the naps vary quite a bit . She doesn't usually like to rock and prefers to just be put down and she'll roll up on her side. Typically, there is very minimal fussing.
She has also went to daycare for a couple of days. She did great - took long naps and our daycare lady was impressed by how much she eats (boys, too!).
This month poor Nora also had her first trip to the ER. One Saturday night, Erik was trying to help her stand up and her right hand slipped off of his finger and pulled her left elbow out of it's socket. She cried pretty hard right away and her little arm just hung at her side, but she didn't cry as long as I held her arm still. I was sure that she had dislocated something so her and I took off to the ER. After we got registered, I texted Erik saying that it would hopefully not take too long because there was nobody in the waiting room. Then, the first of 3 ambulances rolled in with critical patients so we quickly got bumped to the bottom of the list. The nurse was sure she had "nursemaids elbow" which is one of the most common injuries in kiddos under 5. By the time the doctor came in, I had gotten her to fall asleep. He didn't even really examine her but agreed that's likely what it was so he tried to pop it back in while she was asleep. She did not appreciate that at all. He said typically kids bounce right back once they pop it back in but he never felt it pop back in (due to her chubby arms) and her arm still hung there/she was pissed. So, he ordered xrays of the shoulder & arms. More waiting. Xrays were also lots of fun and then more waiting for a radiologist somewhere far, far away to read the xrays. The doctor came back and said they looked fine, she still wouldn't move her arm at all and would just flip out if anybody touched her arm. The doctor said this is just not something he sees - even kids who may be hesitant to use the arm for fear of it hurting get over it rather quickly and it had now been a couple of hours. He decided to call down to Children's ER just to make sure he wasn't missing anything. By this point she was so tired, we figured it was also entirely possible she was just too tired and/or scared of him since her first impression was of him yanking on her arm. Finally, (he was the only dr in the ER so it took him a long time to work his way around) he came back and said that Children's had suggested putting a soft splint on it and seeing if she was better in the morning after some sleep. He said if she was moving in the morning to take it off and if not, we would have to take her to Children's to have them evaluate with their specialized equipment for little people. Luckily, she slept pretty good and by morning was moving her shoulder. We took the splint off and she still seemed pretty unsure about using that arm. After a morning nap though, she forgot about it and was back to normal. Whew! It was quite the experience and now we are extra paranoid about pulling on her arms at all (especially the boys!!). Overall, our ER visit was 4 hours...which felt like about 4 days trying to hold all 24 pounds of her in the same position. She did let me sit down for a few minutes a couple of times ;) Just so happy that she was okay.
Can you believe this sweet baby is almost 1?
I am smitten with her cuteness. Such a little darling! Love, Grandma K
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