9 Months Old!

Our little boy turned 9 months old today.  He has officially been outside of my body as long as he was inside it.  Time sure is flying!  This past month has been full of highs and lows.  The highs all center around the amazing, physical progress that Emmett has made.  He now is a crawling machine and can be found anywhere and everywhere in the house.  In addition, he is 100% proficient at sitting and also pulling himself up on anything that he can reach like a couch, chairs, coffee table, and inside his pack 'n play where he is still currently sleeping in our bedroom.  He also discovered how to clap and now can be found clapping on a regular basis which is just about the cutest thing!  Emmett has also dove into the world of table foods in addition to pureed, baby foods.  I now serve him table foods on his high chair tray every day and he has liked everything that I have given him with the one exception of watermelon.  I first started off with feeding him 'puffs' (a type of bite-sized baby food made out of puffed rice) before serving him bread, avocados, watermelon, strawberries, jello, cheese, tortillas, pasta, black beans, rice, carrots, sweet potatoes, bananas, apple sauce, vienna sausages, yogurt, spaghettios, chicken, and edamame.  Emmett is really figuring out how to pick up food and put it in his mouth which he struggled with quite a bit when I first started serving him table foods.  I have also tried several sippy cups to help him learn how to drink water, but he is yet to become proficient at drinking out of any of them.  Hopefully, Emmett will figure this out before his first birthday as this is my 'ticket to freedom' by weaning him and transitioning him to drinking whole milk after he turns one years old.  

As for the lows of this past month, they have all been centered around his massive regression in sleeping at night.  Prior to a month ago, Emmett was consistently sleeping through the night since last May and has only required a pacifier plug in whenever he did wake up in the middle of the night.  With the rare exception (like when we were in Florida in unfamiliar beds and unfamiliar rooms), Emmett has slept through the night without ever needing to be nursed back to sleep.  However, this all came to a screeching halt on September 10th when he woke up in the middle of the night and refused to fall back asleep after I tried plugging in his pacifier several times.  Somewhat confused, I eventually had to give up and nurse him back to sleep and, five weeks later, it is still going on.  I'm going to be honest, it's been rough.  Really rough.  At first I didn't know what was going on when Emmett first started needed to be nursed once, twice, or sometimes even three times a night, but within in a week, I figured out that he was cutting his first tooth.  And then he cut his second tooth the following week and caught a cold.  Now, both of his bottom, center teeth are in and his cold is gone, but the awful habit has been established of needing to be nursed back to sleep every time he wakes up.  Emmett simply refuses to take the pacifier and just gets really mad or sad at me.  I am exhausted as I have refused to let myself nap through any of this as I am just too busy with too much to do during the day to give up his precious nap time for my own nap time.  I know that I need to move him into his own crib in his own room and have him "cry it out" for a week or so before we get back on track, but I am yet to do this partially because I hate doing it so much!  But I don't know how much longer I can take, so it's coming soon.

So, on that not-so-positive note, I will say that we still love our Emmy Bemms to pieces.  He is such an adorable, happy, sweet baby that just smiles, squeals, and laughs a ton.  He loves playing with his older siblings and playing with toys and just lights up our lives every single day!  Sleep or no sleep, I just love this baby to pieces!

Baby Emmett on his monthly, milestone blanket with a little pumpkin in hand!