Sophie’s 9 Month Update

Sophie-girl is 9 months old! Here are the updates from this past month!
This monthly update is late for a couple reasons: first of all, we were out of town last week so it was too hard to get a post published, and second, Sophie just went in for her 9 month doctor’s appointment this week, so now we have the most up-to-date info!

Sophie’s 9 Month Update:

Nicknames: Sophie B, Sophie Bean, BeeBee (probably the most often used one), Honey, Dolly, BeeBee Brynn, Bumblebee, and Sophie Saurus. 🙂

Size: At her 9 month appointment this past Monday, Sophie weighed 16 pounds 10 ounces! And she’s 27 inches tall now. I always geek out about the growth charts at the doctor – I just find them so interesting! Sophie has been in the 6th percentile for weight for most of her life, but at the end of May, she was in the 13th percentile and at this 9 month appointment, she’s jumped to the 22nd percentile for weight! Her length/height has always hovered around the 20th-30th percentiles; this past visit, she was at the 22nd percentile for height as well. The doctor was super pleased with where she’s at – every part of her is a healthy proportion. We’re grateful!

Clothing-wise, Sophie is primarily in 12 month outfits at this point. She definitely still wears some 9 month clothing, and even has a couple 6 month onesies she can still fit into, but I’d say that she’s basically in 12 month sizes now!

Fun milestones:

Oh, where do I begin? I feel like from months 8 to 9, we were constantly seeing her learn new things and process everything so much more! 🙂 It’s been such fun!

Sophie loves doing the “baa baa baa” game – making that sound as she taps her open mouth with her hand, a toy, or even my hand! She always cracks up when she really gets rolling. It’s so great to see her creating and enjoying her own games!

Speaking of games, Sophie has figured out how to play peek-a-boo on her own! She especially loves to play it in the car, which has been fun because we’ve had quite a bit of travel this past month!

^^ Lunch + ice cream date with her friend Finley! ^^

She can crawl beautifully anywhere and everywhere (and always has a little mission in mind, of where she wants to get to and why!). Sophie also pulls up to standing on furniture or in her crib. She’s a strong little girl and determined to stand! But then her difficulty right now is in sitting down – she isn’t totally comfortable letting go and plopping down, so she often needs help to sit back down. (I don’t blame her – it seems like such a “trust fall” thing to do otherwise!)

On our recent trip to Branson, Missouri, we introduced Sophie to eating baby puffs (kind of like Cheerios, but even lighter). She loves them so much! They’re a special snack that we still bring out for her now that we’re home. The coolest part? Sophie knows how to pick them up and put them directly into her mouth!! Bjorn worked with her on that skill one day, and it only took 3 tries for her to realize that she could feed herself instead of leaning forward to be fed! 🙂 She often will transfer the puffs into her left hand to feed herself. Is it too early to hope she’s a leftie like

About a week ago, Sophie started doing even more intentional waving at people. It’s so darling!

She now has two bottom teeth peeking through. Teething got a little rough on and off, with Sophie waking a couple times a night for a bit, but overall, she’s been a trooper! 🙂 We have a Nuby brand natural teething gel that I occasionally use on her gums, but besides that, we haven’t had to use medicine. She hasn’t gotten a fever, which has been a blessing.

As far as food goes, Sophie enjoys quite a variety! 🙂 There’s baby oatmeal and rice cereal, of course – which I mix with breastmilk for her supper. She likes purees, especially sweet potatoes! She has also tried pear, green beans, sweet peas, apples, blueberries, and more! I like to freeze small chunks of bananas for her, and then I put a frozen chunk into her silicone feeder as a fun appetizer! Sophie has begun to try small amounts of things we’re eating – just foods like avocado chunks, a little ground hamburger, a peeled and pitted cherry in her feeder, etc. We’ll soon have her eat even more of what we adults are eating! It’s been nice to ease into it this way, though.

Sleep:

Sophie has had generally awesome nights this past month! (Hooray!!) Her bedtime is between 7:30 and 8:00 pm. I still feed her at around 10:45 pm before I go to bed myself, and then she typically can sleep until about 7:00 am! (These are the days we were looking forward to back when she was a newborn and up a lot more!) Sometimes, if she’s feeling a bit off, she’ll wake around 5 or 6 am for a little bit. But overall, we are so happy to report she can sleep through the night at this point! We’re so proud of her (and grateful for more sleep).

RELATED: Our Best Baby Sleep Tips + Strategies (Age 4-6 Months) // I share all of our sleep tips and techniques in this post, in hopes of encouraging and helping other new parents. Be sure to check it out if you’re looking for ideas or solutions that may work for your family, too!

Regarding naps: Much is still the same as I recorded in her 8 month update. Sophie still takes a 90-120 minute morning nap each day (starting 2 hours after she wakes up), and then a 1-2 hour nap each afternoon. (The afternoon nap is usually more of an hour long nap.) If her afternoon nap is super short (like 30 minutes or less) or somehow gets shifted earlier in the afternoon, then I’ll have her take a shorter cat nap later in the afternoon. Like I talk about in our sleep tips post, I don’t have her nap at all past 4:45 pm if I can, because those late afternoon naps can mess up her bedtime.

Sophie likes: 

• Music! She loves to dance by bouncing up and down to songs.
• Peek-a-boo! She can play it all by herself, by holding up a blanket and whipping it down, or she likes to pull the blanket down if we are hiding behind it ourselves!
• Food. 🙂 She’s getting more excited about seeing her food being made, or seeing her container of puffs come out for a snack.
• Animals. She’s obsessed with all kinds of animals, although I’d say her favorites are dogs for sure. She’ll smile and giggle at animals like cats or birds, but it’s nothing like how much she shrieks and laughs happily when she sees a puppy! It’s so much fun.
• Mama. 😉 What I mean is she has been extra aware of when I’m in the room (or when I leave the room). The doctor said this is very typical for a 9 month old – she’s attached to her mama! Sophie is also attached to Bjorn. She looooves her daddy!
  She knows who her parents are and can definitely tell when the person grinning at her in line at the grocery store is a stranger! She still loves smiling at most people, though.

• Crawling around! She always has little adventures and missions in mind, and if you put her down on the floor, she’ll immediately head off on her mission! It’s so cute!

• SWIMMING! This has been a new experience for her recently. Sophie got to play in a couple hotel pools when we were traveling this past month, and then we took her to the local pool last week. She is such a little swimmer girl! She’s brave and loves to practice kicking in the water, and even is a natural at floating calmly on her back (which she did with her Auntie Signe, who’s a lifeguard. The two of them had so much fun!). I’m so proud of her! I think our little girl will love swim lessons someday!

• Books. She’s definitely becoming a little bookworm (which we’re thrilled about!). Sophie likes to hold her books herself when she’s doing independent playtime, and I’ll even find her laying on her back with her legs crossed as she holds a book! She’s starting to understand the concept of holding and turning pages, too, which is sweet.

Sophie doesn’t like:

• Mostly, it’s toys being taken from her. If she’s grabbing onto something or holding something and we need to take it out of her hand, she sometimes yells and her face turns red! It’s not every time, but it’s often enough if the item is something she finds super interesting! I wouldn’t classify these as actual temper tantrums (my friend and I talked about them being called “mini-fits”), but she definitely is showing preferences and opinions by now.
• Being set down and then the adult walking away. This is related to her being a 9 month old right now – just plain being fond of us, and also a bit of FOMO (fear of missing out!).

This past month, Sophie:

• Traveled a lot! We were at Fort Knox in Kentucky for a week at the end of June, and then we spent almost a week doing a trip down to Branson, Missouri!

^^ Sitting like a big girl at Cracker Barrel! ^^

• Met her great-grandma (my grandma) for the first time. We were able to swing through St. Louis and spend a morning with my grandma, Eleanor.

• Had her first eye doctor appointment. This was just an initial one – not due to any concerns with Sophie’s eyes. It’s just that Bjorn and I both have glasses/contacts (with my vision being much worse), so since our eye doctor likes to take preventative routes with glasses, we wanted to bring Sophie in for a checkup. All was well! Her eyes are perfectly where they need to be. Our next appointment will be after she turns 2.

Sophie Brynn is such a joy to be around! She brings a smile to so many people’s faces, and she sure brightens our day, every day! We’re grateful for the gift of doing life with her.