Counting Our Blessings: 9 Month Check-Up!

Today was an exciting day for Lillian. She had her Nine-Month Checkup with our favorite pediatrician Dr. Walley! The measurements are below:

Height: 29 inches (95 percentile)
Weight: 18.4 pounds (50-75 percentile)
Head Circumference: 16.75 inches

As you can see, she has just continued to get taller. She has been well above average in height since her first visits with Dr Walley. She has also continued to put on weight. She is now in the average and above range for her weight. Anyways, today could not come fast enough for Melissa and I because we had a ton of questions for the good doctor.

One concern we have had recently is that after nine months we have still yet to see true tears from our little Angel. Sure her eyes get a little watery, but she never had them just streaming down her face. While most people would probably be thrilled with this, we were a little concerned that her tear ducts might not be developing the way they should be. Dr Walley insisted that she was absolutely fine, and that she was just a laid-back, tough baby that just gets more angry than hurt. She definitely gets the laid-back trait from me, but the tough trait from her mom... (do I lose my man card for saying that?)

We have also been worried about her ears. Lately, she has been pulling at them all the time. So much so that we recently noticed a scratch in her ear from her sticking her fingers in there! Dr Walley let us know that her ears were perfectly clear and that she was probably pulling on her ears because her front four upper teeth are starting to descend quite a bit.

Melissa also talked to the good Doc about weening Lillian from breast milk. Melissa's goal was to nurse her for the first year, but with her first birthday just a few months away, Melissa has decided to nurse for the first 5 years! Just kidding, DHR would be over here for a little visit if we decided on that. We are now thinking about nursing until she is a year and then beginning to ween her off, instead of having her weened by a year. He also informed us that we can start giving her whole milk around 11 months. It is just so hard to believe that she will be drinking regular milk in just two short months!

Melissa doesn't like to brag, so I will! Doc also let us know that he expects Lillian to be an early walker. She is already standing on her own for periods of up to 20-30 seconds. He never gave us an actual time frame he expected her to start walking, so I decided on one for him. She will take her first steps on February 22. That is exactly 5 days from now. Of course, that will be a Sunday, so it will probably happen in the Church Nursery, where no one will happen to see it.

She also had a shot today that didn't phase her in the least. She took it like a champ. Anyways, it is getting close to bedtime, so I guess I am done bragging.

Daddy