Vesna: 9 months old!

April 26, 2020. 275 days old.

​One day, when Vesna is old enough to read these posts, she won’t have any recollection of these past two months or the months to come, and the strange times we are living in as a worldwide pandemic sweeps through the world. Vesna will be lucky to have no memory of it, she will only know or see in pictures that mommy and daddy were with her every day. For me, it brings back past horrid memories of living during the war in Bosnia, but only this time we have running water, food and electricity. In some sense, it’s been nice to have the distraction of raising a happy go lucky 9 month old who is getting more interactive by the day and constantly showering us with huge smiles & giggles, happy hand claps and big drooly kisses. And all I can think is, I hope you stay this happy forever, Vesna. 

This time has made us slow down and appreciate the little things in life, focus on family and people that make us happy and bring good energy, eat a little bit more healthy, and go on daily walks in our beautiful little neighborhood. I have been lucky enough to work from home while Jason has stepped into his new role as a stay-at-home daddy with such grace and joy that I couldn’t be more proud of him. I love overhearing them in the morning having breakfast together, her clapping her little hands as he feeds her and hearing them talk and listen to the music he has going (she will definitely learn good music from him and house/trance/classical music from me with maybe some Britney Spears, ha!). 

At 9 months, Vesna is now 20 pounds and 8.5 ounces and at 82ndpercentile for babies her age. For height, she is 70thpercentile and continues to have a big head at 98thpercentile. She no longer looks like my little baby and is taking on a whole toddler vibe. The theme this month is “baby on the move”. She loves to climb over furniture, crawl (but not on the carpet), stand up while hanging on over and over again, use us as her very own jungle gym and smile big when she does something new. Her idea of playing has expanded from putting everything in her mouth to include throwing and knocking things over. She’s got a pretty good arm, just like her dad. The noises she makes are starting to sounds more like mumbles and an accidental “da-da” although I am trying to teach her to say Tata instead, meaning dad in Bosnian, and an occasional growling sound (not quite sure what that’s all about). It’s not very often that she cries unless she’s tried or hungry, and we are definitely starting to see her little personality come out – she’s very much an extrovert at home and with people she knows, just jabbering away, but as soon as we are out and around people she doesn’t know, she becomes very quiet and shy. She is also very cautious around new things and activities like trying out the swing at the park for the first time or touching flowers. My sister was like that as a baby, so she’s definitely picking up after her auntie. 

Her sleep pattern hasn’t changed much in the past month. She still takes two naps a day (sometimes skipping the second one) and still wakes up during the night 2-3 times to feed. Given that she no longer seems interested in breastfeeding during the day (we are down to one feeding if that), I continue to pump and do the night feedings, as I am not quite ready to call it quits yet. Even with pumping, I am no longer able to keep up with her demand and having already gone through all the frozen stash as well, we officially introduced formula to her yesterday and she didn’t seem to mind it. It was at first tough knowing she’s losing interest (or getting distracted) with breastfeeding, but I am slowly coming to the realization that this too had to end. 

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