Another month has f.l.o.w.n by and I think this may have been my absolute favorite month so far! Juno has grown up so much and has really turned a corner in the best way this month. She is simply so much fun right now and cracks us up everyday. She is growing everyday and continues to be the light of our lives.
Juno had her 9 month check up on Monday. We love her pediatrician so that makes going to the doctor so much better, especially since Juno is a screamer (as you know if you’ve read any of her monthly recaps before) and her doctor continues on like she isn’t screaming or pushing her away or putting up a fight in the slightest and continually tells me what a good job I am doing while she is also trying to soothe and calm Juno enough to examine her. Bless her heart. Juno is 15 pounds 3 ounces (finally over 15 pounds, hooray!) and is 26 inches tall. She’s still in the 6th percentile (almost the 7th now!) for weight and is now in the 9th percentile for height. She consistently wears 6 month clothes although her 3 month pants still fit - ha! She has an itty bitty waist and some short legs. Her feet are even smaller (size 0-3 month shoes still) and we could just gobble up her tiny toes. We are finishing up the last few size 2 diapers we have and then we will be moving her up to size 3 diapers! How is our baby girl getting so big? Also at her 9 month check up Juno got her first flu shot (we’ll go back next month for her second dose) and she had to get some blood drawn to check her iron levels. Baby girl was so brave, but those loud squeals and giant alligator tears break my heart every time. Good news is her iron level is normal so we don’t have to supplement at this point - since Juno isn’t eating many solids yet we were worried we would have to start. Juno has come SO far in terms of her tummy troubles and reflux and it’s been so refreshing. A few weeks ago Juno started majorly fighting taking her daily reflux medicine so we decided to follow her lead and see how she would do without it for a bit and she’s done great so we are staying off it for now and hopefully forever! It’s so nice to be able to get up and nurse her right away in the mornings instead of having to give her her medicine and wait 30 minutes before feeding her. Each morning when she wakes up, Brandon goes and gets her, changes her and then brings her into our bed for our daily morning snuggles. She nurses and then snuggles for a while which is simply the BEST way we could ever imagine starting our days. We are also doing a trial run from excluding dairy and soy from my diet this month. I’ve now been eating both dairy and soy for a couple of weeks and so far so good — hallelujah! It’s AMAZING to just be able to EAT without having to check every single label. I’ve literally been ravenous and am eating everything in sight. Soon we will slowly start to introduce dairy and soy into Juno’s actual diet with the solids she is eating so we will see how that goes! Fingers crossed! Solids, at this point, are still slowwww going. Juno isn’t all that interested in food. She has a handful of purees she likes (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, prunes and peas) and our latest foods have been blueberries and spinach, but she really is just a bird when it comes to eating. We are going to start some feeding therapy soon at Children’s Hospital because she still has the hardest time with anything other than purees. We are trying to give her little pieces of soft foods every now and then but she honestly just isn’t ready yet and that’s okay. Even the tiniest bites of real food make her gag, and then she continues to gag until she throws up everything in her little belly including alllll of the milk from her last feeding. We are hoping that starting feeding therapy now at such a young age will really help in the long haul. I’m also still terrified of giving her new foods ever since we found out she was allergic to avocados last month. Since she didn’t react the first handful of times having avocado and then all of the sudden started throwing up from them, we are trying to expose her to each new food at least of handful of times before we determine if it is a safe food for her and since she eats such a little amount at each meal this process takes about a week for each new food. I think I said this last month but I didn’t realize that starting solids would be so scary, but I’m feeling more hopeful now that we will be starting therapy and that she hasn’t had any other reactions to any other foods so far.
Juno’s become SUCH a good player this month. Gone are the days of her wanting to be held 24/7. Now that’s she’s mobile she just wants to be put down on the ground and wants to play with all of her toys. In the last few weeks, Juno has started CRAWLING! While she isn’t fully crawling on all fours yet, she has become a pro at army crawling on her belly and will scoot to wherever she wants to be and goodness she has gotten FAST. She is getting more comfortable with taking more steps on all fours so real crawling will most likely take off any day now. She still loves to walk around the house holding onto our hands too and walking independently in her walker has become her favorite thing to do. Her little legs move SO quickly and she runs around laughing and talking and smiling the whole time. She will stay in her walker making laps around our main floor for so long and we just crack up the whole time watching her. Other favorites this month include standing and playing at the taco food truck at Yaya and Papa’s, playing in her new play house that Yaya got us for our house, and reading books that have textures in them or that make sounds. She will sit and look at a book for a good period of time which basically makes my teacher/book lover heart EXPLODE with happiness.
June Bug got her first little smidgen of a cold at the beginning of the month, but for her first bout of sickness, it was a walk in the park. She never got a fever and a little runny nose couldn’t get this girl down! We are so thankful that Juno has been so healthy these first 9 months of her life and we definitely don’t take that for granted. We are also happy to report that her sleeping is really starting to become more consistent. While she can’t quite make it through the night yet without a feeding, she has been doing pretty long stretches through the night (last night she went almost a 6 hour stretch) and she has started NAPPING. Yes, napping! Like not for just 20 minutes anymore, but for over an HOUR everyday. knock.on.wood. In fact, yesterday her morning nap lasted TWO HOURS. Oh my gosh, this has been a game changer. She’s napping right now as I type this if you can even believe it! While her pediatrician on Monday said, “While I wish she was a bit fatter and eating solids a little bit better, within the next month or so you can start to cut out her night feedings”. So, that’s our plan for now! We are letting her sleep until she wakes up and for another month or so I’ll continue to feed her if she does wake in the night. A full night of sleep is in my future … I can almost taste it!
Juno is still toothless although we think this might be the month of her first tooth (do I say that every month?). We love her gummy, big, open-mouthed smile so much. A few other things we are loving about her right now — her fuzzy, soft hair that continue to come in, the way she holds a plank with her bum straight up in the air when she’s on the hard wood or the grass, and how she grabs our faces and pulls us in for a big open-mouthed, slobbery kiss. This month we played with our cousins a lot (on both sides!), soaked up the last few days at the pool over Labor Day weekend and spent a lot of time with YaYa while this momma got a lot of work done. Goodness, 8 full months are in the books and we can’t wait to see what month 9 brings. Brandon and I still look at each other every single day and say, “how is she ours?” and for that, we are truly blessed. June Bug, we couldn’t love you more. Thank you for making us your parents. Until next month …
