9 months

It's hard to believe Miss Iris has now been here in the world longer than she was in the womb. At her nine month check-up, she weighed 20 pounds even and was around 27 inches long. She has 6 adorable teeth!

These days, she does not even sit still to eat. She has learned how to climb up stairs and giggles when I follow behind her, as if I am chasing her. I don't let her try to climb down yet, even though she wants to, because it's scary how absolutely fearless she is.

A big milestone--she has taken her first steps! She can stand unassisted now (although sometimes she ends up crouching like a sumo baby) and take up to four steps, wobbling around like a drunken frat boy and lurching to hold on to something before she falls.

Some other new talents--she claps and waves back at us. She is eating lots of solids now and will pretty much eat anything, although she hasn't quite figured out chewing yet--she ends up storing pieces in her cheeks and then spitting them out on her unsuspecting parents.

One not-so-great milestone--lots of whining and tugging at my clothes.

Sometimes she doesn't seem much like a baby anymore--more like a tiny toddler. I can't believe how close her first birthday is getting. People always tell you they grow so fast. I guess you don't realize it until it's your baby--but it's true!

Co-sleeping is my frenemy

When Iris was a newborn, co-sleeping saved my sanity. But now, I think it's driving me to madness.

As a newborn, there was only one way I could reliably get her to sleep--nursing. Some babies will sleep in a swing or go down drowsy, but Iris has been a boob girl right from the start. The problem came once I got her to sleep. She is such a light sleeper that if I tried to lay her down in the bassinet, she would wake up and cry and we would have to start all over again. Every night, we would repeat this until around 2 am, when I would finally be able to get her down. But I was not getting enough sleep this way--I spent the first month of her life feeling like a zombie, desperate for sleep that never came.

Here's where co-sleeping came in. I soon found that if I nursed her to sleep in the side-lying position, she would fall asleep and I didn't have to move her. Even better, I could rest or drift off to sleep while I was nursing her, instead of sitting hunched over the Boppy glaring at the clock. When we started this routine, I finall felt like I was getting enough sleep to function at a reasonable level. Sure, Iris was still waking up every two hours, but at least we could both fall back asleep pretty quickly.

So co-sleeping was a lifesaver for us for a while. I figured we would keep doing it as long as it was working for us. Well, it's not really working anymore.

Iris is getting bigger and stronger. That means less room for me. That means harder kicks in the middle of the night. And the less space we have, the more we wake each other up. When she gets up, turns over and falls back asleep, I wake up--if she were in a crib, I would sleep through these stirrings. When I want to change positions in bed, it's like a stealth operation because she is still a light sleeper and the tiniest thing can wake her up. Plus, I just want my freaking bed back. I spend all day with her nursing or climbing on me or whining at me. I would like some space, at some point, that does not involve immediate proximity to a nine month old.

I'm not sure what we're going to do though. I don't see how I can transition her out of our bed without some kind of sleep training and listening to her cry. And if she continues to wake multiple times every night, am I going to have to get out of bed and get her back to sleep? Won't I just end up a zombie again like before? Stay tuned, folks.

Risks with Repeat Cesarean

The more I learn about VBAC, the angrier I get that many women aren't even given the option to try one, and are basically forced into delivering by repeat cesarean.

THURSDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- Babies delivered by elective, repeat cesarean section delivery are nearly twice as likely to be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) than those born vaginally after the mother has previously had a c-section, a new study finds.

These c-section babies are also more likely to have breathing problems requiring supplemental oxygen, the researchers say.

"In addition, the cost of the birth for both mother and infant was more expensive in the elective repeat c-section group compared to the vaginal birth after c-section (VBAC) group," noted Dr. Beena Kamath, the study's lead author and a clinical instructor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver.

The study appears in the June issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Read more here

Momnesia alert!

Momnesia--a mysterious disease in which a woman forgets all about the discomforts of pregnancy, the pain of delivery, and the complete sleep deprivation of the postpartum period. Momnesia is often found in conjunction with Baby Fever, another serious disease in which women become obsessed with babies. Forget swine flu--these illnesses have reached pandemic levels in our society.

Now, I'm not a doctor. I didn't go to medical school. But I am showing alarming symptoms of both of these diseases.

1. I caught myself thinking how wonderful it was to be 20-27 weeks pregnant. Aww wasn't I so cute and glowing and--wait a minute! My back hurt all the time. I couldn't sit anywhere for more than 15 minutes at a time. I had to pee every freaking minute. I had ridiculous Braxton Hicks contractions. My throat was constantly awash in stomach acid. A small child was using my internal organs as a punching bag. And that was the good part of pregnancy!

2. I have been thinking about what I want to do differently in labor next time, and a large part of it revolves around trying to avoid an epidural. What? I am planning to go through labor again? And without an epidural?? Don't I remember how horrible cervical checks were? Have I forgotten what it's like to have a contraction while you're trying to pee? Don't I remember how much labor totally freaking sucked?

3. I think about baby #2 a lot. What will I name him or her? What will he or she look like? What if it's twins? The real question is, what is wrong with me? Baby #1 is only 8 months old. She still wakes me up all the time, nurses 'round the clock and generally steals my sanity. Shouldn't I just take the time to enjoy her without planning out my next pregnancy? Or at least get her drinking from a sippy cup?

Quick ladies, put on your face masks.

8 months

4 months until she turns 1...ahhhh!

What Iris has been up to lately:

Drumming on things. She loves when we drum with her!

Dropping toys on purpose to see what happens. She is training us to play fetch.

Standing on her own for longer and longer.

Fussing when we take something away from her.

Taking off her diaper--this girl cannot be trusted! If she can get at her diaper tabs, she will pull at them until they come loose. Then she will pee or poop on herself. Awesome.

Making "oh," "w," "m" and clicking sounds

Also, I just read that by this age, a baby's eye color is mostly set--so it looks like we have a blue-eyed girl, just like her mama!

Solid food success!

I guess we won't be needing that keg after all! Miss Iris has finally discovered that I am not the only food source in the world. She has now eaten apple, banana, avocado, melon, potato and rice mushed up in breast milk.

After her initial refusal, I decided to try and get her used to the taste of solid food, without the texture. I started by eating apples and I let her lick some of the inside as I ate. She liked the taste and kept opening her mouth for more. We did this for a week and then I tried giving her pieces of fruit in a mesh feeder. I love the mesh feeders! They let her get small amounts of food without overwhelming her or creating a choking hazard. And she can hold them and feed herself. She loved fruit in the mesh feeder, so we did that for a little while.

Once she got more into the idea of solids, we have given her some food in a spoon and she gobbles it up. Such a relief for me. Being the sole food source for an 18 pound child is tiring!

Of course, now I have become a professional diaper inspector. What goes in must come out...

Teeth, round 2

I spy with my little eye...one, two, three, FOUR top incisors, peeking through a gum.

Goody. I will report back if I still have nipples.