Nine Months

My babies are nine months today! A year ago, we thought there was a chance we'd lose one or both of them, and best case we were looking at preemies with a long NICU stay. It's nothing short of a miracle they were born healthy and perfect at 36 weeks. And now they're nine months! I can't believe how fast it's gone.

Monkey is our adventurous one. He's been crawling for a while now and exploring the whole house. He took his first tumble down the stairs last night. You may be able to see his bruise in the pictures.



Sassy still isn't crawling, though she is getting up on hands and knees now. She's our more vocally advanced baby. I've heard her say Mama a few times.



We're still nursing six times a day and at least once a night (Sassy sleeps through about half the time, but Monkey rarely does). I nursed them together until two months ago when they got too big. I couldn't use the double-football hold anymore because their bums were against the back of the couch. So now I nurse them one at a time. Because feedings were taking so long, I started using the LA from the start of the feed. Feeding time is now manageable, but I've got two tube junkies. They won't latch until the tube is in place. Not sure how we'll be able to wean off the LA now, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Both babies are going through a jealous phase right now, especially Monkey. Whichever baby I nurse first, the other is screaming about it. And even if he's fed first, Monkey will still scream while I feed Sassy. He crawls on me and clings to me when I try to care for the older girls, too. And he doesn't even like Papa Runner to get too close to me!

Both babies are well established on solids now. Their very different personalities really show through when they eat. Sassy daintily picks up one bite at a time, and doesn't want to eat anything too messy. Monkey is shoveling it in double-fisted. He gagged on a mouthful last week, and when I swept his mouth out he had three tortellinis and a hunk of bread in there! They haven't taken to the sippy cup too well yet. They like me to give them a drink, but they don't hold it themselves yet except to throw it.