Can you believe we’re 3/4 of the way through Berend’s first year?? Sometimes I feel a little sad when I see photos of when he was itty bitty, but I definitely enjoy him getting to be more independent and playful.

Age: 9 months on 15 February 2019
Weight: 21 lbs 3 oz
Height: 29.88 inches
Teeth: 5
Clothing Size: 12 months & 12-18 months
Diaper Size: size 3 in disposable and one size in cloth
Milestones: soooo close to crawling (he has done one knee forward, then back down to his belly), pincer grasp, perfecting his mouth sounds (tongue clicking, popping sounds with lips, spitting), plays “peek-a-boo,” can get into sitting position from laying down (but only at night in his crib), turns pages in board books, figured out the 360 cup

Likes: being carried around, putting everything in his mouth, bouncing (in his jumperoo, in our arms, while sitting), playing with Gerrit, tickles, baths, eating food, grabbing our faces and hair, banging on toys, sleeping in bed with Mama, the laundry room, trying to pull over the garbage can, being walked around the house constantly, playing in the kitchen, touch-and-feel books, playing with the springy doorstops throughout the house, pulling his socks off in the car

So I don’t actually have a picture of Berend looking at a touch-and feel book, but this past month is when he really started noticing and enjoying the different textures. I think his favorite book is “That’s Not My Monkey;” he actually giggles when we get to the page with the monkey with the hairy eyebrows. I love it!

Dislikes: getting his diaper or clothes changed, sitting down, long drives in the car, when Mama walks away/not being able to see Mama, getting his face washed

This particular moment was Mama-is-not-picking-me-up-immediately dislike. But I’m using it to encompass all of them.

Sleep: Ah sleep… what is sleep… More of the same here, really. We’ve had really rough nights where Berend is up every 45 minutes or so, and we’ve had better nights where he’ll throw in a 3 hour stretch of sleep. He has restless nights where I have to try over and over again to lay him back down in his crib, and then he has nights where he goes back to sleep easily. On restless nights, I usually just give up around 2am and bring him to bed with me. On good nights, he’ll make it until 5am in his crib until I bring him to bed… and that’s usually just to try to keep him from trying to wake up for the day before the sun rises. And speaking of… I think Berend finally actually enjoys snuggling with me in bed. I haven’t had to get out of bed and bounce him back to sleep in weeks! Sometimes when I bring him to my bed, he’ll look around for awhile, but then he just goes to sleep. It’s great for both of us… SLEEP!

I think the earliest Berend has woken for the day is around 6:30am, and he has maybe made it until almost 8am once in awhile. I can usually count on him waking between 7 and 7:30am though. Bedtime is anywhere between 7pm and 8:30pm depending on how naps went that day. I prefer a later bedtime so that he can eat dinner with us, but his bedtime really fluctuates lately. Overall in a 24 hour period, Berend averages 12.5 hours of sleep a day, which is on the low end for a baby his age.

Naps… Berend is still definitely bouncing between 2 and 3 naps a day. I thought he was going to be solidly down to 2 naps a day by the time he was 9 months old, but he still has pretty frequent short naps. For Berend, a short nap is about 35-45 minutes long. He very rarely naps longer than 1.5 hours at a time. He often will have days with three 35-minute naps, which is tough on all of us.

One point of progress: right before 9 months, Berend started once in awhile letting me rub his back to get him back to sleep in his crib instead of picking him up and swaying with him or rocking him in the glider. I don’t think I got to this point with Gerrit until after he was 2 years old, so it is a big deal! I hope it means he’s getting to the point of being able to put himself to sleep, because this mama really needs some more sleep at night.

The hardest thing when it comes to sleep is that we can do the exact same thing every day, and we get very different results. We keep looking at wake times, trying to get the “perfect” time to attempt naps, and what works one day doesn’t work at all the next day. It’s pretty frustrating! It’s so hard to make plans when there’s no set schedule.

Eating: I’d say this is an area that I just don’t worry much about. Berend breastfeeds pretty well, although he won’t take a full feeding unless he thinks he’s going down for a nap. So I have been known to fake a 3rd nap just to get him to fully empty a breast. He would probably nurse at every night waking if I offered it, but I try to hold off on feeding him unless it’s been 90 minutes or more.

Berend continues to love food! I’m often unsure of how much he has actually eaten (I find a lot dropped in his lap and on the floor), but I don’t worry about it as much as I did with Gerrit. I’m pretty good about offering two meals a day. I usually offer lunch and dinner, and when Andrew is home he usually gets breakfast and dinner. I need to get better about offering 3 meals a day next month, I think.

Mommy Update: Just trying to roll with everything lately. Andrew’s schedule is always changing. On days he flies, I can expect him to work a 14 hour day. On days he doesn’t fly, he’ll often just go in for a few hours to prep for his next flight. On flying days, he could be gone from 6:30am-8:30pm or 11:30am-1:30am… just depends when he’s scheduled. So some days I get to sleep in, some days he’s home so I can get Gerrit to preschool without bringing Berend… and on those days I’m often on my own when trying to get dinner cooked and on the table, getting the boys bathed, and getting through bedtime routines. Sometimes it’s tough.

I have started getting back into scrapbooking though! I’ve been itching to get back into one of my hobbies, and I remembered that I had all the supplies for my Project Life/365 scrapbook. This was a project I started 7.5 years ago. I took a photo a day (more or less) for a whole year starting when we packed up to move to England back in August of 2011. So I started printing photos from that year, pulled out the supplies I had for this specific project, and started working on the scrapbook in the evenings.

Having my own project to work on again definitely helps me. I need “me time” to be in a good place. And having something specific to work on is good for my mental health. Plus it’s been so fun looking through photos from our first year in England and our first year as a married couple. It really makes me want to go back!

Memorable Events: One memorable thing from this month was combining bath times! We decided to try out giving the boys a bath at the same time after Berend turned 8 months, 1) because Berend seemed very stable sitting in the tub, and 2) because Gerrit was resisting baths. I asked Gerrit if he’d like to take a bath with Berend one night because Gerrit was starting to never want a bath (“Can I just take one tomorrow?”), and he was thrilled about it. I only bathe Berend every 3 days to avoid drying out his skin, so now Gerrit is on the same bath schedule. And for winter, that works out fine! I think Berend enjoys his bath time no matter what, but Gerrit really likes having someone else in the tub with him, I think. So bath time almost always happens after Berend’s dinner but before Gerrit’s (and our) dinner, and it’s working out just fine.

Another memorable event was our “38 weeks in, 38 weeks out” photo. If you’ll remember, here I was at about 38 week pregnant:

And here we are with Berend 38 weeks out:

I can’t believe how much has changed between those two pictures! Gosh, I miss that pregnant belly. My pregnancy was definitely less comfortable the 2nd time around, but I loved feeling my big rounded belly and those baby kicks!

Berend also celebrated his first Valentine’s Day! Nothing too eventful for him, but I did try to get some cute brother photos. I wasn’t too successful…

And here is Berend’s February photo:

Berend, gosh we love you so much! Some days are hard, and some days you are so smiley… we love you no matter what. You are such a little bear cub… you want to just wrestle and tumble around with your big brother, and you legitimately growl when you are disgruntled or excited. We love you so much, B!