McKinley Beth- 9 Months

Yep- its true... McKinley is 9 months old. I promise you, I blinked and she was 9 months old... crazy.
We took her to see Dr. Jackson for her 9 month well visit. And it went GREAT! McKinley weighs 13 lbs 15 1/2 ounces. So basically she weighs 14 pounds. Drumroll please, which means... SHE IS OFFICIALLY ON THE GROWTH CURVE! Barely, but still.. she is in the 1%. Now, I know that it was not the end of the world that she was not on the official growth curve... but it still feels like a small victory getting her on the growth chart. I think its the addition of baby food that is really making her grow. She is 26 inches long, which is the 3rd percentile. I was kind of surprised with this, because in my mind, she is sooooo long. And her head is in the 47%.
She started sitting on her own close to 7 1/2 months. I feel like she feels like a whole new world opened up to her when she started sitting on her own. She can play with more of her brothers toys, so she is in heaven. She is mobile, although not crawling. She does not get anywhere quickly. Its more of a combo of rolls and scoots. She is not pulling herself up on furniture, and does not pull herself to a sitting position from laying down. (All questions that they asked me at her appointment.. have I ever mentioned how I HATE saying no to those questions) When Dr. Jackson came in, McKinley interacted with her so well. She was laughing and talking to her. She was such a good girl. Dr. Jackson was not concerned with the fact that she is not hitting those physical milestones at this point. She thinks she is strong, so she is not concerned with her tone. And she said "she is obviously working on more of her brain activity right now". So, McKinley is right on track and doing great!

She is wearing size 2 diapers. And a variety of sizes in clothes. :) She is wearing alot of dresses right now, seriously how fun is dressing a girl! I LOVE IT! So, she is able to wear 6-12 month dresses right now. She can wear 6-9 month tops. And her shorts/pants are 3-6 months. Although we have some bigger sizes that can easily be fixed with a safety pin. :)


We were told at her appointment to quit swaddling her, and to cut out her night time feeding. She was still waking up at 2 to eat, and she would eat the full bottle. Since she was so small, I figured she must need it. But let me tell you, we were just fine dropping that feeding as well. And she has done JUST fine.. meaning we probably could have been sleeping more for a while now. :) As far as the swaddle goes... my children LOVE the swaddle. I feel like it made them feel safe and secure. We swaddled Jackson for a long time, and I promised that I would not do that again, but I totally did. My excuse was that McKinley was so small. The first night cutting it out was pretty bad. So bad, in fact, that I totally gave in and swaddled her. But since that night we have not had to do it again. She is such a big girl.


She loves her family. Jackson is still her favorite person. She has this amazingly high pitched squeal that means she has spotted Jackson. She just thinks he is THE GREATEST! She loves me and Craig, but we dont get that kind of welcome. Instead, she starts waving and clapping. I'll go for that.

She has started making this hysterical face when she is concentrating. I need to get a picture of it. She furrows her eye brows and purses her lips. So cute. And so funny.


I have started planning her 1st birthday.. how CRAZY is that! We sure love our sweet little McKinley Beth!