Hayley: Nine Months

I have officially known Hayley outside of me for as long as I knew her inside of me. It's definitely a lot more fun on this end. ;)

She finally got a tooth! I felt it for the first time on March 21. It's the bottom, front, left tooth. We have officially experienced the unpleasantness of teething. She likes to stick her tongue out quite frequently and I think it's because she likes the feel of her tooth. She also just started scrunching her face and breathing heavily through her nose, man she keeps us laughing. I continually find her all over her crib when she wakes up for the day. Her Aunt Nikkole called her a tornado baby and I thought that was hilarious and very fitting. She rolls over on to her stomach at night and eventually falls asleep that way, she did that for the first time on April 5. She attended her first college class with me on March 21, which luckily was my easiest class and she behaved pretty well with the aid of my fabulous classmates, Shaleese and Chella. With the exception of being a little grumpy from her teeth popping through her gums she really is a happy little girl. I know I say that a lot but it's true! And she is super entertaining. Hayley's siblings have a lot to live up to, she set the bar high. She loves to be outside, which is good because now that the weather is nicer we started going on walks/jogs every day. I put away her 6 month clothes, and we got out her 9 month ones, even though they are a little big on her. She is still in size 2 diapers. She is getting really good at mashing food with her gums. I often give her little bites of what I'm eating. She still has no desire to crawl, she'll rock a little and get on to her knees but then just go to her stomach and roll over. There is nothing that she wants bad enough to try and figure out how to move, she just finds something already around her or rolls to get to something. She never sits still. She has her "hi/hey, dada, mama, nana" sounds down. Hayley is not a cuddler, but when she is REALLY tired she will put her head on my chest and sleep and boy do I cherish those moments! I love holding her and thinking about how much I love her and wish she'd always stay that close to my heart. I wonder how I could ever love her more than I do, but the next day comes and goes and somehow it happens.

Bike ride with Aunt Nikkole.

Who says girls can't wear camo? We love these jammies from Lindsay.

She eventually learned to like it, but still hasn't figured out how to jump - just swing, spin, and stand.

She makes this face all the time ha.

Hayley's first Easter. I love the basket I found for her.

Playing with Lily, she loves her frog.

Dropping Daddy off at the airport, he went to North Carolina for NCUR.

Great Grandpa Chris made this rocking horse.

Playing dressing up at Harper's. 

I love this smile! She tried to eat those drops on her bib and instead got one on the forehead.

I cannot wait for April to be over and to never have to go back to school again so that I can focus more on Hayley. I have been way more stressed than I like to be the past little while and started having panic attacks again. Just 18 more days and it'll hopefully get better. I love being able to play with her and go on walks/runs with her and do anything at anytime, but that has limitations and I hate that about being a student Mom. It'll be nice to have Daniel around a little more over the summer too. We miss him all the time. He probably gets sick of me always asking when he'll be home ha. But he makes us proud with how hard he works and how dedicated he is. He was at NCUR (National Conference of Undergraduate Research) in Asheville, North Carolina this past weekend presenting his research project on urinary biomarkers in the diagnosis of depression. Luckily, I had help from my parents and my in-laws with Hayley while I got some school work and errands done. It's nice to know that we're taken care of when he is away.
Side note: She had her 9 month check-up on April 12. She dropped a bit in length to the 25th percentile (27 inches). Stayed pretty much the same for weight, 24th (16.7 pounds), and head, 61st. As Dr. Bledsoe put it, "She's little." That's ok, I like having a mini-me. We got an x-ray done on her left foot because she has a little bit of a tibial torsion, which means when she stands she puts her pressure on the outside of her foot instead of the bottom of it, how we normally do. Dr. Bledsoe said it looks good to him but he'd get a second opinion from the radiologist. Let's hope we don't hear from him because that'll mean everything is normal.