Alaina at 10 Months Old

Dear Alaina,

Today you are 10 months old! I cannot believe you're already in double digits! :) I feel like you made a lot of changes over the past month, and you're starting to become more of your own little person rather than just a little baby without many opinions :)

The big news is that you're officially 100% mobile. I mentioned last month that you had just started crawling, but you still weren't getting around a TON. Just as I knew it would, that all changed real fast! You are into everything now. You love to be on the floor crawling around and you can get from Point A to Point B really quickly. We have to be careful because you put EVERYTHING in your mouth. Before I put you on the floor, I always look around to make sure there are no small toys on the floor, but I swear you find things that are invisible to the naked eye to put in your mouth. Another big milestone is that you're now pulling up to a standing position! You did this for the first time on Christmas Day, and you've been doing it ever since. You've even started "cruising" a little bit. I'm betting you'll be walking sometime around your birthday.

You still won't nurse, so I'm continuing to pump and give you bottles. Pumping is a big pain, but I'll keep doing it because I love you and I think it's worth it :) You take a bottle about every 4 hours, and the amount of milk that you take varies. We're still not totally used to bottles and how much you need each feeding, so usually I just fill a bottle up and let you drink as much as you will. You take anywhere from 5-8 ounces at a time. You're quite picky about the bottle temperature. I sent a bottle to the nursery with you, and you wouldn't take it at all because it wasn't warm enough for you. Crazy girl! You eat 3 solid meals a day, and I'm planning on introducing more table food soon. You love puffs, so I'm hoping you do well with food with more texture.

You're still a great sleeper, and I'm so thankful for that. You have been waking up a little bit in the night recently, but we've all been sick, so I'm hoping you go back to sleeping through the night more consistently. You take a good morning nap -- around an hour and a half long. Then you take an afternoon nap, which has only been about an hour long lately. I know this isn't bad, but I look forward to the day when you drop your morning nap and just take a LONG afternoon nap at the same time as Aubrey and Jude. You've been so easy to put down for naps and night lately. I feed you a bottle, and when you're done I just lay you down. You've been going to sleep very easily.

We weighed you at home, and according to our scale, you weigh 18.8 pounds. You wear a size 9 month clothes. You can wear some 12 month things, but they're usually a little roomy. We moved you up to a size 4 diaper recently too.

You still only have two teeth on the bottom. I expect more to break through anytime, though. Your eyes are SO blue and beautiful. Your hair is blonde, and you have so much more of it than Aubrey or Jude did at this age! It's SO curly after your bath. It's too bad you won't leave a bow in that hair ;) If I distract you, you MIGHT leave it in for a few minutes, but you always remember it's there and pull it out. Of course it goes right to your mouth!

You're such a sweet precious baby, Alaina. We all just love you dearly. You bring so much joy to our family, and we love watching you reach new milestones. We're so thankful you are ours!

I love you,
Mommy

Uploading pictures has been THE biggest headache lately. My pictures won't upload right now for some reason, and I don't feel like messing with it. I'll try again tomorrow.