Rachel: 10 Months

Rachel is 10 months today!

I usually keep a running draft post of her monthly achievements so I don't forget them, but this month I didn't have a lot documented. Until this past week, that is - she seemed to have a development explosion!

In the past month, Rachel has started rubbing heads as a sign of affection/ humour. Since Josh has shaved his head, he picks Rachel up and rubs her on it, which she thinks is hilarious. In return she has also started rubbing her head on people. So funny. She also now makes the "fish" noise (pops her lips) and the elephant noise... a lot. :)
She has made her stair climbing debut this month. Good for her, bad for me. It's Baby Gate Central around here now.
She is growing less and less tolerant of the playpen and would rather be crawling around on the floor and pulling up on furniture. She has also been attempting to stand up on her own in the middle of the floor (not successfully yet, but she did pull up on me and let go to support herself on her own at library reading group the other day!)

Our biggest issue this month has been sleep. Rachel has never been a big sleeper. Her naps were always short (like 20 minutes, maybe) until fairly recently. She now naps about 1.5 - 2 hours, usually from 10 - 12, and sometimes that is it for the day. She will still take a quick catnap in the afternoon sometimes, but I think she will be completely weaned down to one nap pretty soon. Night times have been fairly awful this past month. She has been waking as much as four times a night many nights. And combined with having to get up with Laura a few times, too, has left me one tired mama. Rachel did, however, sleep from 11:30 until 7 one night this month. For the first time ever, she did not wake me up! She hasn't done it since, so I'm not getting my hopes too high yet, but I certainly am looking forward to impending less broken sleep.

Rachel continues to be a good eater (I swear she eats almost as much as Laura) and when she went for her nine month check up about three weeks ago, she was 16 pounds and 26.5 inches. :) Still waiting on teeth.

Preparations for her birthday party have commenced. Can't believe she is only two months away from being one year old!