Nine Months Old Today!!!

Somebody please tell me how this happened, my baby is 9 months old today!

And what a big milestone it is. He was in his mommy’s tummy for 9 months, and now he’s been in the world for 9 months. So that means, from here forward he will have lived more time in the world, than he did in my tummy. What an important milestone! Actually, since he was a fetus for 39 weeks and 4 days (he was late coming out) that means he doesn’t actually hit this milestone until May 21st. So starting May 22nd, he will have lived more days as a baby, than as a fetus. (But who’s counting!)

Now that Cooper is 9 months old, some big changes are coming. Mommy spent the first 9 months of his life as a fetus, growing him, feeding him through her umbilical cord, and never apart from him. Mommy and Daddy spent Cooper’s first 9 months of his life on the planet, attending to his every needs, co-sleeping with him, breast feeding him exclusively (no formula), and doing our best to meet every single need.

But since Cooper is growing into such a big boy today, we have decided to make some changes. Small changes. One’s that will hopefully help Cooper grow into a happy, healthy, and fully weened and functioning toddler over the next 9 months.

Some of the immediate changes are as follows:

-No more night nursing. This is going to be a the biggest hardest change, but we know you can do it Cooper. You (and mommy) are ready!

- Learning how to sleep in your own crib. Mommy will miss this one more than you – and don’t worry, we won’t cut it out completely (we’ll always cuddle in the mornings! And who am I kidding – probably lots of nights too), but we want you to be able to learn to sleep on your own too so that we all get a really great sleep! And we know you’re reading based on you beating us to the punch last night!

- Introducing more new foods and starting thicker consistency so that you can learn to chew and feed yourself!

- Begin formula. So that mommy doesn’t have to feed you all your milk. The idea is that you are completely weened by 1 year, so we will start having you take your own bottle or sippy cup of formula now so you can practice!

Snif snif. Mommy is getting teary eyed just thinking about all these changes. But we know you are ready and you can do it!

We all love you SOOOOOOO much Cooper. Happy 9 month birthday!!!

PS – Today you let go of the side of your play pen and stood for 10 whole seconds before falling down. WAY TO GO COOPER!!!