Can you believe our little RJ is 9 months going on 10 months in a week?! It seems like yesterday we brought her into our home at just 5 sweet days old. I am starting a series called “Mama Diaries†here at NHS at least once a month, to just chat about things that this girl is learning as a mother. It’s not anything super formal just a little chat about what life has been like these past 9 months. I want to share my experience with ya’ll hoping to inspire, encourage, or even just laugh with all of you!
The first three months were the easiest! We were blessed with a great sleeper and an easy-going newborn. At 6 weeks RJ was sleeping in her bed and through the night. (What?!) I know it was CRAZY! Well then 3 months came and this is where I struggled a bit to figure out what this whole stay-at-home-working Mom thing looked like (still figuring it out). I joined a MOPS (mother of pre-schoolers) group at a local church that honestly was a HUGE blessing! Walking along experienced and inexperienced Moms helped me feel like I wasn’t alone. At three months I was like, “What do we do all day?!†I mean we played and I still worked a bit on the computer, but I felt like I wasn’t DOING enough! I frantically looked on Pinterest for ideas of how to play with a three-month old and then I had to just let it GO! I enjoyed our time together and just let things happen naturally.
When she was 3-6 months, RJ started to become more interactive! YAY. We had more fun at play time and a lot more fun things to do! We started on solids and she loves all real food (green monsters are her fave). I quickly got bored with making all her food separately and decided to just mash-up our food and start giving it to her to self-feed. She took to it WELL! I knew this was just the stage where she was learning what food was and she wasn’t eating it for nutrition’s sake so it was fun to test out new foods and see her little face scrunch up when she tasted something new.
The 6-9 month stage has to be my favorite thus far! RJ is so interactive and loves to play (but is not mobile yet) and is such a happy BABY! Now it’s all about nap times, getting on a better routine, and being more of a homebody. I am learning to go with the flow as much as I can, but I also really try to give her a nap in the morning and in the afternoon, which makes going out to run errands or enjoying a day out a little tricky. I also have been taking Wednesdays as a real focused work day. We are super blessed to have Grandma watch RJ for the afternoons on Wednesdays, so I can hammer out the business to-do’s and sometimes even deep clean. 
Month 9 is here and all of a sudden I have become super anxious! I posted about it a little on IG, but I have been worrying about the little things. Like is RJ eating enough, should she be crawling, is she sleeping enough, am I playing with her enough? I need to clean this and that and get rid of this and that! I need to DO DO DO! Thank goodness for God’s word and the perfect timing of the Abide Journal ! I have been digging into it deeply and God has been showing me how to REST in HIM completely! Rest, not like sleeping or to stop moving, but true rest, even in the chaos of the day. I also ready this awesome blog post yesterday by Lisa Jo-Baker:
“May today be its own unique story. May we remember that these kids aren’t an interruption, a distraction or a nuisance. May we open our eyes to this morning and remember that the two sleepy heads crawling into our bed are a gift.
May we wash out bottles and fill them up with milk and extra doses of patience as we stumble through the pre-dawn dark without our contact lenses and lean over baby beds to whisper good mornings and offer comfort and welcome for the day.
May we find joy in what delights our children as you, Lord, delight in us.
May we make breakfast, lunch and dinner and feed them heaped helpings of love sandwiched between Graham crackers and grace.
– See more at: http://lisajobaker.com/#sthash.mkUwbWV4.dpufâ€
It spoke to my SOUL and to my anxiety of being a new mom. I am going to STOP the DO DO DO and start being more present, because I don’t want to miss the joy in the journey of motherhood. I am excited about the next three months, leading up to her first birthday. I know there will be tested patience and tears, but I know God will be with us through it all. We had the picture above and all of her 9 month photos taken by Kim Robbins a local photographer in the Inland Empire. You can check them all out on her blog: http://kimrobbins.net/blog/index.php/rylee-joy-nine-months-redlands/.
Comments
3 responses to “{Mama Diaries} 9 Months”
“What do we do all day?!” that is my exact thought when it comes to children and why I’m not very comfortable with them. I was the baby in my family and I haven’t had much experience with babies so I’m like a fish out of water with them. I hope that if/when I raise a child I will figure it out! 🙂 Glad I’m not alone!
I love this post! I am also a new mom, my daughter is going to be 11 months on Sunday. I do have mommy anxiety (I have had it since she was born) and its a feeling I cannot shake no matter what. I worry that she is not getting the proper nutrition. She still has NO teeth, not even poking through so that is tricky when giving her solid foods for her to gum. All she likes is peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, toast, waffles with a little bit of spray butter. She is not taking well to any fruits, unless I puree them (which is a lot of work). HATES eggs. I had been struggling to get her to start using a sippy cup or a straw and she has no interest. I feel like I am failing her but I know that every baby is different. It just makes me think what I am doing wrong…
Although I work full-time out of the house, my daughter LOVES daycare and is such a social baby. I struggled a bit the past year on how to balance the full time working mommy and how to incorporate my wife duties at home, employee at work, and mommy at home (which is a struggle since by the time we all get home we only have about 1 1/2-2 hours before this little girl is done for the day and in bed), etc. I felt like I was constantly trying to do everything 100% and time with her was getting pushed to the side because I felt everything else needed to be done. I finally had to settle back and see what my main priorities are. My husband and I both agreed that while my daughter was awake and at home with us, my time should be dedicated to her and not focusing on cleaning, laundry, cookings, etc. Its still a work in progress and I feel everyother week there is a new challenge. The new challenge right now is that she has decided to either get up in the middle of the night, or fight us for 2 hours to go to bed even though she is exhausted. I am hoping its teething (oh please let it be teeth!) but who knows. She is a pretty chill baby and really easy going and every time she acts up or is upset, I always assume its teething. I have been thinking that the past 6 months and we still dont have teeth, so what do I know!
I love the way you think! Also, the pictures are just absolutely beautiful, Bobbi!