Someone tell me how it has already been 9 months since I gave birth!? It still feels like yesterday!! Still. But my little babe is growing so fast and so much has changed over these last nine months!

*Disclaimer: This blog is intended for informational purposes only. The information on this blog should not be used as a substitute to medical advice or medical treatment. As always, your Primary Care Provider, a doctor, or another health professional is your best resource for specific questions and medical advice. If you believe you or a loved one are experiencing a medical emergency, please contact 911.* Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Maggie’s 8 to 9 Month Milestones and Activities

She is crawling on hands and knees (aka reciprocal crawling)!

Last month Maggie had just started crawling army style and I thought it would be any day until she started crawling on hands and knees because she was doing a lot of rocking back and forth. Well.. I was right. It was basically one day into 8 months and she was off!

And suddenly she is so much faster?! We are officially at the beginning of a stage where I have to be following her around a lot because if I look down or away for even a second she’s got something new in her hands, she’s in another room, or who knows what!

I am really loving seeing her explore. I mean, I always did but with so much movement now she can really explore her surroundings and it’s so fun to watch her interact with everything. I thought we would have some time just in this stage, but you can imagine what came next (and very quickly after she picked up reciprocal crawling)…

… she has started furniture surfing!

Meaning she is crawling over to our couch (or other furniture) and pulling herself up to stand against it. She can also travel between furniture.

It took her a week or two to learn how to gently put herself back down though – and let me tell you, the time before that happened I was stressed! She kept falling over and no matter how much you watch, a fall here and there slips through. You feel terrible!! We went through like 1.5-2 weeks of a lot of small bumps and crying, but now she has figured out how to place herself down on her bum when she’s done standing. I can’t even explain the relief I feel!

We got her a walker but it’s still a bit too early for it so we keep it against a wall right now, mostly just for play with the front side (it is baby shark and plays music – she loves baby shark and daddy picked it out for her…).

She is clapping and does so when excited!

This is probably the cutest thing ever (so far). I mean – she’s always adorable, don’t get me wrong. But the clapping & laughing together – ooh boy! It makes my ovaries go “MORE!“.

She laughs and gets excited way more – I find I don’t have to “try” to make her laugh sometimes she sees something and just laughs on her own now! She also has an “excited noise” and she physically shows excitement (which she has done for awhile) by kicking her legs.

She is also working on waving but hasn’t quite perfected it yet. I know that will be just as cute.

We have become her jungle gym.

Maggie loves crawling, standing up and climbing. She gets better everyday, however we don’t have many particularly safe places for her to climb so she often ends up climbing us. Which is better than the stairs (which she just mastered the other day).

I really want to get one of those Pikler triangles for her to climb because I honestly think she would go crazy for that!

And we went through another sleep regression.

This one was twelve days long – but who is counting?! Mom. Mom is. I thought this one was never going to end! Everyone warns you about the 4 month sleep regression, which we personally didn’t experience; but fewer people talk about this other one that can happen between 7-10 months.

We went through a short one at the beginning of 7 months, and this second one happened early 8 months and man, it was brutal. It started shortly after Maggie started reciprocal crawling and seemed to worsen the days after she started standing up – she’d wake up, sit straight up in her bed and then stand up and cry. She just couldn’t figure out how to get back to laying down (whereas before if she woke up, she could more easily put herself back to sleep).

It got better and then her second tooth erupted. So we endured another week or so of struggles. It seems to be getting a bit better now but she’s still not back to her regular sleep schedule because she dropped from 3 naps to 2 naps during this time as well! Seriously – this is a busy time for their little bodies and brains. I’m hoping that once we regulate her two naps she will go back to sleeping her longer stretches at night regularly. We shall see what 9 months brings us in regards to sleep and teeth…

She is making lots of noises and sounds!

She says sounds like “ma”, “da” and more. “Ca” was her newest addition – she says it TO the cats so I’m convinced she is saying cat or learning to! Her mama and dada still aren’t 100% purposeful – so we’re still waiting on that but it’s cool to hear her make so many different sounds now and she has her “chatty” moments where she will talk away to herself, to us, or to her toys! I love her little voice so much – hearing her chat away to herself makes me so happy.

She is still eating a ton of different foods!

I used to include a list but to be honest, I’ve lost track. By 8 months she had eaten over 50 foods and will easily be at 100 (or more) by a year. I can tell you that her favourite foods are any type of meat, perogies, sweet potato, Macintosh apples, peanut butter, scrambled eggs, hummus, oatmeal (the one I eat), cucumbers, and blueberries right now. She will try anything though and hasn’t shown utter distaste for anything we’ve given her so far. (Her ultimate favourite is still boob right now btw).

She is not a fan of purées still. I even tried the little pouches – she will have a few bites of one but then is over it. She’d rather have something she can grab onto.

Some of her favourite small “baby snacks” are plain cheerios, rice rusks, puffs, lil crunchies (aka baby cheetos – mild cheddar are actually her #1), and aeroroot cookies. I also of course given her tons of fruit and veggies for snacks too, and she loves cream cheese (plain) on her rice rusks!

I feel like the next month is going to be a whirlwind of development for this girl (is it just me or is this every month?!) – can’t wait to see what she does next!