105/365

Leila was due for her 9 month appointment - I love her checkups because it's a time for me to ask the Dr. any question under the moon. Dr. Zollo is great, he is caring and blunt. He tells me how it is.

Stats:
Height: 28 inches long - 75th percentile Weight: 17.6 oz - 25th percentile Head: 44.8cm - 75th percentile

The doc asked me if...
-she can clap: Almost, she'll put her hands together and clap when she gets excited.
-she can pick things up with her pointer finger and thumb: sometimes, she's getting there
-she can crawl: nope
-she can say dadda and mamma? yes
-does she know what they mean? not sure. He said i'll know when she does
-she can stand and lean up against objects? yes, very well

Overall Leila is doing well. There were a few things I wanted to discuss with him: the main one being swaddling. I told him we're still swaddling Leila and wanted to get his opinion. To stop or not to stop...that is the question. His answer was this: swaddling is great because it helps babies sleep longer but can create light sleepers because the movement of their arms can wake them up. He said I'll probably have to fight the battle eventually and recommended I rid her of the habit now.

He chatted with me for a good 30 min about parenting and how to ease her out of being swaddled. I wanted him to tell me exactly what to do, how long to let her cry (because I hate letting her cry), when to go in, etc. He didn't give me the formula I was looking for but said I just need to do whats best for us and for Leila.

He also said it doesn't matter what I do, as long as I'm consistent. If I go in randomly then I'm teaching persistence, "if I cry, mom will come". Leila won't know WHEN I'm going to come in her room, but she knows I WILL. Persistence is not a good thing to teach her, but I think I already have taught her to be persistent. Dr. Zollo said to give it 3 days to a week. Ha, yeah, he doesn't know my daughter.

When I asked him if he recommended any good parenting books he said I don't need one and he's already taught me what I need to know to get thru the next 20 years. The bottom line is:
SAY WHAT YOU MEAN AND BE CONSISTENT!

I think I've created a monster! It's not Leila's fault that she can't sleep any other way and I feel bad making her suffer because of it. We'll gradually ease into it...or just swaddle her the rest of her life. Who knows. Knowing Leila, it'll take her a solid  month before she's cured of being swaddled. I've read online about parents who swaddle their kids until 12 months of age and the child has grown out of it on their own. I'm hoping Leila grows out of it. Eric and I haven't decided what we'll do but we need to come up with a game plan and stick to it.

I do know one thing, I'm not swaddling my next child.