Ari's 6-9 Months: Joys and Frustrations

Our little Watts family has just been rolling along in our wagon of life these past few months. We’ve had joys and laughs during the smooth stretches, and tears and frustration when the road was bumpy, or we got stuck in storms, or somehow the wagon kept running me over.

6 months
When Ari could sit up on her own, it was glorious. I could stick her anywhere in a room and she’d sit there, so content, and munch on whatever was in reach. She was super drooly, but drool isn’t the most disgusting of liquids to come out of Ari’s body orifices, so, no big deal.

Look closely to see the drool bomb falling towards Clayton's head...

I had put off giving Ari baby food because I was too attached to the ease of feeding her milk. But we could delay no longer. I spent thirty minutes, twice a day, giving my baby the perfect sticky messes to smear on her face, hands, and hair. It was weeks before I felt the bliss of seeing my baby open her mouth voluntarily and eat like a normal person.

Ari used to fall asleep sitting up in our arms. Well, she dropped that and offered no replacement. No sleep while being cradled, not on our chests or shoulders--nothing. So when we’re out and about all day long, or sitting in church for three hours (four with choir practice), we have a very sleep-deprived baby.

What she used to do all the time...

7 months
Ari learned to army crawl like a wounded soldier, using one of her arms much less than the other arm to scoot forward. It was both the saddest and funniest thing ever to see her crawling this way towards me in the kitchen, crying because she was hungry and I was warming up her milk.

8 months
A lot happened during her 7-8 month stretch. She could crawl on her hands and knees. For a week, I witnessed the fascination of seeing a baby pull herself to her feet, then cry because she was stuck and couldn’t get back down. She still has no teeth, but she learned how to feed herself Cheerios, snacks, and small pieces of fruit anyway.

After spending time with family during Memorial Day weekend, Ari experienced her first mega sickness. A violent flu bug hit my parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle, then me, Clayton, and Ari. Everyone either threw up or had bad diarrhea (except Clayton), but had no fever. Ari had diarrhea all day long and developed a bad rash on her poor little bum. She either threw up milk immediately after drinking it, or would throw up an hour later along with some nice baby vomit. Oddly enough, she handled it pretty well. She certainly wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t fussy either. I, however, was freaking out.

Mommy Challenges
I went through ups and downs of feeling depressed and overly tired. I’d had a sinus infection for a month prior to the flu, but before that and afterward, I felt so listless, like I was floating in limbo. There I was, caring for my baby and cooking and doing dishes and laundry. There I was sitting on the couch because I was too tired to do anything else but couldn’t sleep because Ari was awake. Sometimes I would start to fall asleep while eating dinner. I felt like I wasn't existing properly.

My condition worsened when Ari started waking up twice a night again--once anywhere from 1:00-3:00am, and again around 5:30 to eat. For me, the hardest part of motherhood is interrupted sleep. Until I was pregnant, I never woke at night unless I was sick or cramping. I handle it so terribly. In the middle of the night I often cried and wondered why I wanted more children and to go through this more than once.

A few things saved me, like spending time outside in the sun and setting reasonable goals that were important enough to get me off the couch. I started going on walks several times a week. I took time to play with Ari and make her laugh. Eventually, it all paid off--I began to have more energy despite the nightly wake-up calls. I started to feel real again, and I could get myself doing things that were fulfilling. My desire to play and interact with Ari increased, and I could appreciate her innocent joy and love even more than before.

Ari snoozing like a fisherman.

9 months
Her sleeping did improve. She now only wakes once to eat, and usually doesn’t wake up until 6:30 or later to do it. The first time this happened after that long depressing stretch, I nearly cried with relief and happiness.

She does resist baby food now, which makes me sad inside because of the effort it took for her to eat it in the first place. But soon she’ll get a tooth or two and we can move on to easier foods. Trying to decipher her “teething” symptoms always drives us crazy. She’s extra drooly one day, or coughing another, or acting like her mouth hurts, or has random diarrhea…. We’re constantly asking: is she sick, or teething?

For Ari, anywhere with lots of space is a happy place. She loves crawling. She’ll take off and crawl as fast as she can simply because she can. She plays games like pushing a toy across the floor with her hands and chasing after it. She’ll hold toys in her hands as she crawls so she can bring them with her. She plays hide-and-seek and “chase” where she crawls away from us as fast as she can, then looks back to see if we’re still chasing her; if we are, she takes off again! When she’s crawling over different surfaces, she lifts her knees off the ground and puts her bum in the air like a stinkbug--she especially does this to avoid pressing her knees on the metal between our carpet and linoleum.

We washed the pacifier afterward, and Ari, of course.

Things that never change
No matter the ups and downs, I love being Ari’s mother. When she’s hungry or sleepy, she tries to crawl into my arms to let me know she needs me. She smiles when she sees me in the morning and after every nap, and if I leave the room, she gets so excited when I come back and talk to her. She is my little buddy. Her smiles and baby giggles are what happy stuff is made of, and she brings so much joy to our family.