Tell me about your 9 month olds. First time mum worries

[Shannon9955]

My daughter turns 9 months old tomorrow and she's the happiest little soul. I'm a first time mum so unsure what's 'normal' and what's not. I seem to be surrounded by babies who are so more advance than her and it worries me.

• She's bottle fed, never got any breast milk to breast feed. She's on 6oz bottles, will take 7oz on her first morning bottle.

• Shes only just sleeping through the night (8pm-8am) has 2 naps a day.

• is eating a mix between purées and will eat what we eat for dinner if she can. But she's going through a phase where she prefers jar food which is fine because she eats it all and that's better than nothing

• She sat up by herself at 5 and a bit months. She can't sit up from laying down as of yet. She also rolled back to front at 5 months old

• She's starting to play well in her own company without having me there constantly. Plays with toys in her hands, can pick them up and throw them

• She can't clap hands or wave

• Shes not yet crawling. She can put her arms up straight when on her stomach but can figure out how to make the arms and legs work at the same time. So she basically just shuffles around the floor

• She's really strong on her legs if you pull her up to standing, will hold on to furniture but can't pull herself up onto furniture. Also if you hold her arms she will take steps

• She is a squealer, always squealing and babbling away. Always smiling and laughing

• She's started flapping her arms when excited

• She's started responding to her name

Think I'm just paranoid, but any feedback would be good. Would love to ask my health visitor all these questions, but I don't think I've had a reply from her since my baby was 16 weeks old. And I've switched doctors so I think they'll appoint me a new health visitor?

One of my children was walking at nine months. The second hadn’t even rolled over back to front at the same age. Both are normal and from the age of 14 months you couldn’t have told which was which.

This all sounds quite normal to me and similar to how mine were except for the purées

My daughter is 9 months too and I could've wrote this post word for word. Completely normal! Don't worry at all. Babies all develop at their own pace, she's doing great

Her development sounds absolutely fine to mine. All children develop differently, 2 of mine didn’t crawl until gone 10 months, the other was off at 6 months and walking and climbing by 10. All perfectly normal! Don’t compare.

Sounds totally normal to me too. What do you think she ought to be doing that she isn’t?

I didn't really explain the eating very well😂 she will eat the likes of toast ect. Her favourite dinner is fish fingers, sweet potato fries and peas. Loves quavers. She would eat that and nothing else if I let her

Nothing you have mentioned is even remotely concerning

I think/thought she should/would be crawling. She just has 0 interest in it at all. She will go on her tummy on her own terms, doesn't really move being put on her tummy. Since she's learnt to sit up she just wants to sit up and explore that way. And will bend down and sit back up herself

Just to echo what everyone else has said, everything you’ve written is fine for a 9m old.

My baby is just over 12 months now and was pretty identical to your daughter at 9 months. Fast forward to now, my baby is crawling (at the speed of light!), pulling up on furniture and walking with hands for support.

I had a lot of the same worries as you (FTM too), so I completely get it.

By the way, people aren’t kidding when they say “once your baby is mobile, it’s harder”. Enjoy the non-crawler while you can. 😂

Thank you so much! It's good to hear people with babies same age at the same pace

Many babies aren’t crawling at 9 months, some never crawl(apparently I bum shuffled and then went straight to walking).

Yes, people keep saying to me why do you want her to crawl because then it's game over. We bought her a Walker for Christmas and she's constantly opening the cupboards now. She is so fast in it also, I'll have my back turned for a second and she's in the hall speaking to herself in the mirror

She sounds absolutely sweet. The normal age range for crawling is 5.2-13.5 months and 5% of kids never do it. That's from Emily Oster's Cribsheet which is a reassuring read (she's also good in IG).

@Thesearmsofmine as she's so strong on her legs and will take steps when you hold her. We didn't encourage her to do that. I had her standing one night and she moved her foot forward so I went with it and she was just stepping her way across the room holding my hands. So maybe she will just pass crawling and walk

She's fine op 👍🏻

Is it autism you’re worried about OP, deep down? She sounds adorable and completely normal for her age. Mine did all of this (but actually was behind yours on one or two things) now a happy and healthy NT 3 year old 😊

Oh and mine cruised for about 4 months before taking a single independent step when she was 14 months old. She clapped around her first birthday but no pointing or waving until 15 months. First word after her first birthday.

You've read me like a book there, wow. Yes it is a big worry deep down. I don't know why, when I think it I'm just confused why I think it. I'm not sure why it even entered my mind but I watch her and it enters my mind. You've really chocked me back how you've noticed that🥹

Only just sleeping through the night?

There are toddlers out there who've never slept through! My 17 month old is now sleeping 7-5 and I'm grateful for that!!

You sound really paranoid over nothing. Stop comparing her to babies around you.

Let me just stress the fact first time mum, also I'm aware I might have a second child who never sleeps so I'll eat my words. This is my first rodeo, so it's all new to me and stresses and worries that seem like nothing to others are something to me

My 10 month old isn't crawling, and she only started clapping in the last week-10 days. She has, just today, started swivelling in her bum, so maybe she'll be a bum shuffler. But she loves sitting up with her toys around her. Try not to worry OP, your baby sounds absolutely fine. Mine is my second so I'm probably a bit more relaxed about it. DD1 was crawling now but didn't clap or pat for ages

I’m not surprised. I was too - frankly I had been reading far too many MN threads which gave me the impression every other child has autism, and that unless they’re SUPER sociable and SUPER engaged from 6 months old, then they’re likely autistic. I remember reading a number of threads about ‘first signs’ with a sinking heart because DD matched a lot of them - didn’t like cuddles much, cried a lot, wasn’t a big fan of the boob, eye contact not great. I watched her like a hawk, not marvelling at her development but checking for ‘signs’ of ASD/NT. Looking back I really regret the time I wasted doing this - I would advise a break from MN (or clicking on anything autism related), and just enjoy her. Do lots of nice play, go for walks, chat to her a lot. Don’t spoil this time worrying ♥️

DS didn’t crawl until he was over 1 and walk till he was 2. She sounds fab!

This is exactly what I've been doing. Especially matching the signs. She's really strong with eye contact, mainly because I wear glasses and she stares at them to pull them off. She's constantly smiling when I look at her. I know those 2 things are signs so she's not ticked the boxes for it there. But what you've just said I'm doing exactly that. And she's of course an only child, I've taken her to some classes but it was one on one still between me and her. She's been to soft play and she wants to play with the other kids so badly. She has cousins, but they are a lot older so they are a bit heavy handed for her to play just yet. But you can see she just wants to play.

I think I worry more in a sense because I had a stillbirth at 19 with twins and me and my now partner had 4 miscarriages before our daughter so she is so special to me

She sounds completely normal. I know there are markers of where they should be and at what point but try and remember that they're babies not robots and she'll hit markers when she's ready. My daughter didn't walk until 17 months and was teeny at birth but has more than caught up now.
Please don't worry, she sounds perfect and making amazing progress!