MONTH 9
(36–39 weeks)

Baby’s weight: 15½ to 22½ pounds (average for girls);
17 to 24½ pounds (average for boys)
Baby’s height: 25¾ to 29½ inches (average for girls);
26½ to 30½ inches (average for boys)

YOUR BABY

Your baby is now beginning to share his world with you. He turns around to look for your reaction to things, especially when you ask, “Where’s the ball?” or “Where’s the dog?” When he’s fascinated with a toy, he will glance over at you to see if you agree. If he attempts to do something risky and feels a little worried, he will look to see what your reaction is. Your imitating him when he plays or makes noises delights him, but he’ll protest loudly and turn away when you try to clean his face.

Nine-month-old baby

Your baby’s hand skills have markedly improved since last month. He’s much more adept at picking up small things and transferring them from one place to another than last month. Your clever little one may even attempt to drop objects into large-mouthed containers and then reach in and pull them back out again. Practice is the name of the game, so he’ll repeat the same thing over and over until he gets frustrated or tired.

Your baby’s small “pointer” finger is actively at work and probing every possible hole. He pokes, pries, turns, twists, bangs, and pulls at everything he can get his hands on. But with all these newly emerging skills, there’s no need to rush to the toy store in search of educational toys or to sign up for the monthly “IQ-Booster Toy Club” in hopes of enhancing your baby’s brain power.

Pots, pans, lids, wooden spoons, milk cartons, cardboard cartons, and other household non-breakables can be just as satisfying and stimulating as imitation baby cell phones and activity centers that put on noisy (and annoying) light shows. (For more about choosing baby toys, see in 4. Gear Guide.)

Your baby may be so keyed into his exciting little world that he may have trouble settling down for naps or sleep. He loves looking at faces and responds to silly expressions. And babies differ in what is the most interesting to them: Some are visual learners and are intrigued by patterns, objects and colors; others go for being bounced and jostled in ways that would unnerve more delicate types. Still others are more auditory and attentive to sounds than to the visual or moving world.

When it comes to making sounds, most babies this age spend time jabbering. In time, you’ll hear “official” words in his growing vocabulary, including dada, mama, and bye-bye (when waving), and the ever popular uh-oh. Your baby will also practice nonsense sounds, tunefully repeating syllables in strings, like da-da-dahhh, and he may do fake coughs or blow raspberries at you just to hear himself and to get your attention.

YOU

Now, there’s no question about who owns your home—your baby does! No matter how well you try to organize things, your baby will wreak havoc in short order. Even if it takes days to reorganize and babyproof your house, it’s important to take the time to make your living quarters safer. Not only will it protect him, it will enable you to relax more, too. He’s becoming more attentive to life around him and may take special interest in the antics of your pets, other kids, or excitement going on nearby. He can make a bell ring, or pull a cloth off the top of a toy and be pleased to discover the surprise underneath.

But, you have to admit that your baby can be quite exasperating at this stage—fussing to climb down out of your lap so that he can try going down (or up) the stairs; pulling the dog’s ears and tail; scrambling up on chairs and tables and teetering on the edge of disaster; arching his back in protest against being put where he doesn’t want to go. The easiest solution is to simply rearrange the temptations to make them less accessible, and to back down and let your baby relax for a moment rather than try to force him to comply.

Has your baby pulled up to a standing position yet? When you look at other babies in the playground, you’ll find that there are wide differences in how quickly babies master body skills. Don’t be tempted to take other parents’ bragging about their offsprings’ feats as a sure sign of your baby’s failure to develop. When babies finally do get the signal to make the move, they quickly make up for lost time.

Helping your baby’s body skills

If your baby has mastered the art of pulling up into a standing position, he may need more practice in learning how to lower himself back down to the floor. Until he learns the fine art of knee-bending, he may look worried and fuss because he doesn’t yet know how to get out of his predicament. You can reassure him and help him learn how to fold in two by pushing him to a squat or lowering his back end down to the floor a few times.

  Tip

A great rainy day activity: Build an obstacle course of pillows, sofa cushions, a card table covered by a sheet, and cardboard boxes. Crawl around, under, and through them with your baby. Just don’t leave him on a soft surface for a nap. Another fun idea is making your baby his own picture book. Your baby is attracted to pictures in magazines and baby books, and loves turning pages. Create a special book for him using cutouts of baby faces and animals from magazines, and photos of family members. Stick them inside the magnetic pages of a photo album.

If your baby is already able to stand on his own but not yet walking, you can encourage him to make the leap by kneeling beside him while he’s supporting himself at a table or hanging onto a chair or the sofa. Make a game of holding out your hands and encouraging him to twist around and plunge toward your waiting arms.

Stand behind him and let him hold on to your hands while he tries taking forward steps. Or give your baby something to hold onto: a well-balanced push toy on wheels that doesn’t move too fast and resists tipping backward; an overturned plastic laundry basket; or a weighted cardboard carton may offer just the right support and speed to enable your baby to practice stepping.

You may be able to show your baby a thing or two about making sounds by clicking two blocks together, hitting a tin cup with a spoon, or beating on a toy drum. Just be careful that your baby doesn’t hit himself when he attempts to imitate you.

As with all parent-baby games, don’t overdo it. Look for cues that your baby is tiring or becoming overexcited. That’s when to step in and help him calm down and collect himself.

Your little clinging vine
Even though your baby can get into a thousand places he couldn’t reach before, he may also seem very possessive and clingy. He may protest vociferously if you leave him with someone else, or even if you momentarily disappear into another room. He knows you’re his parent; he’s begun to understand that you’re separate from him, and no one else fills the bill.

  Tip

Sometimes babies pull themselves up using the bars of the crib in the night and then cry for help to get back down. You may need to show him how to bend in the middle and sit back down by himself. Then sit beside him and pat him back to sleep again.

Clinginess probably saved many a primitive human infant from racing headlong into the tribal bonfire, so it’s futile to try to teach your baby not to cling at this stage. Doing that will only cause distress and make him hold on even more strongly.

Baby shakes
Some babies at this stage temporarily develop odd tremors, such as shuddering as if chilly, or head shaking. Your baby may just be peeing (some moms call it “pee shivering”); he may be surprised by an unexpected new flavor of food; he may be tired and need to go down for a nap; or he may simply be jerking his head around or making odd movements for the sheer sensation of doing them.

 

“He’s so heavy now, I sure will be glad when he finally gets up on his own two feet and walks (and he stops wearing diapers)!”

These repetitive or strange movements are usually harmless and likely to be outgrown by his first birthday. Some babies do experience small seizures, which is something to be concerned about. If so, your baby’s eyes will roll when the shuddering occurs, and he’ll seem tired or spacey afterward. Contact your pediatrician or a pediatric neurologist to have this looked into further.

  Tip

Babies at this age don’t know how to share yet. If there’s a squabble, you’ll need to step in and provide a distraction to both babies—such as other toys—to restore peace. Meanwhile, play simple sharing games with your baby, like rolling a big ball to him when he’s seated on the floor and getting him to roll it back to you, or handing him small toys and encouraging him to give them back to you.

SCENARIO: Your nine-month-old has started waking up in the night and crying. It’s one of two things: Either his drive to master body skills is so overpowering that it keeps on driving him and awakens him with a startle; or, his brain has finally figured out that when you go away, you’re still out there somewhere. Either way, you decide to go in, lay him back down, cover him with his blanket without speaking, and gently pat him rhythmically on his belly until he relaxes and falls back to sleep.