9 Month Update

2014 has come and gone, and boy was it a great year. The BEST year. I can't imagine a life without this sweet boy anymore. He has touched my heart in ways I never would have thought. The saying "You don't know love until you have a child" is so true, its not even funny. Yes, there are different kinds of love, but a love for your child is beyond words. 2014 will forever be in my heart and I am so excited to see what 2015 brings.

We now have a nine month old. Can you believe it? I can't! I say it every time, but time just flies by. Nine months is the magic number during pregnancy and knowing we have had Max outside the womb for almost as long as he was inside the womb is crazy.

This past month has been full of accomplishments/milestones, another doctor visit, more medicine, and even less sleep. I didn't think it was possible to get even less sleep than last month, but let me tell you, that is exactly what happened.

Height/Weight: Max still weighs 21 pounds and 10 ounces (75th percentile) and is 30 inches long (95th percentile!). At the nine month mark, babies tend to slow down in growth and not pack on as much weight due to all of the activity they do. Nine month olds definitely don't just sit around, they are on the go!

Friends at Isla's first birthday party

Sleeping: Oh how I miss sleep. I often wonder if we will ever get our sleeping-through-the-night baby back. We were blessed with that when he was 2-3 months old, and I think that really spoiled us! If I remember correctly, there were a few nights this past month where he only woke up once through the night, but those days are few and far between.

                                           

His sleeping habits are a little different now and I think a lot of it has to do with his illness. I will talk about hi illness here because it might help explain his sleeping issues. As you all know, Max has basically been sick since November. It seems he gets a cold, then gets better, then gets a cold...its never ending. I blame the weather and all the baby handling and busy schedule from all of the holidays. Anyway, Todd took Max to the doctor to try to get him some more antibiotics after all of the kids at his sitters were sick, some with sinus infections. Thankfully Max didn't end up having a sinus infection, but he was diagnosed with an ear infection (case in point why he might not be sleeping well). We were told it was diagnosed early and on a pain scale was probably 3-4 on a scale of 10. We were given some more Amoxicillin to combat the infection. Of course we were upset Max was having to go through the pain of an ear infection, but we were happy to possibly have a reason why he wasn't sleeping good. Other than the ear infection, he still had common cold symptoms that also didn't help during sleep. We tried rubbing Vick's rub on his feet because that is known to help with coughing and sleep, but we didn't really notice any difference with the rub, so stopped using it. A humidifier is still running in his room every night. He has also been teething really bad, so that doesn't help in the sleeping department much.

Back to his sleeping habits. He now wakes up pretty quickly after being put to bed, sometimes waking up a few times before I go to bed. That's fun. Again, he doesn't always wake up completely, just kind of cries in his sleep, so we just have to give him his binky or pick him up and hold him for a few minutes. He falls back asleep rather quickly which is good, but its like he is in pain (pain from his ear infection/teething?). Quite a lot this past month he woke up every hour it seemed. Ugh. Working overtime, being extremely busy while at work, and having a non-sleeping baby, December was rough. I would say from the time he went to bed to the time he woke up the next morning, he woke up an average of 5 times. Sometimes we would get lucky and he would wake up twice, sometimes I would lose count. We did get extra cuddles every time we got up with him though; his head on my shoulder is my favorite...gotta find the positive in everything, right?

Getting these two to sit next to each other is almost impossible

It has been a little harder to get Max to go to sleep recently. I used to be able to get him down by myself, rocking him to sleep, but its not as easy anymore. It seems he either fights it more or wakes up very easily as I am putting him in his crib. Getting Max to sleep is now a two parent job more often than not. ** The more I think about it (and after Max's nine month doctor appointment today 1/6/15), I think a lot of his poor sleeping habits are caused from separation anxiety. He is getting really attached to me (and Todd) and doesn't want to be separated from me at night. Makes sense.

We also started giving him Benadryl some nights after we found out about his ear infection and when he would wake himself up coughing. We know Benadryl and babies under one years old can be controversial, but we would only give him some at night when we thought he really needed it. When we first started giving it to him, he slept so well (and so did mommy and daddy!), but after a few days I think the drowsiness it could cause wore off. Oh well. We have talked to our doctor about giving Max Benadryl and he told us it was ok to give it to him, just at night.

Nap time is still twice a day when he is home with us. The first about two hours after he wakes up in the morning, the second usually around 2pm. Todd kept Max at home with him for his two week holiday break and Todd noticed his morning nap usually didn't last very long (under an hour), but his afternoon nap tended to be longer.

Eating/Feeding: Max is still nursing and I can count on one hand the number of bottles he has had last month. We pretty much stopped trying at home, and I believe Barb tries once every day during the week. At least I still take one bag of milk to the sitter's every day. I feel like he has been nursing much more lately due to teething and needing extra comfort. In fact I rang in the New Year nursing my little baby. He relies on solid food for sustenance and we have started giving him more finger foods and I share some of the foods I eat. This month he has learned how to feed himself the finger foods (baby puffs, cookies, yogurt melts) really well! When we put the food out on his tray, he used to just move them around and possibly pick them up in his hand with a fist, but not bring it to him mouth. Now, he is able to pick up individual puffs and bring it to his mouth by opening his hand. He knows exactly how to get the food in his mouth now and I love watching him. We also hand the food to him and he will take it out of your hand perfectly, then put it in his mouth. I make him work for the food instead of just putting it in his mouth for him every time. Finger foods are a great way to feed him as a little snack and a great way to occupy him while we get his meal ready or when we need a few minutes to do something else.

Since he doesn't take bottles, we need to get dairy in him some other way. Baby yogurt is what we have started giving him and boy oh boy, how he loves yogurt! He would live off of yogurt if he could! If he gets fussy with other food, just give him a yogurt, or mix the food he was eating with the yogurt and he is good to go. I don't want to give him yogurt at every meal because I don't want him to rely on it, but we do usually give it to him for breakfast, and then maybe again for either lunch or dinner as a dessert. He has tried multiple flavors and loves all of them.

He has started to do this blowing thing while he is eating, where he basically blows the food out of his mouth right after the spoon leaves his mouth. He doesn't do it all the time and tends to do it after he has eaten for a while, so we can't quite decide if he does it when he is full, if he doesn't like the food, or if he is just being a stink (lol). It sure makes a mess when he does it!

I do want to mention (so I can look back on this in the future), that during the Christmas holiday, I did decrease the number of times I pumped, which did "help" in decreasing my milk supply. I used to pump twice at work, now I only pump once due to being extremely busy and also since my supply has decreased due to Max not drinking as much. Before the holiday, I would pump every night before bed. Now I don't. So really, I only pump once during the week day and not at all on the weekend. Max nurses whenever he wants, but its definitely not a lot. I used to worry about my supply decreasing, but Max is nine months old. He will be able to transition to cow's milk in a few short months. My goal was to breastfeed for one year and I think I will be able to do that, which I am extremely happy about, and crazily enough, that is only three months away (yikes!). Even though my milk has drastically decreased, it is enough to feed my growing son. I still have tons of frozen milk that I can get into, but definitely need to look into donating it!

Behaviour: Max is a crawler! Oh my has our lives changed! As of December 29th, we have a whole new baby on our hands. For the majority of last month though, he wasn't quite crawling. That's not to say he wasn't active. Boy, he could move across the room even though he wasn't crawling; I like to call what he was doing "the inchworm." He was able to pull himself across the floor, and he always seemed to be on all fours rocking, thinking about crawling, he just didn't know how to do it. He was also doing so well transitioning from his tummy to sitting up and from sitting up to his tummy. That made me so proud when he got that down! But back to crawling, once he figured it out, that was it. He moves so fast, its crazy! He loves it, being able to go where he wants on his own. He loves chasing the cats (they were a good crawling incentive). If he starts laughing, the cutest noise mind you, that means a cat is nearby. We now have a baby gate at the top of the stairs, so let the baby proofing begin!

On another note, he loves his jumper. He will get to jumping in that thing, it is hilarious to watch! He will also bounce on your lap when holding him. I think we may need to get a trampoline when he gets older. He also loves his walker and was getting the hang of walking in it, but I admit, ever since he started crawling we haven't used it that much.

Two things he is not a fan of is getting his diaper changed and putting his clothes on. He has to be entertained for us to be able to do both, or he will cry his head off. He loves the saline bottle, I don't know why, but that is his top choice. He just really doesn't like being on his back and he needs to be on his back when changing his diaper and putting his clothes on. I don't know if he ear starts to hurt, or if he gets drainage/can't breathe as well when on his back, but he does not like it! As soon as he can sit up he is happy and he now helps me sit him up. He uses his stomach muscles and tries to pull up. While on the changing table he will grab for anything and everything in the basket that holds his diaper changing things. Diapers are fun to play with supposedly.

This past month he moved to the big boy bath! He's always loved baths, but now that he has more room to play (and splash), he loves it even more. Tinkerbell likes watching him from the safety of the toilet seat.

He loves his binky and has become very attached to it. He loves going really fast and then suddenly stopping while sitting in the shopping cart. The whole store can hear him laughing. He now says the letter 'B' and says baba. Still no dada. He loves cords. He loves when I make weird noises and when I sing to him. He is really teething (no teeth yet) and is drooling so much. Drool is everywhere now that he crawls. He loves to pull hair. I lost a lot of hair during postpartum, like most moms, and now Max is pulling more out...thanks Max! He loves being tickled on his belly and sides. The giggles I get, ugh they are heaven. He loves peek-a-boo. Just put a towel/blanket over his head and he will pull it off straightaway.

Todd watched him for two weeks while he was on holiday break. It was nice having them spend time together, but Todd thought it was a little hard (Todd should realize how much I do now). I know they had some good bonding time though, Max gets so excited when he walks in the room, its so cute to see. Max did get used to being held while taking his naps, so hopefully that doesn't backfire too much. I definitely wish I got to stay home with them, but unfortunately I had to work the whole time. It was nice knowing my boys were together though.

Max is still wearing size 3 diapers and has been wearing size 9 and 12 month clothes.

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Christmas was very special this year. He is already spoiled, but he was extra spoiled on Christmas! He loved the wrapping paper, but has loved playing with all of his new toys since. Christmas is very busy for us, so he wasn't in the greatest of moods the whole time, but who can blame it? We are on the go starting Christmas Eve evening and all day and night on Christmas Day, so needless to say, his routine was all out of wack. Nap time and bed time were both sacrificed, but he did pretty good considering.

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It seemed I didn't get my camera out as often this past month, mostly just for the holidays. Be sure to take a look at my instagram to see more images from the past month!