10 months. 1-0. We are now in the double digits, and honestly, that makes me a little sad. Max is really growing up, but oh how fun he is! Everything is getting a little easier, besides having a very mobile child (I don't even want to think about when he starts walking!), and Max's little personality is shining through. Boy, is he the cutest thing in the whole wide world!
This past month has been great. We are sleeping better, eating grown-up food, crawling everywhere...the list goes on. Lets get in to this, shall we?
Height/Weight: Based on my calculations, Max weighs 22.6 pounds and is 30.5-31 inches long.
Sleeping: We are finally sleeping again! Yippee! Its crazy how much better everything is when you have a good night's sleep. My sister gave me a planner for Christmas, and I had the brilliant idea to track Max's sleeping habits, so I can better relate them on here (I'm so smart, I know). As January went on, Max slept better and better. Get this, he slept through the whole night seven times in January. Seven times! He woke up only once ten times. The other 14 days, he woke up anywhere from 2-5 times, but its all good. On the whole, all three of us are sleeping better, and that is a godsend. Unfortunately, he tends to wake up the most on the weekends (not sure why), but at least we don't have to worry about going to work after a somewhat restless night. Because Todd and I get up fairly early during the week, he tends to wake up early (5am-6am) on the weekends, so we bring him into bed with us and try to get a little more sleep time in. When do children learn they have to sleep longer on the weekends?? Todd is usually able to sleep longer (lucky him), while I have to stay up and make sure Max doesn't crawl off the bed. He doesn't tend to fall back asleep when he comes in bed with us, I turn cartoons on for him. This is normally the time I get crawled on, slapped in the face, hair pulled...you name it. Our headboard has shelves where we keep the remotes and have picture frames, two things Max loves to play with. Go figure.
His bedtime has been pushed back a bit and tends to be closer to 8pm now. We spend a lot of time downstairs where his play area is, so we let him play as long as he wants to get tired. He usually gets tired around 7pm and crawls to me to nurse and may fall asleep. We then give him a bath and then put him to bed.
Moving on to naps. His morning nap has pretty much gone to the wayside. He will maybe take a 30 minute nap, and it is usually on me after nursing. Try putting him in his crib and he will immediately wake up. I think he got used to Todd holding him through his naps during their Winter Break together. I know it isn't necessarily a good habit to let him always nap on you because you don't want that be the only way he will nap, but I absolutely love it when he first wakes up and looks at me all sleepy-eyed. He tends to sweat when laying on me; I love the smell (weird, but I don't care). He has dad's heat-keeping body. His hair is usually standing up in crazy positions. I love it. I can't get anything done, but there is just something about having a sleeping child in your arms. He is still taking a decent long afternoon nap, lasting anywhere from an hour to two hours, if not longer.
I do feel like he still has separation anxiety during the night and that is why he doesn't sleep through every night. He doesn't wake up because he is hungry every time, Todd is very capable of putting him back to sleep. He just wants to be with us. We never bring him into our bed during the night, we always get up and go to him and rock him back to sleep. On a side note, we did have to lower his crib mattress down! He pulls himself up now (I will touch more on this down below), so we definitely didn't want him to fall out of his crib. Whenever we do go to him at night when he wakes up, he is always standing up waiting for us, watching the door. Its actually funny, and can be a little creepy in the dark. I do want to mention, he doesn't full on cry at night when he wakes up and wants us. Its more of an attention-wanting fussy whine. Does that make sense?
In his 9 month update, I mentioned that I needed Todd's help in putting Max to sleep quite a lot. This past month, everything seemed to kind of go back to "normal." Yes, some nights Todd was needed, but he definitely fell asleep much easier/faster than last month. Makes me understand how much his ear infection really changed his night routine. We have still been giving him benadryl/tylenol some nights to help with his stuffy and congested nose. This kid just can't get a break. But I don't feel like the medicine has really affected his sleep. It does help him sleep of course, but he sleeps just as good on the nights we don't give him medicine.
Eating/Feeding: We are still breastfeeding; still going strong. He has come up with some strange nursing positions and has become quite the little gymnast while drinking. Its definitely made it harder for me! A big change this month is that he is finally drinking from another source again! Barb tried mixing my milk with some soy vanilla milk and he drank it, so we have been doing that ever since. First in a bottle, now in a sippy cup, which he is pretty good at drinking from I must say. Soy milk is not a good substitute for his age, so the fact that we are mixing my milk should make it ok. At least he is getting something. He won't drink a whole "bottles" worth at a time like younger babies, but he will take a drink here and there, like grown-ups do. I love seeing him drink from his sippy cup. He looks so grown up. And knowing that he is getting the nutrition from my milk makes me even happier.
This month Max decided he didn't like purees anymore. He did not want to be fed by spoon and would get really upset in his highchair. It would become a fight just to get him in the highchair. As soon as we started giving him "real" food and finger foods so he could feed himself, he was a happy camper. Feeding himself is all he wants to do. We have been able to give him some purees throughout the month, but he has fed himself for the majority. He still loves his yogurt, so we are able to spoon feed him that still. I've noticed he picks up all of his food with his left hand. Will he be a lefty?? I would say cheese and pasta are his favorite. Max got his first kids meal out at Fazolis and he ate all of his cheese ravioli plus some of my meal! He is a piggy. Not eating purees has definitely made meal time a little harder/stressful for Todd and I. We have to plan our meals to what we want Max to eat, which does make us eat healthier in the long run, which is good. When we go out, we make sure it is to a place where we can find something for Max (unless we decide to bring his food).
He is pretty good at staying in his highchair for periods of time without fussing. We have a bib with a little bucket to catch all of the food that he drops...boy does he drop a lot! Sometimes he picks up handfuls and tries to shove it in his mouth, with most falling into the bib. It is hilarious to watch! Sometimes we wonder how much he has actually eaten. At Max's age, it is ok if he doesn't seem to eat much, after all their stomachs are still pretty small. He eats really good for his age, but still gets most of his nutrients from milk. For breakfast, he loves toast with yogurt.
He does gag on some foods, but that is normal. Baby's gag reflex is much closer in their mouths and their bodies need to get used to the food that they eat. We do chop up everything in smaller bites and watch him carefully when he eats. When he does gag, we stay calm for him and he is ok. He does tend to look at me when he gags for comfort. It does scare him sometimes (and me too!), but I know gagging is normal.
Behaviour: This child is so mobile, its crazy. He crawls everywhere, and really fast at that! After a few weeks of crawling he started straightening his back legs (while still on his hands), like he was wanting to stand up, but ever since he started pulling himself on furniture, that has stopped. Yes, he is pulling himself up on anything and everything! At first, he was pulling himself up on his knees, but he got to his feet very quickly! Tables, chairs, doors, anything he can reach he pulls up on. He prefers to be on his feet...everyone says he will be walking soon. Speaking of walking, he started cruising the furniture! He picks up his feet so high to walk, like he is marching, it is the cutest thing ever! He will go after the remotes. Did I mention remotes are his favorite?! We have had to pick up everything off of the tables he pulls himself up on that he can reach so he doesn't hurt himself. Our house is looking a little bare these days. Baby proofing is no joke. And I know we haven't even scratched the surface!
He still is not a fan of getting his diaper changed. Or putting his clothes on. He loves to be naked, and hates to be on his back. Any chance he gets, he will try to roll on his stomach, and most times he is successful. He doesn't pee or poop as much anymore, so that is good! But when he needs a diaper change, it is a struggle. We still try to give him something to occupy his thoughts and I am getting better at changing him while he is standing up.
He still loves his bath and has started to crawl around in there after his toys. He likes to stand while holding on to the side of the bath and look all big and tall. Again, he loves being naked. He likes crawling around the house bare naked. We cross our fingers he doesn't decide to take that chance and pee. Also in the bathroom he loves banging on the toilet! Will he be a drummer?
He loves tearing paper apart, and putting it in his mouth. He will put anything in his mouth. He reminds me of a cat the way everything goes in his mouth. He loves the cats! Now that he can crawl to them...watch out! I still don't think they know what is going on. "Wait, he can follow me now?" He will go up to them and if they haven't had the time to move out of his way, remember he is very fast, he will grab on to them and not let go. He really needs to learn to be gentle. In time. He will also try to lay on them and get them all wet with his slobber, since he tries to eat them as well. Again, everything goes in his mouth...even the cats.
He now drops/shoots his binky out of his mouth when a sippy cup, food, or my boob is near. It is really funny. He still is attached to his binky and will put it in his mouth any time he sees one. We got a new stroller, that is much smaller than our jogging one, so we can easily take it out and about, and he loves it. January was not good weather for taking walks of course, but we were able to take him out in it a few times and it was nice. He swung in a swing at the park for the first time (and acted pretty nonchalantly about it). He loves his playroom and all the toys he has, especially his activity table that he stands up at, and these two Thomas the Tank trains. He does this grunting thing to communicate with Todd and I, like he is trying to have a conversation with us. He loves pulling his books off of his bookshelf,but doesn't really care for me reading to him. He just wants to grab the book and tear the pages. Again, he loves remotes. And my phone. Basically the two things that have the most germs. He loves going to the cat food and water bowl and dumping the contents. We have to pick up their bowls anytime we know he will venture to the kitchen...which is any chance he can. We have bought a baby gate for the kitchen, but it takes too much time to put up and down since it is an awkward area. We are lazy. Sorry cats.
He lives in his sleepers on the weekend. We don't tend to put actual clothes on his unless we are going out. I still love wearing him in my baby carriers and getting all of the glances. Todd doesn't wear him as much anymore since he can entertain himself more now. He still loves Busytown Mysteries, and every time the theme song comes in, he gets extremely excited. It is very hard to take pictures of him now that he is all over the place. He does not stay in one place very long. All he wants to do is stand.
Basically, he is the best baby in the whole wide world. Period.
Max is still wearing size 3 diapers and is still fitting in size 9 and 12 month clothes.
