9 months

9 months already?  Yep.  I can’t believe it, either.  It’s been almost a year since this little guy decided to make a quick, early appearance.  He came into the world in an exciting fashion, and it’s been a wild, fantastic, joyful ride ever since.

He had a well visit with his pediatrician this month and he weighed in at just over 24 pounds and was 31 inches long.  He’s a big, solid, strong boy.  To put it in perspective, Meghan was 25 pounds at two.

Last month I told you about the failed soy trial.  It took the entire month to get his stools back to normal.  His doctor told me that while soy doesn’t stay in my system for long, the irritation that it caused his system can take a long time to heal, which is why his stools stayed full of mucus for so long.

She said that I could try another trial “in a month or two”, but I’m not anxious to put his system through that again.  We also talked about allergy testing to see if he has any true allergies or if what we’re seeing are just intolerances. I decided to wait until he’s a year when we have to get his iron tested anyway.  So for now, I’m just going to continue with my restricted diet and not do anymore trials until he’s at least 11 months.  I’ve done it this long, what’s another few months?

Breastfeeding is still going great, and Luke’s made some great strides in his solids eating this month.  Remember last month when he basically stopped eating solids all together?  A few of you suggested I try a baby-led weaning approach to solids.  This approach bypasses purees all together and lets baby feed themselves from the beginning.  Luke didn’t really give me a choice in this matter as he was DONE with purees at 8 months.  He wanted nothing more to do with them.

He’s now on all table foods and is doing fantastic.  At first he didn’t get much food into his mouth, but with practice he became proficient and now can pick up even small pieces of food.  The foods he eats include sweet potatoes, beets, butternut squash, peas, green beans, pears, bananas, apples, avocados, oatmeal (messy!), eggs, beans, and in just the last few days, chicken.  We still wait at least 5 days after adding in a new food, so it’s been slow getting a bigger variety in.

As he got better with solids, his sleep improved again.  He is sleeping in longer stretches and mostly getting up to eat once a night after 7-9 hours.  Two times in the last week, however, he’s slept through the night 11 and 11 1/2 hours. It was glorious! Of course I hope this trend continues and he starts to sleep through consistently.

He’s on a good, consistent schedule these days, which is great.  It looks something like this most days:

7:00 am–wake for the day and nurse

8:00 am–eat breakfast (with Meghan)

9:15am–nap

11:15am–wake and nurse

12:00pm–lunch (with Meghan & Mommy)

1:45pm–nap

3:15–wake and nurse

5:30–dinner (with the whole family)

6:30–bath

6:45–nurse

7:00–asleep for the night

Usually wakes anytime between 1-4am for a feeding

A lot of people told me that boys are different than girls, but I really didn’t think it’d be all that noticeable.  I was wrong.  How can I describe it?  If Meghan was like calm, drifting waves, Luke is a hurricane.  He can’t be contained.  It’s exhausting, but I love it.

9 Month Highlights:

Favorite Food:  apples baked with cinnamon or sweet potatoes

Teeth:  4 (2 on top, 2 on bottom)

Nicknames: Big Buddy, Little Buddy, Little Man, Lukezilla, Luke-a-duke

Favorites:  playing Meghan’s bugle (hilarious!), playing chase, opening the kitchen cupboards, being outside

Dislikes:  diaper changes (still hates it!), being redirected from dangerous things, when someone closes the door to the bathroom/pantry/laundry room, etc.

Have a great weekend, everyone!