9 months old

So I'm a few days late writing this update but D just had his 9 month well baby visit today and I like to include all the stats on our growing little man. Today he weighed 19 lbs 11.8 oz and is 28 inches tall. I was thinking he would weigh more than that but am relieved that he's still going to fit in his infant car seat a little bit longer! I don't remember exact percentiles, but I do remember that his head is in the 98th percentile..whoa!

He has been a pretty busy guy lately and his determined and curious personality is coming through. He isn't crawling on all fours yet, but he does an advanced army crawl to get where he wants to go. Usually he is motivated to get to things like cords, strings, drawers with knobs and outlets. Needless to say, we started looking at items for baby proofing the house. We also lowered his crib and are extra sure to keep a hand on him while on the changing table since he is a rolling machine!

He's clapping and raising his arms to do "Touchdown". Although Randy thinks D can improve this skill a bit more :) He is kinda waving, but not really. He says "da-da" indiscriminately and lots of other babbling sounds. He smiles a ton and is overall a pretty happy little guy. He still just has the bottom 2 teeth but the doctor said that his gums look raised up on top so we should be getting new teeth soon I'm sure. He can sit unsupported but still isn't that stable so someone has to be there with him. He gets upset when something he wants gets taken away. He has been very grabby with the dogs too and they have been VERY patient with him. Hilo is constantly trying to lick him and Kona is constantly trying to keep her paws out of his hands :)

Eating is still going well. He nurses 5 times a day and is eating about 4 oz of breakfast (yogurt/fruit/cereal) and 4-5 oz of dinner (veggie combo). He has started "helping" us feed him by grabbing the spoon. Which of course makes it harder to feed him but I guess it's good developmentally. The doctor suggested giving him some chicken or turkey and also introducing lunch soon.

Sleeping also continues to go well. He's been sleeping for 10-12 hours straight at night! Hope that continues! The only issue that has come up there is he is so mobile now that sometimes he gets himself caught in a corner or something of his crib and gets upset. He still naps in the morning about 45 minutes and on a good day, 2 more naps later in the day.

christmas fun

I was just reading through the last entry and I can't believe how much has happened since then. He seems like such a different kid. He is very close to crawling. In the past couple of weeks he has realized he enjoys spending time on his belly and rolls and pivots across the room. A couple of times he has gotten on his toes in push up position and he's working on getting his knees under himself so I'm sure it won't be long now before he's officially mobile.

Christmas was so much fun. Busy, but fun. We spent the night out at my uncle's house and D opened up some pretty cool toys (including a big CAT dump truck he can ride at some point; he liked honking the horn). Then my mom came down and spent the week. As usual, Christmas eve was spent with family but this year we were at the new Drakes house. Then Christmas morning we opened up gifts at home before heading back over to Drakes for more fun. Danny got quite a pile of new toys and some clothes and it seems like his favorite so far is this $8 Baby Einstein music toy that he can just lay back and hold on to.  My dad came over in the afternoon with more presents (we all got the most awesome sweatshirts and they match!). Then it was back out to Randy's family's house for dinner. Whew! Danny did great. He got overwhelmed and overstimulated but seemed to really enjoy seeing all the family. He even showed off his new dance moves and did his best to crawl.

What else? Not much else new really. He is just a moblie-ish guy now moving around on the floor. His personality has really just blossomed. He smiles all the time and makes silly faces. Loves loves loves being scared. Boo! He started clapping earlier this week too. Oh and he's up to eating 3 ice cube servings of veggies at night and enjoying more grains and fruits in the morning. Okay, so I guess there is newness after all.

8 months old!

I know I say this every month, but it's true. I can't believe he is 8 months old already?! Where has the time gone? No seriously, where has it gone? It is amazing to see how much he has changed in such a short period of time. This past month was full of new things.

He now has 2 bottom teeth and I'm sure there's another one trying to come through. At least that's what we and everyone else blames on fussiness. I sure hope I haven't lost my laid back baby to the tooth monster. Some nights he just screams for no apparent reason and no matter what we do it seems like he's not happy. So, we blame it on constipation and/or teething. Things we can't see and can't really seem to do much about other than give Tylenol and teething rings (which he isn't a huge fan of).

I should mention the Tylenol thing..sometimes it seems to have a placebo effect. He will be screaming his head off and nothing else is working and then as soon as that dropper comes near his mouth he's all excited and then happy as a clam (what does that even mean?). Anyway, I digress.

He's still practicing sitting up and seems to enjoy this new way to play with the same old toys (thank goodness Christmas is coming..he is just SO bored of his current toys. well, not really, I'm just sayin'). He is not a fan of falling back. When we are in the living room where there is hardwood floor, I usually try to guide his fall so he isn't really falling. But when we are on carpet I've let him lose his balance a few times and he "hits" his head on the carpet. Boy screams louder (after he stops breathing for a few seconds because of how upset he is) than when he gets shots. I think it just scares him. Although, last night he rolled from his belly to his back and his head kinda landed loud on the hardwood floor and he started to get upset but when we didn't react, he was fine!

Eating is going well. He still nurses 5-6x a day. Sometimes on both sides, sometimes just on one, but in either case he has gotten much more efficient. He usually finishes up in 10-15 minutes. And he's really enjoying solids, especially vegetables. He's up to eating 2 ice cube servings of veggies now. Sweet Potatoes and Peas are his favorites.

He is no where near crawling yet. This is most likely because he hates being on his stomach and so doesn't spend much time practicing that development. He does love to stand though. Loves being in his exersaucer and being carried around in the ergo. We recently put him on my back so that it would be easier for me to do stuff around the house and he liked it so much he fell asleep!

He continues to sleep 10-11 hours at night. Naps are going okay. When I'm home he usually (not always, last week was a nightmare) goes down once in the morning and then late morning/early afternoon and sleeps for about 30-40 minutes in his crib. The rest of the day is hit or miss. Sometimes he'll nap in the car if we are out. The late evening is his toughest time though. He wakes from his last nap around 4ish and doesn't go to bed until 8:30ish, so there should be a nap in between there, but instead, he'd rather have us carry him around or cry and fuss which makes dinner time a little stressful.

He doesn't say any words yet but does say a lot of "ooohhh" which is cute. And he babbles a lot, but he's always been pretty chatty. He gets that from his Daddy.

Other than that we are just getting ready for Christmas! We'll be going shopping next weekend and I hope to get things wrapped and done so I'm not out running around at the last minute like I am every year.

sitting on a tooth?

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I wrote the last entry! Lots of cool newness this past month.

Danny turned 7 months on 11/7 and just a few days shy of that he sat up on his own! Just all of a sudden..BAM! Look at me! Of course this was about 4 days after we just took family pictures and he couldn't yet sit up for those. Oh well! So anyways, the sitting up. We were hanging in his room and I sat him down to practice and I let go and there he sat, for a good 10 seconds. Kona was right there and D was reaching out to touch her..cute!

For Halloween he was a monkey! So freaking cute! I took some time off that night and we hung out. Nothing exciting, but I enjoy being home on a Saturday night and hanging with my boys.

Then almost a week ago D got his first tooth! He had been super fussy the previous days but it was nothing noteworthy, just normal evening fuss bus. Then the next morning (I think Wednesday) I reached in his mouth and there was a tooth! At least for all that pain he has something to show for it now! Since he cut that tooth, he's been in a more pleasant mood. I was starting to think I was losing my mild mannered child forever since teething goes on forever.

Hmmm..let's see, what else? I'm making D's baby food which I'm pretty proud of. It's way easier than I thought it would be and he really seems to like it (well, except for green beans). He even likes peas! So far he's had applesauce, pears, bananas, peas, sweet potatoes, avocado, butternut squash and green beans. He's only had green beans once and he about gagged himself so I'm guessing he's not so much a fan. We'll keep trying though! He's now eating about 2tsp of oatmeal mixed with about 1-2 tbs of fruit in the morning and then 2 ice cube sized portions of veggie.

Nursing is going okay. I've been having what I thought were supply issues this month. The problem seems to be that my pump had a problem which then led to a supply problem which I'm hopeful is improving. When I'm home he nurses 5-6x a day. Still both sides in the AM and PM and usually just one side for about 5-10 minutes the rest of the time. He has really become more efficient. It used to take me 40-60 minutes sometimes in the morning for one feeding. I'm loving all the extra time I have now!

He continues to sleep about 10-11 hours per night and he handled the time change surprisingly well. Although some nights he is ready to pass out at 7:30 and then other nights, like tonight (it's 8:48) he's chatting up a storm in there. He usually wakes up about 6:30. Naps have gone well this week, although I wish they were longer. The good news is that he's been taking them in his crib! WooHoo!

So that's the latest and greatest. Of course he continues to be the cutest baby in the world and is just doing so many new little things all the time. He talks talks talks all the time. No words or anything that sound like words but boy does he babble and sing. He smiles a TON but makes us work kinda hard for laughs. He loves standing. He can pull himself up while just holding on to our fingers. Not a fan of tummy time so my guess is he may skip the crawling all together. Who knows?!

Solids and other newness

So D has been eating solids now for a few weeks. It's been going okay and he just keeps practicing. We started with applesauce because we were told that would help with constipation. Well..he wasn't constipated but he just wasn't going. We weren't sure if he was or not. This boy used to poop 4-6x a day and then nothing for a week. Unusual, right? This started before we even started solids. So anyway, I digress..we started with applesauce (later to find out that it can be constipating..errrr! So many conflicting opinions/advice). He was cool with it. Moved to peas..not so cool. Then to oatmeal which was 'eh. Then sweet potatoes last night..winner winner chicken dinner! Well, actually winner, winner, sweet potato dinner! I mean he ate it right down with very minimal mess. Then today when he was eating breakfast (oatmeal mixed with applesauce) he even opened his mouth when I put the spoon up there. I think he's getting the hang of it. He is still only eating about a teaspoon, but he's practicing.

Hm. What else? He's working on sitting up, although mostly he just collapses forward into a face plant. He is loving his exersaucer and rolling to his belly, not so much to his back. He's reaching for stuff, holding stuff, putting stuff in his mouth, you know-all the normal stuff babies do. Oh and of course "he's teething". Well that's what everyone keeps saying anyway and has been for the past month or two. What does that even mean really? I tend to think that anytime babies are fussy for some unexplained reason people (myself included) jump to "he's teething". I'm sure he is teething but how long does this last anyway? In any case, he doesn't have any teeth yet.

Sleeping continues to go well. He's been sleeping for 10-11 hours at night and taking 2-4 naps during the day. He's been better at taking some in his crib, although he usually only naps for about 30 minutes at a time.

He still nurses 5-6 times per day although there has been some changes recently with the introduction of solids. He seems to nurse on each side for the first and last feed but during the day he only nurses on one side at a time. Always keeping me on my toes! Currently we are nursing on one side, giving oatmeal & applesauce then nursing on the other side. In the evening he hasn't been eating solids consistently. This is for several random reasons. But the plan is for him to eat a veggie about an hour after his 4pm-ish feeding.

Oh and the talking. He's totally playing with his voice and it's super cute. Just blah blah blah, scream, blah blah blah, scream.

Working for a living

So I've officially been a working mom now for about 2 months. With as much dread and anticipation I had about it initially, it's not so bad. In fact, sometimes I like working. There I said it. I feel guilty even thinking about how I sometimes enjoy time away from my son, but I think having a balance is what makes life enjoyable. I'm getting into a routine now at work and somewhat feel competent, so that's a nice balance to the times as a new parent where I feel absolutely incompetent. I enjoy being social with my coworkers and doing work that I feel good about. It makes the time with my son just that much sweeter. I absolutely adore that little man.

Now, while I do enjoy the work at times, I would still love to work less. Ideally, 2-3 days a week of work would be perfect. I even wouldn't mind putting in long days (10-12 hours) since I'm already putting in 10 hour days, what's a couple more, really?

It has taken some time to get into the swing of things though and I'm sure now that I've said this, things will change tomorrow and throw me off. So I'm working 4 days a week from 12-10pm. Danny has been sleeping until about 7 or 7:30 which allows me on most mornings to get up before him and eat breakfast. He wakes up and I feed him which takes 45 minutes or so, then we go for a walk, he naps while I shower and get ready. Once he wakes up from his nap we play a little then feed him and get him ready to go and we are out the door by 10:30 or 11, depending on where I am commuting to. Then when I get home from work, he's asleep :( While I hate that I don't get to see him for the rest of the day, it does make focusing on work easier. I take the mommy cap off when I drop him off and then put on the work cap and then when I get home I can put on the Karen cap. All these caps and I don't even look good in hats...

Then there are the 3 days off I have. I LOVE having 3 days off in a row (all mommy cap here!). I feel like I can really spend some quality time with him. It will be even better once Football season is over and we can have more family time on Sundays. Although, I must say how impressed I am with Randy. He has given up quite a bit of his quality football Sundays to hang with me and D.

One of the biggest downers about working is not seeing Randy that often. He often leaves before I get up and I get home after he's gone to bed. But it is absolutely wonderful that D gets to spend so much time with his daddy and he spends so few hours in daycare. I have really seen such an amazing bond happen between father and son.

I'm going to do another entry about D's newest developments...

6 months old!

I know I always say this (and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon) but I can't believe how fast time has gone by and that he's already 6 months old. That's like, half a year or something! While I get excited for every monthday, this one seems extra special or something. Like it's more momentous or something. I don't know. But I do know that I'm feeling pretty reflective on the past 6 months as well as the past year when I was pregnant. So I'm going to start big and then later talk about the cool new things D-Man is doing.

It just trips me out to think that at this time a year ago, I wasn't even past the first trimester! He was like the size of a poppy seed or something. Insane how fast they grow in such a short amount of time. I was so full of hope and wonder and anxiety about what the rest of my pregnancy would be like and what my little embryo would be (boy or girl) and what they would look like. So much has happened since then. From the lows of losing my job and our cat passing away to the big, thriving beautiful boy that we now have. I'm now full of hope, wonder and excitement about what  type of person he will become. What will his likes and dislikes be? Hobbies? Will he like school?

When he was born he was just this teeny tiny little adorable blob. All he did was sleep, nurse, poop, spit up, repeat. We were so excited once he started sleeping for 5 or 6 hour blocks and even more excited once he finally stopped paying more attention to the blinds and started making eye contact. Then he was holding his head up, smiling and laughing. He is now a big healthy boy who is just so much fun to be around.

Oh and can I just say at how proud I am that I am still nursing him. All the doctors recommend exclusively breastfeeding your children until 6 months of age. Done! He has gained all his weight from just breast milk. Incredible!

Okay, so on to the current stuff since it sounds like he is waking up. We went to his 6 month appointment yesterday. He weighs 16 pounds 13.6 ounces, is 25.5 inches long and his head is 18 cm. He also got another round of immunizations yesterday as well as his first in a series of flu shots. He seems to be developing well and doing what he's supposed to. Doctor wants us to start solids so we have that on the plan for Sunday. Although maybe sooner depending on his poop situation. More about that in a minute.

Big new development in the past couple of weeks is the roll over! He has been a rolling over fool! He finally mastered it a couple of weeks ago and now just does it all the time. Mostly from back to belly but he can get himself from his belly to his back and has rolled over a couple times where I look up and he's in a totally different spot than when I put him down. He's quick too! I look away for a second and bam! He's rolled over.

He still loves grabbing his toes and getting them into his mouth. Both sets, doesn't have a preference. Just loves his toes!

Tons of smiling and laughing now. So freaking cute! Loves laughing at silly Daddy, songs, being tickled and especially the dogs. Although he sometimes seems to get scared when they play fight..they do sound mean!

He's been sleeping from about 8:30 or 9 until around 7 or 7:30. Pretty good! He's also shown his adaptability when he goes to sleep over at Drakes and then gets woken up to be driven home. He goes right back to sleep for the night!

Eating. When I'm home he still nurses 5-6 times a day on both sides. The 4 days I work he nurses twice then eats about 18-20 ounces of breast milk from a bottle when he's with Daddy and daycare.

So he's up now and I'm feeding him as I type so I might not remember everything I was going to say. I did want to mention that yesterday I put all of his NB and 0-3 month clothes up and got out the 6-9 month stuff. He's still wearing 3-6 and now also 6-9 month stuff. Also, he's now wearing size 2-3 diapers. Not because he outgrew size 2, but because the size 2-3 were cheaper.

Oh OH oh! Did I already mention the thumb sucking?If so, then stop reading and skip to the next paragraph. If not, he's now a thumb sucker! He's finally figured out how to use it and it really helps him self soothe. Plus, it's freaking adorable.

Also can't remember if I mentioned that he now uses a big boy car seat with Daddy. In any case, it's worth saying again. He seems to like it.

Oh, the poop. Or lack there of. He hasn't pooped since last Wednesday. This has been going on a couple weeks now. He used to poop several times a day. So not sure what's up. May just be he's learning how to control his muscles better, may be that he's going through a growth spurt and using up all the food to develop, may be constipation or some combination. 

Hmm...guess that's about it for now. Oh wait..no teeth yet either. And I bought him a monkey costume for Halloween. Okay, that's it. Going to finish feeding him and hopefully take some pictures.