9 month posting (super late, oops!)

Size : 29 3/4 inches and 17 pounds 9.6 ounces - As suspected he has grown too long for the car seat long before he grew too heavy.

Clothes: He needs to move to 9-12 in almost everything, but only because of length. Everything is so baggy! Things are capris instead of pants, 3/4 length sleeves instead of long, and onesies are pulled tight at bottom where they snap.

Eating: Just before the 9 month day, we went through almost a week of barely any eating because of top teeth erupting. It was a long week. We're trying to move to more food slowly. The doctor recommended trying to squeeze an extra container of food into him. Unfortunately, his gag reflex is holding him back on eating whole food. It's frustrating, but he'll figure it out eventually. He currently is happy to put food in his mouth and then he immediately spits it up. We hid a couple grains of rice in a spoonful of baby squash and he gagged but kept it down. He can also occasionally keep down a small spoon of real, unsweetened applesauce. Puffs and potatoes are no-gos right now.

He now eats every stage 2 food from Gerber that we can find that doesn't have dairy or soy. That is some grains, some meats (chicken/apples, turkey/rice, chicken/rice, beef vegetable (that was a problem, we think...some kids who are allergic to the protein in milk react to beef and some don't. We think he had a mild reaction - not sure about the blood, but lots of discomfort when filling diapers) He particularly liked mango, interestingly enough. 

Sleeping: No real changes - naps better at home than school, approximately 8p-8a on weekends, 7 or 7:30p - 6a on school days. A couple naps a day, usually a longer one and shorter one but sometimes two long or two short.

Physical: He can push himself backwards on his tummy now, but not always. The harder he tries to go forwards, the more he goes backwards. It is kind of funny. When sitting on our lap on the couch, he can launch himself to get something further down on the couch (remote, phone, cat, etc) and he can stand up holding on to things as long as we put him there and spot him. He can't lift himself to standing or sitting yet. His pincher grasp is pretty good. (About a week after the 9 month day, he managed to untie my double knotted shoe. Nobody saw it happen, so we don't know how he did it, but when we looked over he had both laces in his hands.)

Vocal: Sometimes we hear consonants - b, d, g, and starting with n. Sometimes there's raspberry sounds but not very frequently

Other: Two top teeth popped through right at the beginning of December. The week before that was rough on the eating front but we were home for Thanksgiving break so at least he got to be blah at home. He's enjoying musical toys these days like the musical mirror from Fisher Price and the Leap Frog learning table. He also likes unstacking the rings and stacking cups.

Birthday = Halfway

Today marks the day that I've had a baby on the outside for as long as I had a baby on the inside. I like him on the outside better. :)

8 Months

Size: He was 17 pounds 3.2 ounces a week before 8 months. 28ish inches

Clothes: He's wearing 6-9 clothes now. The pants are getting a little short already, but the next size up is too big for his waist, so he's wearing a lot of capris. :) The small sleep sack is technically too short, but since he sleeps with his legs bent, that buys him a couple inches. The medium one is just so long that it gets cumbersome.

Eating: 5 bottles approx 5.5 ounces mixed. (12 scoops & 24 ounces of water still) Plus usually 2 baby food containers of Gerber stage 2.

Foods he's up to:
Avocado, peaches, pears, prunes, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans (although he hates them), and this week we started a soy/dairy free version of oatmeal with some fruit. (Thank you, Gerber.) Coming soon: Carrots and a meat

Sleeping: On a good school day he gets up around 6 (not willingly, most of the time) and then takes a nap around 9 and a nap around 1. He goes to bed around 7:30. On the weekend, he sleeps until 7:30 or 8 if we leave him alone so then the naps get pushed to 10 or 11 and then 2 or 3 and he goes to bed around 8 or 8:30

Physical/Facial/Activities: He likes to sit and play with toys. His current favorites are the stacking rings and other hard things he can bang together and use to make noise. He loves to splash in the bathtub. We started baby swimming lessons and he loves to 'float' (supported) on his stomach and frog kick with his legs. He won't mimic blowing bubbles yet though.

Crying/Vocal: We're starting to hear a few more consonants than we had been hearing. We're hearing a 'g' fairly frequently and sometimes a d or b.

Other: Poor kid has had issues the last few weeks. He had bronchitis that they believed was the bacterial kind, so unfortunately he needed amoxicillin. That really helped, so at least we knew it was necessary. But on day 8 he got a whole body rash which made him super fussy, hot, and uncomfortable. 8 days later it was mostly gone, but he didn't feel good for almost 2 weeks. He even slept through Halloween which was a bummer. As soon as that ended the drool started up so maybe we're getting another tooth?

Always at night ....

Day 8 of Amoxicillin. Baby is fussy as all get out and when we gave him a bath we realized he had a rash from head to toe. I'm allergic to it, so I decided to call the doctor even though it was 7:30. Asked whether it was something to be concerned about, whether I needed to give him benadryl or something like that, or just something to ignore. It's 2013. There's all kinds of technology out there, and yet I'm still trying to describe what the rash looks and feels like. Shouldn't there be a way to picture text your doctor???

Size Update

10/16/13 GI Appointment

16 pounds 10 ounces
27.5 inches

7 months

Size: ? We'll have to see if we can figure out a way to check.

Clothes: Still pretty much in 3-6, but wearing some 6-9 as well.

Eating: 5 bottles a day, 24 oz of water + 12 scoops. Seems like there's always something keeping us from getting all the calories in whether it's falling asleep before the last bottle is all the way finished or the runny nose causing a cough/spit up episode. He does eat food now, but that's not too many calories. It took almost the whole week before he decided to accept avocado. Then we moved to peaches because I thought he'd like them better. Also, avocado completely made him stop going to the bathroom so the doc recommended the 3 P's (peaches, pears, prunes) to solve that problem. He literally shuddered. It was hilarious. We thought maybe he'd like them better as the week went on because the peaches we bought were getting riper, but he never took to them all that much. Pears were slightly better. He would gnaw on a hunk in his feeding mesh bag, but didn't like to eat them on a spoon. Prunes were next and while none of these things have really sped up his digestive track, he liked prunes more than the other two. (Plus, prunes were a gift to us in the sense that we could buy them from Gerber. They're one of the few foods available that is just food and water.) Then squash made an appearance because they're another safe Gerber food. Now that he's had squash, he LIKES food. He will open his mouth and ask for them. He much prefers to eat if he's allowed to help with the spoon. Very cute. He does need pretty watery food. We weren't adding enough water in the beginning and he was doing a lot of coughing and sputtering. Watering it down made him happier. The Gerber packages are a good consistency for him, too.

Sleeping: A couple naps during the day, longer if he is home instead of surrounded by the fun at school. Between 10-11 hours at night. Every once in awhile he'll wake up at night, especially when he doesn't finish his bedtime bottle. It was worse when he was sick a couple weeks ago. Now he's back to normal for the most part. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night to talk and sing, but he goes back to sleep by himself.

Physical/Facial/Activities: There are now two teeth on the bottom sticking up! The second one came in several days after the first, but they're starting to even out in amount of white that is showing. He recently learned to shake his head no. He has no idea that it means no, but he thinks it's funny when we do it so now he does it too. We're having fun treating him like a Magic 8 ball with only one answer. ;) He finally spontaneously rolls back and forth onto his tummy and back, but not often enough that we have it on video yet. After weeks and weeks of wobbly sitting, this weekend (a couple days after the 7 month mark) he sat up for a couple minutes before flopping over. He likes to hold the bottle, but not for eating purposes. He is totally capable of holding it and sort of putting it in his mouth, but just for fun. When it's time to eat he'd rather put his hands behind his head and relax while we feed him. He is good at getting things in his mouth when he wants to.

Crying/Vocal: He spends lots of his waking hours talking, singing, babbling, squealing, (and unfortunately) screeching. I love them all except for the screeching. :) Still not really mimicking us. (Who knew there was a k in that word?)

Other: He had his first virus/fever this month. It only lasted about 3 days and he was pretty down and out. Luckily there was minimal screaming, just wanted to cuddle and lay around. Very glad that it did not last long!

6 Months (and a week) (and a day)

Size: 16 pounds (20%) 27.5 inches (80%) (Every calorie goes to making longer femurs)

Clothes: Carters 3-6 fit, most others have issues snapping. But 6-9 month fits too. Some PJ's are getting too short in the 3-6 month, but some are huge. (Everything is different!) There are some 6-9 onesies that we have to start wearing ASAP for length issues.

Eating: 5 bottles a day, less than 6 ounces. This is due to the lingering runny nose he's had for weeks. It started on day 3 of daycare so I figured it was that, but now I'm pretty sure it's allergies. Kids at daycare have gross runny noses that indicate illness. His is just runny and it gets worse and better on the same days mine is worse and better. (And I know mine are allergies) He's been spitting up more with the runny nose too because he coughs and then spits up. So he's way down in calories hence the slowing down of weight gain. (That plus all the extra movement because he's never still. Ever.) We don't force food because the spitting gets worse and the doctor agreed with that. He lets us know when he's hungry and he's growing so he's ok and nobody's concerned. He also got to start real food last week. We had some suggestions from the GI doctor about what to go with. We did pureed avocado. We started with just a little water and he couldn't handle thick food and the runny nose/throat thing so we watered it down really far. I'm guessing he doesn't hate it, because he doesn't scream. He does open his mouth and ask for more, and he will stick the spoon in his own mouth with food on it. But he makes faces like he hates it. Who knows. It's funny. We can only introduce a new food once a week after investigating diapers for allergy signs as well as watching for rashes and all the things that didn't happen with the original allergy diagnosis. So he's only eating with us right now, not at school.

Sleeping: If it's a school day, he often falls asleep before 8pm. He is sometimes ready to wake up just before 6am when I have to get him up to eat. Other days take more encouragement. We just turn on the lights at 5:30 when I get in the shower so that he can wake up gradually. He's not a fan of early wake up times. On the weekend, when he nods off around 7, we keep him downstairs around noise so that it's just a nap. Then he wakes up for a little while after 8 and eats a little more before going to bed for good. That lets him sleep til 7 on the weekend. He naps great here and sometimes great at school, it depends on the day and how much fun they're having. He would much rather look at babies than sleep. :)

Physical/Facial/Activities: He's finally willing to bear weight on his legs when we hold him up. We know he can roll both ways, but he chooses to do it very rarely. His hands are getting pretty good - he can get a spoon in his mouth, and he can grab the bugs on his car seat and pull. (The bug thing clicked today so a little later than 6 weeks.) He makes funny faces when he eats, and in the last couple days he's also started sticking out his tongue and wagging it. That seemed to start when he started eating. He uses his tongue to push out food, so then he mimics that same motion for fun. He can do "the worm" when he's doing tummy time and he loves jumping in the jumperoo.

Crying/Vocal: He's starting to make some consonants but still won't really mimic us. We laugh because some of his sounds kind of sound like "mean mommy" and "mean daddy."

Me: I really did start feeling almost normal right around the 6 month mark. Normal in a "I have a baby" way, but more normal than before. I can even run a few steps here and there to get something, like down to the mailbox in the rain. That's new and exciting!