Notes From Home: 9 Months

My little guy is nine months old (as of Sunday). It's hard to believe that he's just 3 short months away from his first birthday, and already older than the duration of my pregnancy! His personality is so easy going and friendly, that I imagine he won't be in want of friends when he gets older. Seriously, this kid's smile is killer. And his eyebrows? Well they make his face even more expressive, which is just awesome. I love watching his facial expressions and his reactions to different things.

Recently (the last 6 weeks or so) we've had ~~a bit of~~ a REALLY hard time with sleeping with him. Apparently, around 8 or 9 months old, some babies decide that sleep is totally unnecessary. And well Andrew was among them. It really took us by surprise, because he had been a "put down drowsy but awake" kid and he'd just sleep. He boycotted naps and eventually night time sleep as well. It was kind of a gradual thing. He would wake up and I would nurse and boom back to sleep. Until, it wasn't like that. Then he was up every hour like clockwork, nursing for a minute, then came either screaming or wanting to party. It didn't take long for stress levels to shoot through the roof and tempers to get short.

So at his 9 month appointment yesterday, I was convinced that our pediatrician would give us some magic cure that would have everyone back to sleeping an appropriate amount. I was thinking, ear infection or something along those lines. Because how could my sweet, smiley boy have any ulterior motives when waking up. Well, I was wrong. Medically he's perfect so we got the cry it out advice. He's not needing to nurse during the night anymore and is basically just seeing how many times he can get me to cave and get him. (And let me tell you, when your kids share a room, you cave a lot quicker to keep at least one child asleep.)

Tonight was the second night and he was out in less than 15 minutes. Last night was rough, more so on me than him I think. Mostly because I knew if I picked him up he would be my happy guy again. But I held out and he eventually fell asleep. (It took about an hour and a half, but felt much longer!) We had literally tried everything else out there: rocking, walking, singing, co-sleeping, bedsharing, white noise, lullaby music, TV on, lights on, cereal before bed, formula before bed, nightlights, etc. So I was kind of desperate, especially with a 2 year old that has recently discovered a love for waking up before 8:00!

Other than his sleeping, Andrew has really been a great baby! Like I said, his personality is so warm and he makes you want to snuggle him all day. Here's where we're at now:

He weighs 20 lbs exactly, only 5 less than big sister (49%)
18 month clothing
28 inches tall (48%)
19 inch head circumference (off the charts) No medical issue just a family history of big heads
Full time crawler now- and boy can he move fast
He has a knack for finding minuscule things in the rug and trying to eat them, even if you JUST vacuumed
Pulls to standing position in his crib, but only to his knees on other furniture
Walks when you hold his hands, he kind of swings his legs in a circle while taking steps, really cute
Loves playing peek-a-boo
Hates his jumper, mostly because he's realized I use it to contain him
Loves textured foods, I'm fairly certain he will be on just table foods soon. Baby food is too thin for him, the boy likes to chew things. (He ate about half a radish tonight, just chomped away at it.)
Size 4 diapers
Still only the 5 teeth he's had for the last few months, I keep thinking more are coming but they never show.
He's starting to figure out what his sippy cup is, but he really just likes to bang it on things.
LOVES talking, yelling, screeching, giggling, and laughing. It's even better if Sarah joins him.