Saturday, June 18, 2011

growing by the minute: 9 months



Vital stats: Jacob had his nine-month check up this week and got a big gold star from our doctor. He weighs 22 lbs. (75th percentile) and measures 29.5 inches (75th percentile). This month, I think it's worth mentioning his melon, which, at 47.5 cm, puts him in the 95th percentile for head size. All the better to house that growing brain!

Milestones & firsts: Crawling! He started crawling after things he was curious about, like the vacuum or the cats, but now he crawls all over the place and we love watching him. With his added mobility, he's also learned to pull himself up on anything he can reach. He generally prefers standing to sitting, and will hold his hands up in our directions for assistance. Cue melting heart.

Jacob started riding in his big boy car seat a couple weeks ago and he loves it. We're still using the infant carrier in our secondary car, because it carries up to 32 lbs. It's super convenient to switch between cars now without having to move a seat.

Buckets. He loves them. He puts toys in, takes toys out, tips them up to his mouth like a cup and puts them on his head. Silly baby.

Teeth: Still two, but totally popped out and adorably visable when he smiles now. No real signs of the upper pair yet.

Speech: Other than his regular string of gaa gaa and blahh blahh, he really only says Mama and Dada. We're working on helping him learn ball, up and water, but he's not quite there yet.

Zzzzzzz: We had a few long nights recently, mostly due to a cold and congestion. For the most part, Jacob still wakes once in the night to nurse. I had considered weaning him from the night feeding, but now that I'm back to work, I discussed it with our doctor and have decided to keep the night feeding for now, so he can get a bit more milk in each 24-hour period, plus the extra snuggle time with him honestly trumps that little bit of lost sleep.

Om nom nom: As I'm sure you can imagine, there's not a whole lot out there that Jacob doesn't like. This month, he's enjoyed homemade mac and cheese, pasta with tomato sauce, watermelon, whole wheat english muffins, cheese, different flavours of yogurt, corn niblets, turkey and tofu. The one thing he hated was cottage cheese, which I assume was a texture issue. My friend K gave me a great tip though -- mix the cottage cheese with the pasta and tomato sauce. Worked like a charm, Jakey gobbles it up and gets that extra hit of protein.



Likes & dislikes: He loves the view from his new car seat. It sits more upright, allowing him to scope out everything outside the window. It's also more comfortable for sleeping because the head rest keeps his neck straighter.

He loves to play with anything he thinks he's not allowed to play with. This includes, but is not limited to, my cellphone, the camera and video camera, the bookmark that is holding my place in my novel, and my car keys. He very much dislikes when he gets his mitts on one of these items and I take it away from him.

Challenges: Baby proofing. Now that Jacob has mastered crawling, he's more and more interested in climbing. We moved the coffee table against the wall, limiting the number of sides he has to scale. We've plugged our electrical outlets, too, but we're having a tough time finding cabinet and drawer latches to fit our unique buffet and hutch cabinet as well as Jacob's dresser.

Separation anxiety. Not sure who this is worse on, me or him. Jacob has yet to cry when I leave him in the morning (thank God; I don't know if I could handle it). I, on the other hand, can't help but think about him all day and countdown the minutes until I can smother him with kisses.

Special moments: The look on his face when he sees me come through the door at the end of the work day is unlike anything I could describe -- it makes my heart skip a beat just thinking about it.

I'm trying to savour all of our nursing time, because the countdown really feels on to the end of breastfeeding.

Lately Jacob leans away from me and puts his arms out toward Dada. I'm not offended -- I love when he reaches out to Husband and a huge grin spreads across both their faces when I pass him over.

No comments:

Post a Comment