Carter: 9 Months

Monkey,
You are NINE MONTHS old today! Three-fourths of a year! Talk about downward slope to your year birthday, you are almost there, buddy! You have officially been with us on the outside longer than you were with us on the inside.  It's funny how it seems like you have been here forever, yet at the same time it just feels like I've blinked and now you are grown.  I'm afraid the next time I blink you will be getting married.  *sob*

I feel like we have been cheated out of an entire month together because of what happened with your Daddy J this month.  We started the month off with your first overnight trip at Nana and PawPaw's, and then suddenly you spent over a week with them while I was at the hospital with Daddy J.  I haven't been wanting to leave you overnight, but your Auntie Sara and Nana have been insisting that we do a few trials runs of overnight trips before I have to leave you next weekend to go to New Orleans for your Auntie Sara's bachelorette party.  If it weren't for everyone being so pushy I truthfully wouldn't have left you overnight! It ended up being a moot point since I had to suddenly be unavailable to you as you were not allowed in the ICU and I caught a nasty stomach virus all at the same time.  And without missing a beat you lived a week of your life without Mama.  Sigh...you slept through the night, you took bottles like a champ and ate everything in sight while you were at Nana's.  I'm so, SO thankful that you have grandparents so close by that can come and just take care of you without hesitation.  They have an even bigger job now since we lost your Daddy J, but it's a job I know they will do well.

Besides everything that happened with Daddy J we have had an "off" month.  I feel like you have been sick ever since your bronchiolitis back in December, and this month has been awful.  You ran your first high fever (103.7) and scared me and your Daddy to death.  Your fever hung out, on and off, for a few days and now it's RSV.  Your cough has brought back the breathing treatments and I swear you produce more snot than any other human being alive.  You have been fuss pot extrordinaire, and just seem like you are always tired and feeling bad.  I'm ready to figure out what's wrong and get you healthy!

On a better note, you are officially crawling!! You have been pretty mobile all month, mostly rolling and scooting around to where you want to be.  But I'd say it officially transitioned to a true crawl late last week.  You still do a combo scoot-crawl-hop some of the time, but you can get across a room like no other.  You never sit still anymore and are happy to just explore rooms wherever we put you down.  And you can pull yourself to sitting from your belly!  I first caught this new trick on the monitor and saw you sitting up in your crib, and now you do it after about every 30 seconds of crawling.  You are so much fun now that you can get to where you want to go.

You also have a mouthful of teeth.  It's hard to keep up but you currently have 8 teeth,  4 bottom and 4 on the top. *Knock on wood* I think we are past the biting stage, thanks be to God.  Occasionally you will gnaw on our chins but I can't remember the last time you truly bit one of us.  Keep it up!

Our biggest setback this month has been your naps.  Buddy boy...you are one strong-willed child (you get that from your mother.)  I don't know if you are too busy to slow down, or too nosy to miss anything, but getting you to go down, and stay down, for a nap is the hardest thing I have ever done.  You are really good about going down for your morning nap, but sleep only about 20-40 minutes and are ready to get back up.  About once a week you give me about an hour morning nap, but it's so rare you shock me everytime it happens.  You get tired around 12:30 for your afternoon nap but fight it as hard as you possibly can, sometimes refusing to go down.  Again, you sleep about 20-40 minutes and are back up, but usually this time you are really fussy and crying.  I KNOW you are still tired and could really benefit from more sleep because you sometimes fall right back to sleep if I go in and rock you.  Other times you just push through the exhaustion and decide to cry/fuss for the rest of the day.  It's emotionally draining dealing with such poor sleep habits and such a fussy baby all the time.  I've dusted off my Ferber book and am trying all the sleep training I can muster, but you might be more stubborn than me, if possible.  Dr K told us today that a lot could be due to the medications you are on and the virus, so that makes me feel a little better.  I'm hopeful that once we are past the RSV you will go back to sleeping in 1+ hour chunks and getting the rest you so desperately need.

In the same breath, your nighttime sleep is amazing.  You have finally dropped your early morning nursing session and sleep 7pm until 7-8am.  Ahh! *Insert angels singing*  You go down so easily at night and sometimes even fall asleep before you can finish nursing, if you have missed your afternoon nap.  I love peeking in on you on the monitor to see how you are sleeping because you roll all over your crib and always are posed in the funniest positions.

Napping at home...never.  Napping in the Target cart...yes, please

You are eating just about anything we give you.  You still get oatmeal, yogurt and a fruit for breakfast.  We've started giving you fruit chunks instead of purees and you love playing with all of your food.  Lunch is always hit-or-miss and the meal you most often refuse.  I just don't think you are hungry enough for 3 meals, but when you do eat lunch is usually a fruit combo, your favorite being apples, bananas and pears.  Dinner is a veggie and/or meat option, with lots of bread options (tortillas, roll, crackers, cheerios, toast) thrown in.  You have also tried cheese, potatoes, sweet potatoes and chicken and love anything you can put into your hands.  I probably won't make any more purees for you as you are really liking "real" food.

You still are holding out on your real first word.  You still babble and sing all day long to us, and really have started "responding" to us when we talk to you.  I feel like sometimes we have conversations back-and-forth because you talk when it's your turn and are silent when we talk, but have yet to really make any words.  You still say "mamamamama" all the time, but I'm hesitant to really count it as a word since you don't stop at "Mama" and don't realize what it means.  You really save up a lot of your talking to when we read together, that's when we hear most of what you have to say.  You LOVE to read with us and just babble whenever there is a book open in front of you.

Monkey, we are so in love with you and just adore your precious personality.  It breaks my heart that you have already lost someone who is such an important part of your little life, but I am so thankful that you still have 3 grandparents here to love on you.  You have truly gotten me through the hardest month of my life with your big smile and happy heart.  I love every single part of you and wish you could stay 9 months forever.  I love you forever, little boy.

9 Month Stats:

Weight: 19 pounds, 15 ounces (42%)

Length: 28.25 inches (54%)

Eating: nursing around 7:00am, 11:00am, 3:00pm and 7:00pm

Bedtime: around 7:30pm

Awake: between 7:00 - 8:00am

Naps: around 9:00am, 12:30pm, and 4:30pm...or none at all

Diapers: size 3 Huggies

Clothes: 9 months

Favorites: moving independently, your red race car, chewing on your toothbrush, eating food on your own
Dislikes: being put into your carseat, not being able to reach a toy, Mama taking a toy/item away, napping

Development: crawling, getting to sitting from laying, plays patty-cake and peek-a-boo, separation anxiety when away from Mama