Baby AJ: 9 Month Update

9 Months! Well as usual this update comes 2 weeks late. I think I'll just accept the fact that I can't get these done before we're halfway through the next month. 

Weight: 19.5 lbs
Length: 28 inches
Diaper size: Size 3
Clothing size: 9 & 12 month, I think we're going to be in this size for awhile since his growth has slowed a lot.

Nicknames: Boo Boo Bear, Boo Boo, bub, baby boy, sweetie, lil' man, little guy, child, kiddo

Health: He's been teething so bad this last month. He had 6 teeth cut through in the last month! For a grand total of 8 teeth now--4 on top and 4 on bottom.

Sleep: Sleep is pretty much the same, crap. I've come to just accept it (most nights). We moved the glider into our master bedroom and his crib mattress. It's unconventional but he sleeps on his crib mattress on the floor at the foot of our bed. His bedtime routine consists of a bath, PJs, story, nurse, rock to sleep. Then he sleeps about an hour before waking. We usually rock him back to sleep and if it's when I'm heading to bed, I just bring him to our bed. He then sleeps the rest of the night in our bed. When he wakes, I hold him and we both roll to the other side and I nurse him back to sleep. Most of the time I only wake briefly. There are times when we struggle getting him back to sleep. He'll just continually sit up and I have to lay him back down. So annoying! Those are the nights where I usually get frustrated. It's not ideal, but I don't want to do anything about until he's at least a year. The constant nursing during the night helps me not stress about how much to pump. I also think a lot of his waking is due to teething too. He just seems to constantly be teething at this point. Teeth are cutting through every few days. Poor little guy.

Diet: Mainly mama's milk with some solids. He really has started to show an increased interest in solids over this past month. He loooooves apples. Goes nuts for them. We give him half an apple and he scrapes off bits of apple with his bottom teeth. Now whenever we eat, he must have a taste of what we're having.

Loves: his bath every night, crawling, pulling up to stand, cruising (really he just loves that he can get around now!), being tossed in the air & rough housed, when we sing and talk to him, our dog Sadie, when we make funny sounds at him, going on errands/ getting out of the house, being outside and exploring new sights and sounds, when people give him attention (he's a little ham!), apples, swimming, water

Dislikes: getting out of the bath and getting dressed, when I pull shirts over his head, being over tired

Milestones: Nothing new here. He's a master crawler now and can get anywhere quick.

Speech: Sounds he makes include: dada, baba and he was making an "aht" sound for awhile. We think he got that one from when we tell our dog "out". We say it a lot to her and it means to back out of the way and get out of our space. We also say "aaat" sound at our dog to mean no, so I think that's where he got the "aht" sound he makes a lot.

Baby Gear Love:
-Radian Rxt Convertible Car Seat: We ditched the infant bucket seat this past month for a convertible car seat. We really love this car seat and it will really grow with him. We'll be able to keep him rear facing longer and we'll also be able to use it as a booster seat.

Other things of note about month 9: 

-Jack got to celebrate his first Father's Day on June 16th. We went out for breakfast in the morning, opened presents and then went to my niece's 2nd birthday party. He got a picture mug from AJ and a cooler for taking with him to golf from me.

-June 18: Jack and the baby came to my work to have lunch with me.

-June 23: AJ's great grandparents came from Utah for a visit.

-June 30: Finally not afraid of grass! And he loves his little baby pool.

-July 4: First 4th of July and his last "first" holiday. *sniff sniff* We didn't do too much besides going over to my parent's house to swim and eat dinner.

-July 5: First trip to the beach.

-June: top lateral teeth cut through, July 3: top middle teeth cut through, July 8: two bottom lateral teeth cut through -- 6 teeth total in one month!

-He figured out how to put his paci in his mouth and the position it correctly. If he sticks it in there upside down, he'll turn it around.

-He likes to feed himself his bottle these days.

-He loves water!

Someone stop time because he is growing up too fast! I'm trying to relish these last few months of babyhood as much as I can before he turns one. They really don't stay babies for long enough. :( 

Baby AJ: 8 Month Update

Ok, so I really suck at writing these on time. I'm only including everything up until he turned 8 months even though he's almost 9 months already! I want to be able to look back on the monthly posts and remember what happened each month of his life.

So many changes for this little guy this past month! We now have a mobile baby! He seems soooo much more content after he figured out how to crawl. Besides his crappy sleep at night, he really is a good baby. He is so happy all the time. Smiles for everyone! Loves when people talk to him and give him attention. He usually gives them a shy smile and burrows his head in my shoulder. Jack and I love to take him on errands and he loves to go! He's usually pretty content in the shopping cart or restaurant highchair. This is such an awesome stage!

Weight: Not sure maybe 19 lbs He gets his next weigh in at 9 months
Length: ???
Diaper size: Size 3
Clothing size: 9 month & some 12 month

Nicknames: Boo Boo Bear, Boo Boo, bub, baby boy, sweetie, lil' man, little guy

 Health: He's really healthy. Only one cold so far which was not fun. He had a super runny nose and just seemed like he wasn't feeling well. I had a nose frida over nighted because a bulb syringe just would not cut it. And we went through a million boogie wipes. Definitely recommend those two products for a sick little one.

Sleep: Still isn't great, but we're not willing to do any sort of cry-it-out sleep training. We have good nights and bad. We enforced a stricter bed time routine and no longer give in to him when he wants to play after his bath. Now we can get him down for the night between 7-8 pm which is such an improvement from when we were spending 2-2.5 hours getting him down for the night. He sleeps most of the night in our bed and wakes up periodically to nurse. Usually I just whip out the boob and we're both back to sleep fairly quickly. A successful night is one where he wakes less than 4 times. Yikes. I guess I'll just have to deal for now because I'm not willing to wean him from night nursing until after he's one.

Diet: Mostly breast milk with some solids. We have no routine when it comes to solids. Maybe I should get on that. We have discovered he loves apples! His two bottom teeth are perfect for scraping off little bits of apple. He goes crazy whenever he sees an apple now and MUST have it. Nursing is still going well. He usually only nurses one side for 3-4 minutes about every 3 hours when I'm home with him. While I'm at work, he drinks very little milk which is why I think he wakes so much during the night to nurse.

Baby Gear Love:

• Mamas & Papas Pixi Highchair: Still loving this highchair
• Things around the house for him to play with like wooden spoon, whisk (he loved the whisk!), box with something inside to make it rattle, container. He has fun playing with this kind of stuff.

Loves: his bath every night, sitting up, crawling, pulling up to stand, cruising (really he just loves that he can get around now!), being tossed in the air & rough housed, when we sing and talk to him, our dog Sadie, when we make funny sounds at him, putting EVERYTHING in his mouth, going on errands/ getting out of the house, being outside and exploring new sights and sounds, when people give him attention (he's a little ham!), apples

Dislikes: getting out of the bath and getting dressed, when I pull shirts over his head, being over tired, nose frida

Milestones: sitting up, crawling, pulling up & cruising, babbling, starting to develop a good pincer grasp

Speech: He is now saying dadadadada, says it over and over. I don't think he knows what it means. I'm not calling it his first word. Just want to start tracking the sounds he is starting to make.

Typical Schedule:
Here's a loose schedule of what a typical day is like whether it's a weekend or Jack home with him.
6am-7am: Wake up for the day, sometimes even earlier!
play, play, play & crawl around
~9am: first nap 2 hours after waking
10:30am: more playing and crawling and cruising. If we're going to leave the house, we'll usually leave after his first nap.
~1:30pm: 2nd nap approximately 3 hours after he woke from his first.
~3pm: wake up from nap, more playing and crawling. We'll go out of the house again if needed.
5pm: Dinner
6:30pm-7pm: Bath time!
7pm-8pm: Down for the night! Mom and Dad time.
8pm-Morning: About who knows how many wakeups in between.

Other things of note about month 8: 

-Mastered sitting himself up from lying on the ground.

-Mar 21, 2013: Caught his first cold. It lasted a little over a week. He had a really bad runny nose and was more tired.

-We had to lower his crib since he figured out how to sit up and pull himself up.

-We now just change his diaper on the floor since he so wiggly and can roll onto his tummy so fast now.

-May 28, 2013, crawled for the first time. He learned quick too! Just a day or two before he started crawling, he was just kind of scooting around. I came home from work on this day. I set a toy out of his reach and he crawled to it! Within a day, he was a pro! He does have a funny crawl as you can see in the photo below. He pushes with his left leg and then drags his right leg.

-May 31, 2013: Sat on a horse for the first time.

-All he wants to do now is crawl and pull himself up and cruise.

-June 4, 2013: Jack brought AJ to visit me at work for the first time.

-He now likes to feed himself a bottle.

Seriously, can I just pause time! He's growing too fast! Jack and I are so obsessed with him it's ridiculous. We are always talking about him. And my cheap husband has no problems spending money on something for the baby. We just love him so much! Stay tuned for a 9 month update in a couple of weeks! I hope to actually write it on time.