Fox | 9 Month Update

Weight:
18 lb, 14 oz (35%)

Height:
28 inches (32%)

Health:
Luckily, he remained healthy this month! So grateful for his health!

Nicknames:
Big Honey, Baby Honey, Bubba, Schatzi, Bubbles, Mr. Fox, Foxy, Pumpkin, Stinky Butts, Poodle, Big Huns

Eating:
After my struggle last month, my milk supply came back, but I’m still having the same issue with not being able to pump as much as he drinks when I’m away from him. I put in some extra pumping sessions at night and on the weekends to keep my frozen stash up, so we’ll see how far I’ll make it.

I nurse him first thing in the morning, he gets two bottles of 6oz breastmilk while I’m at work, I nurse him when I get home in the afternoon and then again before bedtime. I also dreamfeed him 1-2 times a night (more on that later).

He’s still a picky eater when it comes to solids, but he definitely made some improvements from last month. He’s eating three times a day now and we tried lots of different things. Still a HUGE fan of bananas and all kinds of baby crackers, puffs, yoghurt melts…you get the idea. He LOVES carbs, you can put any kind of vegetable or fruit on a little piece of wheat bread and he thinks it’s best thing ever. He hates eating from a spoon and will only eat whatever he can feed himself, so mealtime has become a messy endeavor around here, but that’s okay.

It’s hard for me to find things for him to eat though, so if you have any suggestions, let’s hear them!

Teething:
Luckily he hasn’t gotten any more teeth this month, so we’re still at 6 teeth right now.  

Sleeping:
Holy moly, what a difference from last month. To remind you, last month, he was sleeping in our bed, would only go to sleep if someone laid down with him and would wake up every 1-2 hours and only go back to sleep when being nursed. 

Today, he is sleeping in his crib, in his own room, puts himself to sleep and usually sleeps all night. If he does wake up, he will also put himself back to sleep. Crazy, right?

Long story short, Katie has been wanting to try CIO (crying it out) for months now, but I was totally against it. But getting up every hour left me drained and exhausted, so I cracked and we tried it. I’m not going to lie, I cried along with him, and even now, three weeks later, it breaks my heart to hear him cry. BUT, he only cried for 20 minutes until he fell asleep and ever since, he usually only cries 5 minutes or less and during the night, it’s more like a minute before he goes back to sleep. Tonight, I put him to bed wide awake, he rolled over, looked around for a little while and then fell asleep. This kid is so smart!

I’m so glad we did this, but like I said, it’s still really hard for me if he has a bad night and does cry for longer than 5 minutes (which is very rare), I keep saying “I hate this” and just keep repeating in my head “Please fall asleep, please fall asleep, please fall asleep”.

Like I mentioned before, I’m still dream feeding him once or twice a night, just for my piece of mind that if he does wake up crying, I know, that he’s not hungry.

Naps have been awesome as well, since we started sleep training. While he used to nap for only short amount of time, he now takes a very long morning nap (1.5-2 hours) and a shorter afternoon nap.

Diapers:

Size 3

Clothing:
We’re all over the place. He’s wearing anything from 6 months, up to 12 months. 

Social:
He’s getting more fun every day! He’s very talkative and we love listening to his little voice. He’s been getting much better in social situations. In the past, he would get easily overwhelmed when there were too many people around, but last week we went to a huge Valentine’s Party and he was just playing all afternoon and didn’t even care where we were.  

Likes:
Putting everything in his mouth, music and dancing, standing (he makes his body super stiff when you try to sit him down, just so he can stand), pulling himself up on his activity cube, being outside, riding in his stroller, other babies and children, when we make loud sounds that surprise him (like “boo”, sneezing, etc.), sleeping on his side and stomach, his jumperoo and walker, water bottles, our dogs (especially Zuma), bath time, being carried around, having his mommies attention, bracelets and necklaces, pulling hair, ripping my glasses of my face (he actually laughs when he does that!), watching videos of himself giggle (it’s hilarious, he will smile the biggest smile towards the video and is mesmerized…it’s an awesome tool during car rides when he gets mad!), the video grandma Sandie recorded for him (she is singing a special song for him and recorded it when he was sick to make him feel better ), bananas and any type of Carb, cell phones, rolling around, playing peek-a-boo, helium balloons, light switches, Roomba (vacuum robot)

Dislikes:
The Sun (he sneezes and it makes him mad when it shines in his face), Naps, being held like a baby, eating from a spoon

Mama:
As anticipated, it was really hard for me to leave Fox with our au pair. Not because I didn’t trust him, just because I missed my boy and wanted to spend all day with him.

So in order to spend more time with him, I start working at 5am every morning, work through lunch and get to go home at 2:30pm each day! I can’t even tell you how happy this makes me, I actually feel like I’m working part time and I hope I can continue to do this! 

Mommy:
Fox loves her so much. Every morning when they first see each other, he lights up like nothing else and just starts laughing. When I nurse him, he stops after a minute, just to scan the room and look for Katie. When he finds her, he starts laughing again. This cycle continues through the entire time he nurses, it’s hilarious. She is always teaching him new things, this month she taught him how to roll the ball back and forth and kisses on command. She is also teaching him “gentle” and to share on command. 

Fun things we did:
We attended Fox’s first Valentine’s Party which was a lot of fun! We also went to the Zoo for the first time and got a membership, so I see lots of Zoo Visits in our future! Our au pair, Matthias, arrived and Fox is having a lot of fun with him! Fox also went to his first car show with Grandpa Rodney.

Milestones:
Fox made major improvements in the crawling department. While he is not quite there yet, he’s been doing so well getting on his knees, rocking back and forth and rolling all over the place.

For the first time, he also went from laying on his stomach to sitting up, which made us so proud.

He’s climbing all over us these days, getting on his knees and feet to stand up. Lastly, he also stood by himself for five seconds straight this week! Crazy boy! 
He also weaned himself off his pacifier this month, after using it for the last 8 months! 
And of course, the sleeping.

What we’re looking forward to:
Lots of baby parties coming up! We love our mom’s group and all the friends we’ve made.