Round Two...Here We go!: 39 Weeks and 9 Months!

I know I'm beginning to sound like a broken record here, but I honestly cannot believe that G is 9 months old already! These 9 months have gone even faster than the 9 months I was pregnant, and I thought THOSE months flew! I supposed I should just get used to it, but wow...what an exciting 9 months it's been!

This week has seen him become more and more proficient at crawling. He's gotten very quick too! It's also amazing how well he crawls across the hardwood floor. You'd never know the floor was slick! He speeds across the room like he's in a race. He's so darn cute when he does it too. As soon as he reaches his destination he stops and smiles the biggest smile, so proud of himself. He has one proud mama too! The babysitter told me the other day that he likes to do laps around her house. He will go from her living room, through the kitchen, into the computer room and back, basically a big oval. He's so excited to be able to move and follow the other kids!

He's also starting to babble A LOT! It's so sweet to listen to him, especially when we're in the car. He entertains himself by babbling as we drive down the road. It's very entertaining to his parents as well! I have started to notice a pattern to his babbling sometimes. He will start saying "bababababababa" and if I offer it, he will usually eat a bottle after that, so I'm really wondering if he's not just babbling but actually trying to say "baba" which is what we call his bottles. There are times where it sounds like he says "mama" and "dada". I'm hesitant to say that he's said his first words, but sometimes it's really hard to ignore what it sounds like just came out of his mouth. It's a lot harder than I ever thought to determine a baby's first word!

The ear infection is gone. YEA! After one dose of meds he was acting much better. Giving him the meds is a whole other story though. It's not easy, that's for sure! It takes two of us. Matthew has to hold his arms down, while I use the syringe to squirt the medicine down his throat. Needless to say he doesn't care for us at that point in time...Thankfully we only have 1-2 more doses left!

Friday was his 9 month well-baby check up. His pediatrician said we looks perfect! His weight has dropped off a little, but considering how active and mobile he is, the dr. said that was totally expected. He can almost always tell at the 9 month appt if a baby is mobile yet or not, based on whether the weight is continuing to increase, stay steady, or drops off a bit. He's a little on the small side right now, but I can't say that disappoints me. It's MUCH easier to carry around a smaller baby. haha! He's always been smaller (6.10# at birth, 18" at birth) so I would've been really surprised if he shot up to the 80th or 90th percentile. The doctor isn't at all concerned with his growth, even though he's smaller he's still growing and is happy and healthy. He's amazed at how happy G is all the time. The doctor just smiles and laughs at how easy going and happy G is. He was surprised to hear about the reaction we discovered to sweet potatoes, but definitely agreed to keep them out of G's diet. He did say he'd had one other patient with a similiar reaction, so it is possible. He also advised waiting a year or so before we introduce carrots. He hated to eliminate them from G's diet completely because most kids love carrots (one of the few veggies they will actually eat) but he did think it was best to wait a little while before we let him try them. I did finally have a video to show him of the way G coughs all the time. He listened to G's lungs again and all was clear, but he did find it a little odd that he coughs as hard and as deep as he does. He said it had to be related to the reflux and trying to clear the throat, even when it seems he does it without refluxing. G should eventually out grow it, but we will continue to monitor and check it to ensure it's not turning into something else.

Even though I'm sure he tells most of his patients' parents they're doing everything right, and a great job, it sure does feel wonderful to hear that. You always hear people say that as a parent you will second guess almost every decision you ever make regarding your child, well it's hard to truly understand that feeling until you've been there. I think the fact that I'm around kids daily, helps make me a little more confident in the choices I've made for G, but there are definitely times when I wonder if we're doing what's best for him. Hearing his pediatrician tell us we have a perfectly happy, healthy baby was, again, wonderful validation for our parenting skills. I certainly appreciated it!

Once again, my post has gotten lengthy, it's just so hard to NOT brag about the little guy! :o) Here are the pictures though. Best part!