Garrett - 9 Months

Diapers

Still in size 3’s.  I feel like we’ll be in these for a while!

Shoe Size

He doesn’t wear shoes yet so I have no idea!   I bought Carter’s first pair of shoes around this time, but I think I’m going to hold off with Garrett until he actually starts walking.

Clothes

Either 6-9 months or 9 months.  Some 9 month stuff is a little too baggy, but he still wears it.

**We got our first “haircut” this month.  I use the air quotes because it was more of a trim than an actual haircut.  He doesn’t have enough hair for that.  But what he did have was falling into his ears so I had my mom trim it up for us.**

Feeding/Solids

He is still eating 4 times a day.  For the majority of the month, those feedings were either nursing or a breastmilk bottle, however we did begin to give him formula towards the end of the month.  I’m still planning to nurse as long as possible, but my supply is definitely drying up and I’m not making enough for him at certain feedings anymore.  At this moment, I nurse first thing in the morning and then the two feedings after that are either breastmilk bottle or formula and then I will nurse the final feeding of the day.  I still plan to nurse him at least once if not twice a day until he turns 1 and then I plan to wean off all together.  I’m hoping my supply will hold out that long, but it’s not looking good right now.

For his solid foods-we have been mixing in meats with his veggies.  He’s had turkey, grilled chicken and ham mixed with things like sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, brown rice or green beans.  He also eats bananas, peaches, pears, apples, prunes, etc.  I haven’t noticed a particular preference for one food over the other.  He seems to like all the foods equally.  He’s still a tad messy when he eats because he’s always putting those two fingers in his mouth in between bites which causes the food to get on his face.  I’ve been working on tell him “no hands Garrett” and tapping his hand so that he knows he has to move it.  He doesn’t like it when I do that at all!  We also began giving him foods to eat that haven’t been blended.  He’s eaten pieces of banana, peaches, bread and peas.  We’ve introduced the ever so famous ‘mums’ that all kids love so his snacks are typically one of the mums or some puffs.

This was both boys first time to Chuck E’ Cheese.  Carter was invited to a birthday party there and he has never been before.  He loved it, obviously! 

Schedule

For the most part, he’s still doing a 4 hour schedule of feed, wake, sleep.  This means he takes 2 naps a day that last anywhere from 1.5-2 hours each.  At the end of the month he got sick and had a massive runny nose for what felt like 2 straight weeks.  The runny nose made it hard for him to breathe so he was waking up out of naps a little earlier than he usually does and he was waking up for the day earlier than normal too.  We have had several things pop up that we’ve had to rearrange his schedule around and he frequently ends up only getting one nap that’s about 2-3 hours long.  I don’t want that to become the normal because he still needs two naps at his age.  School starts in the last week of August and then he will be in school 3 days a week from 9-1pm.  This means that he may have a quick little catnap at school, but will mainly just have one nap a day.  He still goes to bed around 7-7:30, depending on when he woke up from the last nap. 

Sleep

Still my perfect little sleeper, what can I say?  If he takes two naps, they’re between 1.5-2 hours each.  If it’s one nap, it’s between 2-3 hours.  At night he sleeps anywhere from 12-14 hours.  Most days we have to wake him up.  We’ve introduced a stuffed animal for him.  It’s a blue rabbit that the Easter Bunny put in his basket.  He has really long ears and G likes to play with them.  We call him Peter.  Get it?  Peter Rabbit?  Anyway…it’s the only stuffed animal in his crib and that’s the way I want to keep it for a while.  Carter was insanely attached to Henry at this age and it was adorable so I do want Garrett to have something like it too, but I would rather him not require 75 animals in the bed with him like Carter does.  Just like brother, Garrett is able to wake up and kind of play and keep himself entertained for a while before we go upstairs to get him.  That being said, the last week and a half has not been the normal because he’s been sick so his naps haven’t been quite as long and he’s waking up a little earlier than normal in the morning.

Waketime

He typically does the same kinds of things he has been doing.  He plays in the exersaucer, watches Baby Einstein DVDs, plays with various toys in the floor, etc.  He has now become super interested in a Cookie Monster/Elmo kitchen set that Carter got at his 2nd birthday party.  He loves standing up and holding onto it and listening to Cookie and Elmo sing songs.  He rarely uses his ocean play mat or his piano mat anymore.  I may pack those up soon and put them in the attic.  I brought a couple of toys down from the attic that are for kids learning to stand up since he really enjoys standing up.  We had to get something to put underneath our rug in our living room to give it some extra cushioning because when Garrett would fall over his head would hit the floor and it was LOUD and he would cry and cry and cry.  What we got seems to work pretty well and it doesn’t hurt as much.  He absolutely loves chasing balls around a room.  He will crawl after a ball and touch it with his hands, but when he touches it, the ball tends to get even further away from him, so he keeps crawling and repeating the process over and over.  This can take up a solid 20 minutes of his waketime.

Mother’s Day Out

No MDO this month.  School starts back August 20th for him so I have a little bit longer with these two kiddos before I will finally have some time to myself!  You know those momma’s that post on facebook about their kids first day back to school and how sad they are that summer’s over??  Yeah I’m not that mom.  Bring it on school….I’m ready for some ‘me’ time!

Statistics

Due to extreme busyness at the pediatricians office with people needing back to school vaccinations and immunization forms, Garrett’s 9 month appointment didn’t happen until he was almost 10 months!   At that time, he was 19lbs, 13oz (50%) and 28 inches long (30%) with an 18 inch head circumference (70%).  Doc gave the go ahead for most foods that adults eat, they just have to be chopped into insanely microscopic pieces since his trachea is about the size of his pinky finger.  So I’ll be introducing chicken nuggets, grilled cheese and some sliced turkey soon.  He also shocked me when he told me that the rules for peanut butter have changed.  He said that now the APA is saying that introducing high allergy foods later may predispose kids to developing an allergic reaction.  He gave me the ok to give Garrett peanut butter and eggs now!  So crazy to me!!  The only thing he can’t have right now is fish.

Abilities

When I wrote his 8 month post, I said that Garrett was very good at turning in circles on the ground but that he wasn’t really crawling just yet.  Not long after I posted that, he began crawling!  He’s still working on the concept of one knee in front of the other while also moving one hand in front of the other.  As of now he jumps up on his knees and rocks back and forth and shoots himself forward and then does it again.  He can get across a room lickity split doing this.  So he’s definitely crawling, he just has to work on his technique.  I also mentioned in his post last month that I thought that he has been saying “mamamama” but wasn’t sure he was truly doing it intentionally.  Well he’s done it a ton since then so I’m gonna go on a limb and say that this kid has said his first word and his first word was “mama”.   All my time spent saying “mama” and pointing to myself has paid off.  He has also begun to say “da” and “ba” and “pa”.  He is definitely experimenting with his voice trying to say things!

**One of the things Garrett has been doing a lot lately is lifting things over his head to observe them.  He does it with almost everything he picks up.  See all the pictures below for what I mean:**

Teething

Garrett got his first tooth when Justin and I were vacationing in Puerto Rico.  He was right at 8 months when he got it.  The other bottom central incisor popped through this month too, so now he has TWO teeth, both on the bottom.  I expect to see the top central incisors next, just not sure when they will come.  No signs of teething right now.

Discipline

I still say “no” to Garrett, but now a days, he laughs at me when I do it.  Which is frustrating.  The only times I say no are when he’s eating and trying to put his hands in his mouth and when I’m trying to change his clothes or a diaper.  Have mercy y’all….I have no idea where this came from, but this kid will NOT let you change his diaper.  You have to be a serious ninja to get it changed fast enough before he rolls over.  The second you put him on his back he starts rolling to the side and it takes so much of my energy to try to pull him back down so that I can change him.  I usually give him something to play with to keep him distracted and on his back so that I can change him.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  Needless to say, it is difficult to change this kid’s diaper these days.  I say no to him, but like I said, I think he thinks its funny.  I’ve used the serious tone and face and elevate my voice just a little bit to where I’m not yelling at him, but it’s not my normal tone either.  None of this has worked.  He just laughs.  He may be my stubborn one.

Playing with his younger cousin Charlotte.

Other Notable Things

Likes

• Sleeping
• When Carter “talks” to him in the car.  Carter will look at him and say “tickle tickle tickle tickle” and Garrett laughs hysterically at him.  He loves watching Carter while they’re both in the backseat.
• The cover of my phone.  It has a little band on it to put around my wrist and he’s constantly trying to put it in his mouth.
• Chewing on board books.  I’m ashamed to say that I barely read to him right now because every time I try to, he just grabs the book and puts it in his mouth.
• Playing with Gizmo’s collar.  She has two tags on her collar so they make noise when they cling against eachother.  Garrett’s always crawling over to her and playing with them.  She’s such a good sport to just sit there and let him play:

• Still obsessed with sucking on his fingers – he prefers the index and middle finger of his right hand and as weird as this sounds, he prefers to suck them upside down.  He did begin experimenting with his thumb this month.  However the favorite is still the two fingers upside down.
• The toy that is connected to his crib.  It lights up and plays lullabies for a few minutes and then it turns itself off.  Now that Garrett is getting more and more mobile, he’s figured out that he can put his hand in between the crib rails and the toy and bang them together.  I think he likes the noise.  Gizmo, on the other hand, goes crazy because she can hear the noise but can’t see where it’s coming from.
• When you shake your head against him stomach.  It makes him laugh hysterically.
• Standing up.  He has begun to experiment with pulling up.  He’s not an expert yet, but we did go ahead and lower his crib mattress.  We did this after we put him to bed one night only to hear him screaming and when we looked at the monitor he had pulled himself up on the crib rail, but one leg was between two rails and the other was behind his booty.  Basically in the “hurky” position if you have ever been a cheerleader in your life.  We put in the mesh bumpers too.

**This month, we also did our first “side by side” in the shopping buggy.  We can’t do this at Publix because Garrett isn’t coordinated enough just yet to sit in those racecar buggies.  But at Sam’s they have spots for two kids to sit in a normal buggy so that’s what we did.  I told Carter to protect his brother and make sure he didn’t fall over.  That sweet boy had his arm around Garrett THE ENTIRE TIME we were at Sam’s.  God love him!   He’s such a good brother!!

Dislikes

• If you put him in the middle of a room and walk away, he will be fine.  But if you’re within eye sight, he will cry because he wants you down there with him.  It’s the funniest thing.  We’ve tested this theory several times and the result is always the same.  If he even spots you around a corner, the flood gates open and the tears start falling. 
• Being kept awake for too long
• Bouncy seat.  It may be time to put this bad boy away.  He tries to sit up and when he’s strapped into the seat that doesn’t make sitting up easy.  Sometimes he wants to play with toys on the floor too so he will try to lean down and he’ll get stuck in the seat.
• Pacifiers-we don’t even try with these anymore
• Rocking-I’ve tried so many times to rock this kid and he just won’t have it.  He would rather you just put him in the bed and leave him alone.

 

And this also happened this month.  Garrett turned 38 weeks old, which also was one of the last pregnant photos I took of me pregnant with him.  So this side by side comparison is when he was 38 weeks inside my belly and when he was 38 weeks old outside my belly!