It is hard to believe that my not-so-little man is 9 and a half months already! I've said it before and I'll say it again - time flies when you're in love!!
It has been a busy and interesting month so far. Ben took his first board exam for med school (there will be a second one during his fourth year of school), and after only one week off he is back to work! He officially started his 3rd year of med school, which means he is spending the majority of his time in the hospitals for his clinical rotations. His first rotation is medicine, and he is at the VA downtown. After 3 days of orientation he has his first day at the hospital today, so we'll see how it goes!
Noah is always discovering new things that he loves about life! He still loves clapping, yelling, remote controls, opening drawers, the dog food bowls, and is constantly on the move! He is pulling up on everything and he is such a good climber! He continues to try to take steps and he can do maybe one or two before he falls down - not quite ready for the big leagues yet! He is such a fast crawler now, and he loves it when one of us crawls behind him like we are chasing him - if you want some belly laughs, that's all it takes! He is getting better with table food, and he will eat almost anything if it comes off of my plate, but if I stick him in his high chair and try to give him the same foods, let's just say Cooper gets a nice meal if he is smart enough to hang out below the baby!
We have had a pretty rough week so far - Noah has been sick and it is just killing us to see him so sad! For starters, I ran out of frozen breastmilk on Thursday, and on Saturday he started refusing his bottles and only took about 15 oz. He woke up Saturday night about 9:30 pm with a fever of 102.2 and was screaming and crying. I gave him Tylenol and rocked him to sleep for about 30 minutes while he just cried and cried. It. Was. Awful. I was absolutely broken-hearted to see my sweet baby in so much pain! Long story short, we continued to struggle with feeding on Sunday (only 6 oz), and by Monday he only took 3 oz. We saw the pediatrician on Monday morning and he has a viral infection that caused sores in the back of his throat (actually a virus called "herpangina" -which is similar to "hand, foot, mouth disease," minus the rash on the hands and feet- that the doctor said most kids get by the time they are 2). I can only wish he had an ear infection so we could try to treat it with antibiotics! The fever finally broke on Monday afternoon and he started acting more like himself. On Tuesday I was at work and he gave me a scare because he stopped peeing for almost 24 hours, but after Ben worked with him a long time to drink some water things started working again. :) Today is Wednesday and he is still refusing a bottle, but at least he is eating his food as long as it is cold and he will drink some water from a big cup. You can give me all the tips and tricks you want, but I can probably guarantee you I've tried it. I've tried it all and nothing is working! I'm hopeful that once the sores heal in a few more days he will start taking bottles again, and that it isn't just the taste of the formula that he is refusing!
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| Memorial Weekend! Noah's 1st time swimming at the Owl's Nest :) |
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| Hated the hat, LOVED the water! |
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| He tried to escape his boat, he prefers to be held in the water :) |
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| Water Jogger = Favorite Chew Toy |
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| Ty and Kate came over for a short visit! |
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| This makes it look like Noah snuggles - he doesn't...I lured him in with one of his blankets and got about 12 seconds of cuddle time! |
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| War wound: He fell into a bookshelf after trying to do some fancy walking :) That was the day before his 9 month well visit, of course! |
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| He likes Mickey's hat and sunglasses better than his own :) |
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| Mama's big boy :) |
His 9 month visit went well. He weighed in at *only* 22 lbs 13 oz. While that is still in the 80th percentile, that would mean he has only gained almost 2 lbs since his 6 month visit. I took him home and weighed him again on our scale, and he was just over 24 lbs. Normally I would go with the doctor's scale, but ours has been the same as theirs (if not less) every other time. Either way, it is normal for a breastfed baby to gain lots of weight in the beginning and level off later in the first year - not to mention he has been crawling since 6 and a half months and hasn't stopped moving! He was 29.75 inches long, which is the 90th percentile. Developmentally, the doctor says he is right on track. His gross motor skills are a little bit ahead of the curve (crawling, pulling up, standing alone, etc), and his other developmental skills are right where they should be (picks up small objects with thumb and finger, jabbers, but doesn't wave or play "peek-a-boo" with his hands yet). And "Mama" is definitely his first word, which I was hesitant to believe at first, but now it is clear as day! He also says "ba-ba" for his bottle, but otherwise all of words still sound like gibberish and Ben is working hard on teaching him "Dada!" I will post some of his 9 month pictures soon!!
