9 Month Check-up

July 16-22, 2012

This is how Caleb looks when he's yell-talking: "baa baa baa baa" or just "aaaaaaaahh"

Our little explorer loves banging on the toilet lid and tried climbing into dresser drawer and up the dresser. I always have to remember to close the dresser drawers and the toilet lid. He also loves jumping in his crib while holding onto the rail. I need to lower the mattress. 

He also loves to dump out the trash in the bathroom. One day I found him chewing on a used Q-tip ... sick.

Monday he didn't nap once all day. He fussed anytime we were home. He was happy when we went on a run, to the pool, to Walmart, and to the church to play with Cathryn and Luke in the nursery. But as soon as we got home, he would cry and yell. It was our first time to the pool in over a week because of all of the rain.

 Tuesday was Caleb's 9 month doctor appointment. He didn't get upset at all when the nurse pricked his finger prick and drew blood from it to fill a couple of little vials. In fact, he kept smiling, talking and flirting with the nurse and she input his weight wrong and forgot to enter head circumference. The doctor was confused when she came in. I just gave her the right numbers and laughed.

He loves the swing

Here are his stats: Height - 29.25" (79%)  Weight - 18 lb 12 oz (19%)  Head circ - 18.75" (96%)
The verdict: he's still tall, skinny, with a large head.

The doctor seemed concerned he isn't clapping or waving and says we need to make sure he's communicating with his hands. I'm not worried at all. He plays games with his hands and has good manual dexterity. He also understands and responds to certain words: jump, kick, gentle, milk, food, more, outside, all done, up, sleep, bath. If we aren't sure what he wants, we will go through the list and he uses his "excited hands" to let us know when we've guessed right. He's got a suck that shows he wants milk (to nurse), a different one to indicate that he wants a drink (apple juice), and he reaches for whatever food he wants.

She also said he is anemic. She said I have to give him iron, but it makes him constipated. So she gave us anticonstipation medicine but that makes his tummy hurt. She also gave the okay to eat all foods, unless it's something he'll choke on.

I told her I thought my milk supply was starting to dwindle and she told me I need to gain weight. She told me to eat ice cream and pizza and to share it with Caleb since she says he could use some weight gain too. I told her that I do eat ice cream almost every day. I'm not sure if she believed me. It's mentally harder to gain weight than it is physically, especially since I'm back to a healthy weight for me (after being too skinny when Caleb couldn't have dairy). Anyway... Caleb won't take a bottle but we're going to try to get him to use a sippy cup more and start supplementing him with formula.

He still loves to read his books.

Friday night we had about a dozen 8-11 year-old girls over to our house for an activity days "slumber party". Everyone wore their PJs, we ate pancakes (The girls loved that, especially since they could put strawberries, whipped cream, powdered sugar and chocolate syrup on them.), sang karaoke, painted fingernails/toenails (only ruined our kitchen table a little bit), and played Twister. After a couple of hours of that many little girls, I think Allen was re-thinking if he wants to have a daughter in the future. :) Just kidding! But it was exhausting. And loud.

Saturday we went to the park as a family. After swinging in the baby swing, Caleb took turns swinging on our laps. 

I've been running every day again and it feels good to not be a slacker anymore. I've also still been helping my friend with her back twice a week. Her teenage daughter plays with Caleb while I work on her back and this week she brought me cookies to say thank you for letting her play with Caleb and for helping with her mom's back. She is so sweet and so good with Caleb! He is such a momma's boy, he makes her work hard to entertain him enough to not come crawling to me.

I'm not sure what else happened during the week. It is all a blur, but I'm sure it was exciting, as usual.