Hellobee

Happy 9 months Jacobi! I cannot believe he is only three months away from a year; it boggles my mind how fast this year is going. As sad as it makes me to say goodbye to each month that passes, I am increasingly excited for each new milestone Baby Squiggles makes.

This month Squiggles had his first real illness, so we didn’t get to set up his nine-month photo shoot like we do each month. He was so sick and miserable for a week that we had to make do with a few cute pajama shots this month!

 Developmental Milestones

 I am constantly amazed at how smart babies are in general, and to see my child make those learning connections is so magical. It tends to be just little things here and there that I wouldn’t expect. For example, we have a touch-and-feel animal book and Baby S loves the furry gorilla page. We read that book nearly every day. We then started reading a new ABC book and for the letter “G” there was a picture of a gorilla, and immediately Baby S put his hand on the gorilla and started rubbing it, as if he expected there to be a furry texture like the other book. I was so surprised because the other gorilla was a photo of a real gorilla whilst this was a cartoon drawing – but he recognized and made the connection.

Squiggles loves to pull himself up on furniture; I wouldn’t say he’s walking along furniture yet, but he will take 2-3 steps! Standing has become his new favorite activity; he will climb on anything and everything he can.

He now loves to watch me build towers with his stacking cups and he knocks them over. We can do this for half an hour before he moves onto something else. For a baby – 30 minutes is quite the attention span!

At his 9-month appointment, his doctor said he was a very smart baby and developmentally advanced for his age; doing many things that are more typical for 12 month olds. He weighed in at the 6th percentile, 17 lbs 4 oz and he is 27.25” tall. I am amazed with how much he eats that he still is such a little peanut!

He has 5 teeth; two on top and three on bottom. I love his toothy grin! However he now loves to BITE. That, I could do without.

Language

I really noticed a change in the way Baby S talks this month. At our 9-month appointment the only milestone we didn’t check off was that he didn’t make the “da da da, ga ga ga, ma ma ma” sounds yet. He mostly just gurgled, cooed and babbled without really making any real letter sounds. But within the last week he now loves to say “da da da da ra ra ra” over and over again! His daddy is convinced he’s just saying “dad dad dad dad” over and over. Ha!

 my poor sick baby!! He had the saddest eyes all week

Sleep

His sleep is still very inconsistent. I do miss the days of sleeping twelve hours straight, but that has happened only once this month. Most nights he wakes up once around 3-4am for a night feeding, but he will often wake up twice instead. Only on really awful nights does he wake up more than that, like when he was sick. His naps are doing really great though; he still takes two naps a day. Usually both are 1.5 hours long, but on occasion the first nap will be about 2 hours.

Eat

Oh my word this kid loves food. It was so sad when he was sick because he missed out on Thanksgiving dinner and I know, had he been feeling himself, he would have loved it so much.

We did finally find one thing Baby S won’t eat/drink: peppermint tea. I tried giving him some when he had his fever, as peppermint has properties to help reduce fevers, but he was gagging on it and spitting it out.

His favorite drink is coconut milk and he drinks a whole sippy cup of it throughout the day. His favorite foods are apples, bananas, green smoothies and banana “pancakes.” Yup, he loves his sweets! He is definitely not picky though, and he eats anything we eat at this point (except we don’t feed him any sugar, dairy, or nuts). I know they say food is more of an exploratory thing before they turn one year old and they don’t need the calroeies; but at each mealtime Baby S acts like he’s never eaten food in his entire little life! He literally shovels food into his mouth, and will use one hand to push the other one in as far as he can. He cracks me up.

In addition to all the real food he eats, he is still nursing 6-8 times a day.

Clothes

Yay! He finally fits into his 6-9 month clothes! I am so happy because none of his fall/winter items were fitting him, and the weather changed months ago. He had to put up with baggy clothes. In The Children’s Place he fits perfectly into 6-9 months, at Baby Gap he still fits into all of his 3-6 month items, but can wear 6-12 months as well, and Carters he is in 6 and 9 months.

We finally got a pair of Pediped shoes and they stay on his feet! They help him crawl and provide protection to his feet when we go outside as well. They are size 4 but a little big with room to grow. Sadly, we lost one shoe and cannot find it anywhere! But at least I know a brand that stays on his feet.

Adventures

The biggest “adventure” this month was his weeklong sickness. It started with a fever on Thanksgiving Day, and the next day it escalated to 103 degrees. It stayed that temp for two days before reducing to 100-101. I was definitely freaking out, but spent most of the weekend with my mom for some peace of mind. Day 5 his fever finally broke, but he was still very cranky and irritable. Day 6 he woke up with a rash covering his entire body and I called his doctor who said it sounded like Roseola. My poor little guy! After a week of illness, he still had his rash but he was finally himself again. It felt like the longest week of my life. I felt so helpless; I just wanted to make him better. His sleep was horrid while he was sick, waking 5-10 times a night wanting to nurse. However he needed to stay hydrated so I toughed it out for the week and as he’s getting better, so is his sleep.

Squiggle’s favorite activity lately has been visiting the pond behind our building and watching the ducks and geese. He loves when we feed the ducks bread and they come real close. There is a walking path around the pond and we go out daily for walks. When it isn’t snowing, that is. We have had two snowfalls this month and Baby S is not a fan. He cried when we put him in his snowsuit, and he cried when we took him outside. However, he didn’t mind eating the snow.

He LOVES other babies and during a get together with some other moms, he wanted to play with another baby who is 3 weeks younger than him. When he gets excited, he likes to give “kisses,” only now that he has 5 teeth, those kisses involve biting. I am almost scared to have any more play dates with him – I’m sure all the other moms hate me for my vampire-child! haha.

Happy 9 months Jacobi – mommy and daddy love you so much and we are so happy to have you as our little boy. You bring us so much love and happiness!

I noticed all the photos from this month that he wasn’t smiling… I cannot help but include this iPhone photo of him – I love his smile so much and his morning snuggles with me are the best!