Hellobee

Excuse me while I catch my breath. I have been somewhat absent from the blogging world because Little Lion decided to grow up the last two months….all. at. once!

Routine

Our days are pretty standard, and somewhat predictable. We don’t stick to a strict time schedule, but now that LL is in a convertible car seat and not the carrier, I have to make more of an effort for him to be home for nap time. We do things at pretty much the same times every day, but it varies by 30 minutes or so in either direction.If I cared enough to make us stick to a time specific schedule, it would look a lot like this…

• 6am – Wake up, Bottle
• 6:15-7:00 – Play with Daddy
• 7:00-7:30 – Breakfast
• 7:30-8:30 – Walk around the neighborhood/play
• 8:30-10:00 – Stories, then naptime
• 10:00-10:30 – Independent Play
• 10:30- Bottle
• 10:45-12:00 – Errands/Gym (LL still loves the nursery…no separation anxiety yet!)
• 12:00-12:30 – Lunch
• 12:30-2:30 – Stories, then naptime
• 2:30- Bottle
• 2:45-3:15 – Independent Play
• 3:15-5:00 – Neighborhood Walk/Play
• 5:00 – Crawl around kitchen and make a mess while Mommy cooks dinner until Daddy gets home
• 5:30 – Dinner
• 6:00 – Bath, then stories if we have time, Bottle, and Bed
• 6:30 – Snoozeville

Eating

Little Lion will eat anything we put in front of him! He has developed the ability to chew and swallow the food we give him, so instead of large pieces that he would suck on, we have to give him small pieces he can manage a bit easier. His fine motor skills have developed a lot the last two months and he is able to pick up tiny pieces of food now, which is a huge change. The list of things he has eaten is extensive. He has not had any reactions of any kind, and he has outgrown the gagging that came with learning to manage food being in his mouth.

Another big change this month was my decision to stop pumping. I have had some personal health issues persist, and I decided that it was more important for me to get those worked out than to continue to provide him with breast milk. This was a tough call for me, and I had a very hard time pulling the plug on the pump, but I am really, really glad I did. We made it to almost 9 months and considering our struggles, I am pretty happy with that. LL has no problem drinking formula, and I have 2 hours of my day back! I have noticed a slight increase in the amount of ounces he is eating. When he was getting mostly breast milk he ate between 22 and 26 ounces – this has increased to 26-30 ounces. I’m not sure if that is due to the formula, or just that he never stops moving and needs more.

Spaghetti squash…yummy!
Sleeping

Sleeping remains about the same, much to my disappointment. Naps have shortened, and he is now taking one morning nap that is about an hour, and a longer 1.5-2 hour nap in the afternoon, with some unavoidable car catnaps in between. Last month LL stopped wanting to sleep during the afternoon. He would take forever to fall asleep, and then would wake up after 20-30 minutes. This led to very, very grumpy afternoons. I started waking him up after an hour in the morning, and have worked hard to avoid car naps longer than 5-10 minutes, and fortunately it worked. Nighttime sleep is the same as before…usually 1 wake up between 2 and 4, then up for the day between 5:30 and 6. He has had a couple nights of sleeping through that middle of the night feeding, but they have been few and far between. We are working on night weaning right now, by decreasing the amount of ounces and giving him his paci instead. So far so good! Fingers crossed.

Last month we did buy LL a thin twin mattress, and he has plenty of room now to roll around without accidentally rolling off. I am sad to admit, though, that yesterday we got the crib back out of the attic. LL has been sleeping in the pack and play at night for about a month because when he wakes up around 4, he has had enough sleep to think it is play time, and his newfound independence is so exciting that exploring his room is too hard to resist. When he is in the pack and play we can leave him to talk or fuss, and he will put himself back to sleep after a few minutes…but this doesn’t happen when he has all that freedom. He still takes most of his naps on the floor bed (I love that we can snuggle and read stories together, and then I can just tuck him in), but sleep training (or night weaning) and the floor bed do not make good partners. My hope is that he will go back to the floor bed full time once he is sleeping through the night, but I am having to let go of my pride on this one and be flexible.

Playing

So, at the time of my last update LL was barely able to sit up by himself, and that was only when we put him into sitting position. Since then, he has learned to scoot on his belly forward, then sit up on his own, then crawl on all fours, then pull up, then let go and stand on his own, and yesterday he discovered that he can stand up on his own from the floor without assistance. Um, what? How did all of this happen so fast. Needless to say, our world has changed this month. It is so fun to watch him developing so fast, but it can be overwhelming. He is quite the daredevil, and isn’t afraid of anything. This has resulted in lots of head bumps.  If he is anything like his Daddy, they won’t be his last.

Every little boy needs a work bench!

Health

LL had his first ear infection this month, and it coincided with getting his first tooth. We had a couple very sleepless nights and have gone through a whole bunch of infant ibuprofen and teething tablets. Since then he has one more tooth that has poked through, with 4 more well on their way. His teeth did not come through in the usual order. His first was the top middle (right) and his second was the bottom middle (left). His other bottom tooth is almost through, as are the other top middle tooth and the ones on either side.

Adventures

We had such a busy summer that we have stayed home quite a bit this fall, although with all of his developmental changes this month I am not sure I would have had the energy for many outings anyway!

We did have one big trip. Two of our good friends got married at the beach in October, and Mr. Lion and I were both part of the bridal party, so LL got to stay with my mom and dad for 3 whole days! We were able to visit him in the morning every day, since my parents stayed about 3o minutes away from where we were. We all had a great time, and it was nice to just be “us” for a few days.

We also had some big first holidays!

In honor of Hellobee, LL dressed as a Little Lion for his first Halloween!

We also celebrated LL’s first Thanksgiving! We are extremely fortunate that our families get along well and enjoy spending time together. This year we all traveled to stay with Mr. Lion’s family in Asheville, NC.

That’s it for months 8 and 9!