9 Month Update!

Well it's true! Oscar is 9 months old as of yesterday. This year is flying by and before you know it, I'll be planning a birthday party. This month has been both great and frustrating. Oscar is learning SO much and SO fast that it's really entertaining to see, but at the same time it's really messing with his sleep and on (many) more than one occasion we have had to rescue him in the crib because he woke up on his hands and knees and didn't know why, or he crawled around in circles, thus knocking every paci on the floor. The HORROR! Jerry and I have kinda slacked off in the sleep area because Oscar has been really good about getting himself to sleep. But, everything has a downside. Because we "went soft" during the [first] teething stage, he has come to rely on our little nighttime visits and now he requires them. It's not a huge deal. Usually it's just 30 seconds to cover him up, pat him on the tummy and pop in the paci. But, because he has been waking up earlier and earlier in the mornings, the 30 second thing doesn't really work due to the fact that he is more rested by then and has a harder time going back to sleep. Overall though, he sleeps great so I don't really want to complain. We'll just have to figure things out as they come. Today, though he woke at 6am, I was able to get him to go back to sleep until 8 and that was a HUGE victory (thank you Hylands).

We have his 9 month appt tomorrow so I will update his stats then. I am looking forward to it because I really think he has grown a lot in length. We try to measure him here but it never really works and it's different every time! The boy eats like a man though, so it has to be going somewhere! Speaking of eating, I have no idea where Oscar is on the range of normal, but if I had to guess I would say he's on the high end. He is still a texture eater (like me) and won't self feed anything wet or mushy (like a banana). He LOVES cheerios and bread and potatoes. He will devour an entire banana and a bowl of Oatmeal for breakfast AFTER nursing and still cries if I don't give him a few cheerios. He nurses at least 3 times during the day and gets 2 bottles in the evening, one before dinner and one right before bed. If I had to guess I would say he gets at least 32oz of breastmilk/formula each day. On top of that he will have 3 or 4oz of baby food twice plus a banana and oatmeal. And of course cheerios.

He is SO over purees now so we are using the 'sorta chunky' Happy Baby frozen baby cubes. He LOVES it. Seriously. And I think they are pretty good too! They are a little pricey but I don't think we'll be using it for very long. Last night I made him a Sweet potato that we got from the Farmer's Market because he loves them and ALWAYS eats off our plate when we have them. But he flat.out.refused. it last night. Oh I was so sad. 1) Because I actually cooked it specifically FOR him. and 2) because he was still hungry so I had to find something else in my kitchen which is pretty empty at the moment. SO he had another banana. And water. And cheerios. That is one of the very few times he has ever refused food. He eats almost anything and acts as if he is starving! I guess that is the magic of raising a boy. I doubt it will stop anytime soon! This month he tried some new things like juice, toast, salmon, and spices (cinnamon and nutmeg)!

Sadly, he is still spitting up several times a day. I have tried to pinpoint it to a specific food but there is no rhyme or reason to it. I think the issue is threefold.

• One - most babies have the automatic "off switch" when they are done eating. They will close their mouth and turn their heads away. Oscar does not have this. I don't think he ever has. I remember MARATHON nursing sessions when he would just go to town for AN HOUR and I was going bonkers. Now it's the same way with eating. If I can manage to distract him with something more fun, I can get him to stop without crying some of the time and he seems to spit up less in those cases.
• Secondly - He crawls a LOT, but with his belly on the floor. He hasn't quite mastered the hands and knees thing yet so he is army crawling all over the place. He's fast so I think things get jostled up with all that movement. If I can get him to tolerate the exersaucer for a few minutes after eating that seems to help.
  
• Finally - Reflux. I think he is still coming off his reflux issues that he had in earlier months. We stopped the medicine because it stopped making a difference. But I think he is still dealing with some of those issues as well. Again, I think being off his tummy will help a lot.
  

Oscar had a rough patch in the nursery at church there for a while but I think he is finally coming out of it. I think we had a visit from Mr. Separation Anxiety for a few weeks that made it hard for him to be away from me. However, we have a new system that seems to be working well. Instead of handing him off to one of the nursery workers, I take him into the room and sit him on the floor with a toy. Then I hang out for one or two minutes and hit the road. I think the pass-off would set him off initially and he wouldn't recover. This seems to be working well....for now!

And of course his knowledge is growing leaps and bounds! He can point to my nose and mouth and with some accuracy my hair and eyes. He LOVES animal sounds and gets a huge grin when I say, "what does the __________ say?" He doesn't do the sounds or anything, but there is definitely a connection there. He loves to play with balls, string, and books. I set him up his own bookshelf under the coffee table and he loves to take the books off one by one. This also keeps him away from our regular bookshelf. WIN WIN!

We are just having the best time as a family and it just keeps getting better. I can't wait to see what next month will bring!