Christopher Joseph: 9 Months

Name: Christopher Joseph

Weight: 18 lbs. 10 oz. (at last doctor appt. 2 weeks ago)

Height: 28.5 inches

Health: Very Healthy - He managed to stay free of the stomach virus that I had! Worst 24 hours/week of my life. I didn't eat for about 7 days (well, I had to force myself to) and still nursed him entirely through it! I had such a headache from dehydration, no matter how much I drank! The poor thing got interrupted from nursing TWICE in one day when I had to quick put him down, and run to throw-up while he screamed and cried in the background. It was horrible. Thank goodness he didn't get it (and Natalie didn't either!!)

Sleep: Once he turned 7 months old, I feel like everything changed. I used to pump every night before bed to build up a freezer supply of milk, but my pump has been unused for over 2 months now because he wakes up right around the time I pump! I think it's mostly teething related but he wakes up twice (sometimes 3 times a night now) and that's been consistent for 2 months. He wakes up usually between 11-1 and 3-5 on any given night, although as I type this, it's 9:37 and he just woke up screaming two hours after I put him to bed...le sigh. The same as I did with Natalie, whenever he wakes up, I nurse him back to sleep. It is the only way he goes back to sleep, and it's why I literally can not go a night away from him (I would feel too bad for whomever we/I leave him with.) If there is a night he refuses to go back in the crib, he automatically goes in the swing and sleeps there for the rest of the night. I am NOT staying up for hours in the middle of the night while he fusses! Natalie didn't sleep through the night until 13 months, so I'm giving him until then before I'll do any sort of actual sleep training.

Social: Smiles at everyone. He doesn't seem to exhibit too much "stranger danger" yet.

Diet: Still exclusively breast-fed and as far as food goes: nothing is off limits at this point except honey. I've fed him a teeny tiny bit of peanut butter last week and he was fine so I pretty much feed him a bit of anything now: cauliflower, broccoli, he LOVES blueberries, eggs, strawberries, apple, peas, sweet potato, yogurt, etc. etc. I really only feed him a "meal meal" once a day and then just little snacks throughout the day. I know many people who have their kids on 3 meals of food a day by now, but I still want him to be primarily nursing, the food is really just for "practice" in eating. 

Likes: MICKEY MOUSE! It's sad, but adorable. But whenever Mickey comes on the tv, he gets super super happy!

Mommy and Daddy! He smiles whenever he sees either of us.

Blueberries!

Milestones: Crawling!! It took him a bit of time- and he was quite frustrated for a few weeks there- but at 8 1/2 months he finally got it down. Now, there is NO STOPPING him! 

Pulls himself to standing - He LOVES to be standing. He wants to walk so badly now.

One bottom left tooth is completely in, and the one next to it is starting to come. Teething has definitely been affecting him. He's super drooly and stuffy and it has affected his sleep. I've been resorting to Hyland's Teething Tablets way more than I ever did with Natalie!

A ton of first food's! First Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's 

General notes:

I love when he giggles and it's SO EASY to get him to laugh- peek a boo, throwing him up in the air, or pretending to drop him (no lie) makes him giggle. This little boy at the library was making faces at him yesterday and he was literally belly laughing for 5 minutes at him, it was super cute.

Natalie can get rough with him but he, for the most part, just goes along with her and doesn't get upset- until she pushes him and he hits his head- then we have a problem. 

I love how he reacts to Natalie. Some mornings I have her come with me to get him out of the crib and he gets so smiley when he sees her! 

As I say every post: I miss blogging terribly, but my work has taken over any and all free time I ever once had. It's all great news for the company, and they may hire someone else to take a bit of the load off eventually, but I think we are a little ways away from that. I love my job, and I love the opportunity I have to do it from home, so work has started to take precedent above all else (besides the kids- thought honestly, sometimes not) but I do need to either catch up and finally get to a better place with my workload, or tell them this is too much, because it really is a ton of work. 

Natalie is doing well- in the last two weeks it's like a switch has gone off for her- she is finally behaving and listening in school, her teachers have been so much happier with her, and she's been really amazing at entertaining herself at home- largely in part to her dollhouse. She loves her dollhouse and plays with it for hours. I'm knocking on all the wood right now as I type this because I know this could all change at the drop of a hat, but for the past 2 weeks, she's been amazing! 

Be sure to follow me on instagram - I've been trying to do little "mini-posts" about things more often in place of blogging these days. 

Till next time! <3