Daniel at 9 Months

As of this morning, Daniel now weighs 20lbs 8.5oz (65.5%), has a head circumference of 17 3/4" (42%) and is 30.25" (98.6%) long
 
This month, the lack of sleep saga continues in spectacular fashion. It seems that Mr. Daniel is just a very sensitive little guy and just about anything can disrupt his sleep including growth spurts, teething. illness and boredom. And unfortunately he is just about nearly always suffering from at least one, if not more of those 4 on any given night.

This month he got two new teeth, one canine on the top, and one lateral incisor on the bottom. He was absolutely miserable for about two weeks while those were coming in. He also had a minor cold that you'd swear he was dying from (hes going to be fun in a few years) that kept us up all night for another week and a half. There have been a total of maybe 5, non-consecutive nights that he has only waken up twice, and those nights were glorious. I can only hope that one day that will be the norm. The only nice thing is that he generally sleeps until 8am most mornings, so at least I can sleep in a little bit. There was one unfortunate night where he didn't get up one time! I legitimately woke up at 8am, thinking he was dead. It turns out I accidentally turned the volume on the monitor down too far. Poor guy, who knows how many times he was up crying that night. I can tell you that he sure was happy to see me the next morning though. He nursed like he hadn't seen a boob in years haha! The mom guilt was heavy that day.

One nice thing about him regarding sleep however, is that he is generally a fantastic and very predictably regular napper. I have no idea why he can't seem to replicate this at night though, its very sad. He nearly always goes down between 8:30 and 9:30 am, and sleeps for between 1-2 hours. Second nap always starts at 1pm and also lasts between 1-2 hours. This is nice because the other two kids also nap between 1-3pm. So on good days, I will have all 3 of them napping the whole 2 hours together. I get so much done then! The best days are those when he sleeps 2 hours at each nap. That is magical I tell you! Just a few weeks ago he was also taking a 30 minute nap between 5-5:30pm, but he dropped that once his growth was over. That 3rd nap seems to come and go from time to time, when he needs the extra sleep.

Speaking of growing he is still a big, long guy. He is in size 4 diapers in the day, 5's at night, and is wearing size 18 month clothes now. They are a bit baggy on him too, as he is not a fat baby, but a very long one. They fit his length exactly. I keep expecting his growth to plateau here soon, but so far hes still chugging right along. The kid still loves to nurse too, on top of 3 solid meals a day (a mix of purees and soft solids). So that must explain it!

Speaking of solid foods, we are having more success on that front. He has really gotten a lot better at using the pincer grasp, and just in the past two weeks, has really improved on being able to actually get food into his mouth from his hand. Before he would pick up the food, but then drop it right before getting it into his mouth. These days a good 70-80% of the food I give him, ends up in his belly instead of on the floor. He LOVES fruit of any kind and loves soft meats as well. Scrambled eggs are an especial favorite as is yogurt. Unfortunately he does seem to have developed a tomato and potato allergy. Any time he has eaten those foods, he immediately spits them out, and then develops a rash around his face within an hour or so. It took me a few times to realize what was happening, as he also suffers from eczema (possibly from those foods in my diet), but now that I know, we've been diligent at avoiding giving them to him.

Now that he has mastered crawling, he loves to explore the nooks and crannies of the house and plays on his own really well. He will very often crawl into the play room and spend close to an hour playing quietly by himself. Its wonderful. Unfortunately he has developed object permanence, where he suddenly realizes that I am not around and that he needs to find me. He loves to be held as well and if it were up to him, would be held 24/7. All of this combined means that he will crawl around the house, hunting for me, until he finds me. Once he does, he pulls himself up on my legs and cries and cries until I pick him up. There is no suitable substitute for me holding him either, which is super inconvenient at dinner time, when I am trying to cook. So what often happens then is that he follows me around the kitchen, crying, while I try to either side-step his arms, or disentangle my legs from his desperate embrace.

I've found though that if I can occupy him with some toys, in another room, as long as he doesn't see me or hear me, he will temporarily forget that I exist and that he needs to be held, and I can buy myself a few minutes to get things done. He is a hard child to deal with some days, I tell ya! One cute thing about his relentlessly following me however, is that he will sit under me, hold up his arms, and babble, 'mamama!' That helps make it marginally less irritating for sure!

Hes discovered that playing with yarn is his all time favorite past time. He can tear apart a skein and turn in into a wet, mounded pile of knots in an impressively short amount of time. I will leave the room for 5 minutes or less and come back to an absolute mess that takes me 30 minutes plus to put right again. I will be glad when he moves onto other pursuits!





As mentioned above, apart from crawling, he has also mastered pulling up to stand, and goes around, doing this constantly. He even started doing it in his bed. One time I was watching him on the monitor, and he leaned over his bed rail and looked like he was going to fall out of his crib! We promptly lowered his mattress to the lowest setting that evening and we hope that that is the end of any escape attempts, for a long time!

Daniel has been a challenging, but generally sweet baby thus far. If I can survive the lack of sleep, I just might make it through his first year with my sanity intact!