Oliver: 9 Months
9 months! HOLY COW. I have to say, 6-9 months is my favorite baby age. I thought this with Landon and echo with Oliver. Interactive, happy, fun and CAN’T GET FAR! He is happy 98% of the time. He has the most radiant smile ever. He can make every daycare teacher light up the minute he comes in. He squeals. He squirms. He makes motor boat noises when he gets excited. It is everything ovary melting about babies (no worries….no more babies. promise). So let’s check out what has happened since our last check in.
Eating
Have food? Ollie will follow. Boy loves his groceries. Solids are his go to and there isn’t much he doesn’t like. We have slowly moved to more finger foods because he is so independent. You can read more about that stuff here. He favors sweet stuff but who doesn’t? We have gotten out of the basics to try and now we just give him anything. This is super helpful now when out. I was out with him last week and we were getting close to lunch time and I was worrying about driving all the way home and fixing his lunch was going to push nap too much but then I remembered I don’t have to worry about purees! We just stopped at Subway. I got a sandwich and asked the guy to just give me a side of a few extra veggies. I pulled off meat from my sandwich and some bread. Paired with the dried apple chips and DONE. He was so happy watching the teenagers on their lunch break and chowing down on cucumbers and peppers. Ah sweet freedom!
His love for real food is so strong that nursing has completely stopped and bottles are almost too slow for his lifestyle. In the last 3 months, he has not been interested in being stuck with mommy to eat. He can deal with about 5 minutes and then pop up to grab things, look around, etc. If I stayed home, I might could have combated this but working means we are working with limited time frames. I can’t sit there for 45 minutes anymore. This has led us to more bottles. Then the week of my trip to Arizona, we started morning bottles instead of nursing. This gave me back some time in the mornings. Can’t say it isn’t nice. Then at lunch, he was nibbling for a few minutes and wanting to play. After I got back from my trip, I stopped going to nurse. We just kept with the 3 bottles at daycare and haven’t looked back. He now gets 5 bottles a day. Sometimes we will nurse if there are some extra minutes but there isn’t much coming. It is just a bonding thing.
One thing that has miraculously happened along with this is realizing my awesome friends. While in Phoenix, I pumped round the clock like a good mom but was barely getting 8oz per day. Kat then sent me home with all the milk she pumped. I left Phoenix with over 100 oz of milk for Ollie. THEN a week later, our old neighbor, Anna, emailed out of the blue to ask about breastmilk storage rules. She had a freezer of milk saved up that she never used….for 9 months. She wondered if I knew anyone who could use it. Um me? They came over that weekend to have a playdate and cookout with 2 coolers of milk. My guess is around 800oz! Ollie is now getting bottles of mostly breastmilk and some formula for the next foreseeable weeks. This has helped my transition immensely. I know every little bit counts but so do the minutes in our day. The frustration of time crunch and not getting much was wearing on me. Now we have more quality time to play {even after the boys are in bed ;)}. Everyone wins. Never expected this to happy this early but it is what it is. Moving on.
Sleeping
Since out last check in, we have been sleeping through the night. Not going to take that sentence for granted…it is fucking glorious! He dropped that last tiny bottle pretty quickly. We had maybe a once a week early waking around 5 or 5:30 where I would go in and nurse him to calm him and put him back down. This slowly lost its effectiveness for going back to sleep and he would cry when going back down. He would fuss for maybe 5 minutes and crash. I realized that usually if I just let him fuss initially, he would do the same. Me going in was just prolonging him going back to sleep. So now he goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps until 6:30-7am. Sometimes he stirs around the 5:45 mark but usually crashes back. We have had the odd night here and there with ear infections and teething but overall, great. It is amazing how the world changes when you get sleep.
Ollie has 2 naps a day with the occasional 3 via car or Ergo on the weekend.
Activities
Crawling
Oh my what 3 months can do. Ollie spends a lot of time sitting with his brother and toys. He now will lunge forward and get onto his belly with great ease. He then struggles to crawl. He still can’t get it. He can spin around and get what he wants and usually end up crawling backwards. He practices in his crib and it cracks me up. He would do it going down for naps and in one thrust he would just fall and pass out. Hilarious. Also? Video monitor endorsement, once again 🙂
Update: I wrote this part of the post on Friday before he turned 9 months. On Saturday, with enticement for the forbidden fruit of Jack plastic hot dog, Ollie army crawled for the first time. He still doesn’t realize he can use the feet he can put under him but he is mobile. Slow for now but it won’t take long. Then on Sunday evening, he was crawling around the kitchen and next time I looked he was sitting up. No one did that. All him. So then, an hour later, he demonstrated he can do it in the bed when he is supposed to be going to bed. Oy. Wonder week 37, indeed. (Also known as 8 month sleep regression….he is just a little behind).
Social Butterfly
Ollie loves his people. If he sees any of the following people on a daily basis, he lights up and wiggles: mommy, daddy, Landon, Jack Jack, Miss JJ, Miss Linda and Miss Kristina. Every morning I bring him downstairs he is searching for everyone. And I am sure Jack would like you to think otherwise but he loves that boy something fierce. I think his favorite thing to do is take a bath with his brother. Over eating even. Just loves it. He has NEVER been unhappy in the tub…pure heaven. We have found he loves people to a fault. If we need him to play alone sometimes we have to hide. At daycare, they have found the same thing. They have him set up in a “hall of mirrors” set up so they can keep tabs on him but he can’t see them. If he does? EPIC WHINE. Turd.
Big Boy Toys
We have found that he is interested less in the baby toys and more into Landon’s. Luckily, Lando is happy to share. He brings Ollie trains and cars to “play” with him. He has gotten over the fact that Ollie is going to put them in his mouth.We are already boxing up all the “baby” toys and letting him go through Landon’s tool basket, play with trains and even just pull plastic plates from the kid’s cabinet. We took 2 plastic cups from the laundry detergent (clean) to the park and he just had a blast banging them together. Whatever. It works. He is happy.
First Boys Weekend
As I said before, Kevin had both boys for 4 days alone while I went Arizona. I think it went swimmingly and actually made him less MOMMY centric. He leans for Kevin more now and wants to be with the whole family instead of just MAMA MAMA MAMA. I am sure the lack of boobage is a good reasoning too 🙂
Wonder Week 37
I think we are in the midst of Wonder Week 37 (can go 36-40). He is just irritable. Wonder week or whatever, clearly it is a mental over-tiredness. He seems aggravated He can’t quite crawl. He can’t quite cruise. He seems to get bored much quicker in the last 2 weeks. Things that would have kept him busy for 30 minutes are barely 5. At daycare he is done with the early care toys pretty fast. In his class he doesn’t want anything to do with stuff he has seen. Add to that the fact that all the bigger kids have moved up to toddler class and he has nothing to watch but blob babies. He fusses more going to sleep. Usually if he cried at all, it was a fleeting WAH as you walked out to see if you would come back. he would immediately pass out. Now he thrashes for about 5 minutes before crashing no matter how sleepy he was in your arms. He whines through dinner if he isn’t spoon fed (weird, right?) or it is something like a yogurt melt or cracker. Because his body figured go big or go home, he is also teething with his front 2 teeth…for weeks. They looks so pitiful and he is only happy chewing hard things. Screw you, teethers. So we are waiting it out. I just count my blessings he at least sleeps at night and we can usually find enough stuff to keep him happy. Sometimes though, he just has to sit and whine. Life is hard for the second kid.
Sickness
Since the 6 month check in we have had an ear infection and 2 tummy bugs. Both tummy bugs got us all in some way or another. Kevin and I haven’t been really hungry for like a week. Not sick but just meh. Ollie takes them like a champ. Last one was only obvious by the puke in his bed when I got him up that morning. I stayed home with him that day and he was perfectly happy. No problems. BAMF.
Stats
Weight: 18.1 lbs
Height: 26 in
Head: in
Schedules
Weekday:
6:30-7:15 – Wakeup
7:20 – 5oz bottle
7:30-7:50 – Drive to work
8:00 – Daycare drop
9:00 – Breakfast 2-4oz puree/yogurt and finger foods
9:30-10:30 – He usually naps in this time frame. Time all over the place.
11 – 4-5 oz bottle
12:00 – Lunch 2-4oz of puree and finger foods
1:15 – 7 oz bottle
1:30-2:30/3 – Nap. Time varies.
2:30 – 4 oz bottle
4:15 – Pickup
5-6 – Play with the family
5:30-6 – Dinner 2oz of puree and finger foods
6:00-6:45 – Play
6:45-7:15 – Bottle, Bath, Jammies, Bed
Weekend/Holiday:
6:30-7:15 – Wakeup
8:00 – 5oz bottle
8:30 – Breakfast 2-4oz puree/yogurt and finger foods
9-11 – He usually naps in this time frame. At least 1 hour.
11 – 4-5 oz bottle
12:00 – Lunch 2-4oz of puree and finger foods
1:00 – 4 oz bottle ( no clue how they get him to take 7oz)
1:00-3 – Nap. Time varies.
3:00 – 4 oz bottle.
3-5:30 – Play with the family
5:30-6 – Dinner 2oz of puree and finger foods
6:00-6:45 – Play
6:45-7:15 – Bottle, Bath, Jammies, Bed
State of the Mommy
I’m good. I love this age. I think Kevin and I both feel much better about juggling the boys. We can handle them alone easier. Ollie is pretty predicable and Landon is pretty easy going. We are a good team and just make it all work. That being said, babies are just a lot of work. Cutting up food, making bottles for daycare, diapers, dressing them, etc just wears you out. Work is really busy and Kevin has work stress too so I feel like our nights are really decompressing. It is a sprint after the boys are in bed to get everything ready for the next day, clean the dishes, catch up on blog stuff or sometimes do more work, then try to straighten up the house or throw in laundry. It is never ending. We are entertaining the idea of a cleaning person and possibly lawn. We need more time to BE with the kids and each other than treading water. We still have plenty to do day to day but it would at least help. Even with all this, I am really happy. Don’t want this to come off as some whoa as me…just the facts. I love our groove and how we make it all work. Things are always changing and bummin over a busy patch is just life. 🙂
I LOVE the picture of him nursing with his fat Hobbit feet all pulled up in the air. That just made me smile. Go Ollie!
Ollie would be a growing boy – so cute! Love the reality of the post. And if you can swing it, hire the help! We had someone come clean the house – just the basics – sweep/mop, clean bathroom and kitchen, and it was AH-mazing. Loved coming home to a clean house on Friday afternoons and it was just that – more time for me to be with the kid(s) / hubs / do other stuff on the weekends. A second kid in daycare has taken away that luxury, but definitely the first thing back when we can afford!
I hear you on the evening/weekend run around to get things done for the kids and into bed, then trying to get everything set for the next day, and wanting 5 minutes to just sit. We have a cleaning person and a lawn person. Sometimes I feel guilty about this, but it means I get to spend more time doing things with the girls on the weekends then if I had to clean the bathrooms and vacuum. It is totally worth it to me. Maybe once the kids are older I’ll feel different, but for now, I highly recommend the help.
Loved everything about this update! Ollie is such a stud! I also love your relaxed approach to… well… everything! You strike me as a “go-with-the-flow” kind of gal and when it comes to parenting that is paramount. I’m not always the best at things like that and it is something I’m working on. But seeing how you manage it all is helpful for someone like me who probably stresses more than I should. Thank you for sharing and keep right on with your BAMF self! 😉