9 months!

I know I didn't write an 8-month post, but it's been unreal how much Soren has learned to do and develop over the last 1-2 months! It's crazy!

Eating: Soren eats 3 'meals' a day now, and has 3 bottles during the day, then nurses at night. His meals usually consist of a a combo of fruit, veggie, protein, and/or carb. The pediatrician said he can eat normal food now except for ice cream and nut products. He LOVES vanilla yogurt, and will often have that with a fruit for breakfast. For lunch we've recently been doing deli meat or chicken breast, a carb (rice, brown rice, potatoes, oatmeal), and a veggie. For dinner, he'll have protein (yogurt/meat), fruit, and a veggie. Soren's pediatrician recommended we let him essentially 'play' with his food so he gets used to feeling and tasting different textures; she said that the more textures he's exposed to now, the better eater he'll be as he grows up. He's a great eater and will take pretty much anything you give him. However, since he's been teething, he hasn't been eating the best. He only eats 4 oz. bottles during the day normally, and when he's teething he'll do 3 oz. or less. He is mostly holding his own bottle now, but often gets lazy and has us hold it.

Sleeping: Oh jeez, still not great. We FINALLY were getting him to sleep 7 hours at a time consistently but then daylight savings and teething hit, and he now sleeps 5 hours, then is up every 1.5-2 hours. It's also getting difficult to get him down for his naps, he doesn't like rocking, and when we put him in his crib, he sits, then pulls up to the standing position which really wakes him up and keeps him stimulated. The last couple days, we've literally held him down with his paci in his mouth and rubbed his back and he was out in a minute or two. When he wakes up, he is instantly awake, bright eyed, crawling around, it's the weirdest thing and I'm slightly jealous ;-). So far he takes a morning nap and 2 afternoon naps. Over the last week or so, his naps have lengthened so he's sleeping for more than 30 mins. at a time. Sometimes we get 2-hour naps out of him, and it's glorious! We are beginning to do some crying it out with him, but we do go rub his back while he's crying and try to keep him in a laying down position in regular increments. He has no self-soothing skills yet and doesn't really have an attachment object to assist him in helping him fall back asleep, except for the paci. He doesn't know yet to look for the paci when he wakes up and put it back in his mouth. He wants to eat to fall back asleep and we are working on breaking that. It's hard at 2am to not just give in and nurse, but for now we're starting to take him off feed-to-sleeps at bedtime and naps. One day we'll get there, right?

Time for bed

What he *thinks* is a good idea instead of sleeping

Development: Soren has made leaps and bounds in the past month. I swear he learned to sit, crawl, crawl-to-sit, and pull to stand in 1.5-2 months time! I'm guessing he will likely be walking in the next month or two. He's developing some object permanence now and when we play peek-a-boo, he looks for us where we were hiding. He unfortunately does not stop for even a second when we say 'no', so that has been a real challenge, he'll just keep doing what he's doing, and sometimes he giggles. He is a pretty social little guy and has not yet developed stranger and separation anxiety, except with my brother's girlfriend (silly silly boy). His pincer grasp is starting to get better, he's also beginning to be able to get ger.ber puffs from the highchair tray to his mouth with some concentration and effort. Soren is also 'clapping' now and beginning to wave (though not yet consistently, and not to say 'goodbye'). He is also babbling alot and just started using the consonant 'm'. His first two words have been 'mum' and 'yum'...both when he's eating foods :-). He also babbles alot in the car if the radio is playing, I'd like to think he's singing, as he makes many different pitches and volumes. Overall, we are mostly forgetting that he was 1 month early and he seems to be caught up now.





Likes: Bath time, swimming, food, electrical cords, cat food and water bowls, our kitties, my parent's doggies, touching daddy's beard, playing tickle games, newpaper or any kinds of paper on the floor


Dislikes: Getting his diaper changed, clothes, being restrained, not being able to roll over, not being able to have things he wants, going out to eat (man, will family dinners in restaurants be put on the backburner for awhile!), teething

Soren weighs 18.5 lbs (25%) and is 29 inches long (75%)...he's a long-and-lean boy and pediatrician says he's perfect, especially considering he fell off the growth chart a while back. He's transitioning to 12-month clothes. The elasticized waist pants don't actually fit around his waist and he sports the 'pants on the ground' look often. Length-wise for pjs and pants, he's needing 12 month pants though.

Reflux update- we will SLOWLY be weaning Soren off the Prev.acid soon. We can either start now and have him weaned by 12 months or wait until his 12-month appt. then start. It will be a very slow weaning, because cutting cold turkey will make his reflux terrible, and for that, we are in no hurry! His spit-up is finally getting better, most likely due to him starting to eat more solids. He still does spit-up, but not too much in frequency or volume.

Soren's hair is really coming in now and is a bleach blonde color, sometimes strawberry blonde in natural lighting. We will likely need to get his hair trimmed soon. His eyes are very interesting, they're gray on the ouside with brown on the inside like bicycle spokes...very dark and beautiful! He now has 2 teeth (the first one came in on March 24th, the second came in a week later on April 1st) , and I imagine more are on their way!

Daddy has been a stay-at-home dad and both Soren and daddy are developing a strong attachment and liking to one another! The other day Brian was holding him and I tried to take him, and Soren turned and nuzzled his head into Brian! It's so fun for me to watch my husband as a fun-loving, caring, involved daddy! He really is the light of our lives and brings so much love and joy!

7 months!

Eating: Soren continues to do well with eating solids. We currently rotate peas, green beans, yams, butternut squash, carrots, apples, bananas, and avocados. He now eats after his second nap in the afternoon. He's wanting to eat around 2 oz. of food and 2 oz. of oatmeal cereal now, and I'm noticing he's wanting bottles less frequently. My guess is that he's taking in between 20-25 oz. in bottles a day. He's taking in Breastmilk and Formula about 50/50. He does still nurse at night, so he's getting more then too. We have also started giving him some teething biscuits and Gerber 'puffs' and Baby Mum-Mums...he likes the Earth's Best organic wheat teething biscuits the most.

Sleeping: Just when I think his sleep is starting to regulate, it changes again. However, on our *good* nights, he sleeps from 8pm-4ish, then is up either once or twice after that. He is starting to regularly get an 8-hour stretch at night, which is nice. We are definitely seeing some improvements. He usually gets a bottle/nurses before naps, then we put him down in his crib in a tired state, and he can put himself to sleep. If we try to rock him to sleep, he fights it, so we're just laying him down in his crib now. I've found that if I lay him on his side, and place my hands on his front and back, it helps him to relax and get sleepy... I think it's our new 'trick'. If he wakes up before 3am, I will put his paci back in his mouth, but I will not nurse him. At his 4ish awake time, I do nurse him, thought it's only for about 3-5 mins. before he falls back asleep. His naps still only last for 45 mins., but I think that's just how he is.

Development: Soren sits like a rock-star, is even beginning to go from a sitting position down onto his tummy! He also barrel rolls now and can make some distance. Just the other day I found him very close to putting a pen cap into his mouth...gahhh we need to baby proof! Soren's fine motor is continuing to develop well, he's working on his pincer grasp right now, but I imagine it might be a little bit before he masters this skill. Soren continues to be a very social baby, and we really haven't had any stranger anxiety yet. I work hard on taking him many different places and allowing others to hold him often, so I think this has helped. He loves smiling, giggling, and 'jumping' when you hold him. He also is becoming quite the squirmer during diaper changes. He's a very busy little guy! Soren still does not have any teeth, but during his aspirating test, xrays showed 8 teeth near the surface...I think we're in for some big trouble here soon! Soren has also moved up to a convertible car seat, and I think he much prefers this as he can see more around him. It doesn't look as comfortable to sleep in, but he's managing.

Likes: Soren loves playing 'tickle time', and really any kind of one-on-one interactions. His favorite toy is probably a set of plastic toy 'keys'. Soren loves food, pretty much any kind of food you give him. Soren loves being active, rolling, jumping, 'flying' (laying on his stomach and putting his arms out and his legs up off ground), and bath time. Soren also likes stuffed animals and tries to eat them. He LOVES playing with his feet and also tries to eat them ;-). Soren wakes up so happy and we can hear him cooing and squealing, and when we go get him out of his crib he gives us the BIGGEST smile ever, melts.my.heart!

Dislikes: Getting his diaper changed (there's too much to look at and do!), getting strapped into his car seat, and stopping in the middle of a feeding. He is a great baby, there's not much that bothers him.

Medical update: Soren had a re-check for his aspiration and reflux this week...it was pretty traumatic for both of us. The first test he was put in a car seat type thing, then they fed him a barium solution and took x-rays while he was swallowing to check to see if it was going down his airways... Soren didn't like the taste of the barium and wouldn't drink it so results were inconclusive on that. The second test they had to strap him a board and put a tube down his nose, then put barium down the tube to check his upper anatomy and reflux. The test showed no reflux, however after the test, he spit up a ton, which the tech. responded 'well there's the reflux we were looking for'. So yeah...probably still has it. He is growing normally now and *knock on wood* has not gotten sick, so we are very thankful of that! The plan is to keep him on his Prevacid solu-tabs and Pulmicort nebulizer until the Summer once cold season has gone away. (Side note: Apparently the makers of the generic Prevacid solu-tabs are discontinuing production, so the only option for solu-tabs are the actual Prevacid. Target stores are having difficulty keeping them in stock, but we were able to get ours at Wal-mart).

Lots of Firsts

This week I feel like Soren took a huge jump in his development...I swear it all happened over the weekend I worked. Soren has now discovered his feet and loves playing with and trying to eat them. Soren also is sitting amazing well, and when laying on his stomach, he is beginning to push up and is working on pulling his legs under his body...we're gonna have a crawler before we know it! Also this weekend my sister watched him and I think he got alot of play in with his cousins...he slept 9 straight hours that night! He even kinda fussed just a bit on two occasions, but fell right back to sleep, I barely even remember waking up to it.

Here's a video from only a week ago when he was starting to sit, now he's a pro:


Last night when I changed his diaper, I noticed a really nasty diaper rash, and I was sure it was the dreaded yeast that I've read about. I was able to get him into the pediatrician this morning, and sure enough, it's the start of yeast. I also noted to her that it appears his legs were getting dry, so she recommended we use Eucerin calming creme. By tonight, his whole body is covered in a rash, and I have no idea what is causing it. It looks very similar to rashes I get from dry skin in the winter, and it wouldn't surprise me since we give him a bath every night. I just feel like it all came out of nowhere, which makes me now question if it's food-related, or the last 2 nights of new jammies that I mistakingly didn't wash first before putting them on him. Whatever is causing it, I hope it looks alot better tomorrow morning! I debated giving him a bath tonight, but decided to do an oatmeal bath then lathered him up. Also at his pediatrician appt., he weighed 16 lbs. 12 oz! She said length-wise he's growing out of his infant car seat and we need to get him into a convertible car seat soon... trying to figure out which one to get. My baby is literally growing every night and learning so many new things, it's exciting and heart-breaking all in one.

Here's another short fun one of him laughing and 'talking':

First Foods- Bananas

Soren has taken an interest to foods lately. He intently looks at food, and will follow food from plate/bowl to my mouth. He's beginning to reach for it also, and sometimes even opens his mouth when I put the food in mine. Tonight while at Babies R' Us, I bought some jarred baby food on a whim. I plan to make his own food, but wanted to see if he would even be interested in food first before I start making it. I bought 1 small jar each 'Earth's Best' organic bananas, sweet potatoes, prunes, and carrots. I was pretty excited to try them out, so I decided to give him a taste of banana tonight. I know you should try their first food in the morning so you have all day to see how they would react, but we've given Soren licks of banana here and there with no problems, so I wasn't worried about it. I think he was interested in it and seem to take to it well...what do you think?









And just too funny not to share: