9 Month Appointment

Evan just had his 9 month appointment today although at this point he's closer to 10 months old than 9! His doctor, Dr. S, is SOOOOO busy. He's definitely the busiest doctor at the office we visit. I kind of wish we had gone with another doctor from the beginning, but Dr. S is really nice and great with Evan, so we'll stick with him. We can always see him at well visits (just not always "on time") and thankfully Evan hasn't had many sick visits.

They didn't do any shots at this visit, but they did prick his finger and collect blood to test iron levels. Evan didn't flinch at all! I don't know if he couldn't feel it or what, but he stayed very still while the nurse collected the blood. Such a sweetie! Everything looks great, I have a perfectly healthy son at this point. :-)

Weight: 18 lbs, 15 oz (25%)

Height: 29 inches (75%)

Head cir: 18.5 inches (90%)

Dr. S confirmed that Evan can eat anything as long as Matt and I aren't allergic to it. That includes egg whites, which is good since I just scrambled eggs for Evan this morning and didn't separate the whites. ;-) Also my mom scrambled an entire egg for him a couple of weeks ago. My goal for myself and for Evan is to eat fish once a week. We ate a lot in New Orleans and since coming home we've done mahi mahi and tuna. I bought some sea perch today. Never had it, but I figure I'll buy whatever's on sale at the grocery store and we'll try some new things. Any suggestions on good fish or good ways to cook fish (especially perch, since that's what I have right now!)? I know i personally love tilapia with mango salsa -- yum!! I've never made it, but I'm planning on getting around to it one of these days.

Dr. S also talked about weaning Evan. He said anytime after 10 months I can just start giving him whole milk instead of nursing him. Crazy that I'm so close!! I'm planning on waiting until he's a year old, then I will start weaning. Hopefully I can get him to take milk in a sippy cup instead of bottle at that point. I think he'll wean really well. I know not all babies adjust so well, but Evan doesn't have a lot of interest in nursing. I actually think he prefers not to, but too bad. ;-) At this point I'm only giving him a bottle of breast milk in the afternoon or evening after he's nursed as a supplement.

Evan has been waking up in the middle of the night since coming home from New Orleans. He actually wakes up at about 5:30 - 6:30. I've been feeding him because I thought maybe he was hungry. But it's getting old and I don't think he's waking up hungry...I think it's just becoming a habit. I talked to the doctor and he thinks the same thing and said I probably shouldn't keep feeding him because it'll get to be a habit. So in the morning I am not going to feed him. I'll let him cry for 20 minutes then I'll go in and rock him and put him back down. Of course this is the night Matt is out of town, but I want to fix this ASAP. He's been such a great nighttime sleeper since he was 7 weeks old with the exception of growth spurts or traveling. I think being in NO for so long threw him off and that's why he started waking up.

Speaking of traveling, we're going to Asheville next week (over Father's Day weekend) along with my family to visit my brother. Then next month Evan and I will be flying out to San Diego, CA to meet Matt and have a little vacation!! It'll be Evan's first time flying and I'm nervous and excited that I'll be taking him on the plane by myself. Matt will be in San Diego all week for business and I'll meet up with him on a Thursday so we can spend the weekend there. I'm so excited!!

New Experiences

Tomorrow I'm taking Evan to Sea.rs to have his 6 month portraits taken. I have never done professional portraits of him before!! We didn't even have the hospital photographer do pictures just after he was born because the first morning I was way too frazzled to think about that and then the second morning we were in the hospital the photographer didn't show up because she was sick or something. I was so upset about that and we talked about taking him to a studio to have newborn pictures done, but it was too much to think about with a new baby.

Twice before my dad has set up his camera and taken better quality pictures of Evan (1 month and 4 month pics), but this is the first time I've taken him anywhere and had a "real photographer" take his picture! As a matter of fact, this will be one of the first times I've been in a portrait studio since I can remember. So I'm a little intimidated about the experience.

Another new experience...Evan's new food is carrots. He's not impressed, but still likes them better than avocados. Just now he's eating them mixed with green beans for the first time because I hoped he might like them better that way. Matt is feeding him and it sounds like Evan is being a goofball...something he only does when he isn't impressed with food. ;-)

And another new experience...Matt and I going out and leaving Evan with my sister and her boyfriend. In November we left Evan with my mom for a few hours, but this is the first time we've gone out and left him for 2 feeding periods and left him with my sister. Matt and I went to a casino night party for his office. His office did the same thing last year and it was a big hit. This year was just as fun (maybe even more fun since I could drink. ;-) Last year I was pregnant). Also, we won a $50 gift card to Lo.we's with the raffle tickets we earned at the "casino." Yay! It's perfect because we're using our tax return to do home improvements and the gift card can go towards new windows.

We returned home much later than I had expected (we called Melissa to let her know we'd be late!) but all was well. He did great and I thought it was cute that my sister and her boyfriend were waiting on him to poop before changing his diaper and letting him to go sleep. They put him in his crib at 7:30 (his bedtime) but they stayed in there waiting on him to poop! lol I don't know why they thought that was going to happen...I didn't tell them to do that. I actually could have told them it wouldn't happen at all since he pooped 3 times during the day. Anyway, after 30 minutes of letting him sit in his crib in the dark with a light up music toy to keep him awake (while they watched him), they went ahead and changed his diaper and then put him back in his crib and let him go to sleep! He was probably sitting in his crib thinking, "why won't these people let me go to sleep!?"

Anyway, Evan still has his dreamfeed at 9:00 every night, but I told Melissa not to bother waking him up and feeding him then. So I was concerned that his last feeding was at 6:30. I expected him to wake up in the middle of the night. But he woke up at 6:30 am! He went 12 hours between feedings and he slept great all night! I'm excited....now I'm more ready to get rid of the dreamfeed since I know he can make it 12 hours.

nom nom nom

Feeding Evan solids is going really well! I thought it was helping his acid reflux, but he wasn't spitting up as much because he wasn't eating as much (since my milk production was low). ;-) So I wouldn't say that it's helped that so much. However, he is sleeping better at night and he takes some pretty good naps since eating solids too! It isn't consistent, but before he would sleep 45 minutes MAX. Since i've started solids he sometimes takes longer naps. I'm hoping that he will keep that up!

Making our own baby food is going really well! I love doing it. It also isn't as complicated or as time consuming as I expected it to be. I've tasted the food I've made and compared it to the jarred food and I have to say, the homemade food tastes much better. I'm using organic vegetables and fruits. I wouldn't consider myself a big health food nut, but I figure since I'm making baby food so that Evan can have the "best," I might as well go all the way and make it organic too. Homemade organic baby food is still cheaper than buying the jarred regular food on sale! Oh yeah, if you have a Trader Joe's nearby, you should definitely go there. They have GREAT deals on their produce!

So far Evan has eaten:
Sweet potatoes
Butternut squash
Avocados
Bananas

His favorite is the sweet potatoes. His least favorite is the avocados (can't say I blame him, avocados don't taste so well without onions, tomatoes, chili powder, garlic powder, and salsa!). He still ate the avocados, he just wasn't nearly as thrilled about them. :-)

Today I mixed bananas in his cereal and tonight I think I'll mix them with some avocado. This is the first time he's had a combination.

Next we'll do green beans (they are already made and in the freezer). I also have carrots in the freezer, but I'm going to wait until he's 6 months to feed him those since they have a stronger flavor and there's a (very small) risk of too many nitrates with those.

Oh remember how i was saying last week that Evan is fitting into his 3-6 month clothes perfectly? Well, about 2 days after writing that I started putting him in 6-9 month clothes!! It seems like he made the transition faster than the last time around. But I was happy to change him into 6-9 month clothes since I bought most of those whereas we were given all of his 3-6 month clothes. My little boy is getting so big....it's just amazing to think that at one point he fit in those itty bitty newborn clothes!

5 months old & first foods

My baby turned 5 months old yesterday! It's absolutely amazing that it's been so long since I had him. I can't even describe how I feel about it. Proud, a little melancholy (he's growing too fast!), excited, content....

(Matt and I took Evan to a free preview at a Gymboree class yesterday.)

We've moved into size 3 diapers. He's still in size 3-6 month clothes. I had estimated that he'd move into 6-9 months at this point, but the 3-6 months are still fitting well. His new favorite thing to do at this point is scratching on things with his fingers. Especially the sheets in his crib. He now sleeps on his tummy (we put him in on his back and he flips himself over...the doctor said it is fine for him to sleep however he wants at this point). So when he's really tired he'll lay on his tummy and aimlessly scratch the sheets. It's kind of weird.

Last Friday we started him on rice cereal which i think I already mentioned. We give it to him at his 11:30 feeding (2nd feeding) and his 6:30 feeding (4th feeding). I was going to do 3 times a day like the Babywise book says, but decided to follow the pediatrician's instructions of doing it twice a day instead since Evan is starting a little earlier than the Babywise books recommends (they want you to wait until 6 months if possible).

The bummer thing about this past week was my milk supply dropping a lot. I had noticed Evan was crying while eating and just after, but I thought it was his reflux acting up. I should have put all the signs together (less poop, crying, my milk not dropping for several minutes, him waking earlier in the morning...), but it wasn't until I pumped after feeding him one time and didn't get anything that I started to wonder. A couple of feedings I've pumped instead of feeding him and only less than 3 ounces would come out! We tried giving him formula when he'd cry after finishing, but he wouldn't take it. So he obviously wasn't starving.

Anyway, I've been drinking more and feeding him more often. I meant to go buy some fenugreek since a couple of people recommended that, but I never did make it to the health store. By the time I had the opportunity to make a trip there I felt like my milk was starting to come back. It's been letting down quicker, Evan isn't crying after eating, and he has milk around his mouth just after eating again. I feel like the reason this happened is because I wasn't drinking enough water.

Yesterday I made some sweet potatoes for Evan. I baked 3 sweet potatoes and then mashed them with some breast milk. They were still all stringy though so I put them through the food processor and after that they looked smooth like the pictures of homemade sweet potato puree I've seen. I put them in ice cube treys and froze them. It made A LOT. But the good thing about it is that I'll definitely use them and this just saved me some time. It's a good thing he liked them!

Actually, I think I can safely say he loved them. When we put them in his mouth I don't think he knew it was food. He sat there grinning with the food sitting in his mouth. When he finally swallowed he smiled again and immediately opened his mouth for more. He kept up the smiling and immediately opening his mouth after swallowing the whole time. He even laughed a few times! :-)