He really is growing up so fast and I feel like he is making the transition to little boy, not baby, which is always going to make a mama sad! However, I love watching him learn new things and grow at the same time. And we all know that I am not a lover of the newborn stage and I am REALLY happy with our current routine/stage! Being on a rather normal 4 hour schedule has a lot of advantages and I am enjoying them. I know it will be even nicer one day when he is only on one nap, but I enjoy the time right now that I can get things done during his morning nap.
Our Biggest Challenge: The biggest transition that we are dealing with right now is still food. Micaiah has a definite texture aversion. I'm not completely certain what it is, but he WILL NOT pick up anything off of his tray except for cheerios, goldfish, lil crunchers (which are like baby cheetos), puffs, and crackers. If it is ANYTHING healthy, he will not touch it, and if he happens to pick it up, he will put it up to his lips and give this face like it is the nastiest item on the planet and drop it. So, I'm still spoon feeding him baby food in the form of fruits and vegetables so that he gets them somewhere. The other day, I let him sit in his high chair for around 30 minutes with nothing but green beans on his tray cooked nice and soft. It took him awhile to even think about putting them in his mouth. Finally, hungry enough, he picked a few up and nibbled at times and then would give the "face" and drop it for Abe to eat. It's really not a matter of being able to pick things up. He can do that. It's a total mental thing. He even likes all of these things in puree form from a jar, but he does NOT like them in their whole food version. I guess it's going to take time. I know he is still young, but it is hard to be patient. I also know it is a mental thing, because he quickly and excitedly eats anything grain related or from a spoon (most of the time). Last night, I put into a mini-food processor what I made for dinner and he ate that from a spoon. I made a shrimp veggie skillet with rice. So, I guess he is just taking his time and will hopefully get over it.
How 9 months is fun: We are CRAWLING!!! It's not full blown crawling, but he is crawling. He did this for the first time yesterday and I got it on camera, so I will try to post a video. It took a lot of coaxing, but he managed to slowly crawl across the floor to get the truck. Today, he did it again for his juice cup. He hasn't quite figured out that he can do it when I leave the room, but it is coming FAST, I am sure! He LOVES to pull up, twist around, stand up and play, hold the remote control, play with Abe, swing, and move around. He's playing independently for longer, and he said his first word "Da-da" this month. Although, last night in the bath, I heard the Mmmm sound for the first time! Ma-Ma is coming! He is really such a happy, sweet boy!
Where I am at as a Mama: I would say I am definitely feeling like we are hitting our stride and while some of my other friends are already trying for/have baby #2, we are most definitely happy and content with one right now. In fact, I can't really imagine having more than one child for a few more years and feel like I am just kind of getting "my life back" + the enjoyment of our sweet boy and being his mama.
The Breastfeeding Issue: I have talked about in some past blogs or to some of my friends about the Breastfeeding Burn Out that I have experienced. I think around 6 months is when I got tired of breastfeeding and started to think about quitting. I pushed through those initial feelings and by 8 months I was going insane in my head. I needed a break, but the thought of completely stopping made me sad at the same time. At the time, Micaiah wasn't taking a bottle, but we hadn't found a sippy cup that worked well enough for us, and he wasn't really coordinated enough to use one. However, one day, Hart's mom bought a soft spout sippy cup made by Fisher-Price from the Dollar General Store (no one else makes this particular cup). We tried it out and it was OUR cup! I have since gone to about 4 DG stores and cleared out their sippy cup supply. I started doing 1 sippy of formula a day and it took about a week for him to drink enough for a feeding. I had been nursing 4 full times + the sippy feeding. As he got more efficient throughout last month, I dropped a nursing and went to 3 nursings + the sippy feeding. It is MUCH MORE MANAGEABLE! I have contemplated going to just a morning/evening nursing, with two sippy formula feedings until we reach 12 months, but to be honest, 3 nursings isn't really bad. In the afternoons, I like to run errands or go to the gym and I can give him his sippy of milk in the car on the way to those. It is giving me the freedom I need to do some things to keep me, his mama, sane, and that is most definitely the healthiest/best option for all of us! I do plan to breastfeed until he reaches 1 year and then make the whole milk transition. I will most likely go to a morning/evening nursing + two formula feedings at some point in the next 3 months, but we are fine where we are right now.
For you new breastfeeding mamas, I highly recommend doing at least ONE bottle of formula a day as early as you can. With our next child, I will be way quicker to implement 1 formula feeding per day. I say formula so that you as a mama can completely take a break (i.e. no pumping). The fear that your supply will drop if you were to do this is a FEAR that should be put aside. I take the stance that formula is actually good for your baby. It has vitamins and minerals in it that breast milk doesn't have(vice-versa), and in my 9 months of nursing, including last week when I was sick and barely kept up with nursing Micaiah or pumping to keep my supply, it was not affected at all. If you think about it this way....you will eventually go to just 4 nursings a day anyways, so why not go ahead and do one as a formula feeding, so you can get a break and have a little Mama Freedom?
Cloth Diapering: We are doing it again! And it hasn't been bad at all. I am being much more diligent to wash every other day or every 2 full days at most, and I have yet to have moldy diapers. Switching detergents (BumGenius Cloth Diaper Detergent), washing more frequently (every other day), and putting them in a wet/dry bag that remains open inside of a plastic trash can is key (they get air and don't get in a zippered moist environment anymore)! I'm interested to see how much our water bill goes up. I will let you guys know!
Well, that's it, folks! We are 9 months! Having fun! God is good to us! And about to spend our first weekend away with MiMi and GrandMaMa away from mommy & daddy, so that Mommy & Daddy can spend time together alone at the beach! :)
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