Kaden at 9 Months

I didn’t get any formal pictures of Kaden at 8 months.  Because it snuck up on me.  I had mastitis and was sick, and then we came up on a very busy week including three trips to Utah in 5 days.  So by the time I had a minute to even think about pictures, we were over a week late.  That’s not a big deal, but he had broken three more teeth through and it wasn’t even an accurate picture of him at 8 months anymore.  And I was still busy so I just decided to skip it.  At 8 months, he had one tooth on the top-right.  He wasn’t crawling- just reached for things too far and fell on his stomach and then fussed.

He turned 9 months old on the day we went to Disney World.  I thought about trying to take pictures of him in Florida, but it just never worked out.  So we were a week late, but we got them!

Dylan and Sadie were helping me make him laugh.  He is pretty easy.  He actually loves the camera.  I think he thinks I'm playing peek-a-boo behind it or something.  He smiles at me whenever I call his name and I have the camera up.  Funny kid.

He had six teeth, he was starting to crawl- very slowly and with a lot of rolling and whining, but he could move when he needed something, and he was still waking up in the middle of the night often, usually nursing around 5 or 6 am.

At the Dr at 9 ½ months, he weighed in at 20 lbs 6 oz = 58%, height 28 ¼ in = 57% and head a whopping 19 in = 99%.  This is quite a bit bigger than he has been in previous months!  I was expecting him to be higher on the charts.  He loves to eat!

He started out a little iffy with his food.  He didn’t really love much of it, other than maybe applesauce.  He didn’t get too excited about Puffs.  We got him to start drinking the squeezers from the pouch around 8 months, which is so nice for when we are out and about (especially on the airplane and such!)  And then when he was almost 9 months I let him have a little cheese, and he went nuts!  He LOVED it and begged and begged!  Then I gave him watermelon and the same thing happened.  He would grab the watermelon out of my hand when I was trying to feed myself.  He also really loved to chew on the core of my apple when I was done with it, or if he was lucky I would share a whole slice with him.  He didn’t have much teeth so he couldn’t really get chunks, but now he can.  He also grabs baby carrots out of my hand and gnaws on them.  And he decided he liked the cheesy bunny crackers, and then I gave him the Ritz-like crackers (just a different brand from Natural Grocers, you know, GMO free, no artificial blah blah blah) and he loved those!  He would grab the whole thing and nibble on it.  Of course he often puts these type of things in his mouth and then pulls them out and examines them again, then puts them back in.  He’s messy.  Babies are messy and sticky and they drop food everywhere and they smear food all over their high chair.  It’s hard for me to handle.  I often just have to let it be and accept that I will have to take all his clothes off, rinse them, hang them to dry and throw them in the laundry, as well as basically hose off his hands, chest, and face in the sink.

I tried giving in some whole milk organic yogurt with some applesauce mixed in.  9 months is when you can introduce things like yogurt and cheese, beans, chicken and meats, eggs, etc.  I haven’t done any meats or eggs yet.  I get nervous with eggs since they bother me a lot.  I will do meats soon, though.

When given the opportunity, he will nap for 3 hours or more.  I’ve been trying to respect his nap needs.  Sometimes it’s hard.  And he’s pretty adaptable so sometimes I will wake him early so we can go do something fun.  But he naps from around 11-2.  Then he will be awake for awhile and gets fussy again in the evening.  When I nurse him he will often nap for a few minutes, but doesn’t usually want to lay in his crib again.  Or if we drive anywhere he will fall asleep for a few minutes in the car.  These little catnaps are all he needs after his long afternoon nap.  I love naptime.  I can get so much done!  Not to mention spend some one-on-one time with Sadie now that the kids are in school.

Night time sleep has been going better.  He rarely wakes in the middle of the night anymore.  The other night he did freak out at 2:30 and I felt bad because I was watching him on the monitor.  I saw him pull himself to standing (he’s doing that now) and scream at the closed door.  So I went in and gave him his pacifier.  He is not super dependent on his pacifier, but he likes it when he’s tired.  And his blanket.  The boy LOVES his soft blankets.  He rubs them on his face and cuddles, he will bite them too.  Most of the time he sleeps until at least 4 before he starts making noises.  Now that the kids are in school I have to work out earlier so I can be back by 7:00 to get them ready.  But Kaden was sleeping until 6:30 or later sometimes.  One morning I was slow getting to him when he fussed and he ended up going back to sleep rather quickly.  And he fussed just a bit a couple more times but just fell back asleep.  I decided I might’ve been jumping the gun getting up to feed him just because I wanted to be able to go work out.  So I turned off the monitor so I wouldn’t be woken by every little sound.  And he sleeps!  He’s been sleeping until 7:30 or a little longer every morning this week.  That works out really great for me!

He’s a good little crawler now, though he’s still kind of slow.  He gets his knees under him and just cruises.  He used to drag one leg, but he’s doing better now.  He started crawling, pushing himself to sitting, and pulling to standing all within like a week.  The other day he was in the living room with Sadie and I was trying to get dinner in the oven and he was fussing so he crawled from the living room through the kitchen around the island to get to me, crying the whole way.  Sadie was there with him cheering him on and trying to console him.  He is so stinkin’ cute!