Today we went to the doctor for Oliver's 9 month well baby check. He is well. He weighs 22.5 lbs and is 31 inches long which puts him in the 88th percentile for weight and 100th percentile for height. TALL boy. He's got 3 teeth so far and one in the works.
He loves his mamma and always wants to sit on my hip and make it hard for me to get anything done. I really don't get a lot done. It makes me feel lazy and like I am an inadequate mother/wife but when I try to be productive Oliver makes it truly impossible. It's hard to use a knife or the oven with a baby in one arm. And if I put him down he is climbing up my leg crying for me to pick him up and how can I say no to that? He gets independent for a few minutes at a time a few times a day. He will crawl to the end of the hall and tear the night light out of the wall all by himself, or I will find him in the bathroom unraveling the toilet paper roll. If he's in another room being quiet I always need to check on him but I have to be sneaky because if he sees me then it's right back in my arms. So I do a lot of slinking around when he is occupying himself.
He still doesn't sleep through the night, he stopped that at about 6 months. He wakes up once on a good night and three times on a bad. We traveled a lot this summer and we were often in someone else's home which made it really tough for me to help him learn to soothe himself back to sleep. I would have loved to let him cry it out during the night and not quiet him with a bottle but I always worried he would bother somebody. So we have a bad habit of waking up to eat during the night. He can put himself to bed at night and down for naps but he still wakes up for a bottle. I have stressed and worried about him rotting his teeth from drinking formula through the night so we have finally trained him to drink water during the night for the most part. I wish that would discourage him from waking up but it hasn't yet. And now we live in a basement apartment of a very nice family and I still can't let him cry during the night. I am too worried about waking up the whole house. So we will continue to get up for a drink of water for now. It doesn't make me tired during the day because I just get up and give him the bottle of water and go right back to bed but I do get really frustrated with him during the night and I hate feeling that way about my baby. Wish us luck that he will learn by the time new baby gets here. I try not to dwell on the thought that I have already failed as a mom and I try to think that someday he will stop and he will turn out healthy and happy and sleep soundly...someday.
I am not feeling very pregnant lately and I often forget that we're expecting another little beebop in about 6 months or so. He (I'm saying "he" to put that positive energy out in the universe) is fist sized this week and I like that because I have a big fist. It's all going very fast for me, I seem to remember Oliver being the size of a raspberry, plum, key lime and so forth for a very long time!
I am really excited for Fall and for all the upcoming holidays. It will be so fun dressing Oliver up for his first Halloween and I'm hoping for a better Thanksgiving than last year. We had about 30 people barfing their brains out not even 24 hours after dinner. And I had a wicked cold that took my voice, stuffed up my nose and scratched my throat to death, never mind being 8 months pregnant. I've already started Christmas shopping which makes me feel on top of it and prepared but also sad that it will be over so soon. I like going out during the Christmas shopping season and just enjoying the atmosphere. It also made me realize how few people I have to actually shop for. Austin's family doesn't do much in the gift giving area and my siblings all rotate between each other giving a gift. So one sibling gift, parents, and my husband and son. Not much. I should be grateful for that I suppose but I just love giving gifts to people and it's sad when I'm done Christmas shopping in September.
Well, Happy Holidays everyone, let it begin! No skipping Halloween or Thanksgiving!!
Here's a picture for good measure
