carrie's first pregnancy

Totally made my night tonight... Ben saying his first "word" (I don't think he knows what it means yet, but he definitely knows how to say it!)



9 months 1 week 3 days old

Posted by carrie at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments

I finally got around to uploading the photos from Labor Day! Here are my favorites, but if you want to see the whole gallery, you can view them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hoochifyd/sets/72157622410046706/show/











































four generations!















9 months 5 days old

Posted by carrie at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments

Well his weight is slowing down... he only gained a half a pound this month and is in the 80th percentile for weight (22 lbs 7 oz). However, he's 30 inches tall! Still in the 95th percentil for height :) He had a clean bill of health at his appointment, and the doctor said he looks great, growing nice and strong. He got his last Hep shot, and one of two flu shots... poor little guy. He cried, and it was hard... but over quickly. We have another appointment in a month for his 2nd flu shot (and one for Joe and I), and then his next check-up at one year! I need to schedule his 9 month photos for next weekend, and I can't believe how big he's gotten! They say babies triple their size in a year, and he's right on track to being 33 inches by his 1st birthday. Almost 3 feet tall, at 1 year! Crazy :)

Anyway, he's a trooper, and smiled the whole time (well, until his shots anyway). I hope the flu shot doesn't give him any trouble, otherwise it will be a long night tonight!

9 months 1 day old

Posted by carrie at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments

Our little baby is DEFINITELY no longer little... he's 9 months old today! We'll get his official height and weight tomorrow, but I feel like he had a growth spurt overnight! He looks very tall to me today, and not so baby-ish anymore :( He's wearing size 18 month clothes, and 24 month sizes in some pieces. I bought a bunch of pajamas and pants in size 18 months yesterday even though I know he'll outgrow them in a month or two. He just grows so FAST. This weekend we are lowering the crib, since he's now tall enough to pull up (though he hasn't yet... YET). Pretty soon we'll have to baby proof the house, as he starts exploring!

My wrists and elbows are also feeling the pain... I get sharp pains in my wrists when I hold him, and doing research online it looks like it's tendonitis, and common with new moms (especially ones with big babies). *sigh* I'm doing stretches and keeping the ibuprofen on hand for times it gets bad... I just hope it goes away soon! He's definitely not walking anytime soon so I still need to be able to hold and carry him. Not that I'm complaining about that :)

He's not crawling yet, but does pull up a little on his "jungle" toy. He scoots forward, spins, and rolls to get around... so he may skip crawling all together. He's getting better at grabbing food, but still isn't feeding himself. He much prefers feeding the dog :) He's up to at least two meals a day, and I keep fighting to have a 3rd in the morning, but so far haven't been able to convince Joe to try it out. We'll get there eventually!

In the vocal department, he's babbling up a storm with lots of na-na-na, da-da-da, tha-tha-tha, and ba-ba-ba... complete with raspberries and screeches. It's hilarious. I can't wait until they are actual words. Though I CAN wait until he knows "no" :)

Update more tomorrow!

9 months old

Posted by carrie at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments

We're back from vacation, and the house is back in order. So now I have time to go through the 500+ photos I took over Labor Day and post them, hopefully by the end of the week :) Wednesday is Ben's 9 month appointment, and he is definitely starting to show some new quirks. He loves to feed the dog in his high chair during meal time, he gets mad when I take away something he likes (even throws down his hands in frustration at me), reaches for me when he wants me to hold him, and (I hope this one is just a short, short phase) has started showing anxiety being around strangers. We went for our playdate on Saturday, and when we got there, I sat him down in the middle of the room like I usually do, but this time when I walked away he burst into tears! I was shocked, and the rest of the time, he'd play happily for a few minutes, but then start to get anxious again if I wasn't within arms reach. As flattered as I am, I'm really nervous that he's starting this RIGHT before our daycare lady goes on maternity leave for 4 weeks. He'll be with someone new, and I'm worried he's going to be upset every day. He's met this new person before, but not on a consistent basis. When he's with me, he'll flash everyone his SpongeBob-teeth smile... but the minute I set him down and he doesn't recognize people, he freaks. So whether it's separation or stranger anxiety, either way, it's bad timing! Poor little guy! Hopefully I can convince the grandma's to come stay for a week or so, just to ease his pain... wish us luck!

8 months 4 weeks 2 days old

Posted by carrie at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well, we've been on our own for about 5 days now (Joe left on Sunday to go fishing with his father and grandfather in upstate New York), and so far so good! It's eery being alone at night, and a challenge trying to get showered and ready in the morning, but I think I've got it down pat. If he wakes up before 5am, I give him a bottle and then bring him back into bed with me:



Works like a charm, and I get extra snuggle time :) But even so, we leave tomorrow to carpool with Joe's cousin Ann to NY, and will be there for the holiday weekend. My parents are also driving from Michigan, so it will be a fun grandparents weekend! :)

Last weekend, I met up again with Ben's playbuddies, and one by one, they are starting to crawl! This time it's Jude who is a month older than Ben who started... and we got a glimpse of the tumbles we think Jude and Ben will get involved in once they are both mobile :)

















Then I took some more shots of Ben in his jumper... I need to grab the camera more often so that it's not just the times he's in that thing. As much as he loves it, he doesn't spend a ton of time in it. The last one shows off his four teeth! :)













I also took another video of him flailing around... definitely entertaining!



In less than two weeks he'll be 9 months old! I want to mention to his pediatrician at his checkup about the baby acne he seems to be afflicted with. I thought that his routine of a bath every other night was the culprit, so I started bathing him every night... but it didn't seem to make a difference. He had baby acne when he was born that didn't go away until he was about 4 months... and it looks like it's returned. I'm also hoping he starts getting better at finger foods (still not feeding himself yet), and I think his formula changes at 9 months to the "next step" type of powder. That, and we get to introduce meats (pureed chicken, etc)... we'll see how he likes THAT taste :) I'm also going to try and give him some steamed carrots, black beans, and other things, to help him get the hang of feeding himself. I'm still terrible at feeding him without making an enormous mess, so one of us needs to start improving ;)

I hope to take a lot of videos and photos this weekend!

8 months 2 weeks 5 days old

Posted by carrie at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments