Months 9 & 10

9 Months

• First teeth!! Cut his bottom two teeth at the same time.
• Army crawls still -can be super quick when he wants something!
• Sleeping 12 hours with one night nursing session
• Starting to cruise around when standing up on items
• Laughs a lot and is starting to play and be silly with us
• Loves to eat green things : ) broccoli, peas, green beans, and also loves cheese!
• We now do pee diaper changes with him standing up. I’ve given up trying to keep him laying down!
• Takes 1 nap a day. We usually still try for nap #2 but it is hit or miss.
• New babble: says “mama!” : ) Yay! But he doesn’t seem to say it with purpose yet.
• Likes to read books and help flip the pages and explore the pictures.
• Plays with his paci while nursing. As in he will nurse then switch to his paci for a second, back to nursing, switch to paci.
• Laughs with a loud gaspy wheezing sound
• Will hand items over to Daddy
• Likes to put his paci in my mouth and pass it back and forth as a game
• Has discovered gravity! Loves to throw/drop items. He will chunk his pacis from his crib. Likes to drop items through the gate in the playroom.  Drops items off of the changing table.
• Feeds Callie when in his highchair! He will either just slowly lower his hand that is covered in food for her to lick or he drops chunks of food to the floor where Callie sits eagerly waiting.
• Started walking by pushing his walker!
• LOVES bath time! Splashes like mad, drops/throws his bath cups over the side, and tries to turn around and stand up in the baby tub.

Eager for bath time!

Owen LOVES books!

10 MONTHS - 17 ½ pounds

• Cruises from item to item
• Constantly on the move (this isn’t new!) and eager to explore
• LOVES the kitty cats at Grandpa and Grandma’s!
• Squeals when super happy
• Puts his fist up in the air to hold things up
• Likes to pick things up and place them up on top of items
• Smiles and stares when Mama brushes her teeth and wants to grab the toothbrush
• Still loves bath time and eating a variety of food!
• Flips the pages when we read books and gets engaged with certain pictures
• First trip to the Zoo!
• His army crawl is starting to transition to a traditional crawl, right now it’s kind of a hybrid between the two
• Naps are SO difficult and sometimes nonexistent besides a 20 min catnap in the car
• Nursing a lot during his night feeding and in the morning because he is too easily distracted to nurse real amounts during the day
• Points at things
• Fascinated by the ceiling fans!

Hanging out with Uncle Aaron! 

Sick baby sleeping with Mama.

First time to wear shoes!!

Separation anxiety has started to appear.

First time (and so far only) in a shopping cart.

Thoughts:

Owen has been active and on the move from early on, but this month his activity level has increased a ton! His army crawl has gotten really quick when he wants something and is transitioning into the traditional up on all fours crawl.  He can almost instantly pull to stand up on anything and has no fear with cruising from item to item, even if it means stretching his little body to reach between them. He has several times just about body dove/strategically fallen to try and reach other items to stand at.  Sometimes he is successful but he has also done this and just fallen. Thankfully he hasn’t actually gotten hurt yet, but his lack of fear and how he goes so quickly (right now his personality is definitely just “go for it!” and not at all careful and cautious) to try new things makes me nervous for him during this stage.

We have already had several instances that were close calls (or at least close enough for my liking) where he was about to pull TV trays, or the fireplace screen, or different things and I feel like I practically dive in the way to grab or block things.  I guess that means we need to baby proof more, but I feel like we would have to move everything out of most rooms, which obviously isn’t happening. Unfortunately Callie gets super excited when these instances happen and she runs to me when I start to run the few steps to get to Owen, and while Owen has always been fine so far, I have already gotten tripped up on Callie several times and fallen myself.

At night when I nurse and put Owen to bed, he has recently started to be too distracted even when he is so sleepy that I feel like my holding and rocking him is keeping him awake.  When we get to that point I just put him in his crib as he is already so sleepy, and he falls asleep on his own fairly quickly.  I guess it’s good that we start transitioning to him going to sleep on his own in the crib, and I’m glad I feel like it’s happening on his terms as he is ready for it and we never tried to force it earlier. However it makes me sad!  I love our time together when he goes to sleep at night. I love it.  I love nursing him as he falls asleep and holding him while he looks at me and drifts off all snuggled up.  Once day nursing and rocking him to sleep will not be the norm and I think we’re starting to move that way.  

It’s crazy how even just your own thoughts and expectations change before and after a baby.  While pregnant with Owen I remember thinking about things like routines and what I expected us to do in various situations with him.  Pre-baby I thought I would have cut off rocking and holding him to sleep by about 6 months, and now at 10 months I am so sad on the nights he wants to fall asleep on his own. Pre-baby I was just hoping to make it a year with breastfeeding and now that we’re approaching a year I feel like it would be so weird to suddenly stop something that has been such a huge part of his life so far and I’m now contemplating extended breastfeeding past a year. Becoming a mom has definitely changed me in big and small ways.  I would say I was a pretty emotional and sentimental person to begin with, and that has all doubled in me now being a mom.