The Word "No"

Is apparently the funniest word in our household at this moment. A is into EVERYTHING at this point and even though we have baby proofed most things, there are still items that I feel he needs to learn not to touch. I mean, I can't put protective barriers around everything. Especially since our house really isn't that big.

A is learning the word "no". However, when you tell him no, he literally thinks it's hilarious and will crinkle his nose up and start giggling and then go right back at what he was doing. Whether it be trying to pull up on the trash can, playing with the dog food bowl, or sticking the dog's ball in his mouth (yummy, I know). However, the other night we had a little bit of a breakthrough. While at Nana and Papa's house, he was messing with something on the coffee table (a decoration) and Nana and I both told him "no" at the same time. He looked at me and immediately got tears in his eyes and stuck his bottom lip out. Of course, it literally lasted all of 2 seconds and then he was back at it and decided the word "no" was funny again.

Oh well, I am sure it will sink in one of these days. I have tried yuck and ouch also to try to get his attention, but they don't seem to work either. Like I said, I am sure we will figure it out one of these days.

On another note....A refuses his sippy cup while at home. He will drink from it at the sitter's, but will not at home. I also don't think we have any desire for juice. I have been trying and trying and trying and he just isn't having it. I have tried several different sippy cups too. The one that he seems to respond to the best is the N.u.by. Any suggestions?

I am ready for the Holidays. Basically I am just excited to be able to see family and for A to see family he hasn't seen in a really long time. And, we downgraded our vehicle this weekend. We will be saving quite a bit on our monthly payment and also our insurance! Yay!! We needed the little bit that we are saving. Times are tough and they don't seem to be getting any better at this point. It's literally one thing after another...but we are making it! And enjoying every minute with our little man!

A's First Halloween!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween! I know we enjoyed every bit of it with camping and lots of trick or treating!

I'm pretty sure my little Scarecrow enjoyed himself too :)

Planning

I am trying to start planning for A's 1st birthday. I am at a loss! I can't make up my mind what kind of theme I want to go with or even where we are going to have it! Our house is not nearly big enough to have a party in. I'm sure we will be inviting several people, which means they will not all fit in our little house :)

Some of the themes I am thinking are zoo animals or maybe tractors (our family is big in farming and has been since before I was born). A hasn't really shown any interest in one specific thing just yet. We just enjoy getting into whatever we can right now :)

The other thing that makes his birthday hard, it is literally only 2 weeks after Christmas! Can we say crazy?!?! We are going to have sooo much going on once December/January hit. It will be unreal. I guess things will start to fall into place once I decide what type of theme I am going to go with. Decisions, decisions!!

Ear Infections...

We have them....again. Mind you, A just got done with an antibiotic for the last double ear infection this past Saturday. Not cool. This is the third time in just 3 months that A has been diagnosed with an ear infection (or two). Things are not looking so well for my little man.

The first one, I picked him up from the sitter and thought that he had an ear full of baby food that for whatever reason, they missed. Yea, that definitely wasn't baby food the more I got to looking. So, of course, by that time I couldn't go to our Pediatrician and we had to go to Urgent Care (which means you sit for a couple hours just to see the Dr. and then sit in the room for about an hour to see him again...pretty much like the ER).

A kept getting colds through September and then developed a nasty cough a few weeks ago. When I took him in to our Pediatrician, we were told he had a double ear infection and was put on a little bit stronger dose of Am.ox.i.cillen. Went back to the Dr. last Thursday and was told that the infection was definitely pretty much gone. We finished the antibiotic on Saturday.

Which brings us to Tuesday evening. I had to run to the store and A was not having it being in his stroller and immediately had tears when he started fussing. Of course, this was not normal. When we got home I took his temp and gave him some tylenol. He wanted to go to sleep by 6:15 (again, not normal) Of course, I thought it had to be that he was getting more teeth (remember we just finished antibiotic). Had a fever through the night but was then better the next morning. Wednesday was a good day. Thursday (yesterday) I noticed after he woke up that we had a nice full ear....again. So, hubby got the pleasure of heading to the Dr. again. And we are diagnosed with another, wonderful, double ear infection. And back on antibiotic.

My poor little man. I wish there was more that I could do for him. I wish the dang infections would just go away. I really don't want to have to put tubes in his ears, but it looks like we might be heading that direction. Bummer.

On a brighter note, my hubby is on vacation starting tomorrow all the way through Halloween. Should be a good week! My living room/dining room/hallway is getting painted! Yay! And I plan to put him to work doing lots of cleaning that I can't seem to EVER get done :) Oh, and we will be camping over Halloween weekend. It should be a really nice weekend! A is going as the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz because my neice is going as Dorothy! I will post pictures later!

9 Month Checkup

......was today :) Little man is getting way too big for his britches! He weighs just over 21lbs and is in the 72nd percentile. And is in the 76th percentile for his height. Not sure the exact measurement for that, but he is tall for his age.

He had to get 2 shots today. One for the first round of flu vaccine and the other for the final Hep B vaccine. He usually does pretty well with the shots and only cries a little bit and today was not any different than normal. It probably helped that he was ready for a bottle when he was done too. Ah, comfort food! We all have it. lol

And...we are finally crawling! Well, when we really, really, want something or are removed from something that we don't need to have. He is still trying to figure it out fully. He has been trying to pull up on everything too. He can get to his knees, but not all the way to his feet without some extra help.

He has become so interactive and I am absolutely loving this age! My little man is full of smiles and giggles almost constantly. You tell him no, and he giggles...you make a funny noise and he giggles...and so on. I love it!

We have been battling a couple ear infections for the past couple months. He had one in August and then had a double ear infection just this past week, but with the follow up today things are looking much better. Which is fantastic. However, his Dr. is already on his toes considering it's not even ear infection season (if there is such a thing?? because according to the Pediatrician there is).

My little man is really growing up now. I wish that time would just stand still for a little bit so that I can keep him little for as long as possible. Like I said, I am loving this stage right now :)

Almost to the 9 month mark!!

A will be 9 months old tomorrow! I really can't believe it! We go back to the Dr. on the 14th, so we will know then how much he has grown since his 6 month checkup. I am going to venture to guess that my son is now around 21lb. We are starting to fit into 12 mos. clothing. We are still wearing some 9 mos items, but our sleepers are definitely getting too short in the sleeves and legs. We have bought some 12mos pj's, but not sleepers. The sleepers just look sooo big. :( I want my baby to slow down a little bit haha.

So, some of A's accomplishments recently...

1. We finally started sitting ourself up from laying on our belly yesterday. He had been doing it in his crib for a couple nights before yesterday, but finally started doing it more throughout the day.

2. We still aren't quite crawling. He is so close right now! He is rocking on his hands and knees like crazy and starting to get the motions of moving his arms, but he just scoots his legs. Or if something is out of his reach, he will literally launch himself toward it from his hands and knees and land on his belly just within reach of it.

3. We now have 4 teeth! His top two teeth came in just last week and he has decided that it's really fun to grit them together. For me, not so much. I hate the sound that it makes and it makes me cringe every time he does it.

4. We love spitting. We are constantly spitting. It makes it really hard to feed him when all he wants to do is spit as soon as he takes a bite. I think I usually end up wearing more of it than he actually eats. He had actually figured out the spitting a few months ago, but has recently decided that it's really a lot of fun again. I know this is just a phase, but it gets a little frustrating at meal times...lol.

5. We are trying all kinds of new foods! We had dinner at Nana and Papa's last week and he got to try some meatloaf. I figured it was soft enough that he could figure out what to do with it and he did. He LOVED it. And of course, he enjoys pieces of biscuits and rolls. And has had some scrambled egg. I don't think we have found anything that he will not eat. Which is awesome! I have a really good eater on my hands. I'm hoping that will make me start to eat a little bit better once he really starts eating more than just baby food.

I think that's it. I am sure there is more, but that's it for now! My mom mentioned to me yesterday that I needed to start planning A's 1st birthday soon. Especially since it's literally right after Christmas and only 3 months away! I can't believe it...it makes me sad.

And by the way...hubby is already talking about baby #2. Yikes! My Dr. actually told me at my August appointment that yes, we needed to really start seriously thinking about #2 soon. That really scares me as money is really tight right now and I'm not sure I am ready for #2. I want to enjoy my little man and all his milestones for now. We shall see. Until next time!

Weaning... :(

So my supply has been slowly dwindling down for the past couple of months. I am not really sure what caused it to do this. The only thing I can think of, my body was not responding well to me having to pump. I haven't been able to keep up with A's intake for quite some time now and we have had to supplement with formula at least one bottle a day throughout the week. Of course, on the weekends, I would try to breastfeed as often as possible to try to get my supply back up, but it just isn't happening.

This, of course, makes me incredibly sad because I was really hoping to breastfeed through this whole first year. So, I have started to wean my little man slowly. I am now down to pumping only once during the day and then I breastfeed him right before he goes to bed and then throughout the night and for his first feeding in the morning. I will soon be taking out either the morning feeding or the right before bedtime feeding. I am leaning toward the right before bedtime feeding in hopes that he will stop waking up every night at midnight for a snack...lol. That would at least cut out one time of waking up (hopefully). He still wakes up at least 2 or 3 times a night for a little snack. Anyone have any suggestions as to which feeding would be the best to stop next?

I think I have done really well getting to the 8 month mark (this sunday...oh. my.) especially given how much trouble we had in the beginning. And maybe that's why I have never really been able to keep up with how much my little man consumes from a bottle. I don't know. I just know that this is really hard for me right now because I love the bonding time we get. But I will make it through :)

P.S. We are loving our new daycare!!! It's so nice to have a happy baby when he gets dropped off and when he gets picked up!