9 month Sebby
Wait…what.. Baby boy has been outside of my belly as long as he’s been in. Those first few weeks seem so hard, so long…but it really does go by fast! 9 months has brought us even more glimmers of his personality and lots of movement. Seb can walk with help and its honestly just a struggle to go anywhere. He hates being constricted to anything..whether its the car seat, pack and play, and even protests unless the stroller is moving! The toughest part to manage is when his brother wants to play outside and he is just crawling around and eating grass and getting into everything!
He has developed quite the goofy personality and is always laughing. The antics that he already does at 9 months is making me nervous for when he is a full blown toddler boy! He rocks himself in the high chair to the point I think he’s going to be concussed, grabs my face while nursing, laughs at my sunglasses and grabs them off my head, and climbs on me and pulls my hair! He is a handful. He has started to protest with a clench of the fist and a moan/growl when he doesn't want to do something..its hilarious.
Sleep
Ugh. The never ending topic. Sleep. At 9 months I basically sleep trained my first, so in the back of mind this was slightly haunting me. I hate, hate, hate sleep training. I honestly laugh when people talk about potty training. Sleep training is far worse. Listening to my baby scream for extended periods of time is seriously torture. I realized that whenever Seb puts himself completely asleep, he sleeps so much better- ie. only wakes up once. So last week I started to put him down while awake (rather than the “fall asleep at the boob and transfer him into the crib after he’s pretty much asleep!), and let him figure it out. We had 60 minutes of full crying (obviously with checkins periodically). I swear it took every ounce of me to not pick him up. I honestly was coaching myself “you can do this. you are an adult. he is a baby. he is just resisting change.” Sure enough, after the 60 minutes of crying, I didn’t hear from him until 3 am, and then I nursed him, and he went back to sleep until 6:45 am. Success! Each night the crying decreased and he now can (most nights) put himself to sleep. He is still inconsistent with his wakings but at least we are getting the once a night wakings more often. For example, this week he woke once a night wednesday and thursday, and last night was up twice. I'm hopeful that he will slowly drop feedings like his brother by the time he is 1 so I don't have to actively pursue night weaning! Any tips/suggestions welcome :)
Breastfeeding/Food
It’s funny because even though not much time has passed since I had Max in these exact stages, I feel like I don’t remember some of it! Take for instance..starting real food. I don’t remember this being a “thing”. In my mind, Max just somehow already knew how to eat and chew. Of course, that can’t be possible but I seriously don’t even remember it. {this could also be because M had about 8-10 teeth at 9 months where S only has 6} Anyway, the last couple of weeks we have been trying to get Seb to eat some different “first foods” where he has to actually chew. First attempt was cheerios, which I used with Max. This was a no go. Clearly had NO IDEA what to do and it made me way too nervous having the cheerio sit in his mouth. Next tried mashed bananas…they became too mushy and he wasn’t able to pick them up. I had a few people suggest Puffs. I generally try to stay away from stuff like this, but honestly its been a god send with Seb! It crunches so he knows to bite, but it basically disintegrates in their mouth if they don’t necessarily chew the whole thing. He is doing so much better now and soon I think he’ll be ready for cheerios and maybe some soft bread. Phew!
My love/hate relationship continues with breastfeeding. I love nursing, I really do. But I can’t WAIT to have my own body back. I try and pause a second and just take it all in every time when I’m nursing because I am never going to know when will be the last time. I hope that he weans himself similar to what my oldest did because I don’t want to have to make the decision for him! Pretty soon he’ll only be nursing 2-3 times a day so holding on to the moments because I know they’re going to fly by!
Brother
I’ve heard from everyone that having two so close in age is hard but totally worth it for so many different reasons. I’m still waiting for the “worth it” phase to come! Between the “hugs” (which sometimes resemble tackling), toy taking, and bandwagon screaming…I think I might go craxy. Like I said…still waiting. Current occupation is referee and hoping it ends soon!
Play
Seb loves free play (where he can just roam) and toys where he can completely stand up. He is really loving his jumper-roo or his walker at the moment. Its crazy how they go in phases! He starts jumping before I even put him in the jumper-roo where 2 months ago he would cry!!
Likes
-Balls-chases them all over the house!
-Bouncing
-eating
-swimming
-bath time
-standing
-any toy that he can’t have
-talking
-being outside
Dislikes
-pack and play
-face being wiped
Until next month...
xo
Alex