Happy 9 month Birthday, Carter!

 

Ummm I’m not sure what happened between Carter’s update last month and this month, but MAN, he’s suddenly gone through a massive growth spurt. He went from commando-crawling, to  ‘proper’ crawling, to pulling-to-standing, to cruising, to walking… (or at least trying to).

WHAT?!?!

No wonder he’s been particularly fussy the past few weeks at night!

He’s still pretty enormous, and it’s particularly obvious when he’s next to babies his age or older. People often ask if he’s around 1 year old and I guess it’s because he’s about that size. It’s a bit of a problem for me because I do struggle to carry him, and I can’t just hoist him onto my hip and walk around like people do with their babies.. because my arm doesn’t go around him all the way, and because he’s just too heavy.

He’s mostly back to his super-smiley self. He does wail if I suddenly step of out sight, but is generally alright and is ok with people carrying him. He LOVES LOVES LOVES his attention, and will do pretty much anything and everything to get some. Will wave like a World’s Greatest Politician when he’s in his stroller, to get people to come running over to play with him 😉

Most interestingly…. earlier this month, he stopped pooing in his diaper, and only in the potty. We’ve learned to read his cues, and he’s good at giving them to us.. and also because he tends to poo like clockwork every night after his dinner. Plus, he really likes sitting on his Big Boy potty and doing his poo, dishing out GREAT BIG SMILES in the process. His current success rate is 100% for the past 2 weeks (ie. not a single poo in his diaper). Except today, when we put him in his walker and no one was paying attention to him, so we didn’t notice his poo-cue. Oops. He will also do his pee in the potty if I pop him on it, but will also merrily do pees in his diaper.

 

• EATING – Still on breastfeeding 4x/day. I have no idea how to drop one more feed, because I don’t know how my boobs can tolerate it without exploding. On the downside, Carter can now only breastfeed in the bedroom when it’s quiet (and preferably dark). He goes nuts when I try to nurse him outside, fussing and kicking because he wants to look around instead 🙁
  He is AWESOME with solids, which I’m so delighted with! Eats about 3-4oz per meal, and now has breakfast as well as dinner. He absolutely adores his greens, and most of all spinach. He’s not terribly keen on fruit, but if I add pureed spinach to it, it becomes a winner! Odd. I’m also blending his food less, and doing more fork-mashed stuff or even cubes (with very soft food or fruits). He’s so greedy he doesn’t care.

 

 

• SLEEPING – Babies his age should be doing around two 1-hour naps a day. Not Carter. He’s still intent on his 30min (to the dot!) naps… about two to three times a day. Sigh. At least he naps easily and will nap anywhere and everywhere.
  He needs to be physically held down at night so he’ll fall asleep. Because he’s gone through such a huge growth spurt this month, he’ll immediately stand up in his cot (even if he’s dead tired) and then wail cos he then doesn’t know what to do with himself. Doh! He will sleep just fine through the night.. but now frequently will wake at 5-6AM grunting away until we stuff the pacifier back in his mouth. I hate that thing! But I don’t know how to wean him off it because we’re scared he’ll wail (and he has a terrifically LOUD wail that will wake Hunter up for sure). I guess I take solace in the fact that he has never woken for milk since he was 2 months old, but having to get up for the pacifier is still really freakin’ annoying.

 

• PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT – Crazy how in just two weeks, he went from only commando-crawling, to crawling on all fours -> pulling to stand -> cruising -> walking. The last one is a real problem. He absolutely cannot walk unassisted yet, but refuses to acknowledge this. So, he’ll pull himself up, cruise a bit, then simply….. LET GO AND WALK! This means that after one step, he does a massive faceplant onto the ground, and yells with anger. You’d think that he’d learn he can’t walk yet and stop doing this… but nope. He’ll do it again. And again. And again. So this means we need to watch him at all times, because we never know when he’ll just walk off. Plus, he will crawl to the edge of the bed/couch and… keep going. So different to Hunter, who was ultra careful with walking and crawling!!
  His favourite party trick(s) now is clapping and waving. Will keep doing so especially in the stroller, to get people around to come up to him and give him attention. It works a treat! And I’m very happy for that because then he’s kept occupied whilst I can look around in shops 😛

 

 

 

Keeping himself amused by keeping other shoppers amused
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NJNitBTCzQ

 

I’ve gone on a bit of a rampage this month with my mission to dress both boys up in matchy-match clothes. I figure I’ve only got a very limited amount of time to do this, before they’re old enough to object and call me soooo embarrassing! This is, unfortunately, also an expensive mission.. because I have to buy double the clothing and it’s not like Carter’s can be re-used. So they only have a handful of sets of matchy-match stuff which I keep rotating. I find it sooo cute!!

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 9 months, baby wombat! You may have truly epic banshee-screams, but your PICK ME UP NOW I LOVE YOU excited arm flaps and gigantic sunshine smiles make up for them. You’re my big squashy ball of cuddles and I already miss your baby-ness because you seem so much more independent now that you’re on the move. Just stay little!

 

 Taken a couple of weeks ago.. this never fails to make me smile
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccAQVP6r-p4

 

Compare with Hunter at Month 8-9 here.

 

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