9 Months

I can't believe my little man has officially been outside my tummy as long as he was inside my tummy. Bryson is 9 months old. (Well, 9 months and 5 days. I'm behind. What's new?)  Only 3 months away from being an entire year old. Oh my goodness!!

Normally, I start out his monthly posts by saying how time has just flown by and yada yada. Well, I can honestly say that this has been the slowest month ever. Most of it has to do with him being sick for so long. But, alas, he is not sick anymore (well, not as bad as before-more on this later) and a new month is here. :)

This has been a pretty calm month in developmental terms. He spent several weeks just in our arms or sitting in our lap (which was such a sweet change...we got to do a lot of cuddling!) and didn't get a chance to be on the floor much. Even still, in the last couple weeks, he has shown so much interest in standing on his own. He'll pull up on something and then let go and stand for a good 5-10 seconds and then slowly lower himself down to sitting. It seems like he stands up, smiles and seems so proud of himself, looks around and realizes he has no idea what he should be doing and then sits down. :)

He's still crawling all over the place. He's known as "Spider Monkey" to all the teachers at daycare because he's so active!  Ha!

We went for his 9 month well visit and we were happy to find out he had gained a little weight. He stopped gaining weight and even lost a little bit when he was sick, so we were a little worried.  We're still working on packing on the pounds, though. :) We opted for the flu shot, so even though he wasn't due for any shots...he still got one. Poor baby. He was a champ though! He let out one little wail and then was fine. What a brave boy I have :) His stats:

Length-29 3/4"  (95-97%)

Weight- 18.5 lbs   (25%)

Head- 18"  (75%)

I wish I had some sort of translator for all of Bryson's babbling! I love hearing him "talking" all the time. SO cute! He's says "dada" ALL the time and has started saying "dah" for dog when he sees Orion and "babababa" and we'll just assume it's for his bottle. Ha! I'm still desperately working on "Mama". You might hear a conversation similar to this in our house...

Me: "Bryson, can you say Mama?

B: "Dadada"

Me: "No baby, I'm Mama!"

B: "Daaaaaaaaaaaadddaaaaaaaadadadada"

Me: "Mmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaa!"

B: "Dadaabbabagabbadadada."

Me: "Ah fine. Yes, good boy, Bryson! Dada. Dada...."

I know he loves me though, because he has a massive case of seperation anxiety. Half the time he's pretty good about going to other people or being out of sight from mommy, but the other half of the time...Oh man. You need a set of ear plugs. He cries and cries until I pick him up and then he's perfectly happy. :) He's a mama's boy for sure!!

Now that Bryson is healthy-ish again, he's eating a ton. He eats 4 meals of solids (8oz of fruit/veggie/oatmeal) and 4 6-8oz bottles. Speaking of bottles, Bryson has had a complete change of heart about bottles. We struggled his entire life to get him to take a bottle. Now, in the last month, he actually cries for bottles!! What!? He saw an empty bottle sitting on the dresser and went bananas. Michael made a bottle real quick and B guzzled it all down. All by himself, I might add :) I even pulled his bouncer out of the closet again for him to lay in and it's a perfect little seat for him. He actually crawls straight into and sits until he gets his bottle. With the sudden interest in bottles, he has had more of a disinterest in nursing at night. It makes me a little sad, but rocking him to sleep with a bottle is still a sweet cuddle time for us. I was having a hard time figuring out how I was even going to begin to start weaning him, but he seems to have done it on his own. I was really only nursing as nighttime, so it wasn't a big adjustment for him. I've gotten teary eyed about it, but I know it's going to be just fine. So, as of his 9 month birthday, Bryson gets only Enfamil.

Bryson has six teeth, 2 on bottom and 4 on top. He apparently gets his teeth in pairs. Right now, he's working on his bottom molars. Ouch. He is not an easy teether and this is even worse. I found a "back teeth teether" which has helped sooo much. We also slather on the Oragel constantly. :) Hopefully they break through quickly!

Bryson went to see a Pediatric GI two weeks ago about his tummy problems. After a long visit with the doctor, he assured me that dairy was not the source of Bryson's problems. Apparently his symptoms disappearing and me going dairy free was a complete coincidence. Yay for being able to eat cheese again. Boo for not knowing what's wrong with my baby. He put Bryson on an antihistamine because of his snotty nose and congestion. He mentioned that he could be throwing up because the food is getting caught in the mucus in the back of his throat and making him gag. I don't know if we have another coincidence on our hands, but his diarrhea and vomitting completely went away and he started sleeping through the night again! Thank you, Lord!! Bryson and I are both SO glad to be getting more sleep. We're praying everything stays this good and that it isn't just a fluke again. We're going back to the GI doctor in the next couple weeks, so we'll find out for sure. Thank you all so so much for the prayers and sweet messages. It means so much to us :)

Bryson, I can't believe you are 9 months old already! Mommy and Daddy love you SO much, sweet baby boy!!

Happy 9 months!!

**Update on the TVs: FedEx came to pick up the boxes and the guys was absolutely blown away that we would return them. Basically, the lady that bought them used to live across the street from us four years ago and forgot to change her address in the system when she purchased the TVs. FedEx had it in their system that everything was delivered to the correct address, and we weren't in the system at all. SO, if we weren't honest people, we pretty much could have kept them without anyone ever knowing. How CRAZY is that??