Liam Hayes,
You have officially been out of my tummy longer than you were in my tummy. Time has just flown by way too fast with you! I truly feel like it was just a few months ago that we were announcing your birth and here we are rapidly approaching your first birthday.
This month you are weighing in at 20lbs 4oz (59%) and standing 28.75 inches tall (63rd%). You have a tiny little noggin measuring 44.25cm around (25%). I know your percentile for height is pretty average but to us we are amazed at your height! You are already almost 2 inches taller than your brother was at 9 months and have surpassed his height by almost an inch at 12 months.
You are currently in 9 month sleepers, pants and onesies. Some of the fleece sleepers we had from brother are 12 month and fit ok but 9 month seems to fit better. You are wearing size 3 diapers and some teeny tiny camo shoes so you can practice walking with shoes on.
We tried to decrease your prevacid last month by just 1/2 of a ml but you weren't quite ready for this step yet. At your 9 month check up the doctor said we can try again on February 1st and just keep trying at the 1st of every month to see if you are ready yet.
This month you went from drinking Mama's milk mainly in bottles to preferring to nurse. This has been a welcome change for me as I now have less bottles to wash! One evening I decided to see if I could just nurse and you would sleep ok still. I always believed you got more from a bottle so I bottle fed you at night. You actually slept BETTER when I started nursing you at night. You do take 1 bottle before your 9am nap because I have normally just pumped. Other than that we are rocking this nursing thing again!
You have also put yourself on a pretty fantastic schedule this month!
Between 4:30-6:30am you will wake up for a early feed. I will change your diaper, nurse and put you back down to sleep.
7:30: Start your day. Depending on what time you ate last you may or may not nurse.
you will eat some breakfast in between there somewhere
9:00/9:30: Nurse and nap
10:00: Wake, play, eat lunch (in no particular order)
12/12:30: Nurse and Nap
2/2:30: Awake, snack, play, probably snack so more(in no particular order)
4:30: dinner (we tried to wait until daddy came home but you just can't hang on that long)
5:30: Bath
5:50: Pajamas and books
6:00: Nurse & bed
I can officially report YOU ARE SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!! You were a difficult one to figure out with this! We actually realized that in some of your wakings you weren't actually awake, rather you were transitioning sleep cycles. If we hear you on the monitor we normally give it 5 minutes and you will put yourself back to sleep. You go to bed EARLY child! There is rarely a day when you see 6:01pm & sometimes if we are being honest you want to skip books and start nursing at 5:45pm. Brother was the same way as a baby. Normally around 5:30 we are ready for you to get in that bath to stretch out your wake time. Even if we add a catnap in, you cannot make it passed 6:30. Since you go to bed so early I feel like your early morning feed is pretty justified because you're still getting about 11-12 hours of sleep before waking.
You still LOVE food!! I feel like this last month we cannot feed you enough! You seem to be hungry about every 90 minutes. This is definitely opposite brother but funny because you aren't as chunky as brother was. You don't care what kind of food it is you'll eat it. The only thing you don't really care for is green beans beyond that you go crazy! Hands down your favorite food is broccoli. You will eat it raw, cooked, hot, cold, you love it! Some of your favorites are apples, mixed fruit, spaghetti, applesauce and pear pouches, yogurt, puffs, cheese sticks and crackers. Honestly, I could probably list everything as a favorite food. The other night at dinner Mason took a bite of dinner, gagged because he didn't like it and got down. You ate your helping and half of brothers. You're going to be my good eater!
You have your second bottom tooth! You don't seem to be to terribly uncomfortable when you are getting a tooth. You may get a little fussier than normal but not too bad. What you do is go on eating strikes when you are teething. You went on such an eating strike Mama ended up with a bad case of Mastitis last month. If that's the biggest sign of your teething we will take it! Your 2 little bottom teeth are just precious and I love them! You have practiced your biting with these things though when you're nursing. Brother only did it once, you my little daredevil are tempting fate with the amount of times you've bitten me!! Nana said when we bit her she would flick our nose and we didn't do it again. That worked with Mason, you laughed at me. Stinker!
You are still pulling up EVERYWHERE!! You would prefer to be standing if you could. You love to walk behind your walker and love to be standing at a window looking outside. This month we have started going on "walks" down the sidewalk in front of our house a lot. Brother will ride his scooter and you will push your toy. It's one of our favorite things to do when the weather is nice. Just recently you've started to gorilla walk when you crawl. You won't crawl on your knees rather you walk with your feet and keep your hands on the ground. You are determined! You will get there sooner than I'm ready for, my love!
You really love being outside! We go out as often as we can and when we do you spent most of your time practicing crawling in and out of the drop off of our house. It took you some time to master it but you're a pro at it now. If you can sneak off you will head right to the potted roses and shovel dirt in your mouth as fast as you can. You're a true boy at heart. You also love to swing! We could put you in that swing outside and you would just swing to your hearts content. You like when we push you but your face lights up when brother jumps in and pushes.
You don't really have many favorite toys rather you're content with just about whatever you find. Last month we moved Mason's cars and train table into his room and you two really prefer and are happy to play in there for most of your awake time. You're pretty in to just about anything brother is.
This month you have started to develop a tiny bit of separation anxiety. Daddy has had to travel a lot so I'm not sure if this plays into it or not but you've been a little teary when I drop you off at the nursery for church. It quickly subsides but you are definitely ready for us to pick you back up a few hours later.
Oh little man! Your personality is really starting to come out & while you look like your Daddy you have got the personality of your Mama!! Everyone says you are the happiest baby, which really you are quite happy for the most part. But when you are unhappy oh brother you are MAD & it can happen at the drop of a hat! You also like to be held a lot! You are definitely a physical touch person to where brother has always been the exact opposite! You find the most comfort in Mama's arms & when you're grouchy that is exactly where you want & are going to be or you're going to let the world know you are ticked off about it! You are very determined & will continue trying something over and over until you're able to master it. One thing that is very similar to daddy is you really don't care to stay home. You like to be out and about and on the go. Basically Mason looks like Mama, acts like Daddy & is a homebody like Mama. You look like Daddy, act like Mama & are not a homebody like Daddy. You are two very opposite boys!
While you are opposite boys, you're the very best of friends! I've been able to say that to you every month now & your friendship just continues to grow with each passing month. Mason is your #1 protector. He is not going to let anyone take your toys or make you mad. God Bless the soul who tries to because he will fly off the handle at them, even if it's Mama & Daddy. You two are learning the concept of sharing, more you are forcing him to learn this concept. You seem to want whatever it is he is playing with. He stubbornly doesn't want to give any of the toys up and your determined self is going to find a way to get them. This can lead to a few tiffs here and there but you guys are actually problem solving (with assistance) on this.
Tough is the word I think we would need to describe what you have to be in this house son. Gracious this month has been a month of breaking you in. You have been so determined to stand alone and climb things that you've taken quite a few little tumbles. You have fallen several times in the bathtub and bruised your little booty on the bath tub drain, brother bit your face over a toy (working on the problem solving) and you tried to climb a step stool resulting in a bloody nose. BUT you're alive and that's what's important. And you are loved! You seem to cry more than brother did when you fall BUT brother did have anyone else there trying to wrestle with him.
You have become 1,000% a Daddy's boy. The only horse I've got in the race is that I can feed you. When Daddy came back from his first trip you stared at him for the longest time with your mouth wide open in disbelief that it was really him. Then when he had to go to work the next day you were so sad. You refused to eat and refused to nap that entire day! It was the saddest thing, but you're adjusting more with each passing trip.
Oh Liam Hayes you are growing up too incredibly fast. Faster than mommy is ready for! You have the biggest smile that truly just lights up our lives. No matter how much or how fast you grow one thing that will always be true is that I will not just love you forever, I will love you even more with every passing day!
Love,
Mommy
Exciting things this month:
We celebrated your first Christmas
*We visited Rhema to look at lights
*We celebrated your 1st New Years
*We visited our bestiesin Stillwater
