Yes, I AM still alive and attempting to blog. Seriously, life has just been nonstop crazy lately. So many things going on that need their very own post...but this one, this one is about my boy :)
Believe it or not, Riley is 9 months old already. And turning into more and more of an individual everyday. He is now "officially" crawling, and boy is he getting fast at it already! Especially if there's something he wants...say, electrical cords (what is so fascinating about cords?) or the dog. We still have just the one tooth, but he is working hard on a couple more on the top. Which has resulted in all sorts of strange side effects-fever, random spitting up, runny diapers...you know, fun stuff like that. Strangely enough, even with all that, he's still fairly happy (most of the time). And I can see one tooth breaking through, so there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Its also poking through enough that he can grind it with the bottom tooth. Nice...hoping he stops that little habit soon! I think he just does it b/c its hurting him and he's still sort of getting used to having another tooth in his mouth? Other things he's up to: pulling up on everything, then holding on with only one hand, so he can stand there and wave the other hand around like he's a little bullrider. Still not a whole lot of babbling, except when I tell the doctor he's not babbling much, then he proceeds to babble up a storm for the next two days. If there's one thing I've learned about being a parent, its that my kid will almost always prove me wrong. Anytime I say that he either is or isn't doing something...it will change. The doctor was very impressed with his motor skills, the standing and pulling up and general moving all over the place.
What wasn't as great though was his weight. :( I knew this was going to be an issue sooner or later. He's been small from the beginning. Sure, he was "big" for a preemie at 5 lbs 14 oz, but always smaller than other kids his age. Always at the bottom of the charts for his age but he at least was staying on his own little growth curve. Well, now he's dropped off that little curve. He's at 15 lbs 10 oz and not even on the charts for his age (he was previously in the 5th percentile). He's 27 inches tall, so he's doing great on height-I think she even said he's gained some on the height..but he's only gained about a pound in the last 2 months or so. He's eating, I'm feeding him, I swear it! He's just not very good with the solids. Getting better, but its a slow process with him. We've added in yogurt for some good fat and calories and he seems to like it thankfully, so that is probably helping. We're up to 3 meals a day now, technically...though ever since we added lunch in, he's had little to no interest in breakfast. Usually eats dinner like a champ, and is starting to do a lot better at lunch too, according to the sitter. The whole teeth thing the last couple of weeks hasn't helped anything though. There has been at least a couple of days where he refuses almost all solids, and I'm sure its because his teeth are bothering him. One day he didn't even take all his bottles at the sitter. I've been trying to nurse him as often as possible, to make sure he's getting as many calories as he can-but you can't force a kid to eat when he doesn't want to. I still do a "dreamfeed" with him before I go to bed at night, and I think/hope that helps him get some extra nutrition. I just feel like a big FAIL on the parenting thing right now...when the doctor tells you he's fallen off the growth curve, you need to feed him more, come back in 6 wks for a weight check, and then writes you a script to get bloodwork-with the big "failure to thrive" on the paper....well, you're bound to feel like a bit of a "mom failure". Especially when I know I am responsible for all his nutrition...not only just with the nursing, but with the fact that I make all the decisions about solids for him too. Makes you start to think, well, maybe we should have started them sooner-oh wait, we tried, he couldn't eat them, he gagged on anything we gave him until almost 7 months old...well, maybe we should have gotten him to 3 meals a day sooner, oh wait, we tried, he wouldn't eat 3 meals a day. Then I start to doubt myself on nursing...maybe I should have given him formula...maybe he's not getting enough from me...though he never has seemed hungry after a feeding and up until recently he's been gaining like a champ. And thankfully, the doctor didn't even imply that there was anything wrong with continuing to breastfeed, which was one of my fears, because its something I truly love and I'm just not ready to quit and I don't think he is either. She did say that the slowdown on weight gain could be simply related to him being mobile-he's burning more calories than he was before. Makes sense to me. And all his cousins (except for the two littlest ones-one of which has already passed him up and the other is gaining on him quickly) are small too so it makes sense genetically that he would be too. We go back Jan 21st for a weight check...in the meantime I'm trying really hard to improve his eating habits and introduce some higher-fat foods into his diet. I'm hoping the teeth pop through soon so that he starts eating better again. I'm a little nervous about what happens if they don't feel like he's gained enough at that weight check...but I guess we'll cross that bridge when/if we come to it. Any suggestions are more than welcome! Oh, and we can't do finger foods yet because he still gags on anything that is not a puree so the doctor said to hold off a couple more weeks before trying those again. A challenging eater for sure...
I will try to post again before Christmas....so many more things going on...but just in case I don't get back here...Merry Christmas everyone!!
Believe it or not, Riley is 9 months old already. And turning into more and more of an individual everyday. He is now "officially" crawling, and boy is he getting fast at it already! Especially if there's something he wants...say, electrical cords (what is so fascinating about cords?) or the dog. We still have just the one tooth, but he is working hard on a couple more on the top. Which has resulted in all sorts of strange side effects-fever, random spitting up, runny diapers...you know, fun stuff like that. Strangely enough, even with all that, he's still fairly happy (most of the time). And I can see one tooth breaking through, so there is a light at the end of this tunnel. Its also poking through enough that he can grind it with the bottom tooth. Nice...hoping he stops that little habit soon! I think he just does it b/c its hurting him and he's still sort of getting used to having another tooth in his mouth? Other things he's up to: pulling up on everything, then holding on with only one hand, so he can stand there and wave the other hand around like he's a little bullrider. Still not a whole lot of babbling, except when I tell the doctor he's not babbling much, then he proceeds to babble up a storm for the next two days. If there's one thing I've learned about being a parent, its that my kid will almost always prove me wrong. Anytime I say that he either is or isn't doing something...it will change. The doctor was very impressed with his motor skills, the standing and pulling up and general moving all over the place.
What wasn't as great though was his weight. :( I knew this was going to be an issue sooner or later. He's been small from the beginning. Sure, he was "big" for a preemie at 5 lbs 14 oz, but always smaller than other kids his age. Always at the bottom of the charts for his age but he at least was staying on his own little growth curve. Well, now he's dropped off that little curve. He's at 15 lbs 10 oz and not even on the charts for his age (he was previously in the 5th percentile). He's 27 inches tall, so he's doing great on height-I think she even said he's gained some on the height..but he's only gained about a pound in the last 2 months or so. He's eating, I'm feeding him, I swear it! He's just not very good with the solids. Getting better, but its a slow process with him. We've added in yogurt for some good fat and calories and he seems to like it thankfully, so that is probably helping. We're up to 3 meals a day now, technically...though ever since we added lunch in, he's had little to no interest in breakfast. Usually eats dinner like a champ, and is starting to do a lot better at lunch too, according to the sitter. The whole teeth thing the last couple of weeks hasn't helped anything though. There has been at least a couple of days where he refuses almost all solids, and I'm sure its because his teeth are bothering him. One day he didn't even take all his bottles at the sitter. I've been trying to nurse him as often as possible, to make sure he's getting as many calories as he can-but you can't force a kid to eat when he doesn't want to. I still do a "dreamfeed" with him before I go to bed at night, and I think/hope that helps him get some extra nutrition. I just feel like a big FAIL on the parenting thing right now...when the doctor tells you he's fallen off the growth curve, you need to feed him more, come back in 6 wks for a weight check, and then writes you a script to get bloodwork-with the big "failure to thrive" on the paper....well, you're bound to feel like a bit of a "mom failure". Especially when I know I am responsible for all his nutrition...not only just with the nursing, but with the fact that I make all the decisions about solids for him too. Makes you start to think, well, maybe we should have started them sooner-oh wait, we tried, he couldn't eat them, he gagged on anything we gave him until almost 7 months old...well, maybe we should have gotten him to 3 meals a day sooner, oh wait, we tried, he wouldn't eat 3 meals a day. Then I start to doubt myself on nursing...maybe I should have given him formula...maybe he's not getting enough from me...though he never has seemed hungry after a feeding and up until recently he's been gaining like a champ. And thankfully, the doctor didn't even imply that there was anything wrong with continuing to breastfeed, which was one of my fears, because its something I truly love and I'm just not ready to quit and I don't think he is either. She did say that the slowdown on weight gain could be simply related to him being mobile-he's burning more calories than he was before. Makes sense to me. And all his cousins (except for the two littlest ones-one of which has already passed him up and the other is gaining on him quickly) are small too so it makes sense genetically that he would be too. We go back Jan 21st for a weight check...in the meantime I'm trying really hard to improve his eating habits and introduce some higher-fat foods into his diet. I'm hoping the teeth pop through soon so that he starts eating better again. I'm a little nervous about what happens if they don't feel like he's gained enough at that weight check...but I guess we'll cross that bridge when/if we come to it. Any suggestions are more than welcome! Oh, and we can't do finger foods yet because he still gags on anything that is not a puree so the doctor said to hold off a couple more weeks before trying those again. A challenging eater for sure...
I will try to post again before Christmas....so many more things going on...but just in case I don't get back here...Merry Christmas everyone!!
3 comments:
I sent you an invite! Drop by anytime! :)
As for the eating, don't beat yourself up. I know it's hard not too as a Momma. We want to do everything just perfect. I say that all babies are different. I think the whole percentile thing is a bunch of baloney. Each baby is different and grows different. You can't lump them into groups. My mom said that the doctors gave her a hard time all the time because all of us were small. Quintin is small, 20 pounds. I'm not sure of his height, but he's pretty short. His cousin who is 2 months younger is 24 pounds and in 18 month clothes. The doctors were giving my sister in law a hard time because he was eating too much! I think as long as the baby is healthy, then just let them be! Lol. Anyway. I'm not to wild about doctors... ;)
I'm glad to hear from you! :D
Yay for crawling.... Cords, cell phones, remotes, etc....yes! Magnets! It only gets worse! lol
You're not a bad mom...it sounds like you're doing everything right! That's about the time Ethan started dropping %'s...though he started out in the 70's and dropped to the 10's. As long as they don't drop more than 2%'s it's not a BIG thing (2 %'s in one visit's time is FTT). Small going to small is better than big going to small, if you get what I'm saying.
Another thing you can use to up cals is avacado...you don't have to DO anythign to it but scoop it and mash it (if you want) and spoon it in. If you want an easy additive you can use Polycose (amazon) but it's EMPTY cals....not nutritionally complete at all. We always added (and still do) butter or butter and brown sugar to everything, too. We used to shove food into Ethan as he screamed and choked it down....and no, in the end, you can't really make a kid eat! Hopefully it will get better fast and it's just a phase! If he's really ADAMANT about not eating a LOT of things, you can try the prevacid just to SEE if it's silent (does he spit a lot? You've never mentioned it I dont' think) reflux. Also, Ethan had a ton of issues with yeast that would go all through his intestines, and once we backed milk products, he was better there. If you have questions or want to vent, you know where to find me!!
Don't worry about those growth charts, they were put out by formula companies anyway. As long as he's meeting his milestones, he's probably just fine. My 11 month old weighs 18.5 pounds. I imagine his teeth probably are affecting his eating, Q doesn't care much for solids when he's teething hard. Have you tried avocado? They're high in good fats, and you can mash them pretty smooth if there are any texture issues.
Don't beat yourself up though, keep up the nursing too, because he's going to get way more calories that way than in any solids. You're doing good, Mama!
Get your running shoes on, the fun is just to begin. I tell you, they get into SO much once they start crawling. But it's a blast to watch them. :)
You guys have a Merry Christmas!
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