9 Months

It's very hard to believe, but Samuel is already 9 1/2 months old. He is growing so fast and changing so much. I do not have much time to post lately since he is a VERY busy baby and is into everything. It seems that every dangerous thing in the house calls to him and he must get to the item as quickly as possibly so he can beat mommy or daddy there.

At his 9 month appointment on May 27, he weighed in at 21.7 lbs (75%) and was 29 inches long (75%). His head circumference was in the 25%. According to the pediatrician he is doing great developmentally.

A few things that he is doing or that happened recently:

- He got his first haircut on May 23. We went to an old fashioned barber shop in town and his stylist said he was the best baby she'd ever cut. He did so well. Check out these picture from his haircut:





- He's been "crawling" for over a month now. He mostly scoots around on his tummy but is really quick and gets anywhere that he wants. He will occasionally crawl on his hands and knees but after a few motions he goes to his tummy. Here is a very short video of the crawling (please ignore my voice - I sound like an idiot). Seems like every time I try to get it on video, he stops crawling.




- He is taking four 6 oz bottles per day although he rarely finishes all of his bottles in a day (he'll typically leave 1 - 2 oz of his morning and afternoon bottles). His total formula intake is 20 - 24 oz. per day.

- He is eating three solid meals a day although we are sticking purely with purees and yogurt as he seems to have real issues with any textures. He typically gets cereal and a fruit for breakfast, yogurt and a veggie for lunch and a meat and a veggie at dinner. He will choke and puke on anything besides baby food. Pediatrician said to try to introduce new food textures every week or so to see how he does and that some kids just take a little longer to get used to textures and gumming their food. We've tried puffs and he can do them ok but he occasionally forgets to gum them thoroughly and ends up choking and puking them up so we really limit them to just once or twice a week and only a few at a time.

- He has seven teeth already (three on bottom and four on top). So cute!!!!

- He just starting pulling himself up to stand. He will try it on anything (including toys are are not very stable) so I fear he is going to injure himself if we do not watch him like a hawk. He can also sit down from standing.

- He generally sleeps through the night (from 7:30ish to 7:00ish). He generally takes a 1 1/2 to 2 hour nap in the morning and a much shorter nap (45 minutes) in the afternoon although there are many days where he boycotts his morning nap.

- He comfortably wears size 12 mo. clothes.

- He cannot yet sit up from laying down although he is getting close to doing this.

- He LOVES his big brother. He lights up whenever Davis walks in the room and Davis can make him smile and laugh even when he is being grumpy. He wants to be in whatever room Davis is in so he is often found crawling towards the playroom to play with his big brother.

- He says "ma ma" and "da da".

- Being his mother is such a dream come true and an answer to so many prayers. God really knew what he was doing in matching us with this little angel.

Here are some of the pictures from his formal 9 month portraits:

Poor Davis

If you follow me on FaceBook, you have undoubtedly seen all of my posts about Davis' teeth issues but I thought I'd document them here as well. We had a few friends over on Memorial Day so we heated up the pool for the first swim of the year. Everyone was having such a good time that we let Davis stay up much later than normal. Davis was walking along the bench in the pool but because it was dark (we had the pool light on but it does not put out a ton of light), Davis did not see when the bench ended and he hit his mouth on the side of the pool. Chris and I heard Davis crying (actually screaming) and saw our friend pulling him out of the pool. I rushed to him and there was blood everywhere. We thought he had just busted his lip so we headed inside to get some ice. Once we were inside, I saw the damage. His top front two teeth were extremely lose as was the tooth next to it. The canine tooth on the top looked chipped. Poor kid didn't want any tylenol or anything for pain (but was able to eat a cookie to make himself feel better).

The next morning, we went to school and I left a message for our dentist. Our regular denstist office was closed for continuing education so the pediatric dentist that was covering called and told us to come in to make sure there was no danger. I picked Davis up from school early and we headed to the dentist. She thought we'd have to pull at least two teeth and maybe up to four but wanted us to follow up with our regular dentist in a few days once the swelling went down. We did that on Friday and the final verdict is that they think he might have broken his jaw but it is settling back in place. It was pretty clear that his front two teeth would need to come out. We were hoping to save the other two. The X-ray showed that the tooth next to the front teeth was split (the tooth split from the roots) so it would have to come out too. The canine tooth is actually not chipped but was pushed up into his bone. We are just hoping that it did not get too close to the tooth bed of the permanent tooth. If it did get too close, it might stop development of the permanent tooth. We are going to leave the canine in and monitor it. They hope that over time that it will start to drop back down.

We tried to go ahead with the extraction on Friday while we were in the office. Davis was doing great until the dentist gave him the first novocaine shot. After that, he started screaming and crying so we put an end to the work. We didn't want his first real dental experience to be traumatic so we rescheduled for June 10 when we'll do the extractions under conscious sedation. I am nervous about him taking the drug but they tell me that it is really mild and kids typically come out of it pretty quickly. He will still be awake but the drug makes them loopy and also has the effect of making them not remember what is happening.

Poor kid will be without his front two teeth for 6 - 8 months (the permanent teeth are there but not too close) and without the tooth next to that for about 2 years (kids usually don't lose that baby tooth until they are 8 - 9). Since the canine is pushed up into the bone and you can only see a small part of it now, he will look like he is missing all 4 teeth. He thinks it will be cool (and is excited that the tooth fairy brings extra money when kids have to get teeth pulled at the dentist) but we are just hoping that he does not get teased when he starts kindergarten next year.

I took some pictures of his beat up mouth and will post them along with pictures of the missing teeth after the procedure next week. Please pray that the procedure goes smoothly and that he does not have any sort of reaction to the drugs.