Friday, August 5, 2011

9 Months Old



(Look who just discovered that that thing on his shirt is a sticker! I think the coming months' photos may be a bit more difficult to capture!)

Good lord I am late on this! I have actually had it written, but just not posted. The reason? Aaron hasn't slept in a couple of weeks! I never get those precious few minutes between when he goes to bed, and when I go to bed to get a few things done. Oh well. Better late than never!

He’s 9 months old, and ready for another update! Here’s his weights and measures:

  • Weight: 19 pounds, 5 ounces (25th percentile)

  • Height: 30 inches (95th percentile)

  • Head: 18 1/8 inches (75th percentile) – This is smaller than what I measured last month. It is hard to get a baby to sit still to get accurate measurements! We just take our best guess I suppose!


Aaron had a doctor’s visit today. Immediately, I was concerned about his weight. He has been tracking at the 50th percentile since he was born, and now all of a sudden he is at the 25th percentile?! It has been so difficult with getting him to eat solid foods. Is he not gaining weight the way he is supposed to be as a result? The doctor said that this is typical. As babies learn to move on their own, and work so hard at it, they burn more calories, and their weight gain can slow down. Whew!

Everything looked great with where he is developmentally. He can sit pretty well on his own (with a bit of help at times). He mostly prefers to play while on his tummy. He couldn’t really care less about sitting, but he will do it. He is doing great with doing an army crawl to get to where he wants to be. I think this is really a very instinctual part of being a baby with how much he has developed in this regard. He gets to where he wants to go doing the army crawl, so why learn to do it with your tummy off the ground? Who cares? The need has been satisfied! The doctor agreed and said that he has seen some babies never do it with their tummies off the ground! They go straight to walking from here. We will see what Aaron chooses to do. I am not too worried about it.

Top on my list with the doctor today was to talk about Aaron and solid food. This has continued to be a problem. We’ve tried it all: homemade baby food, store bought baby food, bits of fresh banana and avocado, mum crackers, baby puffs, different eating utensils, changing up feeding him in the high chair vs. his bumbo chair vs. just sitting in one of our laps, feeding him with me in the room, with me out of the room (I smell like breast milk to him), and everything else in between and none of it has worked. The doctor was quick to say that he is still growing as he should be, so he is obviously getting what he needs. Aaron is breastfeeding well, and it is a comfort thing as well as a food source. He is pretty attached to it. I did some research, and my insurance will pay for six visits a year with a nutritionist. I did more research and found the best pediatric dietitian in Colorado Springs, and got the doctor today to write us a referral. I can’t wait to see her and see what ideas she has for us. The doctor was eager to say that we need to watch our expectations, because this may not work either, but I think we have to try. I wonder, is this typical of breastfed babies over formula fed ones? There are so few women out there that I know of that have breastfed exclusively as long as I have. If you did it over the long haul, and had this experience, can you send me a note to let me know? Lord, it is so stressful!

I am really kicking around changing pediatricians. I have such mixed feelings about it. I love our doctor. We went with him because he is currently treating patients with MCADD, the illness that Noah had. We wanted an expert in diagnosing and treating it in case Aaron had it. We now know that he is free and clear of the illness thank God. We’ve known for months now.

Reasons to go:

  • The doctor’s office is as far away from home/work as you can get. It is a hike to get there for sure.

  • Our doctor is in his mid-sixties. He will likely retire in the not-too-distant future.

  • The last few visits, they have been out of stock of at least one of the shots that he needs. Their answer to this is “That’s ok! You can just come back in a couple of days and we’ll get you right in.” Right… I have to take off work, go yank Aaron out of daycare, and drive across town to the office. There’s half a day gone, when I already had to take half a day to make the original appointment!

  • I had a terrible experience with a PA. She basically freaked me out and had be bring Aaron in for something innocuous that could have been resolved over the phone if she’d taken 5 minutes to ask me some additional questions.


Reasons to stay:
  • I do like the doctor. He has a ton of experience.

  • If Chris and I are lucky enough to get to have another baby (a big “if” considering we have to do IVF to have a healthy baby. $$$$$$$$$) we will need an MCADD expert again to make sure that all is well. He is the best in town. I am uncomfortable being “that guy” who uses this doctor and then bails once we know everything is ok.

  • It’s a pain in the rear to switch everything over. The easy thing to do is to just stay.


Chris and I interviewed a doctor at an office that is closer to home. It is a huge practice with a lot of nice benefits. In a perfect world, I’d find a doc that can roll with my hippie self, and be encouraging when I feel like taking my kiddo to the acupuncturist to handle certain issues, or trying herbal remedies and such. The problem is that being a grieving mom, there is also a huge part of me that needs someone more cerebral and aggressive when it comes to modern western medicine. I don’t know that I would find someone that I would feel totally jazzed about since those are two conflicting things on my wish list. The guy we talked to is a brainy type. He had heard of MCADD, though never treated any patients with it (it is extremely rare after all). He spouted off enough info to us that said that yes, he really does get what it is. Who knows. Since we have this referral to the dietitian going on, we plan to sit tight at the moment until that all goes through. Then it will be time to figure out what to do.

Here's a couple of videos of our boy for this month. The first one shows his new trick: waving good-bye! He feels a bit self-conscious doing it, so he doesn;t do it that vigrously all the time. He gives us these looks like "is this right? You want me to do this with my hand, yes?" He is too funny, and very cute!


Another thing he's doing is getting VERY squirmy when it is time to change a diaper or clothes. You can tell he thinks it's fun to be wrestled into and out of his clothes. (FYI, please know that right after he started moving around like this, we moved the crib mattress down to a more reasonable level!) Take a look:

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