Weight:  18 pounds. We learned at his check up last week that he is in the 9%, which is significantly down from where he was at his 6 month check up. There were a lot of concerns about how he is not gaining weight like he should. So cue the mommy guilt…But looking at George and Daph’s updates for this month they were both 19 pounds. Seeing that one pound difference makes it not feel as earth shattering as it did last week.

Health: He is cutting the top four teeth. The front two just popped down this week, and the incisors are coming. He did not seem to be having any health issues, but obviously his weight is now a concern.

Diet: Here is where the stress lies. I had been increasing his feedings to almost every 2 hours since he was only spending at most 10 minutes feeding (2-5 mins a side). He was also waking up in the night to feed. Shortly after he turned 9 months, we did add a formula bottle to help with the night feedings, but he was still waking up 2 hours after that bottle. So when I explained this to our pediatrician, she was concerned that this was all signs that he was not getting the calories that he needed during the day. My mom brain heard that I was starving my kid through nursing. She said that she wanted to have us bottle feed him so that we could visually see what we are giving him and see if the sleeping patterns changed. I refuse to exclusively pump though. The pump and I do not do well, and my mental state dramatically declines the more I have to depend on it to make this work. So we are going to move ahead and still nurse every 4ish hours, but follow it shortly after with a 4-6 oz formula bottle. After a week, it seems to be helping as we have only had a couple nights where he has woken up. As for nursing, Walt feeds about 5 times a day, and on average it adds up to 1 hour of nursing. My app says that we have had 147 feedings over this last month, and spent around 24 hours nursing him. I have also pumped 32 times over the month. I do know that I have nothing to feel guilty about with all of this We are feeding him 3 “meals” a day, and he is really getting the hang of real food. We added a squash, salmon patties, blueberries, watermelon, turkey, hamburger, shredded cheese, meatballs, and meatloaf this month. His favorites are peas, meatballs, and blueberries.

Clothes: He is in size 6 month in clothes and size 4 in diapers.

Sleeping:  Bedtime is around 8:30. I wake him up around 5:30 and do a quick nursing session before putting him back down. He usually wakes up officially for the day around 8am. He does take a couple naps during the day.

Likes:  He loves the “That’s Not My” book series. He has these little egg musical shakers that he loves. Honestly, he loves to put anything in his mouth so everything becomes a toy to him.

Dislikes:  I can’t really think of much that he dislikes right now besides when I leave the room.

Nicknames: Walt, Wally, Wally Bear, Wally Olly, Waller, Wallace, Butters, Sweet Bean, Stinkerdoodle, Waltie baby, Cutie baby, Sweetie baby, Baby guy, and Baby Walter.

Milestones: He has taken a few scooches with crawling. He likes to plank for a long time, and just this past week has started figuring out how to move his arms to crawl. He has also figured out how to walk forward sitting in his walker. He also holds his own bottles now to feed. He has said Dada and Mama, but I am the only one in the house that has not heard him say mama. Tom won on this one that Dada was his first word, but I got George and Daphne’s first words.

Quirks: he does this fist pumping/waving motion with his arms stretched out wide when he is excited about something. He has a dimple on his left cheek only.

We parents are:  We seem to be in survival mode this month. With the start of school and more activities, we seem to be always on the go. Tom has been really sick this past month, and he changed his diet up completely to help with some severe heartburn issues. Come to find out some acid reflux he was experiencing due to the heartburn actually caused pneumonia. Only Tom… Work for me has been flat out nuts, but in all the best ways. The start of a school year is always busy with new student meetings, programs, and settling into a new schedule. I am teaching a first year orientation class, which isn’t new to me, but it does add some things to my plate that I don’t have during the spring and summer. Right after school began, I was tapped to supervise a new department that our institution received a grant for. This is all really exciting, but it is a lot of work to try to squeeze into an already busy schedule. I just keep reminding myself that this is just a season and trying to make sure that I have some balance some days. I still don’t have email on my phone so I call that a win!

Big kids are:  doing alright! We are month into school, and they seem to be really loving it. We also really ramped up the after-school activities. They are both in soccer, and they are getting better at it every week. George started Scouts, and he is so excited about all that he is going to learn. They have their first camp out this weekend, and you would think that they were going to space. I think it will be a really good fit for him. Daphne is starting to make some friends at school, and it has been fun to hear her talk about her day. I do think we are starting to see some regression from her with all the transitions of school and of being a big sister. She has had trouble communicating her emotions at home recently, so we are trying to make intentional sister time to see if that helps fill her bucket up more. They both still love Wally and dote on him whenever they can. They both have their own way of trying to teach Wally to crawl which is hilarious to watch.

In case you are curious, here is George at nine months and Daphne at nine months.

Wally, you are such a delight!