Jackson at 9 months

Photo Shoot
Was supposed to happen Friday (when he was 2 days past 9 months), but we cancelled and will make a separate blog post next week when we reschedule.

Stats

• Weighs 18 lb, 15 oz (25% - which has been consistent since his 4 month appointment)
• Measures 29 1/2 in tall (90% - which has been consistent since birth). Most all of that length is in his torso, so even 12-month onesies fit tight, but pants/shorts are still very long on him.
• His length is the EXACT same as his daddy at 9 months, and his weight is actually 7 ounces greater than his daddy at 9 months. That's amazing since Jackson's weight-to-height is 10%, so that means Jarret's was even lower. We're talking about some seriously long and lean boys!
• Wears a size 2-3 diaper

Sleeping

• Still sleeps through the night great. Goes to bed between 7:30 - 8:30, depending on how long his naps were.
• Takes a morning nap about 2 hours after he wakes up, and takes an afternoon nap about 3-4 hours after he wakes up from his first nap.
• Still sucks the middle two fingers of his right hand when putting himself to sleep (he can also suck these fingers when he's hungry)
• Has become very flexible and adapts well to being pushed past his typical nap times. He won't fall asleep out and about, even if he's exhausted, but as soon as you get in the car or crib he's lights out. See the two pics below! We'd been out late for dinner and shopping with J's folks. Jackson didn't fuss a BIT, but fell asleep on the way home. Even after getting him out of the car, he stayed asleep which is almost unheard of with him. We rarely get a snuggly baby like this!
  
  

Happy Boy!








The Love of a Sister
Jackson your sister is sooo good to you. Yes, she struggles with occasionally taking a toy away from you, but even then it's often because she thinks that toy isn't appropriate for a baby. She gives you giant smiles, hugs and loves on you, talks to you in baby talk if she thinks it'll make you smile, and does most anything to get a laugh out of you. She helps, too - she'll get diapers & wipes, throw away diapers, get burp cloths, go grab a toy for you, etc.

You two still absolutely love to jump on the bed together or dance around a room together (you being in Mommy's arms of course). And one of the things you guys have always loved to do is lay beside each other and "talk". Here's pictures of how this particular sequence went - Lots of mutual "talking" and then a little too much enthusiastic lovin' from Julia:





I tried to get a video of you guys "talking", which really just means the two of you take turns screaming back and forth at each other. This video doesn't measure up to the volume or duration of these talking sessions, but it gives a glimpse. WATCH HERE. (There is sound, so you have to make sure both the computer and Vimeo volume is turned up.)

Milestones, Fun Times, & Learning

• When lying on his back, he likes to hold toys between his feet which leaves his hands free to actually plat with the toy. I've seen him do this with probably a dozen different toys.
  CLICK HERE to watch a video of him doing this.
  
  
  


• Jackson has moved up to a big car seat! This is actually overdue and probably should have been done a while ago because his shoulder straps in the infant carrier have been too far below his shoulders.
• He figured out how to suck from a sippy cup. Yay!! I'd been giving him a cup for over a month, sometimes with the valve in and other times with it out so he'd understand the concept of what should be happening. Finally after a little more than a month of trying, I heard a real sucking noise and watched as his face showed surprise when he got water in his mouth.
• Wearing daddy's hat:
  


• Swing time!


• Fully engrossed in TV time with his best buddy:


• We had lunch downtown with daddy this month. Julia snapped a pretty darn good picture of the 3 of us, other than it being a little crooked. She even reminded us to say cheese and smile.
  

Therapy Updates

Occupational Therapy - Tummy Time & Crawling

• An OT visits our house to work with Jackson every 2 weeks.
• His 4th appointment was the day before he turned 9 months old.
• He is still not crawling or cruising.
• He HAS become more willing to voluntarily turn over onto his belly to look for something/someone or to try to reach something/someone.
• Typically he still only stays on his tummy for the minimum amount of time needed to accomplish his goal, and then he immediately rolls to his back.
• He is *trying* to pull up and *trying* to scooch. The therapist and his pediatrician both agreed that the issue keeping him from succeeding at these two goals is lack of strength in his shoulders and upper body. His legs and abs are strong plenty strong enough. The remedy, they say, is to practice, practice, practice which is super fun for Jackson and I both, lemme tell ya!
• If sitting up, he can pull up to a standing position by simply holding your hands and using all of his leg strength to finish the job. But if trying to pull up to a piece of furniture or a taller toy, he must a combination of pushing up on his legs and pulling up with his arms. His legs are very much trying, and his hands are sometimes reaching but they don't truly grasp and pull like they should.
• As for scooching across the floor, the therapist noticed at his most recent appointment that his legs are moving back and forth while on his belly. Since his arms aren't doing any part of the work of reaching or moving, his leg work isn't getting sufficient traction to help move him anywhere. So she suggested that we put our hands behind his feet to act as a wall for him to push off of, and sure enough, he was able to scooch forward just a few inches in order to get to the toy we'd put in front of him.
• The issue of his upper body strength also affects his ability to cruise. Because he's not used to using his hands and arms to support himself, he ends up using his tummy/chest area to lean against objects while standing and then uses both free hands to play with the toys.

Eating/Food/Nutritionist Appointments - His eating has improved SO much!

• He'll eat baby pureed food happily and easily from a spoon when I give it to him, which was the issue that raised the red flag since 5.5 months. No more gimmicks or tricks to get the spoon in his mouth. No more just eating 5-6 bites -- now he'll eat a whole serving.
• Otherwise he's eating all sorts of solid food quite happily: diced fruits, bananas, bread, scrambled eggs. He especially loves yogurt melts, Nutrigrain bars, Cheerios, graham crackers, and sharing a bowl of Quaker oatmeal with mama. He'll eat peas, green beans cut in half, and diced carrots, but he doesn't act nearly as enthusiastic about these as he does the other foods.
• Once we use up the few containers of baby pureed food I have left in the pantry, he'll be on table food only.
• He does really well at holding a fork and feeding himself a diced fruit or veggie that I'd put on the fork.
• At times, he's finally beginning to eat more of the quantity of food I'd expect a boy his age to eat. I'm just thrilled he's now very receptive to the idea of eating. We think it was all a matter of figuring out his personal preferences, which was simply that he'd rather feed himself than have you do it for him.
• Had to include one picture of our messy cute baby! He actually loved the pureed carrots.
  

Other Stuff
Jarret and I both think that in this particular picture Jackson shows strong resemblance to his daddy. In the past couple months, we've gotten more and more comments from strangers about how Jackson is a mini-me of Jarret. At Chuy's several weeks ago, we got out of the car while a lady next to us was as well. She saw Jackson first and ooh-ed over him. Then she looked up at Jarret, and with a shocked face exclaimed something to the effect, "Yep, you are definitely his daddy!"

The kid is a scratcher. Has been since birth. We do our best to keep his nails cut short and filed very well, but he has always managed to find a way to maul himself. Scratches all over his nose and face as a newborn, and now these last couple months it's been inside his ears. The doctor said there was no sign of ear trouble, but simply that "some kids do that". It's awful to find him, his clothes, and his crib sheet with blood everywhere!



Letter to our Littlest Love
Jackson you have become such an incredibly happy, easy going baby who is such a joy. We truly would love to freeze time with the stage you're in. We almost never hear you cry anymore. We are learning that you really can go with the flow so much more easily than your sister could at this age, which is a great gift. We can wake you up from a nap and, no exaggeration, within 10 seconds you give us beaming smiles. You are a sweet delight to all of us. We are very blessed with you and love you tremendously!

Jackson at 8 months

Photo Shoot
These pictures were taken a week before he turned 7 months old, so they never made it into a blog post yet.

Cute pic of Jackson, clearly not of Julia:


To me, these two pictures are his pose for, "Hey baby, How YOU doin'?":



And in these two, all I see is bright, big, beautiful blue eyes:



And here are the actual two we purchased:



Stats

• Weighs 18lb, 9 oz
• Measures 29in tall
• Wears a size 2-3 diaper
• Barely fits in most outfits that are sized 9 months
• Has 4 teeth. The top two teeth broke through during Month 7, and man, were those a doozy. Poor kid!

Sleeping

• SLEEPS THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!! He typically goes to bed anytime between 8-8:30, and wakes up anytime between 7-8am...occasionally even a little later!
• Is finally down to 2 naps. This gives our day a lot more predictability and flexibility now that he's able to stay awake longer between Nap #1 and Nap #2, and again between Nap #2 and bedtime. He's also doing much better with not crying so much when getting put down to sleep (he used to cry anywhere from 10-30 minutes many of the times he was put to sleep, regardless of how desperately tired we knew he was). There's something about his cry that sends me over the edge, so I'm extremely happy that he now puts himself to sleep with only about 1 minute of crying max. Usually it only lasts about 15 seconds. THANK YOU JACKSON!
• Can fall sleep in the car, but only when he's really overtired. Poor guy fell asleep still holding his frog toy this time:
  

Milestones, Fun Times, & Learning

• Sits up completely by himself, though he's prone to the occasional fall over.
  Here's a video of when he was just learning to sit up by himself for longer periods of time:
  
  
  
• Thoroughly enjoys taking a toy in each hand and banging them together.


• Continues to adore his sister. Sure he's very happy in the morning when he first sees his mommy or daddy, but you should hear this kid's excitement and the ridiculous smile on his face when he first sees his sister for the first time every morning. Fortunately, the feeling is pretty mutual and Julia takes pride and joy in making her brother smile and laugh.
  
  


• Has learned to clap AND even claps on cue when we ask him, "Jackson, can you clap your hands?"


• Is completely enthralled when I point to an object or facial feature and try to teach him the name of it.


• Has a love affair with all things wheels. He's mesmerized by them and seems to be genuinely studying how they go round and round and round as he plays with them.
  
  
• Fortunately and unfortunately he loves TV. Is absolutely mesmerized by it, and if he's ever having a really fussy time he immediately calms down once he's watching TV.
  Here they both are watching TV:
  
  Then Julia realized I was taking pictures so she decided to show just what a great Big Sister she is by sitting up to hold hands with him:
  
  Jackson is such a guy though - if I ever step in front of his path while he's watching TV, he moves back and forth so he can see around me so as to not miss a single second of the show. Here's a short clip showing what I mean:
  
  
  


• Is a screamer, particularly when excited. However, he also shows excitement by playing "pat the mama": When I'm carrying him around on my hip and he gets really excited, he takes both his hands and pats me over and over again. It's one of my absolute favorite things he does.
  


• Has possibly said his first word(s)? A few weeks ago, Jarret and I noticed him saying "D" sounds when his daddy was around. Then while in Graham visiting Katie B on his 8-month birthday, Jackson would cry anytime I left the room. On more than one occasion when this occurred, Katie said he cried a "Mm ma" sound. At home, there's been several times when I take him to his room to begin his nap/bedtime routine and he says "Na na" (I tell him "night night" time), which I never hear him make this sound in any other situations.


• Has gone out on the boat a few times now. He was extremely unimpressed on his first visit, but it's gotten a little better each time since. His main obstacle is the constraints of the life jacket, which we have actually taken off him occasionally even though it's illegal. Here he's hanging out and resting (not actually sleeping) with daddy:
  
  


• Loves hanging out with his daddy, who always finds a way to make him laugh particularly when getting dressed in his PJs on his changing table:
  
  I love that he still grabs his feet:
  
  This photo was taken just because we never take pictures of him taking a bottle, since that process occurs 95% of the time in his room so it can be dark and quiet since he gets so easily distracted:
  
  

Therapy Updates

• Is finished with his helmet (band). It seemed to make some improvement in head shape, though nothing that's "wow" worthy. Here's some up close shots of him wearing it:
  
  
  
• Has completed 2 Occupational Therapy appointments for working on his tummy-time skills. He's getting a little better about being on his belly, particularly if he's propped up on a pillow/boppy and playing with a toy. But he's nowhere near supporting himself in a position that would enable him to crawl.
  
  Here he was just after turning 7 months old:
  


• Has seen a nutritionist because from the time when we started solids (around 5.5 months) until he was about 7 months, he showed almost no interest in being spoon fed any sort of baby food. After several weeks of trying baby food, he had "improved" enough such that he'd open his mouth for 5-8 bites and then he would push his lips together and not take anymore. When he was 6.5 months, we began braving "real" food: we started with Puffs, yogurt melts, biter biscuits and he did great with all of them - in fact, he LOVED feeding himself. (See picture below) So then I began things like diced apples, carrots, etc. on a fork. I'd hand him the fork, and again he LOVED feeding himself. So even though he was doing better with table food, we kept our nutritionist appointment to see what she had to say. Basically, we got the green light to ditch baby food and continue exposing him to adult/table food.

Smiles and Laughs
You pretty much give us beaming smiles all the time -- except for when the camera comes out, and then you're often distracted by it...just like Julia was which explains why we don't have great pics of either of you smiling much as babies! One of the best pictures we have of your smiles is with Aunt Katie:


Your laugh is precious and it melts our hearts. I wish we could bottle it, but this is the best we can do:

We adore you sweet baby boy!!

Jackson at 6 months

Happy half-year birthday sweet baby boy! You are such a happy baby nearly all of the time and you give us lots and lots of smiles that melt our hearts. All three of us simply adore you!



At 6 months old, Jackson:

• Continues to be very long and lean. He measures 28 inches in length (90-95%) and weighs 15 lb, 10 oz (10-25%)




• Wears a Size 2 diaper, 6-9 month pajamas due to his length, but can get away with many 3-6 month clothes




• Still wakes up once in the middle of the night.




• Takes 3 naps. Luckily, at least one if not two of those naps are finally longer than 45 minutes.
  



• Has two teeth (or "teesh" as Julia calls them) that have started to come up.
  





• Loves his mommy and daddy, but absolutely adores his sister and lights up any time Julia is around. I'm pretty sure she feels the same way about him. They have a great time laughing and "talking" together. Here's the 3 buddies altogether right before taking a family walk (Jackson had to wear his sister's sunglasses since we don't have any for him):
  
  
  



• Gets the biggest smiles when he gets wrapped up in his hooded towel after a bath!
  
  



• Attended his DSI (digital surface imaging) appointment on March 30th. They placed this stocking over his head to help smooth out hairs and give them a clean image of his head. The stocking didn't bother him one single bit. He never acted as though it was even on. Then they put him in the middle of this thing below which shoots photos of his head at the same second from multiple angles to give them a 3D image of his head shape. It was fascinating.
  
  



• Got his band (helmet) on April 13th. He fusses in the moment when the band is put on his head, but he never complains after that. Unfortunately, we're learning his skin in sensitive - we've had the band for two weeks and he has yet to meet the 23 hours/day guidelines because he has experienced different skin issues from the helmet. Regardless, the Cranial Technologies staff is amazed at how nicely his head shape is improving despite the limited amount of time he's spent in the band.
  
  
  



• Laughs the hardest when his sister jumps around and he "jumps" with her. See video.
  



• Tries to make "B" sounds and blow bubbles. See video.
  



• Continues to HATE tummy time, thus he has yet to roll from his belly to his back. He got very close one day, but his arm was in the way (since he has yet to figure out how to prop himself up while on his tummy).




• Has rolled over seven times from his back to his belly. Nobody witnessed the first four times (it either happened while I had walked out of the room or while he was sleeping in his crib). I finally witnessed it the 5th time while he was playing on the living room floor and rolled to see his sister and some toys. Jarret finally witnessed it the 6th time when he rolled over while on our bed.




• Started on rice cereal in April. As you can see below, he was not impressed.
  
  
  



• Got off to a rocky start with trying foods because he had a stomach bug, followed a week later by lots of congestion. Once he kicked those and yet still wasn't very receptive to rice cereal, we moved on to oatmeal which he did better with. By the last week of April, he had started pears and seemed to moderately enjoy them. It's still such a shock to me though because he barely opens his mouth (if at all), whereas Julia was like a baby bird with mouth open as wide as it would go.




• Will take a pacifier at times, but mostly he just likes to suck the 2 middle fingers of his right hand.




• Sits up very well with just a tiny bit of support, and I'm hoping he can sit up by himself soon.

We all are having a wonderful time watching you explore, learn, and grow and we can't wait to see what you do next!