11 months...

Oh, my word.  One month to go before my baby boy turns a year old.  I can't hardly take it...

We had to lower Deacon's crib mattress at the beginning of this month -- he started to like standing up in his crib and that was just not okay with me.  He was too much in danger of leaning too far over so we dropped the mattress down a couple levels.

We continued to try new foods like broccoli & carrots with cheese, lasagna and apples w/oatmeal (all baby food) and Deacon is not too big a fan.  About a week before he turned 11 mos, we started trying to give him some table food from our dinner -- baked spaghetti, french toast w/bacon, real sweet potatoes, baked beans and peaches...he does pretty well with it all.  My fear of him choking is fading.  :\  We've also begun to introduce whole milk as my supply of breastmilk continues to wane.  As it stands right now, this is what his feeding schedule looks like:

an 8 oz bottle first thing in the morning (whole milk, breastmilk, formula or combo of the 3)

some rice cereal and yogurt for a mid-morning snack or "breakfast"

an 8 oz bottle for lunch

some goldfish, cheerios or puffs and water for snack

dinner with "the fam" (table food from whatever we're eating)

an 8 oz bottle before bed

Since we're talking about his feeding schedule, I'll just mention here that I stopped nursing Deacon at the end of this month.  I had planned to try to nurse through his 1st year and I think we probably would've made it (I had gotten down to just nursing him first thing in the morning by this month) but I went away for a weekend retreat the end of Sept/first of Oct and rather than take the pump with me just for that one feeding, I thought it was time to just be done altogether.  He did great, of course.  He's so easy-going.  :)  I had a little trouble for about 6-7 days with pain & discomfort but within about 10 days I was done with all of that.

[if I'm working on loading or unloading the dishwasher,

he's right there, with his "Dr. Seuss hair"...]

Of course, he's crawling everywhere now.  I mentioned in my last post that he'd finally begun to pull up on everything and was crawling intermittently.  Well, he's really been doing great, getting more fluid and taking less time to get where he's going.  He will crawl right up to me or Jeff where we're standing, grab a hold of our pant legs and stand right up.  It's so endearing -- I just love it!

11 weeks old...

Hey, here's an interesting fact -- Deacon is 11 weeks old today, on 1/11/11.  That's pretty cool, right?  Anyways, it's so hard to believe that this much time has passed...he's growing so much and really entertaining us.  :)

He smiles on demand now -- he will almost always smile at me or Jeff when we play with him or talk to him.  He really likes it when folks talk to him and will seemingly try to talk back.  His gurgling and cooing is SO.cute.

[7 weeks]

[8 weeks]

[9 weeks]

We get to see a lot of that laughing and "talking" in the morning -- he seems the happiest then.  Typically, I try to get him up by 7am to eat, if he's not already awake.  Then he spends some time with Daddy in our bed while I get a shower, have my coffee, start laundry, etc.  He generally eats every 3 hours after that with good awake time and naps in between. 

[happy guy in his crib, 9 weeks]

He LOVES the swing that we borrowed from our good friends, the Olds'.  That is our "go-to" -- if he's fussy, we can usually put him in that and he's good to go.  :)  He falls asleep in it most of the time and will sleep really good.

We also have a bouncy seat that he'll sit in for a little while -- after some time passes, he gets tired of that.  I do try to put him on his tummy for a little bit but he usually gets tired of that real quick.  If he's gonna be on his tummy, it has to be right after he's eaten.  If we wait too long, he's starting to fade into sleepiness and then he has NO patience for being on his tummy.

[9.5 weeks]

His 2 month check up at the pediatrician's office was Dec 30.  He weighed in at 11 lbs, 13 oz!  That's in the 63rd percentile for weight so he's pretty average.  His length measured at 22 1/4 inches which puts him in the 54th percentile.  Again, average.  I'm just fine with that.  :)

He had to have a couple of vaccines at this appt. *frowny face*  He got one stick and one oral vaccine and did fine with both.  He only cried for a couple of seconds after the stick in his leg and then was just fine.  Mommy had a harder time with it than Deacon did.  :)  Yeah, he didn't have any kind of side effects or anything for the rest of the day, either.  He's my tough little guy.

[my little guy's bandaid, 9 weeks]

I went back to work last week. *extreme frowny face*  My heart's desire since I was a little girl has been to stay home with my kids, just like my mom did for us.  I desperately wanted that to work out but it just isn't our reality right now.  However, God did the next best thing for me -- He worked it out so that 1) I'm able to work from home Thursdays & Fridays and 2) a good friend, who is a wonderful mommy to her 2 young boys, is able to keep Deacon for us in her home Mon-Wed while I'm in the office.

The transition back to work went SO much better than I could've ever hoped for!  I actually have not cried once since going back to work (though, I've gotten slightly emotional just once) and Deacon has done fantastically at Krystal's house.  I was so busy while at the office last week that I didn't have time to be sad (though I thought about Deacon a lot :) and then being home with him Thursday & Friday was great.  AND I was able to get everything done for work.  Best of both worlds!

We really couldn't ask for more from Krystal -- she used to teach before she made the decision to stay home with her boys so she's wonderful with kids, no matter their age.  And she says she's already grown to love Deacon just like one of her own.  :)  She gives us a "report card" each day when I pick up Deacon so we can see what he's been up to throughout the day.  What a sweet momento if I have to be away from him!

It's really just the perfect scenario -- I know that my God worked all that out.  It helps this Mommy's heart.

[10 weeks]

[10.5 weeks]

[11 weeks]