Levi's Nine-Month Check-Up

Age of Baby: 9 months

Size of Baby:

• Weight: 21 lbs 10 oz (up to the 81st percentile), + 1 lb 13 oz from last month
• Length: 29.25 inches (up to the 83rd percentile), + 1.25 inch from last month
• Head circumference: 18 inches (up to the 70th percentile), + 1 inch from 6-month appt

Levi is still wearing a size 3 diaper. He has been wearing 6-9 month, or 6-12 month clothes. He is wearing size 6-12 month shoes.

Immunizations:

None this month.

Doctor's Visit Summary:

Levi had a good visit last week. He is on track developmentally and looked/sounded great. He's a big boy, but growing well proportionally. The best way to describe him is that he is SOLID. Not squishy and roly poly - more like a rock! His doctor and I agreed it's best to continue avoiding dairy like milk and ice cream at this point (for both of us), but we're hopeful that we'll be able to try it after his birthday.

Picture of Baby:

Here is Levi's 9-month picture in the 12-month onesie. Look at all that hair!! This poor boy definitely needs a cut now. It really turned blond after our trip to the beach, too! Meat and fruit have emerged as his favorites - he goes for those first on his plate, but he doesn't discriminate against veggies or bread either. ;) As you can see, the boy likes to eat! He's also moving all over the place, making it interesting!

And here is a comparison of all four of the boys at nine months. Levi has now smashed the weight of the other 3, and has taken the lead for height as well! Ethan was 28.5 inches long and weighed 18 lbs 1 oz. Noah was 28 inches long and weighed 18 lbs 8 oz. And tiny little Amos was 28 inches long and weighed just 16 lbs 8 oz. While the others were continuing to thin out at this point, Levi is definitely not. Ha! 

Accomplishments this Month:

• First family vacation
• First time in the ocean + sand
• First beach nap
• First sunrise
• Drinking water
• Cruising on furniture
• First fireworks

We took our family vacation this year to Isle of Palms, SC. It was a H-O-T week, but we saw quite a bit (like Patriots Point - USS Yorktown, USS Laffey + USS Clamagore and Fort Sumter) and relaxed on the beach a lot, too. Levi was able to dip his toes in both the ocean and the sand and seemed to really enjoy both. He wanted to eat the sand, which was made easier by the fact that he doesn't use a paci at all anymore. :( So, most of his beach time was spent on our laps, taking relaxing naps under the umbrella. :) As you can see below, they've all been fans of that! ;) Unfortunately I don't have a pic of Ethan and I like this, but luckily I found one of him with Josh from his first beach trip. :) By the time he took his first beach trip, he was 13 months old. The other 3 were all about 8/9 months old for their first trips! As you can see in the 2nd pic, they all needed help walking in the water, but by 13 months, Ethan was running all over the place. Ha!

I guess Levi wanted to make sure we crossed a summer bucket list item off and woke us up before sunrise on our last day at the beach. Ethan was awake, too, so 4 of the 6 of us, plus Lego, made our way down to the beach to catch a gorgeous sunrise! He also started drinking water while we were on vacation. He hasn't figured out a sippy cup yet, but he's getting the hang of a straw now. :)

Levi is crawling all over the place and started cruising around the furniture, too! Fortunately he's good at falling to his booty when he wants to get back down. He also loves climbing stairs when given the chance. We had to dig out the old baby gates to help contain him now!

We're still waiting on those bottom two teeth to poke through, but I swear it really will be any day now. I'm starting to sound like a broken record here...I'm hoping that's the reason he is still waking at night so much, too. It would be incredible if those teeth would just come through and he'd start sleeping through the night. Is that too much to ask??

Aside from vacation, Levi did at least have a better month for sleep. He was normally getting up just once a night. He still goes to bed between 8 and 9 pm and sleeps until 8 or 9 am. He sometimes gets a bit of a cat nap in the mid-morning when he nurses, but he's also still taking an afternoon nap of about 2-3 hours in his crib. I'm nursing him every 3-4 hours during the daytime for 10-25 minutes. He eats about 7 times total in a 24-hr period.

Levi celebrated his first Independence Day and actually stayed awake for the 10 pm fireworks! I really thought we'd end up holding a sleeping boy for those, but I guess he wanted to see what all the fuss was about instead.

As you can see, Levi still LOVES his big brother, Noah. The feeling is quite mutual. I hope they stay this close. I call Noah my "little Momma" because he is so good with helping out with him! Maybe he just enjoys having his own little minion like Ethan has Amos, but I'll take it. ;)

Are we really 3/4 of the way through his first year!?! I'm a couple weeks behind this month, but hope to get back on track again next month! School starts on a little over a week, followed by Amos's birthday a month after that, then Levi will be one before I know it. Time flies...