I have spent the last 10 months thinking that I had a difficult baby, or at least a very different baby. And I was right about the last part. My son IS different. I've yet to meet another baby like him. A few nights ago, when I couldn't sleep, I decided to read some threads on the May 2010 Birth Boards on Babycenter.com. I had made it a rule to stay away from Babycenter last summer, but I was curious as to how the other 10 month old babies were faring.
I saw countless threads about babies STILL not sleeping through the night. I saw moms distraught over Crying It Out, whether to use it or not. Moms discussing the fact their baby wasn't crawling yet. Some babies who were refusing to eat and needed to see a specialist. Some that just weren't gaining weight yet. Some babies that weren't clapping, pointing OR waving yet (Henry does all three and has been clapping for 3 months).
We have our moments, don't get me wrong. Henry is different in that he has been on the move since before he was born. He has the most active genes from his father and the most active genes from his mother (surprising I had any). I see the pictures of these other 10 month olds, meet babies only a few months younger than him, and there is a HUGE difference. Not only does Henry walk, he walks very well. He knows how to get over door framings, and he can get down from the porch to the ground without falling. He can even push his own wagon that weighs more than he does. He has pushed 40 lb boxes around his grandparents' living room!
When we brought him home from the hospital, it was rough at night. He wouldn't sleep in his pack n play. We tried putting him on his Boppy lounge pillow between us, and it worked for awhile, but we neither got any sleep too worried that Henry would roll off. So Henry slept in his swing from 2 weeks of age to 2 months. I am okay with this. Why? Because in that time frame he went from an hour or so of sleep at a time to EIGHT hours of sleep. And I was told by a family member "Oh you're going to regret that big time. You'll never get him out of there." At 2 months he woke up in the middle of the night, fussed, we put him in his packnplay, ON HIS TUMMY, and guess what? Sound asleep.
Same thing with the pacifer. He was DONE with it by 3 months. We brought it to Alaska, just in case, but all he'd do was chew on it. People told us not to put him in a walker, it would make him walk on his toes, teaching him not to walk properly, or retard his desire to walk. NONE of this was true with Henry. He started walking early, just before 9 months old, and I've only once caught him on his tip toes and the only reason was that he had just tripped over something and was trying to catch his balance. He walks just like he is supposed to.
So in this first year, I've learned a few things. One, don't listen to anyone but yourself and your own instincts about your baby. Well I shouldn't say it like that. I should say TRUST yourself. You will get so much advice as a new parent, a lot of times it is hard to weed through what you need to know and what you don't. I had so many people telling me what I should and shouldn't do that I didn't have a clue what was right anymore. We finally found our rhythm and Henry has grown into a beautiful, healthy little boy with more ambition and drive to learn than I've ever seen from another baby. Now this is probably because I've not been around a lot of babies, but still. :)
It amazes me how I already knew him in the womb. He came out exactly the way he was inside. Moving all day long, active and happy.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Friday, March 4, 2011
Nearly 10 months and walking
Well technically he started walking about a month ago. February 6th to be exact, one day before his 9 month birthday. It was Super Bowl Sunday, and while he had taken steps before, he had never just taken off. Things changed that day! He spent most of the evening walking around with his daddy's cell phone in his hand or guiding me by one finger (my one finger) around my in law's house.
Henry walking that day
This is a link to a video taken that day. He is growing up so fast. I never in a million years imagined that my son would be walking at 9 months. I remember when he was about 3 months old, we were at the mall with our moms group. We met a little girl there at the play area who had started walking at 10 months. I was astonished. I'd never heard of babies walking so early! Then Henry goes and beats that by a month.
I have been trying to make mental notes of everything I needed to blog about. First off, he started clapping around 7 months. He now does it all the time. He took his first steps at 8.5 months old. I started crying when he did. I knew he was probably close because he was doing a LOT of cruising around the furniture. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, let out a HUGE gasp, and Jason turned around from in the kitchen thinking something was wrong. Henry stopped, looked at me, and took another 4 steps or so. Jason got to see those steps! I am so proud of my little dude!
He was walking the day he turned 9 months old at his doctor's appointment. The doctor said since he was pointing (something else he started a week or so prior to the appt.), clapping, and walking, he was advanced in both his gross and fine motor skills. He weighted 20 lbs 5 oz (50%) and was 30 inches long (90%). So he's tall and skinny. Which we know because none of his shorts fit him properly.
We also got our first sign out of Henry this last week. We've been signing milk, eat, hungry, cat and more for awhile. He's sorta done the sign for milk, but the other day he signed ball! He even started saying what sounded like ball. Such a boy! It has motivated me to continue using the signs in hopes he starts using more back with us soon. We've also started using mom and dad as well as dog.
I feel like such a braggy mom saying all these things, but I think I have a right to be proud of my son just like any other parent. I don't think any of these things make him brighter than other kids, he's just developing at his own pace. A year from now, they'll all be on the same page and it won't matter anyway.
Well better get going, he'll be up from his nap soon!
Henry walking that day
This is a link to a video taken that day. He is growing up so fast. I never in a million years imagined that my son would be walking at 9 months. I remember when he was about 3 months old, we were at the mall with our moms group. We met a little girl there at the play area who had started walking at 10 months. I was astonished. I'd never heard of babies walking so early! Then Henry goes and beats that by a month.
I have been trying to make mental notes of everything I needed to blog about. First off, he started clapping around 7 months. He now does it all the time. He took his first steps at 8.5 months old. I started crying when he did. I knew he was probably close because he was doing a LOT of cruising around the furniture. I caught it out of the corner of my eye, let out a HUGE gasp, and Jason turned around from in the kitchen thinking something was wrong. Henry stopped, looked at me, and took another 4 steps or so. Jason got to see those steps! I am so proud of my little dude!
He was walking the day he turned 9 months old at his doctor's appointment. The doctor said since he was pointing (something else he started a week or so prior to the appt.), clapping, and walking, he was advanced in both his gross and fine motor skills. He weighted 20 lbs 5 oz (50%) and was 30 inches long (90%). So he's tall and skinny. Which we know because none of his shorts fit him properly.
We also got our first sign out of Henry this last week. We've been signing milk, eat, hungry, cat and more for awhile. He's sorta done the sign for milk, but the other day he signed ball! He even started saying what sounded like ball. Such a boy! It has motivated me to continue using the signs in hopes he starts using more back with us soon. We've also started using mom and dad as well as dog.
I feel like such a braggy mom saying all these things, but I think I have a right to be proud of my son just like any other parent. I don't think any of these things make him brighter than other kids, he's just developing at his own pace. A year from now, they'll all be on the same page and it won't matter anyway.
Well better get going, he'll be up from his nap soon!
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
66% Complete
We are almost to 8 months! It is so hard to believe. Before we know it, May will be here and we will be celebrating his 1st birthday.
I am fairly certain he will be walking in the next month or two. He is standing up on his own all the time now. He walks holding on to one of us. Actually, it is funny, if Henry is holding something, he feels secure. I guess maybe he isn't connecting that the thing in his hand isn't attached to anything else.
He is moving more towards finger foods now too. He really isn't interested in eating a lot of pureed items anymore. He wants to feed himself! He is growing up so fast. He has now had bread, carrots, banana (his favorite) and string cheese (possibly a new favorite). This is along with the puffs and crunchies he has been eating for awhile now. He still likes to be fed his bottle. I don't mind, it is a chance for us to bond.
Better go, he is trying to get into, well, everything. :) Such a boy, through and through.
I am fairly certain he will be walking in the next month or two. He is standing up on his own all the time now. He walks holding on to one of us. Actually, it is funny, if Henry is holding something, he feels secure. I guess maybe he isn't connecting that the thing in his hand isn't attached to anything else.
He is moving more towards finger foods now too. He really isn't interested in eating a lot of pureed items anymore. He wants to feed himself! He is growing up so fast. He has now had bread, carrots, banana (his favorite) and string cheese (possibly a new favorite). This is along with the puffs and crunchies he has been eating for awhile now. He still likes to be fed his bottle. I don't mind, it is a chance for us to bond.
Better go, he is trying to get into, well, everything. :) Such a boy, through and through.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Mom knows best
And I don't mean me. I mean moms in general. Mothers think their way is best. A lot of mothers think every other way is wrong. I try so hard to remind myself that this is not true. I do not mean I tell myself my way is not the only way. I mean I try to block out all the things other mothers tell me I should be doing. Or I should not X because Y and Z will happen.
For the record, everything that someone has told us WILL happen because we did something the "wrong" way has gone differently than we were told. Yeah, we gave Henry a pacifier before 6-8 weeks. He gave it up by 10 weeks of age. Yeah, we let him sleep in his swing until he was 2 months old, but he had no problem transitioning out of it.
We waited to give him solids, he transitioned to them perfectly. The list goes on and on. It is okay to do things differently. It is okay. I think I tell myself this to reassure myself that I am okay, we're okay.
I just had to get this off my chest. I've been feeling a bit crushed by it, as if it was a weight sitting on my chest. Henry will grow up to be a normal, well adjusted little boy. He already is.
For the record, everything that someone has told us WILL happen because we did something the "wrong" way has gone differently than we were told. Yeah, we gave Henry a pacifier before 6-8 weeks. He gave it up by 10 weeks of age. Yeah, we let him sleep in his swing until he was 2 months old, but he had no problem transitioning out of it.
We waited to give him solids, he transitioned to them perfectly. The list goes on and on. It is okay to do things differently. It is okay. I think I tell myself this to reassure myself that I am okay, we're okay.
I just had to get this off my chest. I've been feeling a bit crushed by it, as if it was a weight sitting on my chest. Henry will grow up to be a normal, well adjusted little boy. He already is.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Tis the season...
So much to catch up on...
Henry had his 6 month appointment on November 8th. He measured at 27.75" (90%) and 18lbs8oz (75%). Both the nurses and the doctor commented on how tall he was. Apparently he has a good chance at being a tall boy. He was very personable at his appointment and, as usual, everyone loved him. The doctor cleared him to start solids, which of course we already had.
He is now eating 3 meals a day of baby food. He pretty much likes anything we put in his mouth. At first he did not like squash or carrots, but now he likes both. I think, however, we are supposed to wait on carrots, so no more for a month or two. He has moved on to stage 2 foods. He has no issues with any foods to date.
The doctor also mentioned on the 8th that he would have a tooth or two popping through any day. I couldn't see it, but the doctor was right. On my birthday, 2 days later, a tooth started poking through. A few days after that, Henry had his two bottom teeth! I was amazed at how fast it seemed to go from nothing to two teeth.
He is turned into quite the crawler and explorer now. He is constantly on the move. His crawling has gotten faster and he pulls up on anything he can get his hands on. He has even started cruising. He actually has stood up for a few seconds on his own a time or two. I had him standing on his own for 5 seconds yesterday (don't worry, I was protecting him if he were to fall).
Diaper changing time has become a nightmare. He does not want to lay still. Instead he'd rather turn over, butt in the air, and play around with whatever is nearby. You can tell he has started to understand things, like when he can cry to get our attention or try to get something from us. He falls and bonks his head, we have to wait a few seconds to react. Half the time he is fine and keeps going. If we react to it, that is when he starts crying. He wants to be picked up for a minute or two then he is fine.
He is SUCH a boy, already! We spent Thanksgiving with my family in the Beaumont area (then went back to Houston). My cousin's daughter Hailey is 54 weeks older than Henry. Already he was trying to tackle her. We even got a shot of him pulling her hair. He tackled her more than once, and they both enjoyed tearing up Black Friday ads together.
He also met his new friend Edie as well the day after Thanksgiving. Edie is our friend's daughter. She is 4 months older than Henry and they got along very well. Edie is a very laid back, yet active, little girl. She does not let much bother her and enjoyed playing with Henry. It was so wonderful to see him playing with another baby. I so wish he had another kiddo to play around with. Soon he will. Our friend's here in Weatherford havea son 7 weeks younger than Henry. It won't be long where he will be crawling around and they can get into trouble together.
It was so funny how vocal Henry was down in Houston. There were more people than he was use to being around, so somehow this translated to him being loud. Lots of babbling and squawking. He wanted to be heard! His uncles thought he was crazy I do believe, but they also seemed to enjoy him. We can't wait to go back for Henry's first Christmas!
Henry had his 6 month appointment on November 8th. He measured at 27.75" (90%) and 18lbs8oz (75%). Both the nurses and the doctor commented on how tall he was. Apparently he has a good chance at being a tall boy. He was very personable at his appointment and, as usual, everyone loved him. The doctor cleared him to start solids, which of course we already had.
He is now eating 3 meals a day of baby food. He pretty much likes anything we put in his mouth. At first he did not like squash or carrots, but now he likes both. I think, however, we are supposed to wait on carrots, so no more for a month or two. He has moved on to stage 2 foods. He has no issues with any foods to date.
The doctor also mentioned on the 8th that he would have a tooth or two popping through any day. I couldn't see it, but the doctor was right. On my birthday, 2 days later, a tooth started poking through. A few days after that, Henry had his two bottom teeth! I was amazed at how fast it seemed to go from nothing to two teeth.
He is turned into quite the crawler and explorer now. He is constantly on the move. His crawling has gotten faster and he pulls up on anything he can get his hands on. He has even started cruising. He actually has stood up for a few seconds on his own a time or two. I had him standing on his own for 5 seconds yesterday (don't worry, I was protecting him if he were to fall).
Diaper changing time has become a nightmare. He does not want to lay still. Instead he'd rather turn over, butt in the air, and play around with whatever is nearby. You can tell he has started to understand things, like when he can cry to get our attention or try to get something from us. He falls and bonks his head, we have to wait a few seconds to react. Half the time he is fine and keeps going. If we react to it, that is when he starts crying. He wants to be picked up for a minute or two then he is fine.
He is SUCH a boy, already! We spent Thanksgiving with my family in the Beaumont area (then went back to Houston). My cousin's daughter Hailey is 54 weeks older than Henry. Already he was trying to tackle her. We even got a shot of him pulling her hair. He tackled her more than once, and they both enjoyed tearing up Black Friday ads together.
He also met his new friend Edie as well the day after Thanksgiving. Edie is our friend's daughter. She is 4 months older than Henry and they got along very well. Edie is a very laid back, yet active, little girl. She does not let much bother her and enjoyed playing with Henry. It was so wonderful to see him playing with another baby. I so wish he had another kiddo to play around with. Soon he will. Our friend's here in Weatherford havea son 7 weeks younger than Henry. It won't be long where he will be crawling around and they can get into trouble together.
It was so funny how vocal Henry was down in Houston. There were more people than he was use to being around, so somehow this translated to him being loud. Lots of babbling and squawking. He wanted to be heard! His uncles thought he was crazy I do believe, but they also seemed to enjoy him. We can't wait to go back for Henry's first Christmas!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
About to pull my hair out...
Henry is officially in to everything. We need to do some serious baby proofing and I don't even know where to start. I cannot get a single thing done anymore because he is into everything. I leave him for 2 minutes and in that time, he has tried to escape. Usually his attemps are successful. Then there is the constant whining. I am guessing he is teething. I cannot feel anything, but the doctor said he was teething 2 months ago. I just do not know what to do other than to be gone from the house all the time. That is the one thing that typically calms him down - being out. It has been rather yucky these past few days, yucky and cold, so that has waylaid some of my attempts to get out.
We have officially started Henry on solids. For now we are just using the prepacked Gerber foods, but eventually we want to make our own. So far Henry really seems to like peas, sweet potatoes, pears and bananas. He does not seem too crazy about carrots, but we will be giving them another try soon. For some reason, everytime we feed Henry, he tries to turn sideways in his bumbo (we're using that with the tray). We cannot get him to face forward! Best be going, he is flipping out for the 5th time today.
We have officially started Henry on solids. For now we are just using the prepacked Gerber foods, but eventually we want to make our own. So far Henry really seems to like peas, sweet potatoes, pears and bananas. He does not seem too crazy about carrots, but we will be giving them another try soon. For some reason, everytime we feed Henry, he tries to turn sideways in his bumbo (we're using that with the tray). We cannot get him to face forward! Best be going, he is flipping out for the 5th time today.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Henry the Crawler
At about 5 months and 1 week, Henry made the transition to crawler. He had been trying for weeks, but most of the time he would just end up stuck in the crawling position, and as I posted before, he'd thrust himself forward. Typically he just ended sprawled on his stomach. It took time, and he worked at it daily (if not all day every day, he is a very determined baby), and he finally got it.
Hopefully that worked - this is a video of Henry crawling last week. Every day he gets better at it. Which pretty much means he just gets into more and more stuff every day. We've had to start baby proofing, but really this is just us moving stuff out of his reach. We will need to do the heavy duty proofing very soon! I was reading something on babycenter about crawling. Most babies start attempting crawling between 6 and 10 months and are full on crawling by 9 to 10. Then, some time after that, they start going from the crawling position to the sitting position. Then, closer to a year, they can start crawling using opposite arm and leg, as in left arm, right leg, instead of one side at a time. Well Henry isn't 6 months yet and he can do all of this.
I hate even telling people this because I am afraid people will think I am bragging, that somehow my son is gifted. I don't think that at all. I am sure every other child will catch up and by a year he will be no different from his peers. He is also pulling up. He loves to grab hold of my hands and pull himself up. He also crawls over to me on the couch and uses me as an anchoring device to get himself into the standing position. I think we will have an early walker on our hands. The rate he is moving, I cannot imagine it will be another half a year before he figures out walking.
We have no started on solids yet, but we will very soon. I wanted to wait until 6 months as that is what our peditrician recommended, but with the rate that Henry is developing, we might start a little earlier than that. We have some rice cereal already to go, so we might just do that until 6 months. I know most people start earlier than that, but I just was in no rush.
We have his 6 month appointment in 2 weeks. Hopefully I will remember to update this then!
Oh yeah, Henry is going as a dragon for Halloween. He makes a rather adorable dragon might I say.
Hopefully that worked - this is a video of Henry crawling last week. Every day he gets better at it. Which pretty much means he just gets into more and more stuff every day. We've had to start baby proofing, but really this is just us moving stuff out of his reach. We will need to do the heavy duty proofing very soon! I was reading something on babycenter about crawling. Most babies start attempting crawling between 6 and 10 months and are full on crawling by 9 to 10. Then, some time after that, they start going from the crawling position to the sitting position. Then, closer to a year, they can start crawling using opposite arm and leg, as in left arm, right leg, instead of one side at a time. Well Henry isn't 6 months yet and he can do all of this.
I hate even telling people this because I am afraid people will think I am bragging, that somehow my son is gifted. I don't think that at all. I am sure every other child will catch up and by a year he will be no different from his peers. He is also pulling up. He loves to grab hold of my hands and pull himself up. He also crawls over to me on the couch and uses me as an anchoring device to get himself into the standing position. I think we will have an early walker on our hands. The rate he is moving, I cannot imagine it will be another half a year before he figures out walking.
We have no started on solids yet, but we will very soon. I wanted to wait until 6 months as that is what our peditrician recommended, but with the rate that Henry is developing, we might start a little earlier than that. We have some rice cereal already to go, so we might just do that until 6 months. I know most people start earlier than that, but I just was in no rush.
We have his 6 month appointment in 2 weeks. Hopefully I will remember to update this then!
Oh yeah, Henry is going as a dragon for Halloween. He makes a rather adorable dragon might I say.
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