Growing Like A Weed

So AJ had his 9-month check up yesterday.

• His head is still at the 75th percentile (that's about where it's been tracking for a while now - but is still exemplary of his amazing cognitive abilities - I told you about him saying "fish," right? FISH. The kid's a genius, I tell you.).
• His weight had dropped some to be >5th percentile.
• But his height? It went from 5th percentile at 6 months to _85th_ percentile at 9 months. Dude....talk about sprouting!

And, don't worry too much about the weight. We've only been doing fruits, veggies, and breastmilk up till now. But yesterday AJ had his first MEAT (chicken), and will soon start eating yogurt (full fat). We're still gonna be leery of too much cheese and try to avoid the wheat products for a while yet, but I think he'll start bulking up. Even the pediatrician noticed how "active" he is (her exact words were, "he doesn't ever stop moving, does he?"), so she's not too concerned. Plus breastfed babies tend to be a little smaller, AND his Dada was a wee little one who grew up to be a normally-sized grown up (as did AJ's Dada's sister).

He nurses to take naps and go to bed at night (3-4 times a day), in addition to the times during the night when I'm too asleep to deal with getting him back down without nursing (usually 2 or 3 times lately, due to the teething). He has at least one bottle a day (6-8 oz, usually about half juice, half water). And he typically eats about 30 oz of baby food, not to mention "Perky-Os," teething biscuits, and other finger foods. Yes, that's right. He ingests almost _TWO_POUNDS_ of "solid" food a day. I'm not worried about him getting enough to eat.

No wonder the legs got too short in lots of his clothes all of the sudden.

Now if I could only get him to sleep more easily. He's started getting fussy lately around 6 or 6:30 PM. We usually try to hold him off until at least 7, but he's usually in his PJs, toys put away, nursed till he's done, and cried for a few minutes until he's asleep by 7:30. He'll often wake up at about 9:30 and again at 11:30. Both of those times, I'll try to get him back to sleep without nursing. Lately he's been waking at 2, 4, and 5:30 or so. Those times, I'm usually too out of it to do much more than pick him up and nurse him without falling over or hitting his head against something. Holding the writhing and screaming banshee that he becomes when he wakes in the night until he quiets enough to lay his head down on my shoulder to be bounced, rocked, and shushed back to sleep is WAY beyond my capabilities.

The 5:30 AM waking is by far the worst though because that's when his Dada is getting up and getting ready for work. On the days he wears his dress shoes, the clicking as he walks around the condo is WAY more than our super curious boy can stand. So three times this week, the final wake up has happened right around the time that Dada left for work. Not much fun for a sleepy Mama. But the advantage is that he then has his first nap _much_ earlier and therefore early enough that his Mama can actually nap a little too without feeling like too much of a lazy bum. He also sometimes manages three naps on those days.

Still not worth getting up at 5:30 though.