Austin at ten months old

This baby doesn’t sit still for anything anymore. He’s on the move, loves eating solids, and knows what he wants (and doesn’t want.)

I didn’t weight or measure him at all, but he’s long. He’s teeny, like a peanut, but long and so it’s not going to be long where he’s into 12 month clothes because he needs the length.

Stats

Nicknames: Little Man

Weight: ??

Length: ??

Diaper size: 2

Clothing size: 6-12, 9 months

Teeth: 5

Eating

Every month that goes by, Austin loves food more and more. He’s been actually eating more food this month (chewing and swallowing instead of screeching and throwing it on the floor or smashing it to smithereens). He loves mealtime. He loves sampling everything. He now screeches (in excitement) when I bring out the yogurt drops and before he wanted nothing to do with them. So, it’s been good around here in the food department. This month has really reminded me how much I love baby-led weaning.

New foods tried: Fresh broccoli, pizza bagel bites, strawberry halves, roasted carrots with thyme, lemon chicken, cheddar mashed potatoes, orange slices, Caesar salad, broccoli pasta, chicken wild rice soup, lemon slices, scrambled eggs (in larger quantities), canned pears, grapefruit.

Last month, I let him try some of my scrambled eggs to make sure he wouldn’t react to them, and all went well. So this month, I started giving scrambled eggs to him on a plate to go crazy with. Ironically, what he seemed to react to was the orange slices. He ate them for dinner (big BIG fan of orange slices—there was juice everywhere). So naturally, bath time followed and when we stripped him down, we noticed he had a big hive rash on his back. Nothing else out of the ordinary, and he went to bed, and the rash went away. And he’s had more orange slices since then and didn’t have a reaction. I’m chalking that up to a fluke.

He’s still working on the whole sippy cup thing, but he loves a good bottle from Chris whenever I’m not available to nurse him. He enjoys sitting straight up in Chris’s arms and won’t do anything to help with holding the bottle—he just wants Chris to hold it and he’ll gladly suck, arms hanging down at his sides.

Nursing—oh that’s been a special sort of hell this month. I don’t know what gives, and the girls never did this, but he’s been arching and stiff and flinging off and then screeching at ME like I’m the asshole and wash rinse and repeat. Over and over. One night, while wrestling nursing him to sleep, I counted switching sides 15 times. So…. nursing has been oh so enjoyable and if he keeps this up, he’ll fast-track his way to weaning.

Sleeping

Sleeping. Oh, this month for sleeping. It’s been rough. One of the worst months by far (save for probably those early months of every-two-hour bottle feeds and pumping sessions). I’d say probably half the nights this month he woke somewhere between 10:30 and 11:00 to nurse. One night, after several nights of these early wake-ups, I let him cry to see how long he’d go. And an hour later, he finally put himself to sleep and slept the rest of the night.

Which of course made me feel like crap, and a horrible mom, but seriously. There was one night in early February when we wondered if he was teething. He had woken around 10:30 when we were going to bed, so I went into his room and sat in the glider nursing him. He kept repeatedly pulling off and screeching and arching, and I was at a loss for what was wrong. Eventually, Chris came in and gave him ibuprofen. I don’t know if it helped or if it was a coincidence and he just was exhausted, but he finally fell asleep.

Some nights, even after waking before midnight, he’d still wake up in the early morning hours and I spent a solid week walking around in a daze, feeling like a zombie.

His naps have been pretty good. Usually, he takes two naps a day, but sometimes he’ll miss his afternoon nap (two working adults trying to occupy a baby all day, we’re not perfect).

Milestones

This month, he’s been pulling himself up to stand along the couch and it seems to be getting easier for him to do this. I’m expecting him to be cruising next month. He’s crawling everywhere and is always trying to keep up with his sisters.

He’s also trying to get his pincher grasp down when he’s going after his puffs or yogurt drops on his tray. Now that he’s more enthusiastic about eating, he can really practice. He also loves sitting in the living room with his basket of toys and pulling them all out one by one. Same with his books. So much fun. For him at least. Me, I love picking things up 3,727 times a day.**

There was the one day he ripped paper for the first time entirely by accident, but he thought it was the funniest thing ever. He’s also developed his object permanence and will look hard when you’ve taken something and hid it behind your back.

**Just kidding. I’m far more likely to pick up the living room once every three days or so.

Personality

Well this section seems to stay the same month after month. He’s just happy. He’s a happy baby, and will tell you when he’s not. He’s pretty easy-going, but man, when he cries, like when it’s the middle of the night and I’m trying to ignore him to see if he’ll put himself back to sleep, he wails. I mean, unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Like he’s the last baby on earth and no one is coming to get him and you’ve ripped his favorite stuffed animal’s head off. It’s truly awful.

So he’s a touch on the dramatic side. Whatever. It’s nothing his sisters didn’t do. We do a lot of drama around here.

Health

Mid-month, he developed a fever (which actually only lasted a few hours) and was coughing and sneezing. The night before, he slept all the way until 6:30 am, which for him was not normal and we were initially like, “Yes!” and then we realized when he had the fever, that he was sick and we were all, “Oh.” Whoops. But he was okay. It was pretty short-lived.

Also, he’s probably been teething at night, because after one particularly bad night, we noticed his top two front teeth were further down than they were the day before.

Likes

Crawling to his sisters’ room, eating solids, playing with his sisters’ toys, walks outside, nursing, sleeping in bed with me at night, bath time, his rubber ducky (actually all the other months I kept forgetting to include this—he’s loved his rubber ducky—the same one that Olivia had as a baby) for months now, exploring my office when I’m trying to work, the vacuum, car rides, and seeing his grandma.

Dislikes

Sleeping, (duh), being put down—he’s become definitely not a fan of being put down, especially when he’s tired. Also, not a fan of sleeping in bed with me in the afternoon when I’m trying to give him some quiet time. He REFUSES to go to sleep and always just wants to flip over and crawl away.

Undecided about

Strangers, men, diaper changes.

Looking forward to

He’s going to be one in just two months and I can’t believe I’m already starting to think about his birthday party. Also, being outside more. And sleeping better.

See also:

Austin at 9 months

Austin at 8 months

Austin at 7 months

Austin at 6 months

Austin at 5 months

Austin at 4 months

Austin at 3 months

Austin at 2 months

Austin at 1 month