A Road Well Traveled: 9 Months!

I am behind on my monthly posts (of course!) but if they are all behind, does that really make them late?

Elliott and Oliver- 9 months!

The boys are growing like weeds. Seriously. We don't go for the boys 9 month appointment until Friday, so I weighed them when they were actually 9 months. Elliott weighed in at an astounding 24.2 pounds and Oliver weighed in at 19.6! The weight difference these days is crazy!! Hard to believe though that my (not so) tiny baby boys are so big already! (Okay, so I started this post a few days ago and here are today's stats.... 10 months next week!)

Elliott:
Height: 29.25 inches 84%
Weight 24lbs 7.6 ounces 98%
Head: 48.2 cm >95%

Oliver:
Height 27.25 inches 11%
Weight 20lbs 0.1ounces 57%
Head 48 cm >95%

Both of the boys are wearing 18 month clothes and some 12 month. They both wear size 3 diapers, but I could probably move Elliott to 4s. I just bought a bunch of 3s though so I want to try and use those up first. Elliott has 2 teeth that he got right around 8 months (bottom front two) and Oliver has 1 tooth (bottom front) that he got right at 9 months and is working on one more. Elliott has been super cranky the last few days and has swollen upper gums so I'm hoping those two teeth make their appearance sooner rather than later... I need my good sleeper back!

Elliott is sitting, getting himself into a sitting position from laying down, crawling all over the place, pulling himself up onto furniture, cruising the furniture, and can (finally) get himself down from standing. We had a weird period of time where he could stand up but not get himself down so he would just cry until I came to his rescue during nap time. Just today, I also saw him pushing one of his big toys around the living room. Its a table looking toy and it slides pretty well on the laminate flooring. Brian and I are guessing that he will be walking in the next 2-4 weeks. I guess we will see! Oliver is GREAT at sitting. In fact, he loves it. He is not crawling yet, but just within the last 2 weeks he has started scooting on his butt all over the house!! I took one of the girls to change a diaper the other day, and when we were done, he had made his away across the living room all the way into the girls' room! I was a little bit shocked to see him there, but happy that he's becoming more mobile. Although the thought of having FOUR mobile children scares the crap out of me.

The boys' smiles just melt my heart every single day. For the most part, they are both super happy babies. When I was pregnant with them someone told me, "No way will you have two more happy babies!!!" And well, I did! I read somewhere that if you are calm and not stressed that the babies will be calm and not stressed so I try to keep calm. Not to say that it always works, but most of the time. With 4 kids two and under, you have to just go with the flow a lot of the time or you would just go absolutely nuts!

Elliott loves to chew on shoes (Yes, gross, I know.) lick your face, play with anything on wheels, and get lots of hugs and kisses from his mama. Oliver likes to chew on stuffed animals, sleep with his blankey, stick out his tongue, and be held by mama. He also loves to play with the school bus that I got for the girls. Both boys are saying mama and dada too!

The girls are generally really great with their "bro bros." Today we were playing downstairs and Elliott had a poopy diaper. I sent Char upstairs to get "washies" and a "di-dah." I said "washies" and she repeated it back to me while nodding and did the same for the di-dah (diaper). She came back downstairs with the wipes and changing pad from her room. Close enough, right? After that, she wanted to play on the changing pad, so I sent Evy up for a diaper. She even got the right sized one from the boys' room. The girls will also bring toys to the boys when they are playing, get stuff away from them that they aren't supposed to have (like random pieces of paper that they find) and put their bottles in the sink when they are all done. Sometimes the girls even sit by my pump, lift up their shirts, and put the tubes in their belly buttons to "make milk a babies." I always tell them that I have to make milk for the babies while I pump and they like to do anything that mom likes to do.

Speaking of milk, I still make about 40 ounces per day of breast milk. My 12 month goal doesn't seem so far off these days and I can finally see the light! I'm still pumping 5 times per day and taking about 100mg of doperidone to keep my supply up. I think I will keep this up until the 12 month goal, and then start dropping my domperidone and my amount of pumps per day. It will be nice when I don't have to plan my day around pumping, but I also think it will be hard to let it go since its been part of the routine now for so long. I joined an exclusive pumping group on FB and there are some women that pump for TWO years. Holy cow. I know its still great for them as toddlers, but that's a LONG time to pump.

The boys eat three 6 ounce bottles during the day (9am, 1pm, and 7pm.) They get one more bottle during the night at whatever time they wake up. They get two solids meals per day at 8am and 5-6pm. Naps are at 9:00 and 1:00 and bedtime is at 7:00-7:30. The boys are eating their purees like champs! They usually get a fruit, veggie, and oatmeal all mixed together. Oliver loves anything with bananas and Elliott isn't too picky. Elliott will pick up his cheerios, eggs, french toast, pancakes, cheese, black beans, or whatever else I give him and eat them by himself. Oliver still isn't really doing the pincer grasp thing and prefers to eat purees. For a while, he really wouldn't even tolerate things like cheerios or puffs but they are starting to grow on him. Oliver is on a dairy free diet that he will hopefully outgrow at a year.

I really became a crazy schedule keeper after daylight savings time. I just couldn't handle the fact that I didn't "know" when I was going to have a break. We sometimes get off schedule if we go somewhere or what not, but I end up paying for those days when the kids don't all nap well.

What else can I say about these boys? They are just growing and growing and growing right in front of my eyes!! Before I know it they will be in high school and ready to leave the house. That's just how fast it goes.