Pulling to stand

Chris and I both got to witness this for the first time today; how nice that Cameron waited until a Saturday to begin showing off his new skill!

Chris lowered the crib mattress just in time! :)

Lately

Some of the things Cameron has been doing lately:

• saying "ma-ma-ma-ma", not in reference to me...but it's a start!
• waving
• clapping
• almost pulling up to stand

He's doing well with the supplemented soy formula, and we're going to get him allergy tested between 11-12 months so that by his 12-month checkup we will have answers and develop a plan for future foods.

We're still waiting for the top 2 teeth to appear, but he seems to be feeling them. He's rubbing his fist across his upper lip a lot. :(

He's wearing 12-month clothes, but has just moved into 18-month sleepers. They're still a bit long on him, but fit around his thighs and arms much better!

Young and younger

Meghan and almost-4-month-old Aiden stopped by to say hello today. I think the boys had a good time; they seemed content staring and grabbing at each other, at least. :)

Thanks for visiting, guys! We'll have to do it again soon.

He stands!

And boy is he proud of himself! :)

In just the past few days, Cameron has become much more interested in pulling himself to stand. He's not *quite* there when it comes to pulling himself up on objects (like the coffee table), but he will grip your hands and pull up all on his own.

And once he's up, he's quite content to stay up for a good while. He's even interested in taking steps as you hold his hands.

This is all going so fast!

9 month stats

Cameron's 9-month stats

Height: 28.5 inches (60th (or 65th? I can't remember) percentile)
Weight: 21 lb 10 oz (70th percentile)
Head circumference: 47 cm (92nd percentile)

Apparently, he is tracking his curves well. Yay for a growing boy!

Some of you may have heard about our uncertainty about giving Cameron dairy. The first (and second, and third) time we tried giving him yogurt, he got a contact rash on his face anywhere the yogurt had been. He got little hives, and while they disappeared within an hour and didn't seem to bother him much, it made us wonder. The next time we saw the hives was when we tried giving him oatmeal mixed with formula. Same hives, anywhere on his face that the formula had touched.

So, the bottle that I brought with us to the pedi appointment today contained both breast milk and some formula. We fed him some of it, and sure enough, out popped the hives again. I'm glad the pedi was able to see what we were talking about! So, she said that she is going to contact an allergist and will get back to us.

For now, to be on the safe side, she says we'll just proceed as if he has a dairy allergy. We'll switch to soy formula for supplementing and see if that helps. Hopefully he really doesn't have an allergy. But we'll get him allergy tested at 12 months to find out for sure.

Otherwise, he is in great health!

A day of firsts

We signed Cameron up for 4 weeks of Sunday swim lessons (he's a green guppy), and today was the first one. I wasn't quite sure what he'd think of it because he dislikes getting water on his face during bathtime, but it seemed like he had fun!

Getting sunscreened up:

In the pool with Daddy:

Having a good time!:

Then, after swimming, Cameron got his first driving lesson, which he also seemed to enjoy. He particularly liked leaning against the steering wheel and blaring the horn. :)

9 months!

I can't really believe that Cameron has been here for as long as I was pregnant. And even more unbelievable: in just 3 short months, I will have a 1 year old. Wowsers.

Lately, Cameron can be found playing with his ball, or his rattle (or both!). He has discovered that he is capable of banging cups together or shaking the rattle to make noise, and this provides for a lot of entertainment. He also loves to put his arms up above his head, as seen here:

He's not yet crawling around or pulling up to stand, but he is practicing standing when someone else is nearby.

We have his 9 month checkup on Monday, so stay tuned for an update on his stats.

Teeth are both good and bad

I have been anticipating the day that Cameron would discover that he could bite...and that day has arrived. :(

The first time, it caught me by surprise and I exclaimed, "Ow!" and then he started to laugh. Punk. His laughter made me want to start to laugh, but I tried very hard to keep a straight face while telling him "no".

Then today, when he did it again, I again got very stern and told him "no". But this time I guess I scared him, because he started to cry. I felt so bad! He was over it quickly, but I know the message still has not been communicated.

I've discovered that he really only tends to bite when he's finished eating and is just playing around, or when he's frustrated because there is not enough milk.

The not-enough-milk scenario is unfortunately more of a problem these days. We have started to supplement with formula on occasion because I'm just not producing like I used to. This has been a very frustrating and challenging time for me; part of me felt like I was failing, and using formula would be like admitting defeat. I hate the thought that my body is just not able to do what it is "supposed" to do. Now, logically, I know that none of this is true, and it's totally normal for milk supply to drop, but it was still a very difficult realization for me. I really expected that I would just be able to breastfeed for as long as I wanted to.

I do know that, no matter what, he's healthy and happy. And I'm thankful for that. I will just continue to do as much as I can, for as long as I can. But now if we could just do something about the biting, I'd be much happier! :oP