9 months old

At nine months of age, our little boy...
- Laughs at his own burps, convincing mom this trait is a part of a man's DNA
- Is able to to maneuver back down from a standing position to a seated position with growing ease
- Tests any stationary or somewhat stationary object to see if he can pull himself up with it. When he does pull into a standing position, he gets a big smile on his face and looks around to show off for whoever is watching.
- Loves cheerios
- Can 'cruise' along the furniture
- Has a deep belly laugh
- Loves looking out the living room window
- Clings tightly to our necks when getting him out of the crib in the morning. This is, by far, daddy's favorite part of the day.
- Still loves "Snuggle Puppy"
- Army crawls across the floor with surprising speed. He's just now begun doing the regular crawl.
- Is obsessed with the end-table drawer underneath the TV
- Toes peek out over the edge of his car seat
- Wiggles on the changing table, making changing his diapers an almost impossible task
- Is wearing 12 - 18 month sized clothes
- Eats 3 meals per day
- Is in the 90th percentile of height and 50th of weight
- Has 2 little teeth and takes 2 long naps each day
- Has begun research for his doctoral dissertation... okay, maybe next month.

Night Sleep

Last night, Dawson went to bed at 7:30 and didn't wake up until 5:40. He went down without any struggle and woke up happy. It hasn't been easy to get there, though.

Erin and I have been following pretty closely the guidance in the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, recommended to us by our mutual funds rep, Brian. Dawson has been sticking with the sleep milestones and habits Dr. Weissbluth outlines in his book; two long naps during the nap and waking up once for a nighttime feeding. With Dawson approaching 9 months however, Dr. W says it's time to phase out the night feeding. So Sunday night, I sent Erin to sleep downstairs so I could do the "work" of helping Dawson break his habit of a midnight bottle.

2:30, Dawson woke up crying for his bottle, right on cue. I put a binky back in his mouth, tried to quite him but it didn't work. It was then time to let Dawson cry it out. 3:00 he was still screaming full strength so I went back in, put the binky back in his mouth and laid him back down. That didn't work, so there was another 20 minutes of crying but the cries were lessening in intensity. I went back in to check on him and saw that he was at least laying down by now and I knew he was about to give in to sleep. 10 minutes later, he was asleep, not waking up again until 6:45.

Now, believe me, that hour of crying was not easy. I laid in bed for awhile, did some reading but mostly kept reassuring myself I was doing the right thing. "If he doesn't learn to sleep now, he'll never learn and I want him to sleep at college," "crying is a form of amnesia, it will help him unlearn his waking up habit," and "babies have to learn to self soothe and if you do it for them, they'll never learn." Those principles from Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child kept me strong.

The next night, he woke up again and cried for another hour. This time, I didn't do anything to sooth him and he eventually fell asleep on his own.

The third night, I woke up at exact same time but NO CRYING BABY! At 4:00 that morning, he cried out and I thought he was going to wake up but he went right back to sleep.

This round of self-will has been won by mommy and daddy. Not only do we gain the benefit of a full night's sleep but Dawson gains the benefit of learning how to sleep through the night and how to put himself back to sleep if he wakes up. It's a great, great feeling and I'm VERY glad it's over.

This morning in church, I was recommending that book to sleep-deprived parents of a one month old. I was told by another family that when they decided to break their son of the night waking habit, he cried for 6 straight hours! Dawson is such an easy baby.

Sleeping next to daddy

Erin and I have both had some precious moments with Dawson the past couple of weeks. When he wakes up at an hour we deem too early, we quickly feed and change him, then force him to lie next to us on the couch. We position our bodies in such a way that he's basically crammed between the couch and our side, restricting most of his wiggling (though not all). We drape our arms over him, hold his little finger in our hand, put the binky back in his mouth and then lie there hoping to go back to sleep. After 10-15 minutes, the wiggling stops, his breaths get longer and deeper and we get anywhere from a 20 minute to an hour long nap. Often, I'm still awake while Dawson sleeps. Feeling his sleeping little body curled up next to mine is one of the most moving experiences I've had as parent.

I did another post on "sleeping next to daddy" here.

"Look, mom!"

No, Dawson is not taking steroids. His strength is all natural.

By George, I think we've got one?!?! A tooth that is...

Yesterday evening, I caught a glimpse of a little white something poking through the little pink gums inside Dawson's mouth. Yep! After several months of thinking that Dawson has been teething, I think the first tooth is pushing through his little gums. You see, I think most new parents think that their child is teething for a long time before the teeth actually show up in their child's mouth. Most of the time if I can't figure out why Dawson is fussy, I blame it on his yet-to-be-seen teeth that MUST be causing him serious pain. If it is not hunger, sleepiness, or a need for a fresh diaper, it must be tooth related! I have been joking with Donnie that we need to take him to the dentist to see if they will x-ray his mouth to see if there actually are teeth inside there! The difficulty with a baby is, he doesn't like me to stick my finger in his mouth for my purposes to see if there are any teeth... If it is his idea, by all means, he can chew, suck, or drool all over my fingers. :) But I think in the midst of his protest last night, I discovered a little tooth edge poking through his bottom gums. A little one-toothed wonder!

Sleeping with Daddy

Dawson's Daddy wrote a post about what it is like to cuddle up in Daddy's arms. You can read it here.