Monday, October 04, 2010

More Baby J

Oh yes, Peg's comment on my last post reminded me of a few other things that I want to remember about Josh at 11 months.

Josh is GENERALLY a very happy baby. People comment about it all the time. He has ZERO stranger anxiety and will usually rally to be super happy when we're in new settings. When we're out and about, he gets to hang out in his favorite place (on a hip!), observe the world, and charm people with his sweet smile. At home, he's quick to express his displeasure - probably because I'm quick to set him down and turn my attention to something else!

Scott says Josh definitely has a "mommy-preference," but I see the way Josh's eyes light up when he hears dad's voice after work and the way he giggles like crazy when they wrestle or play guitar after dinner.

Josh slept through the night for the first time over the weekend. And he did it twice! Not a pattern, but certainly a hope for the future.

I made a (possibly half hearted) attempt to wean Josh before our vacation, but failed miserably. Josh has never taken kindly to the bottle (they just use a sippy cup at school), but he did fine with formula while we were gone. Now Josh nurses about 4 times a day, and we also give him a sippy cup with formula (extra calories!) at meals. I'm thankful that we perservered through MANY nursing issues last winter and that my pump got me through a week in Mexico, so that Josh can nurse through the first year and then wean when he and I are ready.*

We don't know what Josh weighs... and I don't care. He's somewhere between 16 and 18 pounds. He still wears 6 month sizes. He probably won't be on the growth chart at his 1 year check up. But he's happy and he's meeting other developmental milestones, so we're not concerned. Yes, we still try to feed him high calorie foods, but our strategy wouldn't be any different if we knew he was in the 5th, 3rd, or -5th percentile, so what's the point in watching the scale?


*A news report last week showed that Oregon has the highest breastfeeding rates of any state in the nation. 60% of a babies nursing at 6 months and 40% still breastfeeding at 1 year. Both are higher than the CDC goals of 50% at 6 months and 25% at a year. Whoohoo!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I could just see Josh soaking in EVERYTHING that was happening...whether he loved it (sitting in the rocks on the beach with his brother and cousin) or didn't (Winnie the dog coming to check out his lunch). I think there is a TON going on in his head, and one day, he's going to express the genius inside that's waiting to emerge! So glad I got to spend some time with my precious nephews.

Katie said...

Like Josh, Molly Kate was not a good sleeper. In fact she didn't sleep through the night until she was two years and 3 months old. Thankfully, once Walker came home from the hospital, she started sleeping through the night. I got use to not sleeping well and would always tell people that if that is the worst thing she does, I was blessed. Well now Walker is not sleeping well. He was a good sleeper for the first 2 months but lately has been waking up a lot during the night. I guess I'll get sleep when they both go off to college. I live life sleepy and can feel your pain having a "non sleeper"!!