Faith’s 9 Month Baby Check-Up

Faith was excited to hop in the car and go out yesterday!  Little did she know that this time she would be going back to the doctor :(  Poor thing, she remembers that table with the crisp white crackling paper underneath her.  Just sitting on it made her cry :(  She was crying while getting her measurements done… all the while anticipating a sharp pinch I’m sure.

But no shots today!  She did get a prick in the finger though… and she cried.  At least it wasn’t a hold-your-breath-til-your-face-turns-purple kind of scream.  She had a small blood test for lead and iron.  It came back normal.  No anemia, and no lead in her system.  Yay!

She now weighs 17 pounds and 10 ounces, and is 27.5 inches long.

One concern we have is that she still is not eating baby food on a regular basis.  So we talked it over with the doctor, and she wants to do a swallow evaluation on her.  Basically, Faith will eat food that is dyed, and they will see exactly how she swallows food.  I know Faith can eat and swallow pureed food fine, but when she tries to eat textured food, she gags, and wants to spit it back out.  She has very little interest in food that is age appropriate for her.  However, she shows a hunger for me and Aaron’s food.  If she could, she would eat a big fat double cheeseburger.  She smells it, and opens her mouth, and wants to eat it BAD.  But once I put a small piece of something in her mouth, she doesn’t like the feel of it and spits it right back out.  We’re just getting no where.  Her main interest is still breast milk.  So we will see what information we can find out after her swallow evaluation, and see what they would suggest we do.

Personally, I think she will eat just fine when she’s ready.   I will be weaning her when she is 12 months old though … so she needs to start eating food.  A real serving of food on a daily basis.

The doctor said, “Puree a hamburger and see if she will eat it.”  I think that is what I will do! :)

 

Poor thing got a little band-aid on her finger …

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The rest of the day was great!  Playing outside in the grass and the sunshine! :)

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Faith is 9 Months Old Today!

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A whopping 9 months old!  Yay Faith!  It seems unreal that in only a few short months we will be celebrating her very first birthday.  Wow.

She will be going in for her 9 month check-up next week.  I’m sure she has gained a healthy amount of weight, despite the fact that she rarely eats solid food.  Her main nutrition still only comes from my breast milk.   Trying to get Faith to regularly eat solid foods for the past 3 months has been difficult.  Once she turned 6 months old, I started her out on baby cereal…. she didn’t like it.  Then I tried pureed vegetables of all kinds…. didn’t like any.  I tried pureed fruits of all kinds…. didn’t like any.  I’ve tried Gerber baby desserts… and she doesn’t like it.   Any of the foods she may like a little bit … she will  eat a few bites and be done with it.  She has never had a full serving of any kind of baby food yet.

She is still getting up every night for milk as well.  To be honest… her nursing schedule is still pretty much the same as it always has been ever since she was a newborn.  She wants milk about every hour throughout the day,  and during the night she will wake up sometimes every hour… sometimes every couple hours… and occasionally she will sleep 3 or more hours before waking up for a feeding but that’s rare.   I’m tired.   I wish I could add some baby cereal to my breast milk in a bottle for her to drink before bedtime… hoping that it will satisfy her enough to sleep through the night … but she refuses bottles.  She never drinks from a bottle. Bottles are toys to her.  She’s no dummy… she knows breast milk is best, but c’mon! :)

New mothers with newborn babies are always tired because newborn babies want to be fed every couple hours around the clock.  I’m still feeding Faith every hour to two hours, and I still get up anywhere from 2 to 5 times a night.  I haven’t slept all night since I was pregnant.  I am TIRED.

I will be weaning her when she turns 1 year old.  How will she adjust to being weaned when she refuses to eat solid food?  I plan to start her on bottles of organic cow’s milk when she’s a year old… but she has always refused the bottle.   I expect the transition to be rough.  I believe she will probably lose a pound or more until she finally accepts solid food for nourishment.

I really hope she will happily dig into her birthday cake and gobble it up like most one year olds do.  We shall see soon enough!