Back to the doctor...

We headed back to the doctor for his 9 month check-up. He had only been to the doctor for sickness once and I was grateful for that. This time he had gained 2 more pounds and 2 inches in length. He was still only in the 5th-10th percentile but he was growing. His doctor also said that because he was so active, he was burning a lot of calories.

I had been really nervous for this appointment because last time she had detected a heart murmur. After she had gone over his chart and started to examine him, I asked about the heart murmur. I was terrified of her response. I just imagined that she would send me to specialists and to have all sorts of tests. But she didn't hear it at all. She listened several times and there was no trace of a murmur. Relief!

Then the discussion turned to his eating. He had been eating a lot more in his bottles and had been eating solids three times a day. She told me that when he turned a year I should start on whole milk. I can't wait for that day to come. In the meantime she told me to start on dairy products - yogurts, cheeses, pudding. She told me to give him the full fat stuff, nothing low fat or low calories. I should start feeding him more table foods too. I was excited.

I told her that he was getting up at night all the time now. And I absolutely started a bad habit. Now that he was standing up in his crib, I would go in there every time and take him out. I would rock him back to sleep and then put him back. He would seem like he was completely out but as soon as I laid him down, he popped right back up. It was frustrating and I would give up and take him to sleep with me on the couch. The problem was that he was expecting this and would give me problems on purpose, knowing that I would scoop him up and take him with me. But I enjoyed it too, the cuddling. And he always slept no problem when I was right next to him. I knew this couldn't go on forever and I would have a fight on my hands to break the habit. But it had to be done. I wasn't getting any sleep.

She told me to let him cry for a while and see if he would sit himself back down in the crib and go to sleep. I don't believe in the cry-it-out method but I had to give it a shot. We would see that night if I had the strength to go through with it.