Graham 10 Months

This is by far the latest I've been posting to my blog for a month "birthday," and I even contemplated waiting another 11 days and just posting once for 10 and 11 months combined. But since I had already written a lot of it in the Notes in my phone, I decided I should just finish it (plus, I have some mom guilt since I was so on top of it with the posts about our trio!). This post is ridiculously late because the last few weeks have been extra busy for me, plus I was waiting to have Graham evaluated by Early Intervention since I had some concerns and I wasn't sure how to convey them in a post. It turned out that my concerns were valid and he is slightly delayed when it comes to gross motor (he is still not crawling on hands and knees all of the time, he doesn't pull himself up "correctly" on furniture, he doesn't clap, he doesn't reach his arms out to ask to be picked up, etc.), so Graham qualifies for services. Although it's disappointing that he's a little behind, there aren't any real concerns as he just needs a little extra push to help him along.

When writing this post, though, this quote from Theodore Roosevelt came to mind. "Comparison is the thief of joy." I have to admit that I find myself comparing our kids to my friends’ kids (and Google searches), and it’s easy to feel discouraged. Graham is a wonderful baby and he is growing and progressing, but I assumed he would be meeting all of his milestones on time since he was full term, but that hasn’t been the case.

When Alexis, Jack, and Faith were babies it was easy to believe that those with singletons had it “easier” than us, and that all full term babies around us were meeting milestones on time. And although it is true in many ways that one baby is easier than three, I never imagined we would be dealing with food allergies for Graham and I certainly never thought he would be tiny for his age or delayed in any way. When I look at Alexis, Jack, and Faith now I KNOW that these little milestones really aren’t that important to accomplish “on time” since I’m confident he will do them eventually, just as his big brother and big sisters did, but it’s human nature to compare ourselves and our kids to others. 

As a side note, Alexis, Jack, and Faith are actually completely caught up, despite being preemies, and we just enrolled them in kindergarten even though my earlier blog post said we were going to hold them back a year...but I’ll save all of that for another post! And, even though I feel a little disappointed that Graham isn’t a super chunky baby that is exceeding every milestone, the reality is that he is a wonderful baby with a charming personality, and there aren’t any charts or Google searches to measure that!

Age: 10 months

Weight: 16 lbs 10 oz (+6 oz)

Length: 27.25 inches (+.5 inches)

Size Clothes: 9 month

Nicknames: Grahambino, Bino, Bino baby, Bino bomber, Bomber

Night Sleep: Graham is fairly consistent with his night sleep as he typically goes to bed around 7:30, I nurse him before I go to bed around 10:00, he wakes between 2 and 3, and then he generally sleeps to 6:30/7. Some nights he has trouble falling asleep / staying asleep and I have to get him up for a little bit before we go to bed. Some nights he wakes up an extra time during the night. But for the most part he’s in a good routine.

Naps: Like last month, naps are still going pretty well with his morning nap from about 10-12 and his afternoon nap from about 2:30-4:30. Sometimes his naps are more like 1.5 hours, but still a good length.

Nursing: Graham nurses first thing in the morning (unless he woke up around 5:00 am and then went back to sleep as he isn’t hungry when he wakes up in the morning then), before his morning nap, before his afternoon nap, around dinner time, before bed, around 10:00 pm, and around 2:00 am. If he doesn’t have much solids he has a snack nursing session between those times during the day. I did try feeding him one day about an hour before his naps and he didn’t really have trouble falling asleep, so I don’t believe we have a sleep association problem (at least during the day), it’s just most convenient to feed him in a dark quiet room before his naps when I can first get the big kids occupied. It also assures me that he won’t wake up from a nap early because he’s hungry.

Solids: Last month I felt very discouraged with Graham’s lack of interest in solids, but this month things have changed! He's still not taking in many calories via solids, but the first step is learning to eat. One major milestone is that Graham has learned to drink out of a straw cup. I’ve read that this is better than a sippy cup for development, so I went for it! I started by giving him little sips from a straw that I had my finger over the end of, then I used a Take n Toss cup with a little water in it as it acts as a vacuum and I could squeeze the cup a little so water would come out of the straw without him sucking, and then he quickly figured out how to suck! (I read a blog that explained how to teach this and it worked so well). It only took a couple of days for him to figure it out and he loves drinking coconut milk yogurt and smoothies from the cup. He has also started picking up whatever I put on his tray and eating it (sweet potato, strawberry, black beans, cheerios, peas, etc). I figured out that he really likes to have control over his eating, so he is happier eating directly from a pouch that he is holding than being fed by a spoon (this is the opposite of our other kids so it surprised me!). 

Day 1: drinking a little water through a straw I was holding

Day 2: me helping him hold the cup while he drank

Now he's a pro at this straw drinking thing

I found vegan, gluten free mac and cheese and we both enjoyed it

Alexis wanted to feed him one night and it actually went well!

Food Intolerances: Nothing new to report. I'm still avoiding gluten, dairy, and soy for myself and with his solids.

Milestones: Pulling up on things to stand, sitting on tall knees, saying “dada,” playing peek a boo, waving, shaking head in refusal.

I took the couch cushions off like our Early Intervention therapists suggested with our trio and it's worked so great for him since he's tiny and it's hard for him to reach the top with the cushions on

Teeth: He now has 8 teeth!

Likes: Pulling himself up on the first stair, playing with the toy house / door, chewing on everything, sucking on his two fingers, being held, playing with his big sibs

He almost always has his fingers in his mouth if he's being held

He loves to play with this stool in the bathroom

Dislikes: He's just starting to get mad when toys are taken away from him (which happens often since the bigs don't want him sucking on their stuffed animals and such. Mostly he's easy going though!

Speech: He said 'dada' for a couple of weeks, but I haven't heard it recently. A speech therapist evaluated him this past week and he does seem a little behind on his sounds, but she wasn't really concerned since she felt like he was so focused on his gross motor skills right now and that speech would come soon. He does tend to be a little quiet, but I think that's just his demeanor and not something to be concerned about. 

Places he's been: Nothing new to report here. It's been a busy month but we haven't really been doing anything fun since I've been bogged down with obligations and house projects.

Things he does that makes us smile: Every time he practices a new skill. We also love seeing him play with his siblings.

The big kids love to help get him up in the morning and from naps. The girls had amazing bed head this morning. This was pre haircut.

His first time sitting in a high chair at a restaurant

Uncle Kent and Aunt Emily came out for a long weekend

Watching the rain

First Valentine's Day and even Graham got cards in the mail

The big kids do get irritated when he interferes with their games, but I had to laugh on this particular day since they blocked him out of tiny corner where they were playing and he had the whole rest of the room to himself 

Watching his first Olympics