Updates...

When I first had Gavin and he was tiny and fragile and I wasn't making enough milk and worried that he would always be scrawny I remember people stopping me in public and saying "Look how small he is remember when ours was that small, they grow up so fast." Now I hold a 24lb kid who crawls and cruises from item to item with ease and can eat more than you would think possible for someone his size. I wondered if the boy would ever have teeth and at 8 months he popped his first tooth without so much as even a peep.

Gavin had his 9 month check up about 2 weeks ago. He had a cold but otherwise was happy. During his appointment the doctor said "Are you aware that he has a double ear infection?" No he didn't even complain. If someone else hadn't noticed I might never have known he popped a tooth the child just doesn't complain. So we started antibiotics the next day he started to pop another tooth. The only reason I knew was because he kept biting me so I felt around and sure enough tooth number two. Two ear infections and he is popping a tooth and the boy is laughing and smile. How could I be so lucky you ask? He makes me pay in other ways. Prior to the ears and teeth he was still waking up at least once a night and then with the teeth and ears twice to three times a night. Yes I pay in other ways.

At his nine month appointment I asked his doctor about the sleeping thing and informed him that the only way he would go back to sleep was if I fed him 4 oz of formula. The doctor gave me a very scientific answer for why he kept waking. He was hungry. No matter how deep a sleep he is in his body will pump blood to his stomach to alert his body that it is time to eat and he has no choice but to wake up and scream for food it is how he is programed and there are two options. Options I love options! Seriously I am all about the options. The doctor continued to tell me he is healthy and happy so you could just keep doing what your doing it isn't hurting him. I looked and him and said the words I have come to dread now. "I want the sleep through the night option." He says "Ok it will take about 5 nights of not feeding him. Just get up with him hold him, rock him , help him back to sleep and then his body will eventually reprogram to not need food at that time and he will sleep. I did it with my son and it was rough but it works." Ok I said I will try it.

I have to start by telling you I love my sleep. Love it! I have missed my sleep this last well lets be honest who sleeps really well during pregnancy. So lets just say a year. A year of sleep deprivation makes you think you will do anything for it. Until you have to hold a screaming baby in the middle of the night for over an hour then you think "Just give the kid a bottle and go back to sleep!" But I am stubborn and I keep telling myself it will only take 5 nights so staring down night 4 after a rough night I think no way this is going to work. But I will keep trying. Mike took him at 6:45 this morning and let me sleep so I am recharged to fight the battle again.

So for other little tidbits. He says "Dada", "Hi" and now "Duke" which comes out more like "Du" but he points at his doggie friend and says "Du" in the cutest voice you have ever heard. I am sure his next word will be "Jemma" (our other dog) and then he will start singing the alphabet before I ever hear "Mama." Doesn't he know I am the one who takes care of him all day?

So he is growing up. He loves to make goofy faces. He loves to make you laugh. He is very happy, except for when he isn't which is only when he is hungry or tired. He loves to go out and see the world. In less that 2 weeks Gavin and I are flying with my Mom (affectionately referred to as Grandma) to Southern California to see my neice for her 1st birthday.



A silly face showing off his two front teeth which he loves to do. Don't you love the scratch and the boogie?