9 Months

Happy 9 Months Sweet Boy!!  (a few days late) You surprised many when you decided to come earlier than expected, but I have enjoyed every minute of it.  You are spunky, tender hearted, scare easily (with sounds especially),  sweet as can be, and like your cousins, a mess.  You *LOVE* your momma, daddy, all of your family, Lizzie, patti-cake, peekaboo, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Prayer Bear, bath time, your ball pit, to play and explore, rolling, sitting up, clapping, when someone is going to get you, Family Feud & Steve Harvey, anything bright with music, and eating. You are such a good eater, unless of course it's not pureed, because you have a slight issue with texture, teething like crazy and should cut those two bottom ones soon, you despise laying down now that you can sit up on your own, and you have become a monster when it's time to sleep...because you don't like to lay down now that you can sit up.  It makes nap times a lot of fun. You have also had your first ear infection, had your first rash, had your first antibiotic, & went to the pool for the first time, which you LOVED.  You have 0 desire to crawl, every desire to walk and want to join in on cousin fun so bad it kind of breaks my heart.  No worries, you'll be there soon enough.  For now, please remain little and my baby boy.

 9 Month Picture

Week 35-39

Watch me grow

On the Charts!

I've been in denial since day 1 that I had a preemie. Mainly because he never saw the NICU, never left our room unless he was having his car seat test, having his "procedure" done, and baths.  Also because I had him at 36 weeks and to me it was so close to 37 weeks that I never would have thought "preemie"  BUT he was 36 weeks, he had a weak suck (it took us FOR.EV.ER to learn how to latch and suck right), and he was teeny... 5.11, dropped to 5.7, gained an ounce and stayed at 5.8 for TWO weeks.  For TWO weeks I spent over an hour trying to nurse and then bottle feed 8x a day and he never gained an ounce...not an ounce.  At his two week appointment I PRAYED he had gained, the car seat felt heavier so surely he had gained weight.  The nurse weighed him and happily announced that he was 5.8.  I almost lost it on her.  So she checked the scale, weighed him again & he weighed 5.9.  I took it.  For the next several months we continued to bottle feed, tube feed, nurse...whatever we could to have him gain and be on the charts.  It didn't work.  He gained, but he stayed at 1-3 percentile in weight.  He was good in height, great in head (boy has a big ol head), but weight, notsomuch.  I eventually got over it, so did his pediatrician.  He was growing, showing progress, but at the end of the day, he was still a preemie being compared to a full term baby.  It's going to haunt him me for forever, but the pediatrician and I were on the same page.  We knew his story. Then we moved.  And I'm not sure if you are aware of this or not, but doctor's apparently don't fully read charts, if they read them at all.  At his 6 month appointment, he was still in that 1-3 percentile in weight and the doctor was concerned.  I informed her he was born a month early (I don't use the P word that often), didn't gain an ounce for two weeks, and has slowly been progressing... ALL things she would have known if she had read his dang chart.  <insert ticked off emoticon here> Also at 6 months we got the go ahead to start eating food, PTL!!!  So for 2 months we ate twice a day and about a month ago we upped it to 3x a day plus an afternoon snack.  Near the middle of the June we got weighed before our surgery and with a wet diaper and pj's on, he weighed roughly 17.3 lbs.  Two weeks later we were at the Dr for our first ear infection & rash & weighed roughly 17.8 again with a wet diaper and onesie on.  Yesterday we went in for our 9 month check up.  Palmer weighed a mighty 17.13 lbs and.... we.were.on.the.charts!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOHOO!!!  Baby Boy was in the 10-25 percentile.  Y'all have NO idea (unless you've been here before).  The nurse and our pediatrician looked at me like I was a little crazy, the pediatrician wanted to know what/how much he eats, etc, etc.  He was a little concerned with where he was, not much, but wanted to discuss. Again, READ HIS DANG CHART.  The convo went a little like this: 

Me: Well, he was born a month early

Dr: Oh! He's a 36 weeker.

Me: Yep. (What's the point of charts and having them sent if NO ONE IS GOING TO READ THEM??)

Dr: Well alright then he's definitely making good gains.

Yes, I know.   <insert annoyed emoticon here>

Anyways, we're FINALLY on the charts...not barely, but on them!  And he's consistent with his height (still 10-25%) and almost off the charts in head (75-90%).  What can we say, he's smart ;)

Catching Up

Sooo it's been awhile...a long while.  I swore I was going to keep up with this thing, after all the whole point of it is to document our family so we can look back one day and "remember it all."  But it's hard to blog on a 7 year old laptop at your parent's house on their breakfast bar while you try to eat breakfast, drink coffee, shower, and work a side gig...while Palmer takes his two hour nap.  The thing is, Palmer's two hour morning nap began to dwindle to 45 minutes to an hour.  We had almost a month of being totally off his schedule. We started eating more, taking less naps, and it took Mommy awhile to figure out how to adjust the schedule so we weren't waking up in the middle of the night again to eat.  It was a sleepy transition.
So what have we been up to since Mother's Day?  The following:

A whole lotta nothing

First time sitting in a shopping cart

We love Tigger!!

Trying on shoes and hats at Aunt Tina & Uncle Lee's.

Sitting up (around May 14)

Big Boy!

Building my own business

Eating solids (Actually started those in April)

Peaches (or Sweet Potatoes...)

We liked the strawberries, they were just a little tart!

Family time

Cooper wanted to hold "Molmer" at Chase's baseball game.  For about a second.

At JoJo & Grandpa Allen's for Memorial Day!

We had our first surgery since we were a day old

Rolling every where
Chatting up a storm
First ear infection, along with a stuffy nose, raspy voice & rash (which still hasn't gone 100% away) and is about to cut his first two teeth
Father's Day

First time at the pool!

Our 3rd Anniversary

Love our anual pictures.  Love this one more than the others.

Shew!  We really have been busy.  Not to mention.. STILL trying to sell our house & packing up my classroom in Columbia.  Anyone want to move to Chapin?  I have a great house for you!
Anywho, my goal for July is to do better.  We are about to have a crawler (who actually prefers to walk), our 9 month pictures, and other exciting happenings!
Until then!