A year of Brodie in pictures

As you know I've taken monthly pictures of Brodie. I compiled them into a collage so I could see them side by side. It's crazy seeing him change month to month!

Brodie is One Year Old!!!!!!!

My little baby is not so little anymore! Mr. Brodie turned 1 year old on Sunday. I can't believe that it's already been a year since I gave birth to my amazing son whose head fit in the palm of my hand. How far we have come.

Today we had to go to Brodie's 1 year check up. The stats are as follows:

-Weight: 19lb 13oz (up from 16lb 9oz at 9 months) and according to the doctors that puts him at the 10%tile

-Length: 30.5 inches (up from 27.5in at 9 months) which makes him in the 72%ile! Finally! We always knew he was tall and now he is showing it. :) He definitely gets that from his daddy.

-Head Circumference: 18 inches (up from 17.6in at 9 months) which is the 29%ile.

The doctor gave Brodie a thorough check up and said that he was healthy and looked like he was an active little guy with a super fast metabolism. I'm glad he didn't seem concerned about weight like the other doctor. He told me not to worry too much if he didn't like cow's milk (he hasn't been very interested). He told me to just keep trying and if he really doesn't take to it then just up his dairy intake via yogurt/cottage cheese/cheese instead. He also told me that I could substitute with soy if needed (in case Brodie demonstrates a lactose allergy). I also asked about introducing nuts/peanut butter because of Nick's sunflower seed allergy. He said it's ok because they aren't in the same family and that if I wanted I can introduce peanut butter between 12-18mo. Lastly I asked about middle of the night wake ups and he confirmed that I could let him CIO if he wakes up in the middle of the night. He told me to just go in there every 5-10 min and soothe him until he falls back asleep.

Brodie also got 4 shots today, my poor boy! He got Hep A, MMR, Pneummococcal, and the flu shot. He has been super tired all day (took a 3 hour nap and then an hour and a half long nap just now). I think he's trying to re-cooperate.

We had Brodie's birthday party on Sunday and were blessed to be around family and friends for good food, conversation, and company. He was spoiled with gifts (which he is playing with as we speak) and did so great during the party. He was happy and awake the entire time! Brodie loved his mini cake, loved playing with bubbles, loved all the attention, and loved ripping wrapping paper. 

 

Now for some recent milestones:

-Brodie is VERY close to full on walking. He will do 3 or so steps in between the coffee table and me, in between me and Nick, and walks like a ninja while holding on to walls/ anything he can get his hands on.


-Brodie has 6.5 teeth. The 7th one is on it's way in, just today breaking through the gums but not quite through through yet.

-He LOVES to talk and babble constantly. It's super cute that he thinks he is telling us things, I just wish we knew what he was saying!

-Brodie has also started trying to blow kisses. He has it all down except for pulling away his hand from his mouth.

-Brodie tries to put shapes in his shape sorter, tries to push buttons on everything, and is working out how to play all his new instruments. It's really cool to see him actually "playing" with his toys!

That's all for now :) Brodie's done playing on his own and I need to go change a poopy diaper! :)

Our family <3

CIO success!

I have been against the CIO philosophy since Brodie was born and even before because of what I had learned in my child development classes. But, after several very sleepless nights and a month or 2 of Brodie screaming every time we set him in his crib awake we knew we had to do something for all of our sanity. As a last resort (and with a lot of coaching and encouragement from my mom) we decided to finally just try CIO for 1 week tops and if it wasn't working we'd go back to rocking Brodie to sleep.

Well, I am so amazed at how fast it worked and how good Brodie is doing now! Here is the breakdown of how long it took:

1st night- cried from 9:26pm-9:56pm (30 min)

2nd night- fell asleep nursing and stayed asleep during transfer to crib

3rd night- cried for 16 minutes

4th night- cried from 7:40-7:43pm (only 3 minutes) and slept (minus a 1/2 asleep diaper change/back pat at midnight) until 8am!

5th night- cried from 10:00-10:02pm (only 2 minutes!) and he had just taken a 2.5 hr nap and woken up at 8:15pm

This is an amazing change from the up to 2 hour cuddle/fight to get him to sleep in our arms. I feel like I have the nights back with my hubby.

The only thing I am trying to figure out is how to handle middle of the night nursing sessions if he doesn't fall back to sleep when I put him back in his crib. I've gotten good advice from several different people and am trying to decide what we want to do. My mom said that if he wakes up after nursing and it's near the morning (like 5am or something) not to leave him crying in his crib because he is too awake to cry himself to sleep again and just bring him in bed and let him cuddle and fall asleep with us until we want to wake up. I like the cuddling aspect of that but we don't sleep well when he's in bed with us and sometimes he doesn't fall back asleep for 30 minutes or so so he's tossing and turning and whining for a long time. Another one of the people I talked to said he has the physical capability to sleep for 11+ hrs without eating so I should just forgo the middle of the night nursing and give him several minutes to cry himself back to sleep without going in. The last person said to go nurse him and then let him CIO again in his crib. Trying to figure out what is best in that regard but I'll take him going to sleep in a few minutes for now! :)

~Heather

11 Months Old!

Ok here is the 11 month post not even a week later but at least it's on time this month. :)

Brodie is 11 months old today, and is as happy as he usually is. We went to the pediatrician to get a rash looked at on Wednesday and he weighed 18lb 8oz (15%). This was a new pediatrician and the experience was amazing! No freak out about weight, he actually involved Brodie in the appointment, and he was just super nice and helpful. It was amazing to have a doctor actually listen to you and not hurry you along!

Brodie is in the middle of teething hardcore, with 4 of those suckers working their way through. Two have broken through the gums already and the other 2 are bulging so it won't be long now. He seems to finally be less fussy so they must not be bugging him as much. He even slept from about 10pm-6:45am last night without waking up! That hasn't happened in a while. :)

The other thing that emerged this week is that he will put anything and everything up to his ear and pretend like he is talking on the phone. It could be a real phone, a block, some food, a glow stick, the remote, his hand, etc. It is really cute to see him beginning to pretend play and know the function of something. He even started to communicate with this sign. Yesterday I was rinsing out diapers in the bathroom and couldn't hear in the living room. I came out about 5 minutes later and Brodie immediately did his sign for phone and tried grabbing for my cell. I looked and had a missed call from my mom. He was trying to tell me it rang!

Speaking of signing, he is FINALLY starting to do a few signs. He understands a lot (food, water, milk, more, all done, diaper change, and sleep). He is actually starting to do the sign for milk and more which is freaking adorable! I'm so glad he is beginning to communicate his wants and needs with me. It is going to make it so much easier to deduce what he needs when he can tell me the basics. :)

I think that's all that has happened in the past few days. I can't believe my love bug is 11 months old and next month he is going to be turning a year old and entering the new phase of toddler hood! :)

~Heather

10 month post (much belated!)

Brodie turned 10 months old on the 2nd of August and I am JUST writing his post. Heck, he is going to be 11 months old Friday. I fail! Here are a few 10 month old pics (and after will be

pictures related to the blurbs, some of which happened before 10 months).

This month has FLOWN by, partially because I had surgery on the 1st and a week was spent recovering from that. But more than likely the reason it seems to have gone so quickly is because Brodie has become about 10x more mobile!

I'm solely relying on pictures and Facebook posts to remind me of everything that has happened this month and the dates on which they occurred....OMGosh I just reread his 9 month post and he has changed SOOOOOOOOOOOO much since then. OK, here we go!

*On July 7th Brodie officially started crawling! That is a month and a half ago, and he crawls like a pro now. He is SO fast and never resorts to scooting around anymore. He is ninja fast!

*I wrote in the 9 month post that he started pulling himself up on his 9 month day....yea he is standing up most of the day now! He pulls up on ANYTHING and EVERYTHING, including me, Nick, any furniture, a toy in the middle of the room, the toilet, cabinets, his high chair, etc etc etc.

*On July 13th Brodie started "cruising" by walking along the couch and since he figured out he could do that he NEVER STOPS MOVING! You know how I said he pulls up on everything? Yea, when he gets up on whatever thing it is he starts walking along while holding on. This includes our TV stand, couches, walk along toys, walls, etc.

*Brodie started walking on his walker toy on August 2nd and became great at it by Aug 7th. He still doesn't know how to turn it though.

*On August 17th Brodie began to let go of what he was holding onto while standing up for a few seconds. Since then, this act has become more frequent and lasts longer each time. I think the longest he's gone without holding on to anything is about 7-8 seconds. It's a trip watching him just stand unassisted in the middle of the room all wobbly. It makes him look like such a big boy it scares me! I have a feeling walking is just around the corner...he has made a few attempts already (and taken a 1/2 step on his own) but I'm not OK with saying it was his first step since he hasn't done anything since. :)

*The same day he started cruising (July 13th) he officially cut his first tooth. He now has 3 teeth in (the 2 bottom middle ones and top right one) and is smack dab in the middle of cutting the 2 next to the 2 bottom ones. He is miserable today, very clingy, and whiny. I am writing this during his longest nap so far of the day. :)

*He went swimming for the first time on July 7th. Since then he has been 2 more times and also to the beach, which he loved.

*On July 18th he started waving bye bye and babbling while he did it. I am not sure if he knows what it means exactly but he enjoys doing it often. :)

*Brodie ate spaghetti for the first time on Aug 10th. This is momentous because the pictures reminded me of my spaghetti face pictures. :) I am going to try to get one of Nick and frame them all side by side.

*Oh, Brodie started dancing this month as well. On Aug 11th he danced his little booty off to the intro song of the movie Rio (super cute by the way if you haven't seen it).

*Brodie started pointing at things on August 17th too! Whatever he is interested in or wants to talk to/look at he will point and babble (LOUDLY) at until we go over there. He also points at books, which I think is ADORABLE!

*We went to Sea World on the 20th and it was a blast. Brodie really got into looking at the animals this time, noticing them moving and smiling at the Walrus' and Beluga whales.

*I got a new camera at the end of July and have been having a BLAST taking pictures of the Brodster. As a result, he knows to pose when the camera comes out and I am a little afraid I've given him vision damage from the flash going off so much :P

*It is now wayyyy harder to get Brodie down for bed. If he's awake at all he will scream until he's hoarse or until we come get him. We don't like C.I.O. so we are trying to come up with another solution. In the meantime, that part of the night is hard most nights. :(

*Brodie made himself pass out from not breathing/crying too much when we took away his empty dinner plate. His lips/nose got blue and the eyes rolled in the back of his head. He was out 15-20 seconds and it scared the crap outta us and even though it's just because he was throwing a tantrum we are freaked out that he is going to do it again (he's gotten close 4x since).

*Brodie is (I'm just going to say this since it's happened 5x in the last week) down to 3x nursing a day, plus 1-2x at night depending on the night. I'm a little sad that the amount of nursing sessions are going down because I love that cuddling/bonding time with him every day. But, I am sort of happy about it because I can leave him now for longer without having to worry about him not taking a bottle (because he refuses to) or starving. I think he is SLOWLY self weaning but I am not going to encourage weaning until after a year at least. I don't ever want him to have formula; I'd rather him go straight to cow's milk at a year (I know it's a silly thing but that's just my breastfeeding goal in my head :) ).

*It's less than 33.5 days until my son's first birthday! That seems freaking impossible to me! This year has flown by and I don't want to think about my little baby becoming a big old toddler so soon. For his 1st birthday we are just having immediate family over for a hot dog/hamburger grill and letting Brodie eat a cupcake and smash it everywhere. I'm going to attempt a cookie monster cake but we'll see if that actually happens :P

I'll be writing another post this Friday (much shorter I promise!) when my little boy turns 11 months old! I'm going to attempt to weigh him using the Wii fit board and try to get a length on him. He has gone through a growth spurt in the last few weeks for sure. We moved him up to a "big boy car seat" last week. In a matter of 2 weeks he went from fitting in the infant carrier just fine to not being able to get his arms under the straps when they were all the way out and on the top setting! He is also getting a lot heavier (at least it seems that way to me)!

Til next time,

~Heather and family