Looking Forward

Landon had his nine month check-up a few days ago. Guess what?...He's still big! Yeah, not too much of a guess really, is it? He weighed in at 24 pounds and was 31-1/4 inches tall. His weight is above the 90th percentile, but his length is above the 98th percentile. His head circumference is also keeping up, measuring in the 95th percentile. His pediatrician expects that he will probably start maintaining his weight rather than gaining much, as he is now becoming really active.

At her urging, we have turned his carseat around to face forward. She said that with his legs being as long as they are, in the event of a crash it would do more harm than good to have him face rear until the age of one. Her charts indicated that he is the height of the average 16-18 month old. She said that he could possibly end up being taller than his Daddy (6'3")! And that he will definitely be taller than his Mommy (5'4"), and more than likely before we are ready!

She noted that his eye color would have started changing already if they were to be anything other than staying their light blue or turning light green.

She also indicated that we can move on to stage 3 baby foods if we want, or just feed him whatever we are eating. It seems so hard to believe that in just nine months, our little preemie can go from barely finishing a bottle and having difficulty nursing to eating meats and fish, pasta, cheese, beans, etc. Even pancakes! It took him about half an hour to eat some coarsely mashed banana the other day, so I don't think we'll be jumping in head first to only table foods!

She examined the mystery rash that he has had on his chin and face for quite a while and ruled out any food allergies. She thinks that he just has very sensitive skin and it could be for a number of reasons. A warm bath every night immediately followed by a good skin cream like; Kiehls, Cetaphil or Mustela was recommended. We had always thought that baths were drying, so we didn't bathe him everyday. Their ideas are always changing, it's hard to keep up!

He only had to receive two shots this visit, with one of them being a flu shot. He also had a little toe prick to check his iron level, which turned out to be a healthy number. He has to go back in a month to get a booster for his flu shot, if they have enough supply.

The fourth of his new top teeth has come in. We are hopeful that with that many coming it at once maybe we'll get a long break from all of that!

Developmentally wise, he is changing almost daily now. The past few days he has really put all of his energy into climbing and pulling up! He is also starting to do almost half of his crawling up on his hands and knees versus belly - but that seems be now only to get him to something he wants to pull up on! In other words, he's obsessed with climbing and pulling up and you better not tell him "no" or get in his way! :)