Dear Aiwyn, It's official. You have been out of my belly longer than you were in it (especially since you only stayed in 37 weeks). For me, your ninth month was one of the most difficult months of your life. You are so much fun and changing every day. I hate, HATE not being able to see all your firsts. It has been a struggle to peel myself out of bed from you in the mornings since I started back to work, but now it seems worse. I get some of your milestone updates via Facebook status updates or text messages while I am at work. You started crawling this month and I was in an Excel class for work and your Pops sent me a text. Work has been very busy and stressful which is good because my mind is filled with things other than you and how much I miss you. But it's bad because I'm stressed. The stress and guilt of not being with you had manifested into strange things. I'd left your Pops and Grandma notes about how to "do things" or "things to remember." I guess it was making me feel like I still had some control when my emotions were out of control. I'm lucky that they both just take it stride. I've had a hard time making your 9 onesie this past month. Making it feels difficult. Like making the onesie just confirms that you are getting closer to a year. I mean you are 3/4 of a year old. I also really enjoy being the one to take your "month" pictures to post and since I got behind I keep thinking, I'll do it on the weekend so you can wear it and I can take the picture. I still haven’t made your 10 yet, but I will and I will get pictures of you in it! I wanted to make sure your 10 month letter was written. Most of the first four paragraphs of this letter are from your 9 month letter that I never finished. You have a total of 8 teeth now. 5 of the eight have came in the first 19 days of November. You have been a champ about all that mouth movement. Grumpy Aiwyn is like a completely blissful regular baby. We can tell you don't feel good and you nah, nah a little, but you never REALLY fuss. I took you clothes shopping at the outlets with Grandma and you were so good. Grandma was so shocked that you were the perfect baby all day long. She sees you daily, but doesn't really take you out. You stayed in your stroller pretty much the entire time and at the end of our shopping trip, you fell asleep... again shocking Grandma that you were so tired, but didn't fuss. We were having a difficult time nursing during your ninth month. You are VERY distracted and unlatch several times. It also seems you are impatient for the let down and you unlatch, roll away and nah me. The last week you have been doing better nursing. I let you unlatch and roll away and then you come back when you are ready. It seems you just didn’t like it when I tried to latch you back on. I’ve also noticed that you rub your gums with your tongue when you unlatch. I think the pressure of nursing makes your tender gums sore. I was really frustrated and a little sad because I thought you were weaning yourself. I wasn’t ready to stop nursing you. It is a sweet cuddle time we have together and I cherish it. Thank goodness it has gotten better. We celebrated two Thanksgivings this year, one with each set of local grandparents. You got to eat turkey, mashed potatoes, and a roll (well not a whole one). Your Aunt Susan, Uncle Rick, Ben, & Olivia were here visiting from Chicago for the week. You had so much fun with all the cousin chaos. The boys were running around like madmen (and so was Olivia) and Olivia was giving you lots of hugs and kisses. I regret not spending more time with them. Nana, Great-Aunt Gina, and Shelby were here for a weekend. You even got to see your Grandmama, Great Unga, Uncle Chris, Great Aunt & Uncle, and Emily over Skype the morning of Thanksgiving.
Two days ago you said your first two syllable word “dada.” You started off just moving your mouth up and down and mouthing it for a little while like you were warming up. Then all of a sudden “dada!” It is so sweet. I love it. I love all your sweet baby sounds. Which now has me thinking about you laughing and squealing. At night when I change you into your pajamas, I sit you up on your changing table to change your shirt. As soon as your shirt comes of you start pumping both your straightened arms up and down and then comes the “hee, hee, hee” sound. The giggling can’t be contained when I start singing “naked baby, naked baby.” Then I give you kisses all over your back and belly and you squeal! So much fun! You can “kiss” when asked. Except you only kiss when you want to. Your kiss is a nice wide open mouth and usually some drool to keep you wanting more. Your crawling has improved even though it is still unique. Your arms are in the army crawl movement but your legs are in a lower crawl. You get on your knees and alternate between the knees, but you don’t get all the way up because you’re still on your forearms. Today I took you to see an allergist. I was thinking your hives that you had a few month ago were from the yogurt and you may have a cow milk protein allergy. I had brought it up at your 9 month well child check-up to your pediatrician and after checking your hemoglobin that was low, she thought it would be a good idea to be tested. The allergist is board certified in pediatrics and allergy/immunology. I think he really likes children and when he saw you he wanted to hold you (who doesn’t, right?). You were a little scared and didn’t want to be held by a stranger. But you weren’t stingy with your smile. You had at least 16 foods of a skin prick on right forearm. About 4 of those (milk, casein, fresh milk, & almonds) were a possible positive. So you then had to have 6 more needles in your left forearm (they had to have 2 controls: histamine and saline). After the second arm, the doctor decided you didn’t have enough of a reaction to call it a positive skin prick test but he wanted to have an antibody blood test to be sure. You didn’t even make a peep during both skin prick tests. Before we left his office, you let him hold you for a few minutes. I think you made his day! We then went to the lab at CHOA to have your blood drawn. We also checked your CBC, transferrin, and ferritin levels which all together required 4 tubes of blood! The first 2 tubes you were ok, but by the time the nurse was filling the third, you had reached your limit. You had missed your morning nap and this lady had a tourniquet on your arm and had your wrist and hand in a death grip so much that your little hand was purple. You fussed. I thought you were going to have a full out FIT, but as soon as she took the tourniquet off and released your hand you were happy again. The lady almost fell over when I told her we had just come from you getting a skin prick test. She said that most kids throw a fit as soon as they walk through the door because they are tired of being messed with. After all those appointments, I was hungry and I was sure you ready to eat your solids (you nursed at the doctor’s office). You got to taste gnocchi for the first time and you loved it. Most adults don’t even know what gnocchi is, but you eat it for lunch when you’re 10 months old! Mucho, Mama
