9 month checkup

We had Ethan's 9 month checkup with Dr. Leanza today. Our little man weighed in at 17 pounds, 14.5 ounces, which is "only" the 10th percentile for weight. Ryan and I are both in agreement that percentiles stink and are based on too many overweight kiddos. Ethan is perfectly healthy and has consistently been growing (he's gained almost 2 pounds since his 6 month appointment). It's so funny how many comments we get on "such a big boy!" when actually he's "small" for his age. Dr. Leanza wasn't really concerned at this point, but still gave a few pointers and we'll just keep an eye on him. He is 27¾ inches long (30th percentile) and his noggin is 44.5 cm around (40th percentile). We actually haven't really talked percentiles since his 2 month appointment, and I wasn't paying attention to them since he's consistently been growing well. Ryan was a small baby and child until his junior high growth spurt, so Ethan is just taking after his Daddy! The nurse did a toe stick to check Ethan's hemoglobin level in order to see if he was low on iron. His level was 13, which is great! She put a cute Tazmanian Devil bandaid on his toe, which he proceeded to immediately pull off :)

Dr. Leanza was very impressed with all of Ethan's recent activity! He was happy to hear all about his crawling, sitting, and starting to cruise. He thinks Ethan will be walking by his 12 month appointment! We talked about what Ethan has been eating and we got the okay to give him table foods and pretty much the options are endless. He can have dairy products in his food, just no whole milk until he is one, and we will hopefully still be breastfeeding past then anyways. He also can't have honey and we should avoid shellfish. We love our visits with Dr. Leanza - he is so at ease with us and so knowledgeable and open to our questions. He spent a good half hour or more just sitting and talking with us about everything that has been going on, checking out Ethan, and playing with him.

Ethan got his first Polio and first flu vaccines in his left leg. He cried for just about 5 seconds and then he was okay. He even smiled at the nurse after she was finished! We reread all about the Polio and flu vaccines yesterday and today to make sure we wanted him to get them now, and both agreed that they would be beneficial. Ethan will have to get a second dose of the flu vaccine next month since this is his first time ever receiving it.

After we got home Ethan took a nap, then he and I went to the store with Nana and got lots of fresh fruits and veggies to make Ethan, and also stocked up on some puffs and other goodies. Ryan stayed home and worked on babyproofing the cabinets! He got all of our kitchen cabinets done. Thank you so much, honey!!

Ethan fell asleep on the way home from the grocery, so when he woke up he was ready to eat and go night-night. He was pretty whiny while we were getting him ready for bed, and mostly laid his head on me while Ryan read him his story. He's usually sitting straight up on my lap helping Daddy turn the pages. I rocked him for a bit and then put him down, and any time I would even start to move he would really whine. I dance/rocked him and he still wouldn't let me put him down, so Ryan came to take over. He is usually the king of getting Ethan to go to bed, but Ethan wasn't having it. I left the room for about 10 minutes and he cried the whole time and looked at the door while Ryan was rocking him :( I rocked him more and laid him down and rubbed his back, and he still kept raising his head to make sure I was there. He finally conked out in the rocker, after his whole Praise Baby CD had played through! We will see how the rest of the night goes!