Wednesday, September 2, 2009

9 Month Check up and other 9 month stuff...

So, we saw Dr. C on Monday and all went well. This was my first solo doctor visit - usually Grammy comes with me but I was under the impression that there would be no shots. Turns out they did have to get one shot for Hepatitis B, which I thought was an STD but I guess not. Collette was a trooper, just a whimper and then she was A-OK. Sebastian cried but calmed down with a little mommy-time. They would have had a flu shot ('tis the season!) but I hadn't talked it over with Billy (I wasn't expecting the pedi to offer it at this appointment) so I said I would wait. I'm not sure if we should do it or not. If they were in daycare or had school-aged siblings, I would say yes for sure. How have other people made this decision?

As for stats, Collette is a whopping 21lbs, 3oz. and 29.5 inches long/tall. Sebastian is 19 lbs, 3oz and 29.25 inches long. Not sure of the percentiles but I know that Collette is up there and Sebastian is average-ish for height and around the 10th percentile for weight. And this officially makes Lola the smallest baby in the house, as she weighed in at 18lbs, 7oz at her vet check-up last week. So, watch out Lola - those babies will be chasing you around the house soon enough!

***
In other 9 month doings, I am considering tweaking our daily schedule. As it stands, our schedule looks like this:

6:00am - I get up.
6:30am - Get twins out of their cribs and have bottle. A bit of playtime in the nursery.
7:00am - Downstairs to play while I make breakfast.
7:30am - Eat breakfast.
8:00am - Up to the playroom for more playtime.
8:30/9:00am - Nap.
10:00/10:30 - Get up from nap. Have a bottle upstairs. Playtime.
12:00pm - Downstairs for lunch. A bit of playtime.
12:30/1:00pm - Nap.
2:00/2:30pm - Get up from nap. Have a bottle upstairs. Playtime.
3:30pm - Outing of some sort.
5:00pm - Back home for dinner. Playtime.
6:00pm - Start bedtime routine: bath, bottle, story, bed.
6:30pm - Lights out.

This mostly works but there are some kinks. First off, Sebastian often gets very fussy in his high chair, to the point where he often eats very little of what is being offered. Now, this wouldn't be such a big deal if I didn't have Collette to keep feeding. My thinking is that he is not so hungry and would rather play. If this is the case, then I am considering doing breakfast before bottle. But that comes with its own issues because they have not been drinking their full bedtime bottle, leaving them very hungry when they wake up. I just feel like feeding times are not well-aligned with hunger times. This also has me considering 3 8oz bottles instead of the 4 6oz bottles - same total amount just spread out differently.

So, my two questions are: At this age, did you do *real* food before bottles? And at what age did you move from 4 to 3 bottles? Eventually they won't have bottles at all, so I assume I have to start reducing the number of bottles at some point...

As always, I am open to suggestions! Your solid food suggestions have been very helpful and I will be trying some different pasta shapes, (very) steamed veggies and more frozen fruits.

8 comments:

  1. Nicole, we still do a small AM bottle right away for Ned because he's so hungry too! My nanny thinks he should be off bottles (he is over a year old) but I like it. We moved our breakfast up to 7:00 am and sometimes I give them cheeries while they are playing to tide them over. It is definitely time to consider moving their 10:30 am bottle to after lunch. Instead feed them lunch at 11:00 am and you can do bottle after - or even offer some formula in their sippy cups to get them used to trying to use them (we used to do just water but eventually moved to milk for Ned and formula for Penny around 11 months).

    You may find their PM nap moving a little later so your afternoon bottle may move to 3pm - and do a snack of some sort after the bottle (dried fruit, breakfast bar, Os, something small). I know that might result in a bit later bedtime - but my kids are still hungry for dinner by 5:45 pm even with a 3:30 snack in our case. Your schedule seems very much on track - Ned stopped eating as much in his bedtime bottle because he ate a good dinner (which is why I try to delay dinner until 6 pm so he stays full), so you can reduce the size to reflect what they do (say 4-6 oz instead of 8 oz). Okay, didn't mean to write a novel here. More photos of your cuties please!

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  2. Your schedule seems great! I can't wait to try it. It makes time for food, bottles, playtime and naptime. Just what i was looking for!

    Thanks for posting it!

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  3. I did pretty much the same thing at that age. If anything, I think breakfast simply moved earlier and eventually kind of merged with the bottle. By the time we ditched formula and bottles (13-ish months), we were pretty much just doing breakfast shortly after they got up in the morning, and it's still that way. Also, eventually a morning snack got thrown in there, especially as they dropped the morning nap. But I think it was a pretty gradual change.

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  4. Oh, and we see Dr. C next week! I miss her, we haven't been since February. Somehow I doubt the kids feel the same... ;-)

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  5. I always get my girls the flu shot as early in the season as I can. Yes, they're in daycare, but I'd do so otherwise anywhere. Living in the the third world showed me what getting really sick from preventable diseases looks like, so I'm very pro-shots. I can't remember whether your pair were born at all premature, but the flu can really do a number on post-preemie lungs.

    I don't normally preach this much, but figured your question deserved a response, since I have thought about the flu shot A LOT! I actually elected to get it myself against doctor's orders (possible allergies) the girls' first winter, because I wasn't going to take any risks.

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  6. Wow, your schedule is very similar to mine!! Since Kaylynn goes to daycare/nanny my schedule has to somewhat work around my hubby's school schedule (since he is a teacher). I recently cut out the 5th bottle and was curious as to when to cut out the 4th bottle, so it's nice to hear some suggestions. I've always fed Kaylynn her oatmeal and fruit/veggie before her bottle. I'll give her 1 cube of food, oatmeal (enough to mix with 1 ounce of formula) and then follow it up right afterwards with a bottle (about 4-6 ounces). I do that twice a day and then do 2 8 ounce bottles. It works out better for us to do it all at once rather than doing the bottle and then feed an hour later. (Mostly b/c I'm lazy).

    Any suggestions on flying with a baby? I'm flying to see Robyn tomorrow and am very nervous that I will be "that" person with the screaming kid on the plane.

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  7. At 9 months, our scheduled looked like this:
    7am: wake up, dress, breakfast
    10am: bottle, nap
    12: wake up, lunch
    3pm: bottle, nap
    5pm: wake up, dinner
    7pm: bedtime routine (bath, books, final bottle)
    8pm: asleep for the night

    We have gotten flu shots for ourselves and the girls every year since they were born. They have never been in daycare and don't have school age siblings, but they were preemies who had RSV shots their first year.

    We'll be getting flu shots this year because they are headed to preschool next week.

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  8. First off, wow, on their awesome weights! Well done mama!

    Second, i am not exactly sure on what i did with my twins, but I think I started to do breakfast, then bottles around 9 months or so. (but my babies also had lots of feeding issues and were much smaller than yours are at 9 months old)

    Your schedule looks great :)

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