Liam is 10 months!

Wow, we are in double digit months now.  

Many new changes have taken place since our 9 month update last month.  For example, as I talked about in my "When baby goes mobile post" Liam is all over the place.  Instead of doing the army crawl, he crawls frequently on all fours now as well.  This new crawl, pulling himself to stand, and cruising a bit around the furniture all started Easter weekend.  Liam also started to wave "hi"and "bye" around the same time as well.  Must have been visiting all the family that encouraged that one.  It really amazes me that out of the blue Liam will just start doing something new, without any warning at all.  Babies really are quick learners.

In terms of his size, I'm not really sure how much bigger he's gotten in the past month.  He's still wearing clothes anywhere from 9-12 months.  There are a few articles of clothing that may be 18 months, but that's mainly because we need more length.  I'll weigh and measure him at home soon to get a better idea of how much he's grown soon.

Liam still has just two teeth, but I think that more are going to make an appearance soon.  As I mentioned in my previous post, he seems to be teething though I cannot feel anything else in that slobbery mouth of his.  This happened before and all of a sudden two teeth popped out of nowhere.  We shall see.  Baby Li is still babbling away in his own little language.  His favorite word to say lately is "Naan".  I don't think he's asking for the food?  I'm not really sure what he means by that.  He's still "Dadadada"ing all day long as well.  

Eating

Liam's eating habits haven't really changed from last month to this month.  As I said before, we are no longer breastfeeding.  He still takes 4-7 oz bottles of formula every 3 hours or so and drinks water after meals.  In terms of solids, Liam's completely eating what we're eating with some modification.  We do spoon feed him some things like cottage cheese, yogurt, applesauce, or food that is already in mashed form or that works well mashed up.  This kid eats just about anything.  He loves vegetables, sweet potatoes, cheese, yogurt, bread, and eggs.  He also likes to gnaw on big pieces of food like pizza crust as well.  Must feel good on that teething mouth!

I LOVE that I don't have to worry about making up a separate meal for him.  And I know this might sound stupid, but I love making him food.  Cooking up a grilled cheese really makes me feel like a Mom.  It's a whole different kind of motherly feeling.

Sleeping

I do have to say it looks like we have a sleeping issue on our hands.  Liam is still sleeping with us in our bed for most of the night.  He will sleep in his crib for a few hours, but when he wakes up (and I know I shouldn't) I bring him into our bed with us.  

I've read the books and googled before Liam was even born.  I am familiar with many of the ways to sleep train your baby and all of that.   I know we need to start doing trick where we let baby cry for 5 minutes, go in and soothe him while he is still in the crib and then leave.  Once he starts to cry again wait 10 minutes and go back in and repeat the cycle until he's sleeping through the night.  I want to do this, I really do.  But this is very difficult to do during the work week when I have to wake up early the next morning.  And at this point he's sleeping through the night with us. 

I have to say maybe I'm not ready.  I tried to let him cry it out one night, but after half an hour and the time being 12:30 on a work night I couldn't do it anymore.  By the time Brandon came home and brought him in, Liam was clinging to me for dear life.  The situation was too traumatizing for all of us.  

Honestly, I don't think we are bad parents because we let our baby sleep in the bed with us.  To me, it is replacing the cuddle and bonding time we used to have when he was nursing.  Since he's on the go all the time now, he rarely ever wants to cuddle with me anymore :(  I wouldn't have done it when he was a newborn or even until about 8 months.  Because of his size, I feel more comfortable having him sleep with us and I am sure he won't sleep with us forever!

The big 1 year is rapidly approaching us.  Soon enough we will be attending a few of Liam's little friends' first birthday parties as well.   I have finally decided on a theme-Carnival and I'm very happy with it.  Pinterest has so many creative ideas for Carnival parties.  I'm excited!  The planning begins...