10 months old (6 months adjusted) update

Okay, I'm a week late in writing this, but better late than never. Gabriel has made quite a bit of progress in the past month. He's a rolling over machine, and loves to kick his feet, pull his socks off, and blow raspberries. He is actively reaching for toys and has figured out how to bounce himself to the moon in his bouncy chair. He's almost outgrown the bouncy chair. I don't know what we're going to do!

I have been trying to make high chair time "fun time" so that he learns to like the chair, even though he's still not too into this whole spoon feeding thing. He bangs his plastic toys around, throws spoons at the dog and loves to kick the bottom of the tray. In terms of food, once we get the food in his mouth, he is pretty unsure of what to do with it, but he's not actively rejecting things like he was with the bottle. He does eventually swallow and doesn't drool or spit out a great deal. You have to sneak the spoon in while he's chewing on something else or smiling, if he sees you coming, he'll close his mouth. We're still on what is called non-nutritive feeding, meaning that we're not concerned with how much he's taking, we're just trying to get him used to the idea. His SLP suggested a couple things. One is what she called a "baby net" which is basically a fine mesh net attached to a pacifier handle that you can put pieces of solid food into and as the baby chews on the food in the net, some of it squishes out. I didn't like the net idea because of the impossibility of getting it really clean, so I got the silicone holder version that's basically a giant pacifier nipple with holes. So far, he has put every part of it in his mouth EXCEPT the feeding end. We also got him a sippy cup just to play with for now, and he enjoys banging that around too. We have completely discontinued the bottle; I washed them and put them away.

We were doing pretty well with keeping milk down, but over the past week, he's been refluxing a lot more. We have our monthly GI appointment today, so hopefully we'll get some direction on how to help him. Even though he's spitting up quite a bit, he has still gained 1.5 lbs. in the past month and is now at 16.5 lbs. I haven't measured his length, but given the fact that he's outgrown his 6-month sized pants, I'm going to say he's over 26 inches now.

So far, all of us have dodged the winter cold viruses. Gabriel has two more shots in his RSV series (one coming up this week and the other the beginning of April) and then we will be officially considered out of RSV season. We are looking forward to being able to take him to church again. We do take him out and about on limited excursions -- out to dinner at an uncrowded restaurant or on walks to the library, but it will be nice to not have to worry quite as much. I am cutting way back on pumping breastmilk, but want to make sure he gets at least a little bit through March because the antibodies in the milk will still boost his immune system. I plan to be off the pump by sometime in April, so at that point it will be formula and solid food only. He seems to be doing okay with the slow transition to more and more formula.

I'll leave you with a happy, smiley photo:

Additional photos for this past month can be found at http://miri116.minus.com/mtpwSHZQIToeQ