Mathis at 9 Months

Mathis was 9 month old on Feb 2. Hard to believe he'll be a year old in just 3 months. Where has the year gone?

Nine months is a doctor's visit and his stats were good:

Length: 29.5" (95%)

Weight: 20.2 lbs (25-50%)

Head: 19" (Above 97%)

So, he's tall and skinny with a big brain. Perfect! It's amazing how much he has grown. I completely forgot to do a 9mos photo to chart his growth, so you'll just have to be amazed on Mar 2 when he turns 10 mos.

While his stats looked good, there were 2 areas of concern at his appointment. One was language. He was not saying anything more than the typical cooing he had always done. Dr Shuman was concerned that he was not saying "mamama" or making any consonant sounds. He showed us, though. Pretty much on the way out the door, he started saying "bababaaaa" and put those fears to rest.

The other concern was food. At 9 mos, he was still eating only thin purees. He was having trouble with thick purees, gagging every time we fed them to him. Oddly, though, he could take a biter biscuit or Baby Mummum and bite them and chew the pieces. Dr Shuman said I just needed to get more aggressive with feeding him table food and so we went to Luby's that night and I handed the kid a stalk of broccoli. He ate the whole top, no problem. I think he gags on the thick purees because he doesn't expect to have to chew and just swallows. When he eats table foods, he is in more control and expects to be able to chew.

We also discussed the fact that his chronic ear infections affect things like appetite and language, especially the latter due to complete hearing loss in his left ear. On Thursday, Feb 11th Mathis had some minor surgery to put tubes in his ears. We are hoping this will bring an end to the infections and help him settle in to more of a routine. He has been waking up every 1-2 hours for a couple of months and, needless to say, that has been difficult. My mom actually just came for 2 weeks to help me out since both Ray and I are exhausted from lack of sleep. It was really nice to have her here and her grandsons enjoyed the time together.

The last little bit of Mathis news is teeth. Truitt got his 1st teeth at about 4 mos, but in his 8th month Mathis was all still gums. Then, pop! They started to come out. The funny part is they are not at all following the typical pattern of baby teeth. His 1st tooth to come in is the top, left center. I thought both top teeth were coming in together, which would result in a beaver-like appearance. Nope. Just the one. This has resulted in a slightly inbred, snaggle tooth appearance. Ha! It's so funny. We have started to call him "Snags." Now he does have one on the bottom, but just one. And he is getting another top tooth, but it's one away from center- an eye tooth. This just makes the slightly inbred thing that much stronger. And that much cuter! I can't wait to see what develops with him next!