38 Weeks

We had a whirlwind trip to the DC area this weekend, and are now recovering.  Will's routine was totally thrown off, and has woken up around 5am, ready to go for the past 2 days.  Who needs an alarm clock?  We woke up Saturday morning, and hit the road by 6am.  We made it to Billy's grandmother's house by 11:30, and we are at his sister's bridal shower by 12:30.  Somehow, we were very efficient travelers with a baby and a dog!  We still have one more trip to NC, and to Virginia Beach for the wedding...both will be much longer times in the car.  We were hesitant about the trip this weekend, but we're so glad we went.  Billy's extended family is loud, energetic and we always have fun.  Will was just so entertained by everyone, he didn't eat or sleep for close to four hours while we were there!

Speaking of eating, I think he's over the pureed food.  I gave him yogurt, which he seems to enjoy.  But I think it's being spoon-fed, that he doesn't prefer.  It's hard to know what the deal is though.  I gave him some puffs on his tray, and after a day, he figured out how to put them in his mouth.  What I do know, is that he has a sensitive gag reflex, so there is usually a mess to clean up.  On the Oct 2012 baby board on babycenter.com, it seems like there are quite a few babies around Will's age that aren't crazy about food.  Obviously, he's still nursing as his main source of food, gaining weight and isn't lacking in nutrition.  What was funny this weekend, is that there was only a one-pound difference between Will and his 2-year old cousin.  So am I worried that he doesn't eat a ton of solids yet?  Not so much.

Now that Will is a crawling machine, his consistent goal is to get to Patton as fast as possible.  Patton wins over any toys or other sources of entertainment.  We're trying to teach him to be gentle, because Will's form of "petting" is more of a hit and he likes to grab handfuls of fur.  Patton, so far, is very patient.  We put baby gates up last week, which Patton is not the biggest fan of!  And we tell Will that he is in Baby Jail.  Ha!

Billy's grandmother told me this weekend that she read an article about how forward facing strollers can be stressful and damaging to babies.  My goodness!  With every little thing we do, I'm sure there is some body of evidence, big or small, that can prove there is a better way.  I'm certainly not running out to buy a rear-facing stroller. My mom said that she thinks this generation of moms has too much information.  While having all this information at your fingertips is obviously helpful in most instances, what an added stress is can be too!  I think especially with the social media aspect seeing other moms do something one way, and then beginning to second-guess the way you do it.  And all the article posting.  I'm hesitant to repost baby rearing articles on facebook because I don't want to make it seem like I know better, or I'm telling other moms what they should be doing.  It's just overload sometimes!

So yes, nine months next week!  3/4 of a year over!  Ack!  He's looking less like a baby, and more like a little boy all the time!