Zach 9 months
Posted by Rachel
Zach is now 9 months old. He is 23 lbs. 12 oz. He has not had his well baby visit yet so I am not sure how long he is yet. He was sick again with an ear infection, which is why I know his weight. That’s right folks another ear infection. Of course the talk of tubes in the ears came up. I am hoping spring will help him and he will not get another infection for a long while. I don’t want him to have tubes and all the issues (baths and pools) that go along with that.
Zach is now on a daily breathing treatment of a steroid called Pulmicort. He does it twice a day every day. This is to help him to not get so sick all the time and when he does get sick to help him breath better and not wheeze. There is talk about him possibly having asthma, but he is too young to test. We actually found out that this treatment for children under 3 can help prevent asthma in later years. We are hoping all goes well and it does.
Zach is not only rolling around every where but he is trying to crawl. He gets up on his hand and knees and rocks, but has not move forward yet up on his hands and knees. He has started the army crawl. He pushes with his toes and pulls with his arms. He also can go from a sitting position onto his stomach in a controlled manner. He doesn’t just flop over anymore. He is trying to get back up in a sitting position, but can only get half way. Keep trying buddy.
Zach is also eating more solid foods. He typically has something solid with each bottle at daycare, fruit, yogurt, or rice cereal and then he has dinner with us. He loves eating finger foods now like puffs and bread stuff. He especially likes waffles and pancakes.
Zach can now waive hi and bye. He even does it to the tv when it is on with a movie for Abby. This morning he waived to a Gummie Bear, Tubby Gummie. He can also clap open handed as well. We are also starting, “How big is Zach, so big.” He sometimes will lift his arms for this and other times just smile and laugh at it.
Lastly, Zach has 2 bottom teeth and one tooth coming in on the top. He will probably have both top teeth by the end of this month. His gums are very swollen and at times it seems to bother him. We have been giving him cold teethers from the fridge and he seems to like that. I love the teeth, but at times I missing the toothless baby smile.
My older son had ear tubes. They did him a WORLD of good and we never had any issue with baths or pools. Zach is young enough that the tubes would likely fall out long before he was old enough to start swimming underwater on a regular basis. Usually, tubes only last about a year before they fall out – especially kids as young as Zach because they grow so quickly.
As far as baths go – again, he’s young enough that you’re probably not submersing him fully. I would imagine that you’re just dousing him over the head to rinse him off. That really shouldn’t be an issue as far as the tubes are concerned.
I hope the arrival of spring is the answer to all of this for you. I went through some really miserable months before we went the tubes route so I really understand how hard and how miserable it all is. But, if in the end the tubes really are necessary, try not to worry too hard. They are really NOT a big deal.
Oh, one last thing: We finally had the doc pull our son’s remaining ear tube out as his 5 yr check up. (He got the tubes at 2 yrs old.) It had been sitting in his ear canal trapped by wax for a couple of years and just hadn’t fallen out. It wasn’t even still in his ear drum. So, the doc just used an instrument to snatch it out. It came out with the wax intact and it was still only the size of a pinhead. Seriously. TEENY TINY little thing. I can’t imagine a whole lot of water is going to get in there just by bathing Zach.