Sam's 9 Month Check up

First of all, Sam does NOT have another ear infection (yay!). He does, however, have a bunch of teeth that are up right to his gums but don't want to break through. At least 4 of them. His gums are super swollen and must be the cause of the super crankiness yesterday. But good to know it's *at least* teething.

Sam weighed in at 21 pounds, 10 1/2 ounces! He's also 28 1/2 inches long. That puts him at the 50 - 75% for both stats. The nurse wouldn't even tell me the real stats (I'll pull up a growth chart later). Oh, but his head was a 75%.

The doctor thought he was doing great! I mentioned he wasn't crawling and he told me more babies are skipping crawling these days. Since the whole "back to sleep" SIDS movement, babies spend less time on their tummies and aren't as comfortable in that position. He's convinced Sam will be walking in the next month, but I don't think so. I saw give him two at least.

Sam IS mobile - he finds a way to get at what he wants (if you're not looking). If he catches you watching him, he instantly throws a fit so we'll get it for him. But if I am doing stuff in the kitchen, he gets himself all over the living room in pursuit of toys. He can get to his tummy from a sitting position and he can pull his knees under him and rock. He just can't seem to coordinate the arms and legs to crawl. He can also get from his tummy back to a sitting position.

All in all, a good appt (especially since there were no shots). We go back in a couple weeks for his second flu shot. They are also expecting the H1N1 shot by the end of November. My doctor says he's not recommending them for kids Gavin's age, but he is for the little ones. His thoughts are 1) Gavin's older and better able to fight it 2) he may have already been exposed being in school and built up some resistance. I guess it's (H1N1) running crazy rampant around here. It's nice to have a doctor that doesn't tell you every vaccine created is a must. There are risks to vaccines. If the risk of not getting it outweighs the risks in getting it, then you should get it. For babies Sam's age there is a pretty good risk of getting severely ill or dying from this flu. If he was an only child and didn't go to day care, I wouldn't get it. But since there is such a good chance that he will be exposed to this, I'm going to get the shot for him, provided it's available to us. The fact that I know two people that know families with babies that have died scares the **** out of me.

That's all I have. I can't believe my sweet little guy is 9 months old! We love you Sammy!