9 month updates

I haven't written in too long! I've had to travel for work a bunch, the babies have been sick (again!), and I've just been generally busy. I guess there's a lot of catching up to do.


Weaning
I'm now only pumping 2-3 times/day. At first, I was making as much milk in the 3 times as I did when I pumped every 3 hours. I would sometimes pump more than 20 ounces at a time. It was milk craziness. MOO! I think my body has now adjusted, and I usually pump about 12 ounces each time.

The kids now drink less milk and eat more food. They actually just started the meat baby foods last week. We've had chicken and sweet potatoes, turkey and mixed vegetables, and chicken and rice so far. I taste everything, and let me tell you, the meat stuff tastes like ass. It's disgusting. I feel awful feeding it to them, but they seem to like it.


I tried level 3 baby food the other day, which is a little chunkier to get them used to having to chew a little. They did not like that. Marie, in particular, was quite offended and kept making the funniest faces. I have a video of it that I'll post on youtube. Abby just gagged a few times. Will took it in stride. He just swallowed down the chunks without really chewing.


Teeth
Abby finally has 2 coming in! She's been the toothless, hairless wonder until now, but all that is changing. Her hair is growing in and her 2 bottom teeth are poking through. Marie had 8 teeth at last count. Will is up to 5 these days, I think. It's hard to get a good look in their mouths.


Sleeping
Abby is also now the poster child for sleeping. Billy and my dad broke her when I was on one of my business trips. She wakes up every once in a while and cries, but only for a couple of minutes, and then, she's right back to sleep. However, she bunks in the guest room in the pack and play at night...just in case.


Will hasn't been sleeping well lately, though. He's been waking up around 1 or 2 a.m., and he cries until he gets a bottle and gets to go in the big bed with mommy, daddy, and Winnie. Once he's there, he sleeps until 7 a.m.

Health
Will and Marie have colds. We have to do their nebulizers 3 times/day, and it's the pits. They hate that thing. They have a lot of congestion, but Will won't let me suck out his boogers. He is so strong and just fights me. I've given up on it. Will also has an ear infection and has to take Amoxicillin. This might be why he's not sleeping well. I can't wait for the winter to end so we won't have so many illnesses. It's making me crazy. I also have a cold I can't seem to shake.

Abby's torticolis is much better. She has a slight head tilt, but that's about it. We are keeping up with her physical therapy, and she's constantly improving.

Developmental milestones
Will is now our semi-crawler. He does a little army man scoot. I have that on film also, which I'll post on youtube. Marie does this funny thing when she's on her back where she pushes off with her legs and scoots backwards. It's like the 1/2 crab walk. Abby just rolls around from place to place still.

They all sit up on their own for a couple of minutes at a time. They have a little mirror that plays music, and they can sit in front of it and hold on for a long time. They mash the buttons and look at the lights and stay sitting there. I have every song that the mirror plays memorized, and they echo through my head all day and night. It's terribly annoying to have "If you're happy and you know it" playing in your head at 2 a.m.

I think those are the highlights for now. I'll get some more pictures posted and the videos up on youtube shortly.