Henry turned 9 months old last Saturday, and in between when he was born and now I fell off the wagon in terms of posting to our blog. Well, no longer! Henry’s 9-month check-up went well. He weighs 21.7 pounds and is 30.25 inches long putting him in the 78th and 98th percentiles, respectively. He’s a big guy, but dropped from his 93rd percentile in weight at 6 months because he is always on the move.

He is rarely still. He crawls with lightning speed; luckily he plops his hands down so loudly that you can hear him coming from one end of the house to the other. He also likes to giggle and make noises when crawling because it’s just so much fun. He also cruises all around the furniture and is just now getting brave enough to stand without holding on to anything except his toys. He tries to have a toy in each hand when he stands alone – maybe for balance – maybe to just look cool and carefree. Finally, he loves to dance. If I put on the right music (The Roots or Beatles iTunes radio stations), then he starts bouncing up and down and occasionally does the “Single Ladies” hand dancing. He definitely has his own rhythm. And I love it.

Observations: starting to track objects with his eyes; recognizes both his parents and smiles when smiled at; loves being outside…

Observations: up to 4.5 hours of sleep without waking; still gassy sometimes, at least once a day; kicking strongly…painfully strong kicks; looking for things to look at; smiling more and making more noises that aren’t crying…

Observations: definitely smiled, maybe chuckled; still enjoying baths; still growing; likes to be naked and sprawl; must have gotten used to Mom walking, because all he wants to do is be moved from place to place; over 10 pounds…

Observations: gassy sometimes (mom doing diet journal), quiet a lot, much more attentive, enjoyed second bath, still great at eating, was that a smile? …

Observations: umbilical cord stump fell out, traumatic first bath, loves reading with momma and hanging out on his activity mat (until it becomes too much to handle), approaching 9 pounds…

Also, this by Uncle Brent:

Observations: loves breaking free from his swaddle, strong kicker (like in utero), took his first immunization shot like a champ, great eater (barracuda!)…

Observations: difficult to keep awake for feedings, loves sleep, being swaddled, and eating; down to 6 pounds 13 ounces…

We have a baby! Henry Micah Walbolt was born at 1:35pm on Wednesday, May 1, 2013, after twelve hours of labor including nearly two hours of pushing. I’m not going to go into details with the labor process (worst thing ever to produce our best project ever!), but generally here’s what happened.

Around 1am on May 1st I was getting ready to go to bed and all of a sudden I felt my water break. No real contractions, just water breaking a little at a time. And since water breaking was one of a couple situations where my doctor told me to go straight to the hospital, off we went. Due to the lack of contractions, I was put on pitocin, which creates overly strong and long contractions compared to the normal process. I lasted about four hours without any drugs, and then it became too much. I was spending too much energy fighting each contraction, so I decided I needed drugs for the pain. First, I got a shot of something and an IV drip of something else which pretty much made me too high to care about the contractions. I don’t recommend it, and probably would have gone straight for the epidural if the nurse had properly explained what was happening. A few hours later (once the narcotics wore off), I got an epidural numbing everything enough (I could still slightly feel contractions) until it was time to push.

Pushing was the worst. I kept second-guessing myself each time because I literally could not breathe by the time the third push during each contraction rolled around. Somehow I made it through, and Henry was born…with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. So Keith didn’t get to cut the cord originally, but he did get to do a secondary cut later.

Henry weighed 7 pounds, 3 ounces and was 20 inches long at birth. We think he’s perfect, even though no one is actually perfect. He’s perfect to us.

With twelve days left until our due date, I am so over being pregnant. I’ve been saying that for a couple of weeks now, but I’m really and truly over it. I think I’ve done a pretty good job with not complaining up until this point, so this post is really going to let my chief complaints fly.

I’ve been able to walk practically every day, although now I’m at the speed where I’m faster than most octogenarians, but slower than the ugly Muscovy ducks that have invaded Coral Springs. I can’t wait to move like a normal human being again, and even better, go for a run.

I’m tired of feeling like my body no longer belongs to me. Everything hurts at some point during the day, especially my feet. I have passed the point of being able to comfortably wear shoes. It hurts my belly too much to bend over to put them on. Luckily, I live in Florida where flip flops are socially acceptable footwear for nearly every occasion so I’ve been living in those.

Sleeping used to be one of my favorite things to do, naps were awesome and I almost always felt better afterwards. Now, if I can sleep for two hours in a row without having to get up to go to the bathroom or change positions in bed (which involves carefully and slowly using my upper body to flip sides) I consider the sleep a success. I know sleep will continue to be interrupted once Baby Boy arrives, but at least there will be a much better reason for my tiredness.

To end on a positive note, Keith keeps saying that I’m rocking this pregnancy like an all star. And for the most part I agree, especially because Keith is so great at helping me feel better. I’m in my 38th week and currently Baby Boy is the size of a pumpkin (18.9-20.9 inches long, and 6.2-9.2 pounds). The real reason I’m so over being pregnant is that we can’t wait to meet our Baby Boy within the next few weeks – it’s going to be an awesome adventure.