9 Month Old Toddler?

I remember when Axel was a newborn, he was so easy. He used to do this thing that Kristine and Moriah Magee named "Guitar Hands". When he slept, he'd hold his hands up like he was playing the guitar. He was doing it once when I went shopping at Anthropologie. I was waiting in line and all the girls behind me were so entertained by him, they were laughing and talking about the air guitar playing baby.

He would just sleep, or lay there quietly in his car seat. I'd go meet girlfriends who had toddlers and they'd be running after them, disciplining them, just constantly working. I was so ignorant, I thought that my newborn was so quiet and gentle, he was obviously going to stay that way. Or, at least, if he didn't he wouldn't turn into a crazy little boy until he was at least 2, right? The terrible 2's? Well, no one prepared me for that sweet little immobile peanut to be chasing after the dog, pulling on chords, trying to get out the front door, and wanting to be everywhere I was already at 8 months. Why were we not warned!!! Oh wait, I do vaguely remember the "just wait until they start moving" warnings. I think I pushed those words aside, they obviously only related to other people's babies, not my own.

About two months ago, Axel started what I have read some moms call a "nursing strike". He was just fussy and didn't want to nurse at times. He still is on the strike. He usually nurses for a couple of seconds, then tries to sit up and look around the room, then goes back to nursing. But in the worst cases, he just wants to get down and crawl around. Last night it was a battle to get him to nurse at all and he was just crying wanting to be let down. I usually just stick with it, and after a couple of minutes he ends up nursing, but it is so hard sometimes! I have also tried making him go longer stretches without nursing, to make sure he is hungry, but that hasn't seemed to make a difference. I'd love to know if any moms have encountered this, and how they got through it.

This weekend will be the 2nd time I will be away from him over night. Johan is an amazing husband to let me go on a weekend retreat to Lake Arrowhead with the girls from church. We do this every January. The first time I was away from Axel was back in the Fall for Nikki Ledford's bachelorette party in Palm Springs. This will be a huge treat, to sleep in and have days where I can do WHATEVER I WANT! Thank you Johan. In return, I tried to make sure to have Axel's food ready, lots of snacks for him at home, and food for all the dinners.

Axel and I met an old friend on Wednesday for coffee at Cafe Calabria. She has fostered two young children and I was telling her that I have been wondering lately when discipline begins. Do you need to start having rules with a 9 month old? For example, Axel can throw a pretty good fit if you take something away from him, ESPECIALLY food. And as soon as he sits in his high chair, it's "FOOD, FOOD! GIVE ME FOOD NOW!" I never knew that babies could already start being so opinionated! He started having opinions at around 7 months. He can't talk, but he makes it clear to you what he likes and doesn't like. I wonder if this is an individual baby thing, or a baby boy or girl thing?

He STILL takes 3 naps per day. I thought he was transitioning to 2 per day, but I was fooled. I do like having breaks every 2 hours, but it would be nice to go meet up with friends and not have to figure out where he should sleep after an hour and a half. Since we got rid of our infant car seat, I thought it might be a good idea to get him used to his travel bed. Since our house is small and lacking storage, and since we do not like big baby items, we got a KidCo Pea Pod instead of a Pack N Play. It has turned out to be an amazing thing. It's basically a baby tent that pops up instantly, and folds down to a small little disc that travels in a bag. I started putting it in his crib to get him used to it, and he loved it. We put it to the test when we visited Geoff and Nikki last weekend for another wonderful day of surfing and lunch. I put the Pea Pod in the guest room, laid him in it, and he was out within a couple of minutes! It was magical.

Last night Johan and I were talking about weaning Axel from nursing. In the U.S., babies are given either breast milk or formula until they're 1 year old. At that time they can have regular milk. Johan said that in Sweden, at 1 year old babies are given another type of formula. I'm not sure what the difference is or why we do things differently, but as far as I know, both babies in both countries seem to be fine. That got me to thinking about other differences in raising babies that I've noticed. The main one we encountered was in swaddling. In Sweden (and maybe Europe?) swaddling is considered to be very old fashioned. We even read a Swedish website where they considered swaddling to be almost inhumane and mean to the baby. The author wrote something like "how would you like to be swaddled before going to bed?" That seemed kind of silly to me. First of all, we adults have been out of the womb for decades, a baby is just barely out of the womb. The purpose of swaddling is to mimic the tightness of the womb for the baby to make them feel secure in this big new world. So obviously, we have no need to feel swaddled up tightly because we don't need to feel like we're in the womb. But again, after talking about it with Johan and thinking about it, it seems like babies in both countries are fine the way they are....swaddled or not. But I always wondered how in the world do Swedish people get their babies to sleep??? Axel wouldn't sleep very well as a newborn unless he was swaddled. And as all parents know, a baby sleeping well is the most precious and relaxing feeling in the entire world.