9 Months Old

We braved the freezing temperature yesterday for Southern's 9-month doctor's appointment. Can you believe the high temp here was 32 degrees? It was very cold, but we had Southern in his fleece warm-ups, and he wasn't bothered by the temperature at all.

They always weigh and measure Southern first at the doctor's office. He weighed 22 lbs, 3 oz (75th percentile) and was 30 inches long (93rd percentile). Then they lead us into the examining room where the nurse logged into the computer and asked us routine questions to update his charts - still breastfeeding, what Southern's eating, how he's moving around, etc.

Then the nurse leaves, and the doctor comes in. He looks over Southern's electronic chart and starts talking to us about Southern's progress and what to expect in the next few months until we see him again. The whole while Southern is watching the doctor and listening. He never has had a problem with Dr Statler examining him. So when the doctor gets out his light to look into Southern's eyes, he just looks back at him and sits peacefully on my lap. But then the doctor must look into his ears and mouth. Southern starts struggling and crying out. It's over quickly, but now the doctor must check his legs and diaper area. Southern starts really crying then. Dustin's apologizing but the doctor said that it was normal for someone his age, that his instincts were just taking over. He's not phased. He finishes up the exam, talks a little more, and then leaves so the nurse can come back.

She came in to administer the last round of Southern's H1N1 shots and to do a blood test (in which she needed to prick his finger and draw blood). She started off with the finger prick. He cried out as she pricked him, then really showed us the strength of his lungs as she was drawing the blood. The poor baby. He was just sobbing by the time she gave him the shot in his leg. As soon as she was through, I held him close and bounced a little. He stopped crying but wouldn't take his eyes off of the nurse to make sure she wasn't coming close to him again.

Since Southern had a hard time with the nurse, she gave him a little pirate rubber ducky toy as we were leaving. A reward for getting through his appointment. When we got into the car, Dustin decided that we should give Southern a reward too. His first trip to Cabela's! (I kind of suspected that we were going more for Dustin than Southern though...) haha

We had a blast at Cabela's. Southern got to see the fish (shown in the video below), the stuffed Africa exhibit with all the lions, zebras, elephant, etc. He got to play with toy stuffed bears, dogs, raccoons, fish, etc. And he got to explore around in the camping section on his hands and knees. All in all, it was a good trip. And most importantly, since Dustin had store credit, we didn't break our bank!