11 Months; or the Last Month of Babyhood

Chloe hit 11 months on Friday.  Its so hard to believe that I’m almost the Momma of a one year old.  So many things have changed this month!  Her personality comes out a little more each day.

I’ll get right to it:

Weight:  No clue.  I think somewhere around 23 pounds

Height:  Tall.

Food:  We’ve hit a bit of a stand still with food.  She now eats breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Sometimes she eats a ton, but most of the time she just nibbles around.  She has learned to eat with a spoon and prefers regular size spoons to baby spoons.  It gets messy, but if she really likes something most of it makes it into her mouth.  My goal for this next month is to find some recipes for some new foods for her to have at lunch.  Her favorite food right now is tofu.  I can always count on her eating a big portion of it.  Also, she still loves her post dinner orange.

Breastfeeding:  Still 5 times a day, although her day time sessions have gotten shorter.  Her nap schedule has changed, so she isn’t always nursing herself to sleep and that is probably part of it.  I think she might be able to drop down to 4 sessions but I’m letting her call the shots.

Movement and motor skills:  She’s beginning to pull up more but she’s still not crazy about it.  She’s become a really fast crawler.  She can now clap and it’s absolutely adorable.  When she does something she knows is good, she’ll smile and clap for herself.  She can also throw a ball…or anything that looks like a ball (For instance, potatoes.  She removed all the potatoes out of a ten pound bag and threw them this morning).  She cracks up every time she throws something.  She’s learning what things are for, as well.  When I give her her tooth brush, she tries her hardest to brush her teeth.  It still needs a little work, but it’s cute.

Communication:  Our girl is so chatty.  Everywhere we go, people comment on how much she talks.  I have no clue what she’s saying, but she’s constantly saying something.  She knows who dada and mama are and says dada all the time.  She says mama only when she needs something.  I guess she’s learned our roles early on!  She knows how to let us know what she wants now, which is helpful.

Sleep:  We’ve hit the sweet spot of naps.  Chloe finally dropped down to two naps and will nap for 30-45 minutes in the morning (around 9) and then naps for 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon (around 1).  It took a little work, but now she naps like a champ.  It’s awesome.  Night time sleep is back on track as well.  It’s funny, now that she’s only taking two naps, she’s actually getting more sleep within a 24 hour period.  We have occasional off days (like last night), but for the most part, she sleeps 7-4, nurses, back asleep until 6:30.

Teeth:  She still has 6.  I thought another one had come through, but I imagined it.  Her next bottom two are on their way in though.

Likes:  Her blankie, reading, books, throwing balls, kitties, knocking her food off her tray, drinking water out of a cup, swinging, walks in the Ergo, other kids, wooden puzzles, being “chased” down the hall, bedtime, bathtime, opening and closing doors.

Dislikes:  Getting wiped down after meals, not being able to see Mommy, bananas, car rides, not getting to touch the Christmas tree, being tired, getting teeth.

10 Months

Chloe is 10 months old tomorrow!  Double digits!  She is getting so big.  I’m not sure how much she weighs but I’m guessing around 22 pounds.  

She has really begun to show her likes and dislikes.  If she wants something, she points both her arms at it and moves her legs like crazy.  If she doesn’t get it or if you take something she wants away, she cries SO LOUD.  You can typically distract her with something else, but there are some times when she in inconsolable.  I guess when I thought about parenting, I didn’t realize I would have to begin with discipline and things until she was a bit older.  Hunter and I are having to be really consistent about the things she can and cannot have (she wants everything).  For example, tonight at dinner, she decided she wanted my fork.  She was losing her mind over it.  There were tears, snot and the works.  I gave her a spoon but she just threw it in the floor.  I finally distracted her with some orange slices, but it was rough. Teaching her that when we say no, we mean it will be an ongoing battle I’m sure.

One thing she has learned though, is that she can’t chew on our iPhones.  Since she knows this, she has made a game out of it.  She likes to play with them if you leave the screen on and we’re fine with that (although she has made a few accidental phone calls from mine) as long as she doesn’t put it in her mouth.  If you’re watching her, she’ll start to put it in her mouth and start laughing until you tell her no.  Repeat a thousand times.  It’s so cute!

Food:  Pretty much the same.  She eats what we eat and she (usually) likes it.  I’m in a bit of a rut with lunch food for her and need to find some recipes for things.  Starting tomorrow, I’m going to offer her breakfast every day (we have done it some, but she hasn’t seemed interested) and hope that she’ll decide to start eating it regularly.  Also, I’m going to give her peanut butter this month.  I’m excited to introduce her to the deliciousness that is peanut butter.  I got some peanuts, roasted them and made some PB with a little bit of sea salt.  Yum!

Breastfeeding:  The same.  5 times a day.  However, nights when she has trouble sleeping, she seems to nurse at least 1 extra time, sometimes 2.

Movement and motor skills:  She is into everything.  She’ll take off down the hall and dart into a room before I can catch her.  Typically, she only does that if she’s following us, but sometimes she just decides to go for it.  She’s also developed this weird crawl where she has one foot flat and uses her other knee.  It looks funny, but I think it’s because she wants to stand up.  She has pulled up to a stand a few times, but not too much.  She seems more interested in trying to stand without holding onto anything which terrifies me!

Communication:  As I said before, she is very vocal with her likes and dislikes.  She hasn’t really learned any new syllables, but I think she’s starting to understand dada and mama.  She still says them at random things, but I think when she says them to us, she knows what she’s saying.  She has, however, started making so many new fun sounds.  I can’t describe them, but she is constantly babbling away to herself.  I have a feeling we’ve got a talker on our hands.

Sleeping:  It’s been a rough month in the sleep department.  I’ve been at a loss for what to do.  Part of it was teething (that cold I talked about last time…not a cold.  It was teeth), weather changing, separation anxiety, etc,.  She has been waking up and will fall asleep the second I pick her up.  Then she’ll wake up the second I put her down.  There were many nights when I caved and just climbed into the recliner so we could both get some sleep.  I honestly think she might have been getting cold though–I changed her into new pajamas (pants, shirt, socks, fleece sleeper) and since I did that she has slept from 7-4:30, nursed, then til 6:30.  That’s been for 2 nights, so my fingers are crossed that she’s figured out the whole sleep thing again.  Naps are the same, but I’m going to try and cut out her 3rd nap soon.

Teeth:  She has 6 (2 on bottom, 4 on top)!  She got 4 teeth in about 2 miserable weeks time.  It was terrible but we survived.  No child should have to get 4 teeth at once.  Now, however, her top eye teeth and the next 2 on the bottom are a little swollen.  There is no end to teething!  Having all these teeth has really helped her eat, though.

It has been an amazing month!  I can’t wait to see what this month brings for our little goofball.

Pictures:

This kid loves empty boxes.

 

Playing peek-a-boo in the bathtub.

 

 

She has been obsessed with the leaves falling.

 

On an afternoon walk with Mom’s water bottle.

 

Waving at everyone at the grocery store.

 

Watching a squirrel on the deck.

 

Fascinated by the dryer.

 

In her Halloween costume–a spider!

 

 

Helping Daddy fix the plumbing.

 

7 months!

Little Chloe turned 7 months old on the 7th and I’m just now getting around to writing her update.  Not too much has changed since her 6 month update, but she’s definitely learning and growing every day!

I weighed her on a home scale last week (weighed myself and then weighed me holding her) and she weighed 18.8 pounds.  I’m not sure how accurate that is, but there’s no doubt that she’s packing on the pounds.  I swear she gets longer every day.

• Food:  She is doing great with Baby-Led Weaning.  Just in the past week or two she’s started really eating instead of simply inspecting her food.  She still isn’t eating a lot but she’s getting the hang of it.  So far she has had: banana (not a fan), sweet potato, apple, peach, pear, orange, melon, green pepper, brocolli, asparagus, spinach, kale, onion, tofu, greek yogurt, blueberry (her favorite), raspberry, strawberry, cheerios, puffs, lentil stew, soup beans, cornbread, mushrooms, toast with hummus, scrambled egg yolks, potatoes…and a few more that I’ve forgotten.  Her pincher grip is awesome now so she can eat small things now which makes it much easier for her to swallow.  BLW is exceptionally messy though!  Here are some pictures of the aftermath:

• Sleep:  We recently, like…last week…dealt with what I’m now certain was a combination of a sleep regression and teething.  Girl would not sleep.  She was up more than she had been since her first couple weeks of life and wasn’t interested in going back to sleep.  Thankfully, I think it has subsided.  The past three nights have been back to “normal.”  Bed between 7-7:30, up between 4:30-5, back to sleep until 6:30ish.
• Naps:  Naps are still touch and go.  I’ve accepted the fact that my baby doesn’t take long naps.  I read about all of these Mother’s who have babies that take 2 hour naps during the day.  What?!  I’ll occasionally get an hour out of her but most of the time its 30-45 minutes.  She still naps at 9, 12 and 3:15.
• Breastfeeding:  Still going strong.  I have to say that I’m really proud that we’ve been able to keep it up for this long.  My goal was to make it to one year and we’re over halfway there.  We still haven’t decided how long we’re going to continue after that, but we’ll see.  It just depends on how interested she is at that point.  I have officially stopped pumping though.  Chloe never took a bottle and it was just getting frustrating.  Right now she’s just drinking water from her sippy cup, but eventually, we’ll try to get her to drink breastmilk out of it.  Then almond milk.  And then we haven’t decided if we’re going to do cow’s milk at all…. oh the woes of being semi-hippies (me) and crazy paranoid about chemicals (Hunter).
• Teeth: She has her two bottom front ones and they are adorable.  She’s currently working on the top two on and off.  Hopefully they’ll come through soon.  Teething is no fun for anyone.
• Mobility:  She can finally roll both ways.  Tummy to back and back to tummy.  She’s figured out that she can roll to get things, but rarely does it.  She’s gotten up on all fours a few times but honestly, she seems content to sit and play.  I see all these 6 month olds that are crawling and I get paranoid that she’s behind, but I know that every baby develops differently and I need to cherish this time because soon I’ll be chasing her all over the house.

Likes: Removing each toy from her basket one by one, cell phones of any kind (but iphones are the best), running with Mommy in the jogging stroller, drinking water out of her sippy cup, plastic cups, still loves Sophie the Giraffe, music, music by Fun, Gotye, Adele, Rihanna, etc,. (all of this much to her Father’s chagrin…I need to start playing a lot of classical stuff during the day so that he’s happy), being outside, rolling around, baths, yogurt, blueberries, when Daddy comes home, watching people brush their teeth, dogs (Dixie particularly), cats (Charlie), puffs.

Dislikes:  Getting her diaper changed, putting on clothes, going to bed, her 3:15 nap, being by herself for more than .2 seconds, getting wiped down after meals.

I have a great video of her giggling but can’t figure out how to post it into this (any wordpress users who can help me out??). But here are some pictures from the past few weeks:

Ready to run!

Hanging out at Stir Fry

Water Baby

Blogging fail.  I don’t see how people do it full time.  Perhaps if I was getting paid, I’d have a little incentive?  I promise I will try and do better so you guys don’t miss out on little Chloe’s life.

Since I last wrote, things have been mostly the same.  We’ve been having a few night time sleep issues (she wakes up and whines a lot, but I never have to go in there because she puts herself back to sleep) and naps are still irregular, but we’re surviving.  Anybody else have this happen?  She never cries but there is a lot of whining going on.  My Mom thinks she’s hungry, but I sort of feel like she wouldn’t go back to sleep if this was the case.  We’re trying to hold off on solids until she’s officially 6 months.  In like two weeks (!!!). We did give her a carrot to gnaw on the other day (uncooked, so she didn’t actually eat it), though.  She put it in her mouth (like she does with everything) and then made a really funny face.  I think she liked it though.

She can now roll to the left and the right from back to tummy, but not from tummy to back.  She’s tolerating tummy time better these days.  It’s still not her favorite activity, but we’re working on it.

She’s loving having her Daddy home for a month.  Seriously.  This girls face lights up when she sees him.  It’s precious.  

Here are some pictures from the last week:

High chair time!

We’re trying to get her used to sitting in it while we eat meals.  That way, once we do start solids, she’ll be ready.

Her new favorite way to sit in the stroller. Leg propped up.

Kiddie pool!

We tried this a couple of days ago and she hated it.  So… we put less water and let it sit out in the 90 degree heat all day and it was a hit!

New swim diaper!

Sticking with the cloth diaper route, we wanted to get one for her to swim in.  We ended up with this Charlie Banana one that is adorable.

Nap Wars

I’m in the midst of the Nap Wars 2012 so this will be brief.  Chloe has decided that naps are for losers and doesn’t want to take them.  She’ll go to sleep for 10 minutes or so and then wake up.  Does this mean that she just isn’t tired or ready for a nap?  I’ve been putting her down every 2 hours or so because she seems tired.  She rubs her eyes, yawns, her eyes glaze over, etc,.  Maybe she’s ready to start spacing them out more?

Because of our lack of naps yesterday, she was ridiculously overtired last night at bedtime and acted insane.  Like…sucking on my neck and babbling into my ear really loud.  Hilarious, yes.  But it stopped being funny after an hour of trying to get her to bed.

Advice?

Here are a few pictures from yesterday:

Too many choices!

Hunter and Chloe playing with McDougal.

I later came downstairs to find Hunter asleep with the duck…haha.

And…she’s awake.

Supersonic Mom Ears

First of all, why do babies fight sleep?  Don’t they know that one day they will do anything for an extra 5 minutes?  Chloe took a good nap this morning and then decided that sleep was totally overrated.  I finally got her down.

What I really wanted to talk about is my new superpower.  I can hear everything.  Our house makes a billion noises I bet no one else has ever heard.  

This “power” manifested itself during my pregnancy as a deep intolerance for Hunter’s breathing at night.  It never bothered me before but suddenly I couldn’t stand it. I started sleeping with a pillow on my head and then progressed to ear plugs.  I felt like I was sleeping with Darth Vader.

He didn’t believe me, so I recorded him with my phone one night.  Hilarious, yes.  Helpful, no.  

The ear plugs worked until Chloe came.  Then, ear plugs were no longer an option.  I needed to be able to hear her from down the hall.  Which I can.  All the time.  She scoots, I hear her.  She starts sucking her thumb, I wake up (Although admittedly, when she’s sleepy and sucking her thumb it’s more of slurping her thumb.).

I say all of this to tell you about last night.  Chloe was stirring, Hunter was breathing (how dare he, haha) and I was awake.  Suddenly, I hear something scurrying around on our roof.  Not scurrying really, but running around like crazy, trying to get in the gutters, occasionally jumping.  I could hear it clear as day.  I woke Hunter up so he wouldn’t think I’m nuts and he could barely hear it.  We’re pretty sure it was a raccoon because we saw one running on our neighbors roof last week. What would a raccoon want on a roof?  Who knows.

Will my ears ever calm down?  Will I be able to sleep soundly without being interrupted by ants scurrying across the ground outside two houses away?  Moms?  Anyone?

And now I’m off to dream of Jon Hamm watch Mad Men and hopefully get some uninterrupted sleep.

Black Out or Not?

Chloe slept for over 10 hours straight last night.  Thank goodness.  Seriously.  I was thrilled when I looked at the clock to realize that not only had she slept all night, I hadn’t woken up to check.  Sleep is amazing.

So thank you for all of your advice.  I do think she’s starting to teeth (I felt around in there and there was a little swelling) and I also think she’s started to learn some new tricks, which is probably all messing with her sleep patterns.  I’m going to get an amber teething necklace and see how that works for us.  

With both of us well rested, we had a good day.  No wars were fought.  Only a few tears were shed.  We played, she napped, we laughed, we went on two walks.  Life is good.

In other news, this happened today.

Napping in her crib!

Granted, it only lasted for 20 minutes, but still.  That’s a win in my book.

Anyway.  My current parental dilemma is whether or not to get black out curtains for the nursery.  Hunter has always said that she will probably go to sleep and wake up with the sun, and I’m beginning to think he is right.  She’s been pushing her bed time (was 7) back a little bit everyday.  And I think it might be because it’s light outside.  Same thing in the morning.  On the one night(s) we are getting sleep, she keeps waking up a little bit earlier and it seems to line up with the sunrise.

Since we’re trying to do most things naturally with her, it would seem that I should just let this happen.  But I’m leaning toward having some more stability with her sleep, at least at night.  I also suspect that it also might help with nap times.  I know everyone says that your kid should be able to nap anywhere, with any kind of noise, but I feel like I should protect her sleep.  Provide a quiet, dark place for her to get the rest she needs.  Isn’t that when babies brains make all those important connections? 

I’m torn because in most of the aspects of her life, I want things to happen as they should, as they would naturally.  It’s like the whole epidural thing.  I didn’t want one.  I went 9 hours with out one.  Then I gave in (thank goodness, but we’ll get into that later when I get to writing Chloe’s birth story).  I felt so guilty about it though.  

I guess what this really gets at is that we have to let go of our expectations as parents and not be so hard on ourselves when our “method” might not be working as planned.  

Some cuteness to make your day better:

Getting the hang of the jumparoo at Nana’s.

Must be able to see feet at all times!

 

Party. My Room. 2 AM. BYOB.

Needless to say, last night was not a win in the sleep department.  Chloe was up from 2-5:30 having a grand old time.  It makes no sense to me because she isn’t fussy or hungry…just awake and making lots of funny baby sounds.  Hunter and I laid in the bed and laughed about it for about 10 minutes.  Then it wasn’t funny anymore.  I would get up when she did start crying, try to get her to go back to sleep and then crawl back in the bed.  Five minutes (at the most) later, baby yells were coming down the hall.

I have no clue what’s going on.  Right now, in fact, she’s upstairs rolling around in her crib.  Not sleeping.  I feel like I’m probably in for another long night.  Maybe she’s a superhuman who doesn’t need sleep?  She wasn’t excessively fussy today, thank goodness.  But how do I get her to figure out that Mommy is a lot more fun when she is well rested?

Alas, I’m going to put on my big girl pants and stop complaining.  She’s cute so she can get away with…well, anything.

I’m going to go try to get her to go to bed and cross my fingers that I have time (and energy) to write an blog post tomorrow that is actually interesting.

Moms:  Do you think this could be teething?  Or some milestone?  She isn’t fussy when she wakes up but has started chewing on everything in sight.  Help!

Babies and (No) Sleep

Before I got pregnant, I already loved sleep.  It was well known that I needed 8 hours to function properly.  Any less and I was cranky and fairly useless.  I was pretty nervous about the sleep deprivation I knew I was about to experience.  

Sure, in undergrad I was exceptional at staying up all night–whether it be to study for an exam, write a last minute paper or at a party.  The difference then was that I could sleep all day the next day.  No one depended on me to get up and take care of them.

The first couple of weeks of Chloe’s life are a blur.  A sweet, sleep deprived blur.  Our beautiful little girl, like most newborns, didn’t understand that night time was for sleeping.  There were nights when I got 1-2 hours, total.  Some nights I would get 5-6 broken hours, but that was better than nothing.  She slept in a bassinet in our room, but I took her into the nursery to feed her and soothe her when she was crying so that Hunter could get some rest before work.  There were some nights when she was so fussy that I we would both just pass out in her floor.  Not restful sleep, to say the least.

Knowing my previous need for sleep, you’d think that I would have been completely incapable of functioning, but surprisingly, I was okay.  I was tired, exhausted really, but I took care of my little girl.  I think that your body just does what it has to do because it’s instinct.  People would come over and try to get me to take a nap while they watched her, and I would genuinely try.  For some reason though, I just wanted to be near her.  I knew I’d be able to sleep eventually.

The first time Chloe slept more than 2 hours in a row at night, I woke up in a panic.  Was she breathing?  I’m pretty sure every new mother does the same thing.  As you would expect, she was just fine.  Eventually (around 6 weeks), she started sleeping 6-7 hour stretches and then she started sleeping from 8-5 almost every night!  I was so excited and so much more rested. For a few weeks, most nights were like that.  I got at least 7 straight hours of sleep.  And I got used to it.

Then this weekend, Chloe forgot how to sleep.  I’m pretty sure it just slipped her mind.  Sunday and Monday night we were up every 2 hours.  And she didn’t want to go back to sleep.  She was ready to play.  (Hence why I didn’t blog yesterday.)

Unfortunately, I had grown used to getting adequate amounts of sleep and the whole taking care of a baby while feeling like a zombie thing was foreign.  Also, when babies are itty bitty, they sleep all day so it wasn’t that hard to take care of her.  Now, she needs all kinds of attention and entertainment.  Also, when she doesn’t get enough sleep, she’s a crank.

The only way we got any sleep at the beginning.

In other words, at the end of the day yesterday I felt like I had been in a war zone.  I felt beaten down…by a three month old.  All the crying, yelling (her, not me) and moodiness (both of us) had whittled me down into a tired, hateful mess.  My poor husband had to deal with me and my terrible mood for the rest of the evening.  I’m pretty sure we were both ecstatic when our bedtime rolled around.

The next thing I know, it’s 5:15 and…she’s still asleep.  Was it a fluke?  For everyone who has to encounter me, let’s hope not.

I say all of this to say that sleep is important.  For babies.  For Moms.  For Dads.  For students.  But, you can survive on next to none when you have to.  I know I’ll never have the luxury of sleeping in or taking naps when I want, but that’s okay.  I have her and that’s all that matters.

But if you’re pregnant (or think you might ever want to be pregnant), go take a nap right now.  Seriously, when people tell you to sleep while you can, they mean it!