The last few months we have thrown some variety in your daily routine. This is usually how your day goes, you wake up between 630 and 930 at which point you "help me" jump start the day by freeing the dogs out of their crate, while I feed and take the dogs out as well as get myself around you watch a video and play with your toys. You have breakfast then get bathed/dressed on our activity days we load up and take Muti to work. Then we either go to Baby Be Bop, the Zoo or we go to the Mall play area. On non activity days, I let you play. We have a mid day meal/snack then you take a nap and then in the afternoon we typically play with your toys. Then you usually have a snack and then nap, once you are awake we either go to pick Muti up from work or you watch a video while I get dinner figured out. In the evenings Muti hangs out with you, you usually play on the Muti jungle gym or we head to the Mall so you can play and interact with other tots! Then it is bedtime, we do your bed time routine and then it is off to sleep. You are usually asleep between 1030 and 11.
FOOD:
You still nurse. The subject of weaning you has come up for discussion, but you are rather attached to being nursed. You typically nurse for comfort not so much for a meal. We feel that you nursing a little longer seems to be the right decision for us and you specifically. We have a lot of transitions coming up and since nursing gives you a sense of security it is the last thing we want to take away from you. In addition, you are not warming up to cow's milk or toddler formula and until we have established a nutritional supplement to breast milk the weaning is on the back burner.
In regards to other food... You have eaten pretty much everything Mommy and Muti eat with exception to beef, raw fish, seafood and spicy foods. Almost all your meals are a combination of what ever we are eating and a baby food of some sort to supplement. Breakfast is the only meal that you have something different than your Mommies. You have a mish mash of fruit and oats/quinoa.
My goal with your meals is to ensure you get all your "servings" of protein, dairy, vegetables, fruit and grains... Which is why we supplement your meals of our food with baby food. It turns out as healthy as Mommy and Muti would like to think they eat... we don't get enough vegetables or fruit not to much the grains and dairy. Having you has really opened our eyes to nutrition as we want you to eat healthy so you can grow healthy.
You are a great eater! And you would rather feed yourself than be fed!
SLEEP:
You still do not sleep through the night.
You usually wake up twice a night, once between midnight and 2 am and once between 430am and 6 am. You still nurse once or twice a night, your pediatricians all say that you do not need to eat during the night and are doing it out of habit. We agree, but have chosen to not break the habit yet as we are working on your night time routine.
So we have a go with the flow approach with you for most things in your life, including bed time. We kind of had a routine but not really one we used consistently which negates the "routine" to a routine. We put you down when you showed signs of being tired we made mediocre attempts at putting you down early and figured you will go to bed when you are sleepy. If you woke up in the night and started babbling or moving around either your Muti or I would get up with you and let you play. Well no more. Looking back I see this as taking the easy road because I was so tired and just didn't want to fight with you. I also think this is why you don't sleep through the night.
So we are taking steps to work on your sleep schedule. First we established a bedtime routine. To ensure you will not fight bed time to much, we start you wind down at least an hour before we start your routine by making sure there is no "screen" time... which goes for your Mommies too, this way our minds aren't being overly stimulated and we can ease in to our time of rest.
So Bedtime routine...This is yours:
Change into PJs
Brush our teeth
Read a book and get your hair brushed
Say a prayer
Rock with Mommy or Muti to a song or 2 until you are almost asleep.
Lie down in bed and go to sleep
We are currently putting you to bed around 1030 but are working on creeping that earlier so that you are getting to bed at a more reasonable hour. So far the routine seems to be working. You still have not slept through the night but we have had some close calls, and we have noticed that you don't sleep as well when we don't do the routine.
We are also working on getting you to self soothe, which is why we no longer rock you completely asleep. Right now we kind of lie near you and rock you when we first put you down, but we are slowly going to stop the rocking you, then remove ourselves from being with you in small steps. Your Connecticut pediatrician recommended this method and mentioned this is the longer/harder way to do it but it avoids the Cry It Out method which Muti and Mommy just don't have the hear to do.
During the day you typically take 2 naps, one at 1130ish and one at 4ish... Although you have had some days where you have just had 1 nap around 1 that is longer. On the 1 nap days you seem more ready to turn in earlier so it is tempting to transition you to 1 nap but I am not sure if this is a good idea or not yet.
MILESTONES:
You are walking!!! You started walking in August just after you turned 11 months! At first it was just one or two steps but now you are all over the place! You have not discovered the run yet but I know our days are numbered!
You still love to climb and now in addition to your climb you stand on top of things... Which is nerve racking for both Muti and Mommy! You are a climber at heart and you live for the ascent!
You are making even more sounds! You chatter quite a bit but we haven't figured out what you are saying most of the time. Some words that we do recognize are: Doggie and Hooray!
You have also picked up some signs, you sign "More" but it seems like you interpret the more to also mean food. Which makes sense since we usually only sign it to you when food is involved. You sign "All Done" when you are finished, this one you seem to know exactly what it means. Mommy and Muti glow with pride at your signing. We are currently working on adding: Eat, Drink and Sleep to the list.
WHAT'S FUNNY:
You find the dogs to still be funny. You also still seem to think you are funny... you laugh to yourself quite a bit... You love Peek a Boo! And you of course love the "FLOP"... this is where Mommy flops you upside down!
YOUR FAVORITE TOY:
Currently your favorite toy isn't a toy at all. You love the swiffer so much so Muti shortened it for our safety! You love to just carry it around with you perhaps you think of it as your Scepter who knows! You also love mylar balloons, we learned this on your birthday when Muti got you your first princess balloon and nothing else existed until it lost some of its air.
CLOTHES SIZE:
You still wear the 6-9 months pants but they are getting short on you so we have been transitioning you the 12 month pants; for shirts you are still wearing the 9-12 month or 12 month tops. You can fit into some 18 month clothes you have a swim suit that you wear that is 18 months and a couple onezie dress thingies that fit you that are 18 months. You actually haven't "grown" much the past few months, but you are still changing quite a bit, your proportions are changing I think your legs are getting longer, but you are skinny skinny so the problem with 12 month pants is the waist not the length.
HAIR COLOR:
The tips are still brown, but most of your hair is a dark blonde with a strawberry hue to it, especially when you wear pink!
EYE COLOR:
Your eyes are definitely blue and pretty as can be!
STATS:
Birth: 9 lbs 8 oz (99th percentile), 21 1/2" long
3 Months: 14 lbs 3 oz (90th percentile), 24 3/4" long (97th percentile)
6 Months: 17lbs 12 oz (83rd percentile), 28 1/2" long (99th percentile)
9 Months: 18lbs 14 oz (56th percentile), 29 3/4" long (95th percentile)
12 Months: 19lbs 5 oz (21st percentile), 29 1/2"* long (67th percentile)
*Don't worry you didn't shrink, measuring your height isn't very accurate as they lay you down and mark off the end of your feet and the top of your head with a pencil then measure. Chances are your 9 month measurement was off or your 12 month you had a bend in your knees or something.
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