11 Months!

Let the party planning/cry-fest begin! Maleah's first birthday is in less than one month. Holy moly that is scary! Wasn't I just holding a teeny tiny newborn? A year goes faster than you think. People try to explain it to you, but it just doesn't make sense until it flies by before you can say "happy birthday, baby girl"!

I remember feeling extremely overwhelmed in the first days and weeks of parenthood. It seemed the sleepless nights and crying fits and time spent at the pump (not of the gas variety) would never end. But, it did. After a few months of getting to know Maleah, life became "normal". We figured out a routine and figured out her personality and we've been sailing pretty smoothly ever since. But, I don't want to get into too much detail about my thoughts on her first birthday! She is ONLY 11 months, after all!

Stats

According to our scale at home, Maleah weighs about 19-20 pounds. And I guesstimate she is around 29-30 inches tall. She wears a size 3 diaper, clothes in the 9-18 month range, a size 4 (okay, 3.5 but we don't own any 3.5s because baby feet grow really fast) shoe, and seems to be the perfect size for cuddling in my lap!

Eating

She still takes four bottles a day, about six ounces at a time. She usually takes a bottle at 6:30/10:30/3-4/7. I am excited about not having to buy formula after the transition to whole milk and have vowed to do whatever it takes to nurse/pump for a future child. I have intentions of writing a blog on my thoughts about parenting a first child in the near future... so I'll save my reasonings for that post! Anyway... Maleah is solely on table food at this point. I thought we would take more time to transition to table foods in order to find the things she likes to eat, but it was actually pretty easy to find wholesome, nutritious foods for her to eat. She is a great eater!

Some of her favorite foods are: eggs, waffles, avocado, mandarin oranges, spaghetti, chili, cheese, carrots, and peas! Oh and she loves Nilla wafers!

Schedule

6:30-7 ~ Wake up, 6 oz formula

7-7:30 ~ Get ready for the day, play with Mommy & Daddy

7:30-8 ~ Either go to school or play at home

8:15 ~ Breakfast

9:30-11:30 ~ Nap

11:30 ~ (or when she wakes up) 6 oz bottle

12:15 ~ Lunch

1:30-3:30 ~ Nap

3:30 ~ (or when she wakes up) 6 oz bottle

4:15 ~ Snack, if she wants it 

5:30/6 ~ Dinner

7 ~ Bath, bottle, book, bedtime! (In bed by 7:30)

Maleah has done really well adjusting back and forth between home and school. She only goes to daycare 3 days a week and we try to keep her days as similar as we can so she isn't thrown off by two very different schedules. However, she still has longer wake times at school because of the activities, but she still usually gets two good, solid naps. 

Development

We think we're on the brink of seeing some first steps. She's taken a few teeny tiny "steps" but definitely not the real thing yet. She has been standing on her own A LOT the past few days - just randomly standing up in the middle of the living room (with no help from anything). She'll just stand there, looking like she wants to take a step, and then she either falls on her butt or squats to finish playing. Blake is REALLY excited about her walking and I am a little terrified!!! I'm happy with her being relatively contained!

Maleah has made huge strides in language development over the past few weeks. It is clear to see that she understands a good bit of what you're saying and she tries to mimic a lot of words, too. Some of the words she can "say" and understand: Mama, Da-Da, Pop-eye (my step-dad's name), puppy, hmm-hmm (Maleah for "ruff-ruff"), meow (when she sees a cat), baa (when she sees a sheep), boom, beep beep, diaper (yep. Sounds like "bah-puh"), poop (thanks, Daddy), bottle ("bah-bul"), and her favorite - NO, NO, NO ("nah, nah, nah")! She also shakes her head and gives you the stink eye with that last one. Not kidding! I am amazed at how quickly she has picked up so many words! 

We are also working on teaching her some sign language. She can sign "all done" and I think she understands when we sign "more" and "eat". We really haven't done them consistently until lately, but we're hoping to also teach her the sign for "please" and "thank-you". 

Other Thoughts

Crying It Out... yeah, yeah, I bragged about doing a "gentle" CIO method when Maleah was 5 weeks old. It really wasn't all that bad and there were no 30-minute crying fits from anyone. I am glad we did it because I contribute working with her to go to sleep that early helped her tremendously in the long run. She has since been a great napper/sleeper and consequently she is an extremely happy, content baby when she's awake. Lately, though, it's been harder to hear her cry if she is having a hard time getting to sleep. For MONTHS, crying was practically non-existent before sleep-times because she was just so tired and wanted to sleep. But now that she really knows what's going on (and I think maybe she is in one of those 'if I can't see you, you don't exist' phases), her cries are different. There is one cry where I know she will cry for MAYBE 5 minutes and drift to sleep and then there is another one that just breaks my heart. I can't handle it so I go in and rock her to sleep. I really don't want to start any habits with her that make it more difficult for her to sleep at daycare or when we're out & about, but I know this time is fleeting so if my baby needs a little rocking, her mommy will be happy to oblige. :)