11 months

 

(Look at those lips!)

Is this really the last month I have an infant? How can that possibly be?

Month 11…where to begin? Let’s see…

All 4 front teeth are fully in and a 5th one is on its way (it’s the one to the right of her right front tooth on top…I have no idea how else to explain it!), which means teething has been in full swing; our day involves a lot of drooling, crying, and chewing on everything.

I’m not sure if it’s the teething or a stage but she has not been eating or sleeping well at all lately. She is still nursing a lot, at least 4-5 times a day, but lately she just hasn’t had as much interest in solid food. Breakfast goes well but lunch and dinner are more snacks than anything else. Its not that she isn’t eating, she just isn’t eating the HUGE amount of food she has been for the last 3 months or so. She seems to want to get down and move around and loses her patience with sitting still and eating. Strawberries and oranges are still a favorite, as is any fruit. Broccoli and cauliflower proved to cause way too much gas, so we aren’t eating those anymore. She had steamed apples for the first time this month and seemed to really like those as well.

Getting to sleep has been a huge struggle lately. She has had a schedule for a long time and it usually goes something like this: wakes up sometime around 7-8, eats, falls back asleep, wakes up 2 hours later for the day, plays for 2-3 hours and between 12-1 she would go down for a nap, sleep for an hour, wake up and play until around 5ish, sleep for an hour and a half to two hours, play for another 2-3 hours, then go to sleep for the night around 10-11. The actual time of day is pretty variable, but its almost always in those time increments.

That schedule is still our basic schedule except each time we try to put her down, it takes at least half an hour. She hasn’t been able to get herself to sleep without nursing, which is unusual as well. I’ve always nursed her to sleep, but she has also always been able to go lay with Derek and fall asleep on her own. Now she screams and screams and screams if I don’t nurse her. She screams so loud now that when she is in her room crying you can hear her outside the house. It is insane. I really think it must be teething pain, so we’ve bought her some teething tablets and orajel with hopes that it’ll help. Tonight she fell asleep really quickly but woke up about 20 minutes after we put her in the crib. It took about 20 minutes to get her back to sleep.

She has started saying “mama” a little more often and sometimes she actually means me when she says it. She says “dada” for Derek pretty regularly. She knows hi and bye and waves now, though rarely in public, and sometimes it’s a good 2 minutes after we’ve asked her to do it. She still knows “ball” but doesn’t necessarily know what she is referring to and sometimes call whatever she is playing with “ball” 

She has started walking! Like I said in a previous post, she took her first steps yesterday, and she took 3 more today with a little prompting. She spent all last night and half of today zooming around the living room with her walker. It is so cute! I would be dreading it but she already gets into everything and moves lightening fast…I just can’t imagine it getting worse!

(Baby toes!)

We’ve dragged her all over the city this month in an attempt to do everything we want to do before we leave. I’ve taken a ton of pictures of her near NYC landmarks, so she’ll have proof she was here, even if she can’t remember it. It makes me sad that she might never know this place as well as we have.

Her favorite way to sit and hang out is to squat. It is so funny and looks terribly uncomfortable, but she seems quite content sitting that way for extended periods of time. She is obsessed with Derek’s computer and has some kind of radar that allows her to know when its open and abandoned. She makes a beeline straight to it the minute either of those things happen and like I said, she moves quick! Balls are a favorite toy and the egg shakers (or anything that makes noise when she shakes it) are also still a hit. She loves to clap when we say “yay” or she hears other people clapping (even if its on tv). She is climbing like a monkey and even got off our bed the other day (with just a little help from daddy). She still loves playing with and in water and the dog bowl is never safe. She has also started showing more interest in her books and will pull them out of the basket and flip through the pages. I thought this was a signal that she actually wanted me to read her the book but she really just wants to open and close the pages. She loves to open and close things and can do it on command when she chooses to listen. “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” is currently her favorite book. She can also unscrew the tops of things and is currently trying to figure out how to pull things apart. She is also starting to show an interest in stuffed animals and will occasionally hug or kiss them when I ask her to or show her that I’m doing it. Mostly she just bites them and I say better them than me. When I tell her what noise they make, she tries to imitate it, and its beyond adorable.

Little baby rat tail. Her hair is finally growing and if I comb it all out, its all one length in the back, which is exciting! I can’t wait until its long enough to do something other than the Donald Trump comb over she sports now.

Month 11 has already started to fly by and I’m kind of dreading the appearance of month 12. There is no way she is a year old. With all the stressful things happening in the next few weeks, I’m really hoping I can slow myself down and enjoy this time, instead of being anxious and sad.Why doesn’t life have a pause button?