Harper surprised us by taking her first steps just a few days before her 11 month birthday! It was so unexpected that I just started to cry (happy tears!)
She's getting more and more confident each day and she's now walking regularly and it's so fun watching her get steadier and steadier. I'm so proud of the little girl she's becoming- and you can tell she is proud of herself---she will sometimes start to walk on her own and she gives me this sweet little smile that turns into a big smile as she walks towards me and I'm encouraging her. Her "thing" is to walk towards me smiling and at the end I say "give me a hug" and she spreads her arms wide and falls into me and it's just indescribable how special those moments are.
I'm still in disbelief at how fast this year has gone by. At the end of this month I will be celebrating the day this sweet girl was born and yet it feels like only yesterday I held her tiny little body in my arms on the day that our lives changed forever.
Sometimes I feel like I'll never quite have the words to adequately describe how much I adore her. I never ever feel like my words do her justice or that they reflect how much I truly love her. She's at an age now where I'm really feeling a sense of closeness between us that is very special. She has always been a cuddly and sweet baby, but now that she interacts, communicates and understands more, it brought that to a whole new level for me. I'm her mama and she shows me she loves me and it's the best feeling in the whole world. Sorry to get all sappy on y'all, but I'm just in one of those reflective moods.
I still think Harper looks like a baby�but watching her personality shine through and witnessing her growth in so many areas is making me start to see the toddler in her too. She's curious and smart and responsive. It's like one day she was a baby and the next day she started to surprise us daily with new skills.
Here are Harper's 11 month updates:
Weight: I won't know her height until her 12 month appointment but she weighs about 22.5 lbs. She hasn't really gained weight since her 9 month appoimtment but I think that's normal once they're more mobile.
Sleep: Harper is a fantastic sleeper. It is rare for her to wake up at night and when she does she will 9/10 times go back to sleep on her own. She sleeps through the night from about 7:30-6:30 a.m. Once in awhile she will wake up at 5:30 or 6 and we just bring her to our bed for the extra hour to 30 minutes. She still takes her paci for sleeping but we don't use it much otherwise (though we did let her use it more when she was sick because she was irritable and it soothed her and allowed her to rest comfortably). We definitely lucked out in the sleep department and we didn't sleep train her.
Social: We do lots of playdates and Harper started Little Gym! We LOVE it. We will probably go back to swimming in the fall but for now we just love Little Gym. It's just as fun for us parents, we had a blast at her first class. Though we have cameras at my daycare and I can watch her sometimes, seeing her interact with other babies when we have play dates is very cute. She laughed so hard recently when I got together with Megan and Olivia and O was running back and forth in our house. It just cracked Harper up to see another little friend running like that.
Diet: I am still exclusively pumping for Harper (read more about my pumping story here) BUT THAT IS GOING TO BE OVER SOON!!!!!!! (!!!!!!!) Can you tell I'm pretty excited? I have just over 500 ounces of breast milk in my freezer that we will use to feed Harper when I wean from pumping, until she turns one. We never used 99 percent of the breast milk I froze. Most people have a system for cycling it, but I had an ample enough supply that we could use either fresh or refrigerated milk for the last 11 months and that was our preference to maximize her exposure to immunity factors in my milk, which I've mentioned in previous monthly updates.
Looking back, I don't know if it helped because Harper was sick throughout the year, but perhaps it shortened the length of her illnesses or prevented her from having more serious ones outside of the common cold? I can't be sure, but she was only on antibiotics once which is pretty good for her first year.
So anyway, I ended up with this freezer full of milk and some of it was really old from when I first went back to work and I didn't want to feed that to her even though I did test one of the oldest bags and it didn't smell badly or like it had spoiled.
Fortunately one of the neonatologists I work with told me about a project at Rice University where they're researching how to prevent 50 percent of fat from breast milk from getting caught up in feeding tubes and not getting to the babies who badly need it. I was able to donate over 100 ounces to that project. I'm just thrilled it didn't go to waste. You can view more about that project here. Though I would have liked to have donated it to our donor milk program, I was not eligible because of the fenugreek I had been taking at the time.
As far as solids, Harper is eating like a champ and feeds herself so well. We don't do purees at all anymore and give her everything but peanut butter and honey. She also drinks water from a straw or sippy cup now with her meals.
Diet: I am still exclusively pumping for Harper (read more about my pumping story here) BUT THAT IS GOING TO BE OVER SOON!!!!!!! (!!!!!!!) Can you tell I'm pretty excited? I have just over 500 ounces of breast milk in my freezer that we will use to feed Harper when I wean from pumping, until she turns one. We never used 99 percent of the breast milk I froze. Most people have a system for cycling it, but I had an ample enough supply that we could use either fresh or refrigerated milk for the last 11 months and that was our preference to maximize her exposure to immunity factors in my milk, which I've mentioned in previous monthly updates.
Looking back, I don't know if it helped because Harper was sick throughout the year, but perhaps it shortened the length of her illnesses or prevented her from having more serious ones outside of the common cold? I can't be sure, but she was only on antibiotics once which is pretty good for her first year.
So anyway, I ended up with this freezer full of milk and some of it was really old from when I first went back to work and I didn't want to feed that to her even though I did test one of the oldest bags and it didn't smell badly or like it had spoiled.
Fortunately one of the neonatologists I work with told me about a project at Rice University where they're researching how to prevent 50 percent of fat from breast milk from getting caught up in feeding tubes and not getting to the babies who badly need it. I was able to donate over 100 ounces to that project. I'm just thrilled it didn't go to waste. You can view more about that project here. Though I would have liked to have donated it to our donor milk program, I was not eligible because of the fenugreek I had been taking at the time.
As far as solids, Harper is eating like a champ and feeds herself so well. We don't do purees at all anymore and give her everything but peanut butter and honey. She also drinks water from a straw or sippy cup now with her meals.
Likes: dancing, walking, crawling, cruising, climbing stairs, music, singing (even with my terrible voice), being mischievous, saying dadadada but never mama (haha), laughing, books, Boo the dog, Mr. Panda, her walker, throwing balls and cups, playing "catch," her musical teapot, hair bows, peek-a-boo, using her diaper wipes container to slide around on the floor, bath time...
Postpartum: I had planned to be done pumping by May 1st, but alas, here I am, still going 3 times a day. My supply is finally showing signs of dwindling. It takes my body awhile to respond to a new pumping routine so I'm having to continue. I get plugged ducts on the regular so I have to be very careful not to try to wean too quickly because mastitis would be absolutely terrible. Yesterday I only pumped 23 oz so it looks like it's continuing to slow down. The light at the end of the tunnel is so near...
My body has been really weird this week. I feel like maybe my hormones are changing and it's causing me to feel a bit ill. I am actually dreading weaning for completely superficial reasons, afraid my hormonal acne will return in full force. My skin is the best it's ever been since I've been pregnant and pumping so I know the hormone crash is going to do me in. Time to apply an extra layer of acne cream. Sigh.
My body has been really weird this week. I feel like maybe my hormones are changing and it's causing me to feel a bit ill. I am actually dreading weaning for completely superficial reasons, afraid my hormonal acne will return in full force. My skin is the best it's ever been since I've been pregnant and pumping so I know the hormone crash is going to do me in. Time to apply an extra layer of acne cream. Sigh.
Crying: OMG the crying. I was one of those idiots who was all "oh babies don't have tantrums until they're two." What? No. Little Harper has the dramatic tantrums down. Give that girl an academy award. Harper has the most fancy tantrums ever complete with face turning red, lip pouting out, (real) tears, and screaming�oh the screams! Sometimes she throws herself on the floor and I have to catch her so she doesn't hit her head. It's lovely. I was stupid and when she first started doing it I would comfort her and then my co-workers were all "are you crazy? you're going to teach her that tantrums work!" Duh. Now, we do two things- talk to her in a reasonable tone about why she can't touch that, have that, throw that, why she has to wait for her food to warm up, why she can't eat mommy's phone, you know, the basics. Then, if the tantrum continues we ignore and continue to converse over the screams. So far, this has been mildly effective, but I am optimistic. She's a delight most of the time, but when she's mad, she's one fiery little red haired girl.
Milestones: WALKING! That is the most major one but the other thing I will mention is that it is very clear she can understand many things. I can say "go get your basket" or "Where's Mr. Panda" and she correctly identifies the objects and retrieves them when I ask her too. She also understands "put the eggs inside the basket" (or whatever objects) and does it. She knows "stand up," "let's walk," etc. She also started to point at everything. She points and wants us to name everything. She can also sometimes identify objects we ask her to "where are the flowers?" and she correctly points to them. It fascinates me because I had zero knowledge of what babies can know by this age. I just kind of went with the flow. She also started to point when she wants something or will point at her book after we've read it because she wants me to read it again. Or she passes me a book she wants me to read. She is more vocal and babbles a lot but still no mama. I could have sworn she said hi dada the other day but it was probably my mind playing tricks on me. She's amazing!
Milestones: WALKING! That is the most major one but the other thing I will mention is that it is very clear she can understand many things. I can say "go get your basket" or "Where's Mr. Panda" and she correctly identifies the objects and retrieves them when I ask her too. She also understands "put the eggs inside the basket" (or whatever objects) and does it. She knows "stand up," "let's walk," etc. She also started to point at everything. She points and wants us to name everything. She can also sometimes identify objects we ask her to "where are the flowers?" and she correctly points to them. It fascinates me because I had zero knowledge of what babies can know by this age. I just kind of went with the flow. She also started to point when she wants something or will point at her book after we've read it because she wants me to read it again. Or she passes me a book she wants me to read. She is more vocal and babbles a lot but still no mama. I could have sworn she said hi dada the other day but it was probably my mind playing tricks on me. She's amazing!
Thanks for reading!
Harper's romper-Baby Gap (in stores, similar)
Harper's Headband-RyanandWren
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