Harper Reese- 12 Months Old!

It's the eve of Harper's first birthday and I have so much to say�but it's so hard to summarize our entire amazing year�I never feel I can find the right words or write it as beautifully as it deserves to be captured.

But this will be published on her birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET BABY HARPER REESE! 

How can I summarize this year and do it justice? (I can't) It has been the most incredible year, the most fun, the most challenging, the funniest, the scariest. You made me a mother and with that you showed me the kind of love that makes your heart feel like it's exploding into millions of pieces. You've shown me patience, made me stronger and better and helped grow me into the woman I always wished I would be.

You made me a mother and you gave me the world through your sweet, innocent, beautiful eyes. The day you were born, I could never imagine what you would be like a year from now---and now life is forever changed as I watch you grow and learn and thrive and I'm so lucky---we are so lucky and grateful to be your parents.

Your smile lights up my world, your laugh makes my heart melt and every time you learn something new or show me you understand something new, I'm just in awe of you.

From that sweet tiny little newborn nestled in my arms in our hospital bed to the walking, vocal, determined baby girl you are today, you have changed our lives forever in the very best way imaginable.

Happy birthday my life, my love, my beauty. We love you so much.

Harper's 12 month updates:

Weight/Height: Harper is 30.5 inches tall (89th percentile), 23.06 lbs (88th percentile) and her head is 17.5 inches (37th percentile).

Health: Other than a 48-hour tummy bug, Harper has been doing great health-wise. She's teething right now and she was definitely clingier and fussier than usual today. Poor baby teething on her birthday...

Sleep: Yay for sleeping through the night! This babe sleeps consistently from about 7:45 ish through 6 or 6:30 a.m. Once in awhile she will wake up in the middle of the night and go back to sleep on her own. Rarely, one of us has to actually go into her room. This has been huge for us because getting enough sleep makes life a lot easier as parents. 

Social: Lots of playdates, starting Little Gym this summer and daily play with daycare friends during the week. What we've noticed lately is that Harper really scopes out new situations. She is rarely outgoing, smiley and vocal when we arrive somewhere new. She gets very very serious and her facial expressions show it! Once she has been there for awhile and explored a bit, her usual self comes right out and she's back to being the smiley loving girl she always is. 

Diet: Harper is still getting frozen pumped milk. I'm really stressed about the transition to WCM�we were supposed to start this past weekend and we couldn't because she was recovering from her tummy bug�so now, we basically have to try and transition in about a week because we have to travel. I hope she takes to it well because the logistics of bringing a ton of frozen milk onto a plane are not ones I want to deal with.

If you have any advice on transitioning, I'm all ears! We are going to mix WCM into her bottles 25/75 then 50/50 etc. to get her used to the taste. She likes most foods so maybe she will take well to it�but she loves those bottles so I'm guessing it will be a challenge.

She's still doing great with solids---eating a lot of veggies, grains and fruits daily as well as cheese, eggs and Greek yogurt. She self-feeds really wonderfully and is very enthusiastic about food. 

Likes: Walking is her biggest like right now�she hardly ever crawls anymore! She also likes to test boundaries, take things in and out of boxes, play with her very own Tupperware cabinet, pull bows out of her hair, point to everything, say "mooo" for cow, pushing things to slide along the floor, Boo the dog, carrying her basket, putting hair bows in her basket, playing peek-a-boo with nearly anything that can cover her face, remote controls, being read to (she will point at her book if she wants to read it again or get another one)

Dislikes: Hair bows! The days of the headbands are over for now, folks. She will wear clip in bows, but not headbands, no matter which one I try. She just pulls them right off. Maybe it's a phase, maybe not, we shall see! She also very much dislikes waiting for her food. She wants it NOW!

Postpartum: I was hoping to be done pumping and that hasn't worked out quite how I expected/planned. I'm a little bit stressed because we have to travel soon and I'm not bringing that pump with me. My milk production has dropped to about 3 oz in a five minute pumping session (and I'm pumping for relief only) but then after about 48 hours my breasts start to feel painful and I can feel clogs and I feel like I have to pump and the cycle starts all over again. I tried cabbage leaves too�hopefully I can just get through the pain and the clogs won't turn into something worse.

To be honest, I'm a little bit afraid of the hormone crash that's going to come when my milk completely stops. Did that happen to you? Would love to hear your experiences with weaning.

Overall though, I'm so proud to have met my goal of Harper receiving my breast milk for an entire year! (yay!)

Clothes: Harper is wearing some 12-18 and 18-24. She's in size 4 diapers.

Crying: Harper is still having some tantrums but they're getting shorter. Once we started to ignore and/or redirect, they've improved. She still tests our boundaries a lot (touch things on purpose she knows she's not supposed to, watching to see our reaction when she does this, etc). Things have (temporarily I'm sure) improved since last month.

Milestones: She finally said "mama!" She doesn't say it a lot but I'm so happy when she does. She walks everywhere, doesn't crawl much anymore. She understands so much�goes to her highchair when she's hungry, points at absolutely everything, can follow many commands and identify objects ("where's your book?/go get me your panda"). She can also "answer" simple questions like "where does your shoe go?" and she will look down and grab her foot. The first time she did it I thought it was a fluke, but nope, girl knows where her socks and shoes belong. 

Thank you so much to each and every one of you who have read my blog and supported me throughout the first year of motherhood. For your comments, advice and overall sweetness, I'm grateful for y'all.