The Michael Family Musings: Mia, Month Twelve

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

Posing with her birthday board

Stats:

Weight: On her actual birthday, we weighed her and she was 20.6 pounds. She weighed slightly less at her doctor’s appointment a few days later, but that’s probably because she was in only her diaper. She’s in the 45^th percentile for weight.

Height: She’s 30 inches tall, in the 79^th percentile for height.

Size: Still in 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers.

Appearance: Not much has changed here since last month. It’s probably in my head because she’s a year old now, but to me she looks more like a toddler and less like a baby.

Food:

We made it to a year of breastfeeding! When I was pregnant, this was my ultimate goal, so I’m really happy and proud that I was able to accomplish this. Props to my body for sustaining the milk, my husband for his unwavering support, and Mia for being an awesome nurser! She was down to getting breast milk twice a day this month. She nurses in the mornings, but rarely for longer than 15 minutes and she’ll get a sippy cup of breast milk before bed (4-6 ounces, she dictates how much she wants).
Side note: since this post is a few days late, we have actually started the weaning process… I will discuss that in detail in the next blog post.

She has completely eliminated purees and instead only eats regular food. After nursing in the morning, she usually wants some dry cereal or something else. For lunch, she generally has some kind of lunchmeat, cheese, and some kind of fruit. We started out the month giving her special dinners (ie I would make something specifically for her), but it actually seemed like she preferred to just eat what we were eating. So now for dinner she just has what we’re having (unless it’s really spicy or something). She’ll also have a couple of snacks throughout the day, usually Cheerios, puffs, fruit of some kind or Goldfish.

Overall she is a really good eater. She loves all fruit (though strawberries do seem to top the list. Thank goodness they’re in season now!) and she’s open to every kind of meat she’s tried too (chicken, turkey, shrimp, fish, ham, bacon). She LOVES carbs like bread and pasta, and her absolute favorite thing to eat right now is cheese. Yes, this is how I know she’s my child :-P The only thing we kind of struggle with is vegetables. She’s okay with green beans and peas, but anything else she pretty much refuses to eat. If you count them as veggies (heck, I do!), she does still love sweet potatoes! :-)

Her schedule for food goes a little something like this:
Breakfast: nurse and dry cereal
Morning snack: yogurt and/or applesauce
Lunch: lunchmeat, cheese and fruit
Afternoon snack: Cheerios, Goldfish, puffs or the like
Dinner: whatever we’re eating
Before bed: breast milk

Sleep:

She’s waking up a little earlier in the morning than she had been, usually between 6:30 and 7. Every now and then I can get her to go back to sleep by bringing her into bed with me, but when this does happen it’s rarely for longer than an hour.

Her naps have improved slightly. She usually goes down for her morning nap at around 9 and sleeps for an hour to an hour and a half. Afternoon nap generally starts around 2 and lasts about the same amount of time as the first. One day she took two 2-hour naps, that was amazing!

Bed time has pushed up a little, she’s generally asleep now by 8 instead of starting the milk/story process at 8. If she’s particularly cranky or fussy, she’ll go down even earlier (7:30 or so). She’s sleeping through the night, so she’s generally getting about 11 hours of sleep.

Milestones:

Turning one is a pretty big milestone I think! :-)

She points at things when she a) wants them or b) wants to know what they are.

Her vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds this month. She now has about 8 words that she can say well enough that we understand and she can approximate other words (like ‘pa-pa’ for paci, ‘ba’ for ball, etc.). She likes to point at things and say ‘dis’ which is think is her way of asking “what is this called?”.

She’s also picked up a few more signs. She can do ‘more’ (clapping her hands), ‘all done’, ‘thank you’, ‘water’ (patting her cheek), and ‘milk’. I can now distinguish her ‘more’ from her actual clapping too; ‘more’ is two claps, any more than that and she’s applauding herself or something that she likes.

When she drops something or falls down, she says ‘uh ah’ which I think is insanely adorable.

She’s still not able to walk independently, but she loves to walk holding our hands or cruising around using the furniture. She can also walk all around the house using her push walker. She can crawl really quickly, but she seems to be using her resources to learn how to walk. She prefers being upright :-)

As she gets more aware, she’s started crying when she’s startled by something instead of just jumping or flinching like she used to.

She’s starting to understand the mechanics of how things work. For instance, she knows that you point the remote at the TV, put the phone to your ear, and that you use a comb to brush your hair.

Things I want to remember about this month:

Her birthday! Jason took the day off work and we went to the zoo as a family of three. She loved all of the animals and picked out a stuffed animal wolf (‘ulf’) in the gift shop before we left :-) We had her birthday party the next day with family and friends and it was a blast too!

She screams when she’s frustrated about something. I’m not insane about this, but I find it interesting that she knows some way to vent her frustration about things.

Those special moments when she only wants mommy. Some days it is hard when she won’t let me put her down, but I know I’ll cherish these one day when she won’t let me hold her anymore.

Whenever we’re laughing about something, she’ll start laughing too.

We celebrated our first mother's day with Mia out of the womb. I am so lucky to be this girl's mama!

Mom thoughts on year one:

I can’t believe that my baby girl is already one year old. It’s amazing to me how much she’s achieved in a year period. She went from an infant who couldn’t even hold her head up, to a little girl who can talk and interact with us. I have truly enjoyed being home with her, I’m not even to the point where I miss work :-) I feel like every day is something new (for her and for me!). I feel insane pride every time she reaches a milestone.
On the not so great front, I feel like she almost had a reverse infancy when it came to sleep. When we first brought her home from the hospital, she’d sleep 4-5 hours in a stretch at night. By 8 weeks or so, she was sleeping through the night (7-8 hours). Then, we got to month 6. To be completely honest, months 6-9 were probably the most difficult for me. She wasn’t sleeping all that well, she was teething all the time, and she hadn’t completely gotten the hang of napping. There were some days where she’d wake up at 7 am and be awake until midnight without sleep of any kind, and by that point she was old enough that we couldn’t just rock her or bounce her to sleep. I do think that we avoided her having colic (which I am so grateful for!) but those three or so months were probably the most difficult time that I’ve had as a mom so far.
My favorite period of this past year was probably these last few months approaching her birthday. I absolutely love watching her learn things and become more independent. I love seeing her happy. The joy on her face when she sees something she likes is unreal. Hearing “mama” for the first time will be a memory that I’ll always treasure. These past few months give me hope that I’ll enjoy the toddler years, though I do worry about her becoming TOO smart and independent!
Overall, adjusting to motherhood was not as difficult for me as I was expecting. While I’ve been more tired this year than I ever have in my entire life, I honestly feel like this was a normal transition for me to make. I am relieved about this, because I remember being so nervous at the end of my pregnancy and unsure about whether or not I’d adjust well. So many women struggle adjusting to life as a new mom, so I feel extremely fortunate. There are days when she tries my patience and I wonder if I’m doing a good job, but I really do feel like I was made for this mom life. Ask me again in another year when we’re approaching the terrible twos!
Jason is a wonderful father. He provides me with so much loving support and never complains about changing diapers, taking her when she’s fussy, or letting me have a mom’s night out if I ever need a night off. I know he’s got to be even more tired than I am by the end of the day, but he’s always there to help with bathtime and story. I honestly don’t know how I would have made it through this year without my partner <3
Nursing was a positive experience for me and one I hope to replicate with any future kids that we have. It was hard at first. I felt like she’d never latch or that my milk would never come in. Then, I was leaky all the time for 6 months. Thankfully, with the help of some awesome nurses, a nipple shield, and a patient and caring husband and family, I met my goal of breastfeeding her for a whole year (6 months exclusively!). While I’d like in some ways to continue for longer, Mia’s growing disinterest in nursing combined with my dislike of pumping has lead me to the decision that a year is long enough for us.
Overall, I feel like year one of Mia’s life has been a good one for us. I can’t wait to continue watching her grow up and learn new things. I’ll keep providing updates probably about as frequently as she has doctor’s appointments, but for now, I’ve got a sweet baby who just woke up from nap!