11 months

I just noticed I haven't written her 11 month update, so I want to do that before I do a post about her first birthday. I don't regret being a working mother and having Freyja in daycare 5 days a week, but I worry I will forget as the days go by so quickly. Keeping this blog/journal has been a good way for me to reflect on motherhood despite my busy life!

Exploring:
The biggest new development at 11 months old is she took her first steps. It was quite comedic watching how excited she would get to walk, even though "walking" at first meant putting her arms in the air, taking quick steps, and looking like the leaning Tower of Piza before crashing on the carpet. With each week she gained balance, and before her first birthday she was at about 6-8 steps unassisted. If you needed a picture to define the word "busy," I could give you many of Freyja. It's hard to get a clear picture because she is rarely just still (unless she is sleeping). I don't have much to compare her to, so it's hard to say if she is more or less fussy than other babies. However, it is rare that she is not consolable, either with eating, sleeping, or picking her up. We have seen a few glimpses into what a tantrum may be like (such as when she is playing with something I don't want her to keep playing with and I take it away), but I can distract or re-direct her. She very much dislikes getting her diaper changed, but once it's over she is all smiles again.

Personality:
I think she has a great personality. She loves to interact with others...waving, clapping, saying hi and bye, dada (not "mama" as often), and recently has started pointing at everything! She will even point at animals in the book--and once I say what it is, she will point at the next one. I think she will be curious just like her mom & dad! Regarding foods, she will try new things. She likes watermelon again, so I really can't think of a food she refuses to eat right now. She has two teeth on the bottom, and four teeth coming in (not all the way in) on the top. She is able to gum more foods and does great feeding herself for the most part once the food is cut up. She even has a pouch on her easy-to-clean silicone bib (it can go in the dishwasher), so she can find leftovers later in her meal :)

Likes:
She claps when she is proud of herself, she can throw a ball, and says "zoom" when pushing a car or truck around. She likes her Fisher Price car that she moves around with her feet (she is a little too short to reach both feet on the ground at the same time) but she also likes pushing it while she walks. It has a "trunk" in the seat, which of course is fun for stashing toys. At this age, repetition is not boring, but how they learn! It's fun to watch her figure out the toy (such as holding up the trunk with one hand and reaching in with the other). She hasn't mastered the shape sorter, but she likes to put them in the bucket with the lid off. Large wooden puzzle pieces are more fun to bang together or to get a taste of than to put together or onto the puzzle board. Toys still go in her mouth, but she tends to play with them more with her hands (it's usually a quick "taste" and then she moves on!).

Social interaction:
At 11 months was the first time she cried (for only a minute or less!) when I left daycare or when I would leave the room, even if Nick was in the room with her. She looks to me when new people are around, and takes a little while to warm up. When it's loud, she is quieter, and when it's quiet, she is louder (she will babble, and say "hi" and wave until you say hi back). Even with her socialness, she still will play by herself while we watch her too. Often she will show us what she is playing with, wait for a response, then go back to playing. One of her favorite things at 11 months was knocking over blocks after we stacked them.

Sleep:
At 11 months, Freyja often went to bed between 7:45 and 8:15 pm, and would wake up 1 or 2 times at night (often around midnight or 1 am and 4 or 5 am), then sleep until sometime between 6:45 and 8:00 am. Prior to our vacation during the second week of August, I wanted to try letting her cry some at night before responding. If she cried out a little I waited, and she often put herself back to sleep. If she didn't or it was after 4 am, then I would feed her (& she acted hungry) and she would go right back to sleep. I would say by the end of 11 months, half the time she would wake up before 4:30am, and the other half she would wake up between 4:30 and 5:30 and then go back to sleep. I'm just glad that she goes back to sleep and doesn't start her day before 6! Since she gets sick with a cold at least once a month, if not more often, her sleep isn't exactly consistent. Being sick means waking up more frequently...but it all blends together! I definitely am not sleep-deprived like I used to be, and it has been very nice having her consistently go to bed well. Most of the time she doesn't cry when I put her to bed, and even if she does it's often for just a minute or less (more of a "hey, you're leaving me...ok, I'll go to sleep because I'm tired"). Her bedtime routine consists of getting in her PJs, brushing her teeth, turning off the lights around the house, reading a few books in the rocking chair, then breastfeeding and putting her in her crib (often putting her in her crib awake but tired). Sometimes if she is in a cuddling mood she may fall asleep in my arms, but she can put herself to sleep. Her comfort items are her pacifier and her blankets (she has several Aiden & Anais blankets which are soft and not too hot, and she likes holding them at bedtime and naptime at daycare). She also has a few stuffed animals, which she likes but doesn't cuddle with as much when she is asleep.

Health: At 11 months she had one cold, a few diaper rashes & topical yeast infections (she has sensitive skin), and hand-foot-mouth disease--with this she developed some mouth sores, making it hard for her to eat. She usually LOVES to eat, but she would refuse to eat much for a few days. Thankfully she would still breastfeed so she didn't get dehydrated. Her thyroid tests have been good and she remains on synthroid (levothyroxine) for congenital hypothyroidism. She keeps her glasses on except when she is tired or upset, at which point she will hand them to me or rip them off. For a while we were doing cloth diapers (with some disposable), but lately because of her sensitive skin and frequency of using creams, we have just been using disposable diapers. I think the warm weather has something to do with it. Even frequent diaper changes don't seem to be enough, so for right now we are holding off on cloth diapers. It worked well for a while and I like that I wasn't adding a bunch of diapers to landfills, but it's not worth the skin irritation. I was disappointed, but just like some women try breastfeeding but for one reason or another it doesn't work out--some things just aren't worth stressing about. Freyja has been wearing both 9- and 12-month pants but mostly 12-month clothing. Some 9-month onesies fit for a while, but I realized they were getting stretched out and they are now in storage. I set aside any neutral clothes in a separate bag so that if next time I have a boy I don't have to dig through all the pink/girly things then!