Piper’s 11 Month Update

We are weeks away from Piper’s 1st birthday – it’s so true what everyone tells you as soon as you bring your sweet baby home from the hospital. “It goes so fast…cherish every second”. I always nodded my head and said “I know!” —  but it seems like just yesterday we were waiting and waiting and waiting for Piper’s arrival (You can read our birth story here) and now she’s walking and starting to talk and has a personality all of her own. I’ve always been the type to get sad about each passing month and milestone – I remember shedding tears when she turned 1 month old, I couldn’t believe that special, sacred time was over! As the months have progressed and Piper’s changed so much I get a little less sad a tad more excited about all of the new milestones Piper has ahead of her and how fun they’ll be to experience together. But–  I’m still sad she’s about to not be a baby anymore! This past month Piper started walking – right around her 11 month birthday exactly. It’s exciting and tiring – let me tell you! No more multi-tasking for me! 

WEIGHT & LENGTH: Finally have an accurate report! We went to our 4 month GI specialist follow up visit last week and Piper is 17lbs and 27 inches long! She’s growing great! I was so relieved to hear this from the doctor because it’s been lingering in the back of my head since our first visit and she made a comment about being concerned about her length. I knew her little legs were getting chubbier! 

DEVELOPMENT: Walking was our biggest milestone this month. She keeps us on our toes now, that’s for sure. She loves to carry around and empty my purses, bags, anything she can get her hands on. But purses are definitely her preference, wonder where she gets that from. I’ve started giving her a ‘discovery basket’ every morning while I make my coffee and fill it with random things from the kitchen and she entertains herself for a good 20 minutes playing with the items. She’s very curious and observant and doesn’t seem to be exhibiting too much ‘stranger danger’ right now. She’s still a pretty happy baby most of the time! We got her a baby pool for the yard which she really enjoys spending time in — and we took her to the real pool this past weekend. It took her a while to enjoy it but by the time we left she was having fun. I still need to sign her up for swim lessons and I want to get her into a music class. Her two front teeth are coming in! 

SLEEPING: For the most part we’ve jumped over last month’s sleep hurdle — that was rough. I felt bad complaining because we’ve been so lucky in the sleep department but getting up twice in the night and then at 6am was hard on us. She was getting up at 5:30 for several weeks but is slowly moving towards 7am again… thankfully! She’s taking a morning nap about 2-3 hours after she wakes up and then an afternoon nap — both are around an hour (if we’re lucky). I think I need to get out my various sleep books to see what we should be doing to get her to take 1 longer nap. 

FEEDING: Piper is starting to wean –however she’s still VERY interested in nursing. Right now I’m nursing her morning  and then usually two other times during the day and she gets a bottle of pumped milk before bed. She’s eating 3 meals a day and some snacks, though I need to be better about having snacks prepared for her. When Piper nurses (with the exception of her first feed) she’s so distracted, moving all around that it’s hard to tell how much milk she’s actually taking. The issue is she keeps grabbing my shirt and pulling it down to nurse randomly throughout the day — not out of hunger but comfort. This is something I’m trying to work on since in a few weeks I’ll only be nursing her morning and night. The biggest (and most exciting news) is that I introduced dairy and soy back into my diet! If all goes well (which we think it has, Piper has spit up just a few times since we started) we’ll be giving Piper yogurt after her first birthday in a small dose to see how it goes. I’m so anxious about this – but trying to stay positive. After her first birthday our plan is to continue morning and nightly feeds for a bit longer and then feed Piper 16-20 ounces of milk a day with her meals — hopefully whole cows milk! Piper has become a much better eater, though she can be picky at times. She loves scrambled eggs with zucchini, avocado, cherries, smoothies (spinach, blueberries, almond milk, banana), BBQ chicken and most recently green beans! Piper is really interested in feeding herself and will even pick up food off of her highchair tray, put it on her spoon and then feed herself! Usually I have to stick a little hummus on the spoon so the food will actually stick…ha! 

WHAT WE ARE LOVING RIGHT NOW: 

I left my beloved Munchkin Weighted Sippy  Cup  at a bridal shower so I had to replace it and they were out of stock at Target, of course. So I picked up these Playtex (yes…Playtex makes sippy cups in addition to tampons) cups that have worked great – I like the straw because I give Piper her smoothies in them and they are easy to clean. 

Speaking of cleaning… not sure what we would do without the Munchkin Straw Cleaning Brushes. 

I mentioned the Yummy Spoonfuls last week and we tried them out over the weekend — Piper was a fan and I was too! No additives, just fresh, organic ingredients that are flash frozen. She ate a pouch at the pool and had the Chicken Broccoli Bites at home. You do have to plan ahead to thaw them out (or stick them in the microwave). I found them on an end-cap at our Target. 

Water diapers! We just tried Babyganics Water Diapers  (and after learning the hard way that water diapers don’t hold urine…..) we really liked them! They slip on easy and fit great. I’ve also been exclusively using Babyganics Mineral Sunscreen and Piper hasn’t got sunburned yet. 

The Original Flap Happy Hat — Piper was given this as a gift when she was born and it’s really great for being outside, especially at the beach or pool. 

Minnow Swim – hands down the cutest swimsuits for kids that are made in California and are great quality. We love ours – Piper got so many compliments when she wore it to the pool :) 

Images of Piper by Anna Reynal from our Gymboree class ! 

Read Piper’s 10 Month Update, 9 Month Update,  8 Month Update,  7 Month Update,  5 & 6 Month Update, 4 Month Update, 3 Month Update, 2 Month Update, 1 Month Update.