Monday, January 20, 2014

One Year Old!!


Abigail is officially one year old!! Wow, that's crazy to believe! This year has honestly flown by. It feels like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. She is still such a wonderful baby. We've got a great schedule going and (knock on wood!!) she is still napping and sleeping great. The schedule makes our days easy to plan! Ever since she started sleeping through the night again around ten months (after we finally night-weaned!), Abby has been waking up earlier. Most days she is up between 6-6:30am. Then we are still loosely following a 2-3-4 schedule, although most days look more like 2.5-3-3.5, or something similar. So, that means that nap #1 is around 8:30am and she usually sleeps for an hour and a half. Then nap #2 is around 1-1:30pm and she sleeps for about 2 hours. Bedtime is between 6:30-7pm, depending on her mood. It's a schedule that still works great for us, since we go to storytime at the library at 10:30am twice a week, and also have a neighborhood playgroup at 10:30am on another day. I know that sometime in the near future she'll transition to one nap, but for now I'm really enjoying her consistency!

We've been slowly working on weaning from breastfeeding over the last few months, and for several weeks now we have just been down to one nursing session a day while we introduced cows milk a little bit at a time. It's very bittersweet for me, but Abby and I had our last nursing session this morning, on her first birthday. I'm so thankful that I was able to breastfeed this long, and I'm also very glad to be done until we have another baby. Hopefully she won't mind not nursing tomorrow! She still loves food and is liking cows milk more and more. Favorite foods include bananas, pears, cheese, eggs, green beans, pasta, and graham crackers. Her one year checkup isn't for a few weeks, but I'm guessing that she weighs about 21 pounds. She is wearing mostly size 12 month clothes, although it really depends on the brand. 

Abby is cruising everywhere these days, and today she let go with both hands while standing up a few times. I would love to see her walking soon! She isn't talking much yet at all. She will sometimes say "cat" and "light", and the word she says the most and actually means is "dada". For the most part, though, she just babbles all day long. She signs "all done" very consistently and without being prompted, which is great. I'd love for her to learn more signs but so far nothing else has caught on. 

I hope to continue to blog about parenting and our family life, but I'll probably stop doing the monthly updates for the most part. I haven't blogged as much as I had planned over the last year, but it's still so nice to look back and see exactly what Abby was up to at a certain age. Hopefully sometime in the near future we can add to our family and get to do it all over again!


Sunday, January 19, 2014

I Love You Because You're You

One of my favorite books to read to Abby is called I Love You Because You're You, by Liza Baker.  It's a book about a fox mama and her son, and how she loves him no matter what.  As Abigail's first birthday approaches (tomorrow!), reading the book makes me even more emotional than usual because my baby isn't such a baby anymore!  Here is my own little twist on the book...  


I love you when you're happy,
and grinning ear to ear.



I love you when you're sleepy,
and want to snuggle near.


I love you when you're silly,
and dancing 'round and 'round.



I love you when you're frightened,
and hear a scary sound.


I love you when you're bashful,
and hide behind my knee.


I love you when you're brave,
and from my arms you flee.


I love you when you're curious,
and searching here and there.



I love you when you're proud,
you're head held in the air.


I love you when you're sick,
and need to rest in bed.


I love you when you're frisky,
and standing on you're head.


I love you when you're sad,
and need a kiss and hug.


I love you when you're playful,
 and rolling on the rug.



I love you when you're angry,
and cross your arms and pout.


I love you when you're wild,
and yell and scream and shout.



I love you any way you feel,
no matter what you do.


I love you any way you are,
I love you because you're you.






Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Thoughts On My First Year of Parenthood

Before we got pregnant and had Abigail, I spent years wanting and yearning for a child. We put off trying to get pregnant time and again, finding some excuse as to why we weren't ready...but I was always ready in that way that a woman knows she wants to be a mother. When we finally decided that we were, in fact, "ready", my body decided that it didn't want to be pregnant, and so we started our journey through countless medications, ultrasounds, procedures, accupuncture needles, and the like. Then we got pregnant, and our daughter was born, and I realized shortly after her birth that I knew absolutely nothing about being a parent. I was so fixated on getting pregnant that I hadn't thought much about what parenting an infant would be like. Before having a child, I would hear veteran parents joke about how they were perfect parents until they actually had kids, and I'd laugh but I never really got it. You see, before you have a child, you really are the "perfect" parent. Or at least I thought I was.

This year I've done SO many things that I swore I would never do. I was never going to let our child watch tv, or give her formula, or feed her fast food (or junk of any kind, really). I was going to love breastfeeding and do it as long as possible. I was never going to raise my voice or get frustrated, never going to let her cry. But this year has taught me so much too. It's taught me what true unconditional love is. I could never have imagined what this kind of love felt like before having Abigail. I've never known love like this in my life, and it honestly takes my breath away. I've learned what, and who, is important to me. I've learned that it's ok to not be "perfect" all the time. I've learned that it's important to take care of myself, and if that means that my daughter watches ten minutes of tv so that I can use the bathroom in peace then so be it. I've learned that our families are even more important than I ever realized before. My relationship with my sister in particular became so much stronger this past year - I honestly would not have gotten through the hard times without her. I've learned that breastfeeding isn't the magical experience that I dreamed it would be, but that I'm lucky to be doing it anyway. We're on the way to being done, and I can't be happier about that, but for nearly twelve months I've nourished our baby with my own milk and that's something I am incredibly proud of. I've learned that I can be an extremely judgmental person, and that it's not a good quality to have. I have thin skin and hate being judged myself, so why is it fair for me to judge others? It's something to work on, for sure. I learned that post-partum depression is NO joke. The things my body went through to have a child were nothing compared to the havoc pregnancy and childbirth wreaked on my emotional state. I've learned that having a child changes the dynamics of a marriage. I didn't think it would...who was I kidding? Thankfully we have a strong bond and we made it through, but not without some hard times. 

I've heard people say that having a child doesn't have to change your whole life...but isn't that the point?? Having Abigail DID change my whole life, in the very best possible way. I can't even remember life without her now. Some days are hard and long, but most are filled with snuggles and smiles and so much love. She makes my heart happy. Staying home and raising her gives me an enormous sense of purpose. This past year has been fast and crazy and full of highs and lows, but it's been absolutely amazing. My only hope is that we get to do it all over again soon!