Separation Anxiety

I got an e-mail today from Babycenter that caught my eye.  I subscribed to several such mailings from various sites when I was pregnant and found them to be super helpful; however, I mostly delete them these days unless the title grabs me.  I could just unsubscribe, I know, but they may come in handy next pregnancy (Note: "next pregnancy" is not any time soon!). 

Anyway, for whatever reason, today I opened the e-mail entitled "Your 12-Month-Old: Week 2" to see what they had to say.  I was glad I did, because for once, the topic applied to what's going on in our lives: separation anxiety.  I honestly have not seen Lilly demonstrate much of this until recently - really I have only noticed it in the past couple of weeks.  Basically, it's just a fancy way of saying that Lilly now cries when I leave.  

In our case, Lilly's separation anxiety is pretty inconsistent.  Some days, L is fine and could care less whether or not I'm in her general vicinity.  Today, for example, when Carney came to pick her up, she happily squealed, giggled, waved and told me "bye bye" all the way to the car...no tears at all (although I guess this is not abnormal as she's always happy to go with Carney).  I have noticed that she is especially clingy with large groups of people, though (like at her birthday party, and yesterday when I hosted a baby shower at our home).  There have also been a select few days where L doesn't like for me to leave her sight.  She'll play happily as long as she can see me, but if I walk in another room and she can't see me she fusses and comes to find me, and then she's once again happy.  Mostly these have been days when she wasn't feeling 100%.

Luckily for me, this hasn't really been bad for us yet - as I mentioned above, big groups have been the main cause of it, so far.  It's funny, because while I was hosting the baby shower yesterday, Dan and Lilly had a date day.  They went out to lunch together and ran a few errands and then went to play with our neighbor, Bo (the shower was in honor of his wife, Meagan).  Dan brought Lilly downstairs when the shower was over, but there were still a good amount of people milling around.  If anyone else tried to hold her or if I tried to put her down, she fussed, to which Bo said, "She hasn't fussed the whole day until you were here."  Hilarious.

Per Babycenter, this is a perfectly normal development and essential to Lilly (or any other toddler, for that matter - OMG I have a toddler?!?!) in becoming independent.  I hope and pray that we never get to the point where L cries when staying with someone else (Carney, a babysitter, etc. ), because I am sure it will be very hard to leave her if that should happen.  The crazy thing is that most of the time when we're out and about, L is forever waving at/talking to/squealing at any and everyone that is in her line of sight.  Other times she acts like she's shy (which she normally is far from).  Fickle girl.

Has anyone else had any experience with this?  Is there anything that I should be doing to help her overcome it?  Any tips or advice, as always, would be greatly appreciated!

10 Months Old: Part Deux

I know I'm a few days late on this, and I wasn't even sure I had the energy to blog before I sat down, but if I wait for a "good time" to post it will never happen!  

Weight/Length:  You didn't really think I'd know this without a doctor appointment, did you?  Although, I just realized as I typed that sentence that I never updated last month after our appointment.  At L's 9-month check-up, her stats were as follows: 28 inches long (80th %, up from 26.5 inches/90th % at 6 months); 20 lbs 13.5 oz (85th %, up from 18 lbs/96th % at 6 months).  Her weight/length % was 85 at 9 months. SO, if I had to guess, I'd say right now she's somewhere around there, possibly slightly bigger.  :-)

Sleep: Homegirl still loves to sleep, thank you Jesus.  The wake ups I mentioned in the last post must have just been something weird (probably teeth if I had to guess), and she finally adjusted to the time change after about a week.  We still put her down most nights between 7:30-8:00pm, and most week day mornings we're still waking her up at 8:00am.  Lilly is still on 2 naps/day, although I will say that there is a lot more playing in her crib these days before she settles down and goes to sleep.  She doesn't cry, it's almost just like she needs to wind down or something, although we are definitely going to have to mount the monitor because she keeps trying to eat it.  She normally is in her cribs for 2-ish hours and asleep for 1.5 of that at each nap (sometimes a little longer depending on the day).  We are also very lucky that she is not married to that routine/schedule.  On days when she doesn't get a very long nap or sometimes misses one nap all together, although she's tired she's still generally very happy.  It's nauseating, I know...I am also well aware that some future child of ours will be a terror and give us a terrible time, blah blah.  ;-)

Feeding:  We are still nursing, although I'm probably going to try to start figuring out how to slowly wean shortly (can't talk about it).  Lilly nurses when she wakes up, after her morning nap (before lunch), after her afternoon nap (before dinner), and before bed.  She is nursing less these days so we've just this week started decreasing the size of her bottles to 5 oz. again, which is a relief because my freezer supply is thinning quickly due to all of the trips we've taken and I don't produce a ton when pumping anymore.  

Lilly prefers to feed herself these days and mainly eats whatever we're having, although I am still able to sneak some purees in between bites.  For the first time this month, I've noticed some pickiness/taste bud changes.  For example: I haven't made home made chicken noodle soup since last winter, and I made some yesterday as part of a meal to take to a friend who recently had a baby.  Last night Lilly was literally INHALING the soup.  Dan put the noodles on her tray and she was slurping and smacking and squealing because he couldn't feed her fast enough - it was the first time she'd tried it and she LOVED it.  Tonight, however, when I tried to feed it to her again, she was not having it.  She would put a noodle in her mouth and then spit it out, and then spent quite a lot of time playing with the noodles on her tray.  We couldn't figure it out, because she liked it so much last night!  Dan said that maybe she's like him and doesn't like to eat the same thing two nights in a row.  I told him that maybe she's like our niece, Erica, who is famous for once telling my in-laws that she "doesn't eat leftovers" (love that kid!).  Lilly loves to try new things, and any time anyone is eating anything in her presence, she will open that little mouth like a bird for a bite.  She loves to feed Layla as well.

Yet again we introduced way too many new foods to name this month, but two memorable additions (besides the chicken noodle soup) were chinese pork (courtesy of Mere & Mikey) and fried turkey at Thanksgiving.  Lilly will eat both fruits and veggies, but prefers fruit.  She must like the sweet flavor, because her favorite veggies are those that are sweet as well.  A few of her favorite foods as of late: turkey breast, string cheese, applesauce (this is probably her hands-down favorite), peeled apples, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, bananas, pasta, blueberries, graham crackers, cheerios.

Firsts This Month: The most memorable "first" this month was for sure L's first Thanksgiving.  Sorry in advance for photo overload, I tried and failed to narrow it down further:

Cute Thanksgiving-themed PJs!

The outfit.  I die.

Outfit #2, also known as the "dinner outfit".  Because I couldn't decide which one to buy so I bought both.  :-)

First taste of turkey!

Dan wanted to see what L would do with her own piece.  I think it was a hit!

I can't leave her alone with her father...

Dan refers to this as her "pilgrim look."

First taste of cool whip, which Dan was supposed to be serving on the pie.  Also a big hit.

Family pics, courtesy of Grandma Susie

I somehow managed to forget my camera for the trip, so iPhone photos will have to do.  I also somehow managed to not take any photos of Lilly with her grandparents or Aunt Mere/Uncle Mikey.  Parenting fail.  We'll have to get some at Christmas for sure!

Developments:  There are so many every month, my baby girl is just growing way too fast.  She is a professional "cruiser" and will often push herself up into a standing position in the middle of the floor without holding on to anything.  She'll stand for a few seconds and then once she realizes what she's doing, she's surprised and plops down on her bottom.  She definitely prefers to be standing, and if there's nothing within her reach to hold onto and cruise, she has no problem plopping down and crawling off at the speed of lightning.  Lilly "sings" (I call it singing, basically she'll just kind of hum in a sing-song voice that's super cute), laughs, coos, and babbles all the time.  She is now more than ever repeating sounds back to us.  She is into absolutely everything - I don't care if I have just vacuumed the rug, she will find some microscopic spec of something on it and immediately put it in her mouth.  Her favorite thing to repeat is "uh uh" (I try not to say the word "no" all the time so she doesn't ignore it on principle, so we're working on variations of "no" which still get the point across).  She discovered the stairs shortly aftr my last post, so that's been lots of fun (can you say baby gate?).  Also, we went from 2 teeth to 6 teeth overnight.  She has her bottom center teeth, and shortly after those her top center teeth came in, and we just noticed over the weekend that there is one on either side of those with 2 more that have just broken through.  She has also in the last two weeks started using a push toy to walk.  We don't have one at the house - she's getting one for Christmas - but the neighbors whose house she stays at every day have one.  Carney sent me this photo today:

She sent me a few more that were blurry because L was off.  I guess we know she'll like at least one of her Christmas presents! :-)

Likes: Mostly repeats from last month: being outside.  Eating.  Layla.  Bath time.  Snuggling (but only on her terms - normally when she's tired or feeling icky/teething).  Giggling.  Talking/cooing.  Reading books (She LOVES reading books and it is really the only time she'll sit still these days.  She gets so excited and has started turning the pages, too.).  Nap time/sleeping in general.  Sucking her thumb (especially when sleepy).  Music - she LOVES to sing songs, the sillier the better (Daddy's specialty).  Laughing.  Crawling (especially towards things she shouldn't be getting into).  Standing.  Walking/cruising.  Being naked.  Squealing.  Babbling.  Being silly with Daddy.  Jumperoo and door jumper.  Grocery shopping/shopping in general/public outings/people watching. Blocks. Walks/stroller rides.  Bike rides.  Sampling anything and everything Mommy and Daddy are eating.  Pulling and standing up.  

Dislikes:  Again, mostly repeats from last month: sitting in the high chair but not eating.  Getting lotioned up before bed (although this is finally getting to be less of an issue, it's still not her favorite).  Additionally, putting on PJs or changing clothes.  Mommy trying to feel for new teeth.  Being tired.

What I'm Thankful For:  I had some time to reflect during the Thanksgiving holiday.  I am so truly blessed and thankful for so many things.  I am thankful for family and a wonderful support system.  I am thankful to have the best friends in the world.  I'm thankful that Dan and I both have good jobs that we enjoy.  I'm thankful for my little family.  I am thankful to have a thoughtful, supportive, loving husband, and I am thankful that I get to fall in love with him a little more with each passing day as I watch him with our daughter.  I am thankful for a happy, flexible, healthy, beautiful baby girl.  And I am truly thankful that God chose me to be her mommy.

What I'm Looking Forward To:  More Holiday fun!  Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year.  We are heading to the mountains this weekend to start a new family tradition of choosing our Christmas tree, and while I know Lilly is too young to understand it just yet, I'm still excited about it.  I can't wait to see how she reacts to Santa when we take her to see him.  I'm excited about all of our holiday celebrations, spending time with family, and Christmas morning.  Eeek!  Oh, and I'm also excited that since Thanksgiving has passed, it's now officially appropriate to listen to Christmas music 24/7 - and watch Elf as many times as I want.  Yippee!

Next Pediatrician Appointment: We have to go back sometime soon for round 2 of Lilly's flu shot, but I haven't made the appointment yet - it will probably be this week or next.  After that, we don't go back until her one year check-up (tears!).

How Mommy's Doing:  I'm feeling like I have a better grip on things this month.  That's not to say that I never feel stretched thin any more - maybe I'm just getting more used to it, but I feel like I've done a little better at juggling everything.  

As always, this post was way longer than I intended when I sat down to write.  Happy 10 months, Lilly bean.  Being your mama is the best thing I've ever done.  I love you to the moon and back, a million times over.

Sarah