Tuesday, November 5, 2013

10 months old

Dear Tabitha,

I struggle to believe that this has only been a MONTH of your life since your last letter! You have done so much! And grown so much! How could it possibly fit into just one month....

However, without further ado, you started this month by finally popping out those top 3 teeth you were working so hard on ( there is still one working its way in...). That was a huge relief I'm sure! How awful to get three in at once! And yet you were still such a happy sweet baby, you'd hardly think it hurt at all!

A few days later while playing on the floor in the living room while Mommy chatted with our friend Deb, you decided to wave. At first we weren't sure if it was on purpose, but you waved over and over again when we would wave at you and you've officially mastered the skill!

THEN you learned how to crawl. At first it was just a few inches here or there, but by the end of the month you were crawling perfectly all over any given room! You aren't particularly adventurous, which may be why it took you a little while to get started. Maybe you just didn't see any reason to crawl places?! But now that you realize that you crawl to places where you can pull up and stand, there is no stopping you! ( apparently that is the biggest reason to crawl! Get thee to a chair, or the fireplace, or a person's leg! This girl just wants to stand!) We also have a couple of balloons that were left by your babysitter last week and you love chasing after them...they always seem to stay JUST out of reach which you find particularly infuriating/fun.

And like I mentioned pulling up on things and standing is by FAR your favorite thing to do. I think you could really care less about crawling, you'd much rather just stand tall and look around. I think you're going to be a walker before we know it!

Of course, we were so excited by your crawling and clapped and cheered so much, that you decided that clapping might also be something you could do, and so you added that to your list of accomplishments as well! Whew! You were one busy busy bee!
You'd think this would mean you would take incredibly awesome long naps to recover from all that learning and moving, but no. You're not a very good napper and often they last only around 45 minutes. No matter what your Mommy does she can NOT get your morning nap to extend any longer. Luckily we can sometimes get you to go back to sleep during your afternoon nap and sleep a little longer, but for the most part your napping skills are rather lacking. Luckily you are so sweet and good natured its not like youre ultra cranky from the lack of sleep!

The other big news from this month is that you are completely weened. Its crazy to think that we'd only added one bottle to your schedule last month, but by taking away the other middle feeding ( so that you only had Mommy feedings in the morning and at night) my supply dropped considerably and it became apparent that you were just going through the motions and waiting patiently for the bottle to come at the end. Honestly it was sad and even though it was a whole 2 months later than with your brother, I still felt like it was too early for you to be all bottles! But, you also worked so well with me ( by taking what I did have for a few weeks) that stopping all together was much easier and much less "cold turkey" thanks for helping a Momma out! We first took away the middle feedings ( after each nap) then took away the night feeding and then the morning feeding was gone in just a few days after that. *sigh* My baby is growing up!

Your current schedule looks like this-but only because we just had the dreaded daylight savings....so I'll just tell you what it USE to be until two days ago when society dictated we make a big change ( boo!)

7:30-wake up ( 8 oz bottle)
10am-first nap ( 8 oz bottle)
2-pm second nap (8oz bottle)
7pm- bedtime ( 6oz bottle)

You also are eating more finger foods and much less baby food, but I've noticed that your appetite has decreased a little bit the last few weeks, maybe because you are finally getting enough milk again? Not sure exactly...but you still seem happy and chunky! You usually eat bananas cut into tiny pieces and cheerios for breakfast. For lunch you have one serving of babyfood ( usually spinach/sweet potato or corn/chicken) and some puffs and for dinner you have peas/carrots finger food or some beans chopped in half or other "real" foods that you can pick up.
You love baby yogurt and yogurt bits. You also like cheerios, bread, puffs and any other grain you can get your hands on...you like most fruits but like apple sauce, fruit squeezes and bananas the best.


As I said before you are such a laid back baby! On the first day of daylights savings we met Daddy's cousin John about 45 minutes away for dinner at 6pm ( which felt like 7pm to you! Which is your BEDTIME!) and then had to stay up until 8pm ( which felt like 9pm!) and you were a perfect angel! You would never know how tired you were! You just whimpered on the way home and had a pretty rough day napping the next day because you were overly tired, but even then you were sweet...and only a mommy would know that your whimpers and periodic little cries were not normal at all!! Thank you for being so laid back and reminding me that sometimes its ok to do things a little different and reap just a few consequences.
I was so stuck to the schedule with your brother, mostly because that's the only way he was remotely happy, I sometimes forget that that is not the only way! Thanks for making this mommy just a tinnnnny bit more chill ;-)

Love you sweet girl!
Mommy