I can't believe Vivian is going to be one in just a few days. It's very bittersweet thinking of how much she's grown, but I love watching her learn everyday. I thought I would write down a bit about her first year (mostly boring parent-type stuff!).
Sleep- I had no clue what to do when we brought her home from the hospital! The first night home it felt wrong to put this tiny little girl in a crib all by her self so her and I slept on the couch so Kevin could get some rest. It worked for us as I never worried that I would roll over on her and it made night nursing so easy, most of the time we would both fall asleep in the middle of it.
Vivian has maybe slept through the night 4 times and that just means she slept longer than 6 hours at a time. I feel like it was a lot easier when she was a newborn because even though she was up every 1-2 hours I would put her right back to sleep with nursing. She slept in our bed until about 6 months, then she started napping in her crib then at about 8/9 months she was sleeping in her crib at night. Ever since she made the switch to her crib at night she has a hard time sleeping in our bed, which kiiiind of sucks because on the nights of bad teething pain I would love to just have her with us so I don't have to walk down the hall 5 times a night! Overall though, I think the switch to her crib has made everyone sleep a little better.
Currently she's up anywhere from 2-4 times a night. Things were really great for about 5 days and she was only waking up 1 or 2 times a night then she started cutting more teeth… it really takes a tole on us, but I'm a lot more calm than I was a few months ago. I'll admit that I miss her so much when I put her down and often don't fall asleep myself until after she's woken up the first time and I've soothed her back to sleep.
Feeding- I am proud to say that we have been very successful with breastfeeding from day one. I (again) didn't really know what I was doing. At the hospital a nurse helped me latch Vivian on just minutes after she was born and she took to it beautifully but after that we were kind of on our own. Every time the lactation consultant came to check on us Viv was sleeping haha. I did some research while I was still pregnant and watched videos, but I didn't really know that much. I didn't know if I should wake her if she slept too long, or if I should feed her off of one side or two. All I knew was to feed her as often as possible and that I needed to stay hydrated and fed. To this day she's never had formula and I haven't had any supply issues.
When my dad and step mom cam to visit when Vivian was 3 months old my step mom took me to Babies R Us for a little shopping spree. When we got to the formula section she asked me what brand I wanted to use, and I just said "I don't need any, I'm breastfeeding". There wasn't any doubt in my mind that this was how I would feed my baby and I didn't even think about any other way. I'm so proud of our breastfeeding journey and will continue for as long as she wants.
We started baby lead feeding at 6 months and I love it. The only times I've ever really spoon fed Vivian is with yogurt just this past month (but she'd much rather do that herself too!), other than that she has fed herself. I liked the idea of letting her determine what she wanted to eat and when she was done eating, BLF is also supposed to encourage children to not be picky eaters in the long run and so far Vivian eats everything (but we'll revisit that when she's in the terrible 2's!). She hasn't had much meat, just the odd piece of chicken here and there. I've only held of because I don't like the idea of the hormones and other disturbing things meat is usually treated with, but since we've been getting our meat from Whole Foods I feel a little better about letting her have some. She loves blueberries and bananas (she says "nanana") and these organic Happy Puffs. She's never really taken to a bottle but girlfriends loves herself a straw cup, so I always have one out with water and she gets so proud of her self when she drinks out of it.
Teeth- She didn't get her first tooth until she was 10 months and they haven't stopped coming in since! She finally had her 4th tooth come all the way in and the next two have started already. I know not all babies experience teething pain the same way, but Vivian is one of those babies who wakes in the middle of the night with tears rolling down her cheeks and her hand jammed in her mouth. It's heartbreaking! I gave her baby Tylenol once and I don't think it did anything, and I felt guilty for giving her all those chemicals. So I got Hyland's Teething Tablets and those may or may not have worked but I felt much better about giving them to her because they're all natural. I'm not looking forward to her molars coming in because I've heard those are the worst!!
Play- Vivian is a pretty independent player (until her walker runs into a wall then the tears start haha). She is mostly interested in non-toy/don't-play-with-that things like cards from my wallet and baby wipes. But she does love her light up hippo that you put these plastic colored shapes into and it lights up with the color of the shape and says the shape/color. She's in love with her walker, it cracks me and Kevin up when she uses it because she gets all serious and goes so fast haha, it's especially cute when she's naked and we can she her little booty! I've been bringing it outside with us on nice days and letting her use it on the side walks. She always gets distracted by waving the big kids riding by on their bikes. We go to the park down the street to swing and I'm excited for her to start walking for real so we can go run around in the grass and go down slides.
Cloth Diapering- We've been CDing since about 3 months and it's worked out pretty well for our family. I haven't had any "I wish I didn't do this" moments, yet.. :). Sometimes she'll get small rashes and I haven't figured out if its from the diaper detergent or from teething, but my bet is on teething. All of our diapers are pocket diapers and I chose the style because it seemed like the easiest for Kevin and anyone who's watching her to figure out. The majority of my stash is OhKaty diapers (these rarely leak so they're our overnight diapers, and the ones I keep in my diaper bag regularly) but we also have Bum Genius (didn't like these at first but they seem like they'd hold up the longest), Charlie Banana (our fancy, go on a play date diapers! Super soft and trim fitting), and Tweedle Bugs (my work horse diapers, I try to use these before any of the others to save the others from excess use. These are the cheapest ones so I'm worried about them breaking down. These also have a tendency to leak so I don't use them for over night.) I try to take special care of all of them so I can reuse as many of them as possible for our future children. I like not buying diapers and it makes me feel good knowing I'm not adding even more garbage to the land fills.
Personality- It's funny because she's only a year old but she's got a big personality. She's so sweet and is always sharing. She'll try to put her puffs in my mouth, or hold her blanket up to my face like she does to herself. She is a ham! Always making silly faces and noises, squealing and talking to get attention. She does have her diva moments- she's starting to throw herself on the ground and arch her back when she doesn't get what she wants haha. She's always been a mama's girl but she's getting better about being around other people as long as she "knows" them. She loves Kevin's mom because she watcher her 2 times a week when I go to the gym. Lately thought she's been very clingy and not wanting to do anything but be held by me and I have no objections because I'm still a little sad about her growing up so fast :) She likes to be carried in the Ergo when we're out and about and is always waving and smiling at people. Her and Kevin have something wonderful, she'll just be so content sitting next to him on the couch resting her head on this arm.
She is so much fun and makes even she darkest of times brighter.
Next post will be about her First Birthday party!
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