12 Months Update

Is it true? Max is already a year old? If all the years go this fast, he will be in college in no time! All kidding aside, my little baby is one year old. For one year we have had this little bundle of joy. For one year my heart has been on the outside of my body. For one year I have known a love greater than any others that will only continue to grow.This past year has been the most challenging, but the most rewarding. And it will only get better.

Height/Weight: Max weighs 23 pounds and 10 oz (70th percentile) and 31.5 inches long (90th percentile). He continues to grow taller and despite how active he is, he still has those rolls!

Sleeping: Sleeping has been a little better this month. Unfortunately he did not sleep through the night once, but for the most part, he would only wake up once (19 out of the 31 days in March). I mentioned last month that he would wake and stay up for an hour. Well, he continued to do that. But all in all, I would say his sleeping patterns improved from last month.

Guess what finally made their appearance. TEETH! And you know what? All first four teeth decided to come out at the same time. Figures. I would contribute the waking up for an hour at a time to teething. Considering four teeth were coming in, he actually slept pretty good! I don't want to imagine the pain he must have been feeling. We did give him medicine quite a few nights to help soothe him as much as possible.

Eating/Feeding: I made my goal and am so extremely proud of myself. I breastfed my baby for one year. And we are still going strong! As all other breastfeeding mothers know, it is hard. I am so glad I didn't have give up or have any issues. I really think my strict pumping schedule helped. And now I have a whole bunch of extra stored milk to donate to other babies in need. How awesome is that? I am not going to quit breastfeeding quite yet. I did quite pumping at the end of the month though. We have moved Max over to whole milk, and he has taken to it pretty well. He also really likes water. In general, he just loves drinking out of cups, especially grown up cups. He also learned how to drink from a straw!

Back to breastfeeding though, he really only nurses to sleep and when he wakes up. He uses it for comfort, not solely for the milk. I also nurse him when I come home from work. Basically as soon as I walk in the door and he sees me, he knows that it is our time and if I get out of his sight, he gets very aggravated. Nursing has changed a little in the fact that he likes to sit up now while nursing and switches sides constantly. It actually can be a little exhausting for me!

Max still loves cheese and pasta. And macaroni and cheese! Well, I guess that is both pasta and cheese lol! His favorite fruit is banana and can down a half of a banana very quickly. He also had peanut butter for the first time! Its not his favorite by any means, but he will eat it. He now loves Ritz crackers as well. Those used to sit in our cupboard forever without getting touched, now we have to buy the big box from Costco! Last month he had lost his appetite and found it toward the end of February, and this month he continued to find it!

Behaviour: Max just gets more mobile every month! As he should. His newest and FAVORITE thing to do is climbing stairs. He gets such a kick out of it and laughs and makes sure I see him and am following close behind. It is the cutest thing. Because of this though, we have had to put a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. All he wants to do is go up the stairs. We put him in his play area and he immediately crawls to the stairs. As I said last month, he is getting better and better when it comes to walking while holding our hands. He is even getting good at walking with just holding onto one hand!

Max loves being chased. I get down on all fours and say, "I'm gonna get you" and he turns around so quick trying to get away from me while laughing at the same time. He is really easy to get (despite how fast he crawls) because he will stop and turn to make sure I am following him and basically wait for me to catch up with him. Silly boy. He also loves playing boo. Just hide behind something and pop out and he is happy.

This month he started to stand on his own without holding onto anything as well as took some steps!! He started by taking 1 step, then 2 steps, and then all of a sudden, at his birthday party when everyone got to see, he would take 5+ steps at a time! Such a show off lol. It was so amazing to see and seemed like it happened so fast. All of a sudden he got the hang of it and wanted to walk all the time. Of course the very next day, he decided he didn't want to walk any more (until next month).

We went on quite a few walks due to the great weather and he loved it. I wish I could be pushed in a stroller. We got him out and in the swings and on the slides. He loves going down the slides and often tried walking about up them!

He has started to clap on his own. He loves opening and closing doors. He loves looking out the storm door. He loves talking into any kind of bottle. That is hilarious to watch. He loves going under things; tables, chairs. Its all fine and dandy until he hits his head and hurts himself. I think he will love jungle gyms! He loves when music is on tv shows and commercials. He waves his hands when a song comes on. He loves playing with my hair brush. Speaking of hair, he got his first haircut! No more mullet!

Max is getting very talkative! It sounds like he is trying to make conversation with us. R's, B's, and W's are now in his vocabulary. He has also picked up how we put the phone to our ear and talk. He now will put things to his ear, well, he kind of puts whatever he is acting like a phone to the back of his head (so cute!). He got a play phone for his birthday, so he mostly does it with that, but I have seen him use my hairbrush as well as some of his other toys as a phone. He will then start talking like he is talking on the phone! I just have to say hello, and he will put it up to his ear/back of head. I am so glad I got it on video to watch when he is older!

Max is still in size 3 diapers, but not for much longer. He is now in size 12 month and 18 month clothes.