11 Months with C - Ellen Slater

The next time I tell you how old she is, this girl will be a whole year old! But for today, she’s 11 months.

C at 11 Months

C is so fun and so funny. I feel so lucky to watch her learn and grow every day. She is slowly morphing from chill baby into toddler with lots of opinions. But she is still very adaptable and, of course, the very sweetest. She still loves to go off and play with toys (and not-toys) in every corner of the house, and she equally loves to have someone nearby to watch her play. She loves to ask to see what I’m cooking, help with laundry, and undo any attempt at organization she can reach.

When we’re out and about, she is so interested in everything around us. The weather stayed beautiful well into November here, and we were outside as much as possible. C loves outside, and I try to make sure we get out plenty even though it’s a little chillier and grayer now.

C started walking for real about 2.5 weeks ago. Almost exactly 3 weeks ago, she spent the hour before bed practicing taking 4 or 5 steps at a time. The next day, it was 10. The following day she seemed to realize that walking wasn’t just taking a bunch of steps, but an actual way to get from Point A to Point B. Now, she is unbelievably fast and can even run a little. It is the cutest thing.

She is growing increasingly hesitant around people that aren’t me and Jack and her family, but she still gets so excited to get to Little Gym and see her coaches and friends every week. And now that she’s toddling along with all the bigger kids, she’s even more social there.

C loves dogs and other animals, books, pictures, mirrors, music, slides, and Christmas trees. Ben is still wary of her, but she’s made Willis and my parents’ dog her friends.

She loves peekaboo, blowing raspberries (especially when she’s teething), and being upside down. Pretending to sneeze is one of our favorite ways to make her giggle.

C lights up when you clap and tell her she did a good job (and this often saves her from tears when she takes a minor tumble). She also claps when she thinks she did a good job and to the beat of music. She loves waving at people, and pointing to everything so we name it for her.

Now C has eight teeth, and some more are coming in. She is drooling a ton right now and always wants something in her mouth.

Sleep

Bedtime is usually not a big deal. Putting C down for the first time usually takes 20-45 minutes, including story time. If she needs anything after that in the evening, it’s typically only once and takes around 5-15 minutes.

Usually, she lets me nurse her most of the way to sleep and then I give her a bottle to finish the job. Lately, she’s been taking less and less from the bottle. She generally wakes a little in the transfer to her crib and I rub her back and sing to her to resettle her.

When she gets up once during the night and once during the 5:30-6:30am hour, I consider it pretty normal.

However, there was almost a week a few weeks ago where she’d get up for 1-2 hours around midnight. Sometimes she was happy and wanted to play, others she was not at all happy. She mostly didn’t want to nurse, so we’d rub her back until she was asleep, and then she’d wake up, and then we’d do it all over again until it finally worked. It was grueling and I’m glad for all three of us that she seems to be over it. For now.

Naps are less tricky than they used to be, which is extremely nice. C is still pretty firmly in the one-nap camp, and has been for about a month and a half, despite the internet assuring me she shouldn’t be ready for that until she’s closer to 14 months. Depending on how early she gets up and how quickly she gets tired, she usually goes down between 11 and 12. I can typically count on her sleeping 75-90 minutes, and if she wakes up before that, she usually nurses back to sleep pretty easily. Sometimes she sleeps for two hours. Once or twice, she’s done nearly 3. One time she did 4.

C has been insisting on an 8 or 8:30 bedtime. Jack usually gives her a bath and starts getting her ready for bed around 7 or 7:15 and then they play and read while I clean up around the house.

C has mostly been getting up for the day between 7:15 and 8. If she gets up earlier than 7, I try to nurse her back to sleep.

Feeding

C eats very well, and is still extremely distractible when nursing. When we have the time and the quiet, though, she often nurses a little longer than she used to. I also get more snuggles and playtime around our nursing sessions than I used to. I kind of love it.

We eat dinner as a family, and C and I eat breakfasts and lunches together. Some meals it seems like she hardly eats anything. Others, I’m shocked that she’s eating so much. She’s definitely taking less milk than she used to, so she must be getting some decent calories from food.

C has made a lot more progress with drinking and she loves water. We introduced a straw to her this month since we were going so many different places over Thanksgiving and didn’t want everyone to have to deal with water all over their floors. I think she likes the straw even more than the open cup.

Schedule

Since she’s usually happiest in the morning, we usually hang out at home then. We have breakfast, I get some housework done, and we play and read. She doesn’t usually go down for her first nap till 11-12. That nap usually lasts till 12:30 or later. Preferably later, because 12:30-8 is a little too long of a stretch for her be happily awake for. In the afternoon, we might run errands or go on a play date before we come home to play and make dinner. Right now, C nurses every 4ish hours during the day and eats 3 solid meals.

Things I Don’t Want to Forget

How peaceful she looks when she falls asleep on me and how hard she passes out sometimes. It doesn’t always look comfy, but it’s so sweet. She gets really tired now that she’s running all over the place.
The way she points at everything because she wants us to name it for her. And the slightly sassy way she points at a book that you’ve just finished because she wants you to read it again.
I’ve started pulling her hair into a side ponytail to get the bangs out of her eyes, and the combination of her little flouncy pony and her cute toddling walk melts my heart.
She loves to play with my makeup and clothes while I get ready. This mostly amounts to getting all my stuff out and strewing it across the room, but it’s sweet.
No matter how social and comfortable C seems when she’s not at home, she really relaxes as soon as we come home. We had a lot of later nights at family events this month, and she’d come home super tired, but she always got a second wind at home. She’d toddle around her room or playroom and be super silly for at least a half an hour before it was time to get her to bed.
Before naptime and bedtime, C will grab a burp cloth, her sleep sack, or one of her loveys, put the tag to her mouth, and babble at it loudly. We call this “yelling at tags,” and it’s such a funny part of her pre-sleep routine.
Speaking of, C still loves the tags on her toys and rubbing her fingers on anything that vaguely resembles tags or nubs. She plays with the hem of my shorts, the extra length on my watch, my hair, the diamond on my engagement ring, and the clip on my bra while she’s trying to fall asleep. She’ll absentmindedly play with the fringe on a blanket or a tag on her toy while she’s playing.
When she sees herself in a mirror or picture, she leans forward to “hug” and “kiss” herself. Basically, this looks like bumping her head into the mirror or picture and licking it.
Her squeals. Sometimes they’re happy and sometimes they’re just how she uses her voice, but they are the best.
How she calms down and gets so excited the second I pull out a book to read. And when she’s really tired, she melts down the second a book is over.
She loves it when you sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, The Grand Old Duke of York, and I’ll Make a Man Out of You.
When I’m laying on the floor in her room to read books, she treats me like a jungle gym and climbs and rolls all over me.
She thinks it’s absolutely hilarious when we yawn or fake sneeze, or blow our noses.
When she wants picked up for any reason, she stretches as tall as she can and reaches for you. It’s so sweet and pure.

Things We Use and Love

Pretty much everything from her 2-month post. She doesn’t love the pacifiers except to bite. She has outgrown the Podster, but it served us well when she was teeny.
Pretty much everything from her 3-month post.
Pretty much everything from her 4-month post. We’re done with the weighted sleep sacks, but I’d use them for a future kiddo.
Pretty much everything from her 5-month post.
Pretty much everything from her 6-month post.
The only thing I listed in her 7-month post.
The only thing I listed in her 9-month post.
The only thing I listed in her 10-month post.
The Nugget. This was an early present from my parents and C loves climbing all over it. And it’s the comfiest thing ever, so Jack and I like laying on it when she’s not playing with it.