I have to give my boss a definite date to return....probably I should email her this weekend. It's a busy weekend what with the gold medal hockey game and all - we're having a party. Canadians take Olympic men's and women's hockey very seriously, yo. Otherwise I can't imagine people showing up at our house at 7am!
Oh, and speaking of returning to work - looks like DH will be a stay at home Dad. He's been doing some freelance, but hasn't got a full time job yet, so he'll stay at home. This is good. Someone needs to be home with her, and while I'm jealous it's not me, I think this will be a good thing.
Since I'll be back to work soon (only 2 or 3 months left! sad face.) once Olympics are over DH is going to start our renovation projects we have left. Next on the docket - built in bookcases in the living room. Wish us luck! ;)
[Seriously, we are a big Olympics household. Normally we don't watch TV until she's gone to bed, but it's on steadily for most of the day now! DH is a huge sports fan. We've been super Olympics lazy lately!]
Eating:
Have started giving her grains - steel-cut oatmeal, hulled barley, buckwheat. All prepared in accordance with ma hippies. You know, soaked overnight with a bit of vinegar. For the buckwheat, I made it with butter and broth - very tasty! I am a bit wary of grains (just started reading "Grain Brain")...but they do help her sleep better, I think! I pray for grain discernment. Really. Scourge of mankind or nice thing that helps her sleep and put on weight? I canna decide.
We do a mixture of her self-feeding and we helping a bit with the spoon. We're on a good kick right now where every morning I make a blended veggie drink (it is SO pretty before I blend it I keep instagramming it!), and she drinks her portion throughout the day. I am very pleased she likes it - I don't add any fruit, and I often throw a raw clove of garlic in there, but she's down. And I really like that she's getting her veggies fresh instead of sitting in a jar for a few months. I think my in-laws are not jazzed that the food is raw, but....I think it's fine (better, actually).
Breastfeeding is backing off a bit (more on that in the 'sleep' section).
Oh, and we've started her on MILK (full fat). Like, from a goat or cow, not just from Mommy. She seems to like goat milk more, and to like it more if it's not super cold. We didn't even have a milk pitcher, we had to go out and buy one! (Canadians drink milk from bags. It's seriously better. I was pretty surprised when I lived in the US to find they don't sell milk in bags. It just makes more sense, y'all). She's drinking about 6-7 oz a day, which I am amazed at (we were previously having a lot of trouble to even drink like 1/2 oz). She can use a straw in a sippy cup - this seems to be the way she drinks the most. The doctor said she can drink up to 2-3 cups a day, so I knew we had to get some drinking going.
I went out and bought some fancy organic milk in bags, and we freeze the bags we're not using yet. This way the milk is cheaper than buying by the litre, so I can buy the fanciest milk around. I think I saw some organic un-homogenized cow milk at the store, I will buy that after we finish the frozen bags of regular organic homo cow milk (Canadians also refer to full fat milk as "homo", and we don't even giggle. I know this doesn't make sense sine 2% and 1% milks are also homogenized, but we call those "2%" and "1%"). Hippies are not down with homogenization, yo - although the jury is still out.
My current plan is to alternate cow and goat milk (by the bag). They have different amounts of vitamins and minerals, I figure it's good to cover all the bases (cow has lower calcium but higher folic aicd, goat is the reverse, for example. Although goat tends to be fortified with folic acid, depending on the dairy.).
Infant pottying:
Um. I kind of have given up. Sad, right? What can you do! She was starting to resist sitting on the toilet, and if she did sit there she didn't seem to pee as much as she used to. Like, hardly ever. Just this week I decided to throw in the towel and move her change station back to her bedroom. She's also stopped being quite so squirmy, so you can get a diaper on her without doing gymnastics anymore. It helps if I give her a shoe to munch on - she LOVES eating her shoes.
Cloth Diapering:
So good! A friend of mine just had #2, and they're cloth diapering her! We handed down our prefolds to them. Isn't that nice that now they can handle a whole 'nother child without blinking? And she'll give them back if we are so blessed with a number two of our own. :) I plan on doing some diaper reviews soon, since we have about 4 billions different brands now, and I have some opinions.
Milestones:
Pretty darn good cruiser now. Can now stand a few seconds on her own, but this is still pretty shaky. Can climb stairs (with adult supervision!) very fast.
She's pretty solid on the baby sign 'all done', and I swear I've seen 'milk' in there a few times. She can point at the milk when she wants it, which is new. I'm adding more signs in every day or two for different foods, she's watching me, but so far she's not dexterous enough to do them. Or just doesn't want to. ;)
She's sort of chatty, and she might have a few words. She definitely says "Dada"/"Dad" type words, and "Nay nay nay" (for no), sometimes "ma ma" type words, but that is less linked to me. She can kinda say a baby version of "hug", and can say "baby" but I don't think she means it.
She can high-five, kiss, come to Mommy/Daddy on command. So she kind of already meets her minimum 12 month milestones. Good girl. She will also laugh if you are laughing - very cute. DH will sometimes fake laugh, and she'll join in, which is funny and cute.
Favourite Songs:
I'm still not doing much singing. Need to get back into a class. She likes this clapping song I made up. OH, and here is the best second verse to the "Itsy-bitsy spider" I've ever heard! Y'all northern ladies will be feelin' this!
The Winter Itsy-bitsy Spider
The Itsy-Bitsy spider climbed up the water spout
Down came the snow and froze the spider out!
Out came the sun and it didn't do a thing,
so the Itsy-Bitsy spider had to wait for spring!
Baby Health:
Good! We're over all those colds. :) Her weight was good at the doctors at our nine month well baby group - she's still on that 15% for weight. Height (50%), head circumference still fine.
My Health:
Am over all those colds too, thank Goodness! So sign of AF yet. I was at the doc's for my own checkup, and they asked when my last menstrual period was, and I was like "um...about July 15th-ish....2012". hahhaa. I like that. I still feel so blessed.
I do have a Gyno appt booked for the end of March to see about my lady parts. The doc suggested in the meantime I see a Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist. Did you know that was a thing? I had no idea. So I went to see one yesterday. She recommends all ladies go after birth. Interesting, right?
Also, they can help with endo pain! Who knew?
Sleeping:
Much progress has been made - she's down to waking up 2-3 times a night (and now we call 'night' 7pm-7am). I don't think due to any magical sleep training, but I think the extra carbs in the day plus WHITE NOISE have been helping a lot. We bought a white noise track on iTunes, and play it when she sleeps her naps and overnight - this helps to cancel out some of our creaky house and busy street noises, I think.
We still are on a path to cut down how much nursing she has a night. We have a whole timer system going. I sort of keep messing it up. We're right now allowing 1.5 min per side after the letdown (which can take ~2 min). BUT, this relies on me telling DH to start the timer at the letdown...well, last night I swear I was sleeping, I totally forgot, DH was not pleased.
He also doesn't feed her every time she wakes. If its up to me I feed pretty much right away, her crying tears at my heart. So he's in charge. It's hard! But it's the right thing to do.
