Emilia's 12 Month (ONE YEAR!) Update

I am finally getting around to writing Emilia's 12 month update!  This will probably be it until about 18 months, as my initial goal was just to document her first year.  But I will probably update again when she is a year and a half, as I'm sure lots will have changed by then!  

Height/Weight: Emilia weight about 22lbs (from when I weighed her last month) and is between 27 and 28 inches in height.  It's quite difficult to get her to stand still so I'm estimating that she is maybe 27 and a half inches!

 

Routine: Her daily routine hasn't changed much from last month except for the fact that she is now pretty much down to one nap a day...which is fine if she sleeps for 2 hours during her first one but not so good if she sleeps for less time, as that means she can tend to get quite grizzly in the late afternoon :-/

Sleeping: Emilia still sleeps through the night in her own nursery with the door shut.  We actually stopped using the AngelCare sensor mat as the alarm kept going off and scaring us half to death in the middle of the night...the reason for this is because her crib is quite big and she moves around a lot, so she would move off the mat and it would freak out!  So now we just use the monitor in her room for when we are downstairs in the evenings, otherwise we have it switched on but don't even bring it upstairs with us when we go to bed as we can hear her anyway through our wall (our bedrooms are right next door!)  In terms of naps, on an ideal day she will go down from 12-2pm.  Bedtime is between 8 and 9pm. 

Eating: I am down to just one breastfeed a day - this is her bedtime one, so she is almost finished with nursing!  I am SO happy that I completed my goal of a year because I remember how hard it was in the beginning and how badly I wanted to give up.  But I'm so glad I didn't and I can tell you right now that it was absolutely worth it.  Research has shown that breastfed babies have the natural ability to tell when they are satisfied/full and I have definitely seen this with Emilia in how she eats regular food - it's amazing!  She is by no means a fussy eater and will try everything, however when she has had enough she just stops...whether it's something healthy or something naughty like a biscuit or ice-cream.  (Though she really likes those things too ;)  I have noticed some funny things like she doesn't care for cucumber (we have to hide it in omelettes and sandwiches), she is naturally attracted to brightly coloured fruits & veggies...and she has learned to detect the rustling of sweet/biscuit wrappers.  She gets extremely excited and starts jumping up and down...ha ha ha!  Oops ;) 

For breakfast she still has organic porridge or Weetabix with whole milk & honey along with a piece of fruit, like a banana.  With breakfast and lunch she just drinks water but sometimes she gets orange juice with her porridge if we have it in the fridge (it never lasts long!!)  For lunch she usually has a wholegrain chicken/tuna/egg salad/ham & cheese sandwich with lots of veggies like cherry tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and some babybel cheese.  For dinner she eats whatever we're eating along with whole milk to drink and for dessert she usually gets an organic yoghurt/fromage frais and some fruit.  For her afternoon snack she normally eats cheese & tomato puffits and 1/2 an apple or whatever other fruit we happen to have in the house. (This is the same as last month.)   When we're out or if we're at my mom's house she does usually have something sweet for dessert like a bit of cake or ice-cream or a cookie.  I believe in everything in moderation...I've practised this with Emilia since the beginning...I have never banned anything completely as I don't want her to grow up associating certain foods with being "bad" or "good", simply "more satisfying" or "healthier".  But everything is allowed, just in regular and proper portion sizes.  

Sizes: Emilia is wearing 12-18 months clothing and size 4+ nappies.  We're still using Pampers Active Fit or Baby Dry and we have always been happy with those!

Milestones

• She is now WALKING!! Yesterday she took her first steps!!! To be totally honest her very first steps were not that dramatic...I saw her take them out of the corner of my eye, when I was putting away toys in her room and she suddenly took two steps on her own from her rocking chair to a toy she wanted.  Then she did it again when she walked from the couch to the TV and at that point I decided, alright we need to document this!!  So Jonathan and I filmed her practising walking between the two of us.  Above is the thumbnail from the instagram video I took! 

• She is articulating her words a lot better and also has her own little ways of saying things!  For example she says "dada" or "daddy" in the morning when I bring her in to see him, she says "mama" when she's tired or wants me, she says "dudden" a LOT (this can actually mean a few different things) which normally means "doggy".  She has a little sound she makes when she's saying "bold" (bad), it's like a "gnnn" sound at the back of her throat and she will say that when she does something she knows isn't allowed or if she's hitting me or the dogs with a toy (something she also knows is not allowed...ha ha ha!).  

• Obviously along with walking she has been standing on her own for much longer, she is still quite wobbly but we are getting there :)

That is everything I can think of!  If you have any questions about anything I mentioned, please let me know in the comments & I will try to reply!  

xoxo

Anna