First I want to apologize for not writing in such a long time. Really,
I don’t have much time to do anything other than chase Quorra around the house.
Soon after my last post she became mobile. She crawls with a quickness. She now,
at almost 11 months, pulls herself up on anything and can stand by herself for
just a couple seconds. She has only stood up without pulling up on
something/someone a couple times. At the rate she is going I know it won’t be
soon before she’ll be walking and, honestly, that scares me. She is growing up
way to fast!
Most pictures I get of her are blurry since she is always on the move!
Quorra is doing great with solid food. She has gone
from smooth purees, to thicker purees, to soft pieces, to feeding herself soft
foods, and she now is feeding herself bigger and harder foods. She is doing
amazing with it considering she STILL has no teeth. Seriously… not one. She
will be 11 months old in just about a week and she just now has a small white
bud on the bottom front. Even that is not soft yet and it has been there for a
couple weeks now. Someday it will break out of the gum. Someday…
Chicken, carrots, broccoli, and puffs. mmmm
She eats pretty much anything that we eat, as long as
she can chew it. She loves pasta, tomato sauce, pizza, cheese, and Mexican food.
And she is all about some well cooked carrots, green beans, and broccoli.
Bananas are her favorite though. Well, bananas and puffs. We get the HappyBaby organic
puffs. They have a lot less sugar than the other brands and I have to admit
that we do feed her primarily organic food when we buy it just for her.
Delicious puffs!
I still am so glad that I had the Baby Bullet. I used
it A TON. Quorra had a sensitive gag reflex and had to have purees for a while
so the Bullet was needed, for sure. I still use the containers from it for
packing her food. I do have to admit that I don’t always make her food. We buy
the organic baby food pouches for when we don’t have the time to make something
before work or if we are eating something she can’t (like salad or something
super spicy). The fruit pouches are our go-to snacks. They are easy to throw
into her diaper bag, don’t need to be refrigerated, and all they are made of is
fruit.
Oh yeah… and she LOVES chocolate cake and ice cream.
Aaaand just chocolate in general. Don’t judge. She loves it and so do I. I was
going to wait to give her stuff like that but then decided that if I love it
why would I deny her the pleasure of a delicious cupcake? Or some chocolate
swirl ice cream? A lot of the time we only have nonfat frozen yogurt and that
counts as a healthy dairy treat, right? We do try to make sure that most of
what she eats is healthy but not to be too restrictive. That would backfire.
Plus, there is nothing wrong with having a treat every so often. Really, the main goal is to not be those
parents who get their kid mozzarella sticks for a meal. Or give their 6 month
old French fries. We make sure she gets plenty of fruits and veggies and whole
grains, while steering away from overly sugary or fatty foods. We use frozen
fruits and vegetables a lot. They are cheap, easy, and we don’t have to worry
about them going bad. I just check the label to make sure that they don’t have
anything added.
Breastfeeding is still going well. No formula for
this kid! We are working on weaning and are down to 3 nursings (expressed milk
when I’m working) a day. Quorra nurses early in the morning, around 7am; once
in the middle of the day, before her 3pm nap; and once in the evening, around
9pm. We don’t nurse before bed anymore. Our sessions are only about 5-10
minutes now and when I pump I get between 3 and 4 ounces. My goal is to cut out
the afternoon session/bottle by the end of the month. Then it would be great to
only nurse once a day by the time she turns one. I’m not sure how long it will
take us to cut out that final session. I am looking forward to not pumping
anymore so much I can taste it. I hate pumping. It’s a complete pain in the
ass. I know it’s worth it so I do it but I will cheer the day that I don’t have
to do it anymore.
Quorra also is working more on adding to her
vocabulary. She babbles all the time and says “mom,” “dad,” “hi,” “nom” (when
she is eating or wants more, I am to blame for that one), and “yeah.” Hopefully
we will get more words out of her soon. We are going to work on baby sign
language too and see if that helps her communicate and get the meaning of words
sooner.
She still is all about her “puppy.” The dog is very
tolerant of her banging on him and yelling in his face. He loves that she
shares her food with him, although I’m not as thrilled about it.
This happens every day...
Quorra is still a little bean. She still fits into some
of her 6 month clothing and most of her 9 month clothing. We only have some 12
month items to fit her length.
Sleep could be better. She tends to not go to bed
until about 11pm (sometimes later) but she does usually sleep until 8am. She
takes 2-3 naps a day, for about a half an hour at a time. The biggest problem
is that when Quorra is with me she prefers to be sleeping with me. I don’t have
the heart to let her cry in her crib so when she wakes up there and cries I go
get her and bring her to bed, where she falls back asleep. Sometimes she wakes
up as soon as I go to put her in the crib so we don’t even get that far. She
always falls asleep on me or in my arms but that’s what works to get her to
sleep so that’s what we do. Do you all have any suggestions on how I can work
on Quorra’s sleep habits? How can I get her to fall asleep on her own?
Overall, I am LOVING being a mom. She is so much fun
and each stage she goes through just seems even better than the one before. It
definitely is work and takes energy and patience but I wouldn’t trade it for
the world. I’m sad that she has grown up so quickly but watching her learn and
grow is amazing. I’m excited to see her go through all the milestones to come,
I just want to relish in every moment and make them last as long as I can. Does
it always seem to go this fast?
The pink blur is her beloved Taggies blanket
