Life With the Finch Family: Noah is 11 Months!

Only one more month and my baby will no longer be a baby anymore. I can't believe it. He's growing too fast. But he's just so cute! I love everything about him -- his hands, his feet, his belly, his skin, his eyes, his smell, his slobbery lips! And have you seen his CHEEKS!? They are absolutely delicious! I'm so lucky that I get to spend all my days with my little stinkbug!

NURSING:
I love being on a 4 hour feeding schedule! It's amazing how much of a difference 1 less feeding during the day makes at this point. Breastfeeding is going really well. My supply has not suffered at all with last month's drop in feedings. Most days we only have 4 nursing sessions in a 24 hr period - sometimes a 5th one if he wakes at night. I've almost reached my goal to breastfeed Noah at least until his first birthday! However I recently found out the World Health Organization recommends at least 2 years. Now I feel dumb for only making a 1 year goal. Also, in one of Derek's classes he learned that through studies they believe the optimal time to breastfeed is until 5-6 years old! Wow. So now I'm likely going to keep nursing (but i'm not going THAT long! ha). I would feel very selfish if I took it away from him, because he loves it. I also love it. The only reason I would stop is basically to have more freedom (I know, i'm selfish, right?!) It would be nice if I could continue on with only 2 or 3 feedings a day after he turns 1. But I'm not sure if my supply would keep up. Oh and we stopped giving him that bedtime bottle with extra formula this week because he usually didn't drink it all anyways and he seems to be doing okay without it.

SOLIDS (BABY LED WEANING):
Everything is still the same here. He will occasionally have days where he doesn't have much of an appetite and doesn't eat much all day but I think it's when he's feeling some teething pains because he'll also be really cranky those days. And that's what happened last time he got his teeth. But overall, he's eating fantastically! His favorite foods right now are: chicken, beans, strawberries, kiwi, indian food, string cheese, and those squeeze on-the-go mixed fruit & veggie things. He loves water and any type of smoothie or drink I make in the blender. Oh, and actually there was one change this month - he started dropping food off his high chair and rubbing his messy hands in his hair! So we're in the process of teaching him not to do that.

Stir fry

Chicken and veggies

Squishing turkey chili between his hands - by the way, this was the biggest mess he's made. Ever!

TEETHING:
As I mentioned, he's had several days, particularly in the last 2 weeks where you can tell he's in pain but he hasn't gotten any new teeth this month.

PLAYTIME:
He still needs a lot of attention, and gets bored easily. Around the house, he constantly needs new things to entertain him. He likes to play around other kids. Although, sometimes he can be playing rather rough. We're focusing on teaching him to be nice, not to pull hair or grab people's faces etc. He's just such a stinker! He has a new favorite toy that he pushes around the house, like a standing walker kind of thing. I'm going to write a different post about all his favorite things one of these days. He likes to play silly games with you. He loves the outdoors, he loves seeing new things, he's interested in holes, knobs, buttons, and anything tiny! He's obsessed with moving furniture around, and he loves to play with anything that spins!

Loves this thing!

He's liking books more and more

Spying on him during independent play time. He does well in his Pack N' Play most days

He loves to crawl under the table and chairs - it's like an obstacle course for him. But sometimes he gets stuck :)

COMMUNICATION/SIGNING:
He's getting better at communicating but still does a lot of whining and fussing when he wants/doesn't want something. He's very impatient - especially when he knows he's about to eat and has to wait. I am really trying to explain to him that I'm getting his food or he just needs to put on his bib and his food will be coming. I am still signing with him but haven't been as consistent with the basic ones this past month. He points to things that he wants and says "da" all the time. Basically everything comes out as "da" or "dada" now days. He tries to say doggy, and it comes out as "dada". My mom said she heard him say doggy correctly but I haven't heard it myself. He claps his hands a lot and does it on command as well. It's amazing how much they actually understand. I had no idea he understood "clap your hands" (without me showing him) because I really hadn't said it that often to him, but one day I said it and he started clapping his hands and really surprised me. It just reminded me that he understands a lot more than we think he does. Whenever he is rough with someone, we tell him, "be soffffttt"and now he copies us and pats softly saying "waaaaaa" in the same tone. He can wave bye-bye. He also started picking up our phones or his toy phone, putting it up to his ear and talking into it. And copies me when I say, "hello". I love all the cute things he's starting to do.

Clap, clap!

WALKING/PHYSICAL
No walking alone yet, but he's cruising along furniture quite well. I guess you never really know when they are going to figure it out. He just started standing REALLY well all by himself, without holding onto anything, it's SO cute! He did it today for at least a minute before he chickened out and bent down. But we were cheering him on and clapping then he started clapping for himself and got all excited!

I love this picture - he always walks along the window peeking outside

DOGGIES!:
He's really into dogs right now! He is always trying to find our neighbors dogs when we go outside or look out the window. Or when we go for walks and see dogs he gets really excited, points to them and says, "dada dada dada" over and over again, haha. He's really trying to say it! The funny thing is that he hasn't had that many up close experiences with dogs. One day we went to Dustin & Leila's house, and their big dog came up to Noah and licked his whole face! Noah started crying, he didn't like that, haha. So now he's a little more cautious when they are super close to him. But he's still really interested in them. He's interested in all animals for that matter.

On a walk looking for doggies!

CHURCH:
Church has really been challenging the past couple months. We had to figure out a new church routine. We used to have 1:00 church and we had just gotten used to the perfect routine at church with him (as far as feeding & sleeping). But now with 9:00 church, sacrament is cutting right into his morning nap which makes him really cranky during the first hour. After sacrament I have to teach Sunday School so I can't even try to get him to sleep during that hour. So he's even crankier during that block. I nurse him right after my class and he instantly falls asleep. He dozes off for about 30 min and then we get to go to the last 20 minutes or so of Relief Society. Besides the fact that he's tired at church, he's also in that stage where he doesn't understand he needs to sit and be reverent. Of course he wants to crawl all over the place and get into everyone's things. I don't want to make it a habit of going out into the hall for him to play, so I've been trying really hard not to do that. I know you can only do so much at this age - as far as teaching church behavior - but I think it's better to start little by little now instead of having to correct bad behavior when he's 3 years old. But it's definitely been rough - he is really not a sit still kind of boy!

Snoozing in the mother's lounge - and don't worry, that's my light pink shirt by Noah's chin (I'm not that white!) But isn't he just gorgeous!?

SLEEP/SCHEDULE:
Sleep was again much better this month. He sleeps through the night probably 60% of the time. On nights where he doesn't make it through the full 12 hours without waking, he'll usually wake after 9-10 hours (so around 4:00 - 5:00 am). Then goes back to sleep until around 7:00 - 7:30. His naps are better as well. Although his naps aren't the 2 hours they used to be, he rarely has cat naps now and if he does (because of over-tiredness) it doesn't affect him as much as it used to. He can stay awake for much longer before his naps now, too. Even though his naps are better, he's been going through a phase for a while now where he cries for almost every nap - even if he's not over/under tired. He cries for a few minutes and then falls asleep. He doesn't cry at bedtime though which is nice. UNLESS something is different in his routine. I tried to change something the other day and it completely messed him up. He is sensitive. He goes through so many different phases too. Something I started doing this month which has helped lengthen out his naps has been to focus on drowsy signs. I always tried to do this before but he never showed them. I figured out I need to do something really quiet in order for him to show them. So around the time he usually gets tired we go in his room and read a few books. Once he starts rubbing his eyes I put him down. This has really helped! But if he's playing out in the living room or around other people, he will seem wide awake and energized so that's why I never caught them before.