It would seem I owe Emelia a ten-month update post. These months are just flying by and we now have two months before she’s a year old and how is time flying by so fast that my baby isn’t going to really be a baby anymore??
I’m ten months? You don’t sa- Oh heys! What’s dis? Er meh gerd. A sticker.
Nicknames: Meals, Squish, Squishy, Mealie, Emjay
Weight: About 18 pounds
Length: 27.5 inches
Diaper size: 3
Clothing size: 9 months
Teeth: 2
Eating
Baby-led weaning is going OK-ish. She still struggles with certain foods, especially ground hamburger. Which, OK yeah, is definitely a more challenging texture when you don’t have teeth. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve nixed that. Along with tomatoes. Basically, taco night, which used to be such an “easy BLW” meal in the past with Olivia consists of giving Emelia shredded cheese and plain Greek yogurt. Plus, she seemed bothered by the spice and I know I look like a total asshole for CONSTANTLY COMPARING MY KIDS OH MAH GOD but it’s unfortunate that she’s struggling a lot more with that as well. All kids are different. I’m embracing their difference, so please don’t send me hate mail.
But there are other foods she’s great at (and loves. Like, loooves). Strawberries cut in half…brilliant. In fact, I think it’s her personal favorite if she was emotionally mature enough to have a favorite food. She particularly digs strawberries and cottage cheese. Takes seven or eight swipes with the cloth to clean her up, but worth it, I guess? The other night she had her first wedge of corn on the cob. And cried when I had to take it away forty minutes later. She also loved the Instant Pot chicken taco bowls I made one night when my parents were over. I cut the black beans in half, but otherwise, she did great with the shredded chicken and guac and shredded cheese, corn, and Greek yogurt. That one was a hit. Also, anything noodley. We made shrimp fettuccine alfredo last week and she scarfed her noodles but got red rashes on her arms all the way up to her elbows and on her knees. We weren’t positive if it was just a surface reaction (Olivia always had redness when the acidity of tomatoes got on her skin) or if this was reacting to shrimp. I didn’t notice anything else, so I’m going to try it again with shrimp before calling her allergist.
Luckily, peanut butter and scrambled eggs have been going well, allergen-wise, without incident. I’ve been finding breakfast, in particular, is the easiest meal to give that brings the least amount of anxiety for me. Dinners are so variable and the constant comments and observations from the peanut gallery (AKA the older sister) don’t help. There is just a lot of gagging and sometimes pretty bad, which makes me feel bad for Emelia, but right after she’s gagged her head off and acting like she’s going to stop breathing, she’s perfectly fine and stuffing another bit of the very same food that was trying to kill her in the first place.
Looking back at Olivia’s ten-month post, it seems I was “getting better at two meals a day,” so I don’t think I’m necessarily behind in that department, but we did get started six weeks later with Emelia on BLW, so maybe that’s why I feel more pressure. You’d think with the second kid, there’d be less, but this whole prematurity thing has been throwing me off.
She also loves these mini pancakes I can take from the freezer and heat in the microwave. In fact, I was smearing these with some coconut oil when I thought she was constipated and they were a hit (and a success a few days later).
I haven’t been great at tracking new foods she’s tried this month, but let’s see, we’ve got strawberries, mini pancakes, taco bowls, fettuccine alfredo, corn on the cob, steak fries, black beans, guacamole, cottage cheese, chicken noodle soup. I’m probably forgetting others. Oh, celery. Homegirl just sits and gnaws on them and I can actually get some work done at the table with her.
The sippy cup sitch is going better. She’ll sit back in Chris’s lap with her sippy of my thawed milk and will drink 1-1.5 oz at a time. Granted, I didn’t learn my lesson the first time around and froze milk in mostly 6 oz bags at a time, and she’s not nearly to that point. I think when the smaller sized bags run out, we’ll pray for the best, and try to give her six ounces in a 24-hour period and use the rest as breastmilk baths. I just can’t bring myself to toss old milk. In fact, I just add it to the freezer bag of breastmilk for baths and when I collect enough, it’ll be saved to dump in the bathtub with the kids this winter.
She’s nursing whenever throughout the day still and will wake up once at night to nurse (usually in the early morning hours. She’s been in the pinching stage of nursing which is really fun times and leaves tiny bruises peppered all over my boobs.
Sleeping
I’d still have to say it’s going well. She goes down pretty well, even if she protests a little. There are some evenings when I do have to go back and re-nurse her because she’s so upset. Overall, she’s still going down anywhere from 6:45 to 7:15 pm and wakes to nurse somewhere around 5:00 am to go back to sleep until 7 or 7:30, give or take. There are nights where she’s up twice, but luckily, it’s not often. I’m still nursing her to sleep, but unlike Olivia, she really doesn’t fall asleep on me.
Her naps are still around 10:00 am and again at 3:00 pm or so, and she sleeps about an hour and a half each time. She loves sleeping on her belly.
Milestones
Oh, we have so many milestones this month. It seems like she’s just exploded in her physical development. Back in her nine-month post, she was still working on sitting up. Now, she can sit like a champ. I still stick a boppy behind her when I can’t be right there, but she’s great at not flinging herself backward like she was doing, and has no problem going from a sitting position to the floor on her belly. She JUST right at ten months can now get herself from hands and knees to sitting in an amazing tripod position. She’s also army crawling like mad everywhere. Everywhere. She’ll start in the living room and before anyone notices, she’ll be zipping down the long hallway to her sister’s room at the end. We have to watch her constantly because she goes everywhere now, and her favorites are to hang out at the gate to the stairs, or to Toby’s water bowl, which she’s successfully knocked over twice now.
Her therapist wants to now follow her monthly for virtual visits and wants to see her through cruising around the furniture to make sure she’s on the right track to walk. But she said they wouldn’t worry about her not walking until she’s 16 months, so we have plenty of time.
But she’s also getting up on her hands and knees no problem and a month ago that was pretty much impossible for her to do. She kinds of does this thing where she sticks her leg out in front of her, which has to be a precursor to sitting. We call it her Zoolander pose.
Not that she’s doing it consistently, but she’s sort of figuring out how to wave to us. She doesn’t have her pincher grasp yet. But she’s figured that she doesn’t like me walking away from her and will let me know when she’s not happy about it. Likewise, when I’ve been out of the house for a few hours, she’ll squeal loudly and shriek with glee when I’ve walked back into the room to greet her.
She’s been using her voice a lot this month. Shrieks and squeals and saying her Bs. “Ah ba ba ba!” “Aba. Ah ba ba baaaaaaaaa!” She still loves to holler out “Mmmmmmaaaammmmm!” when she’s trying to get my attention.
Health
She’s officially got two teeth. Her bottom two came in at the end of July at the same time. She had been fussier during the day (AKA screeching and screaming) and taking longer to fall asleep at night. I saw a few days prior that she had some swelling on her gums and was giving her a lot of cooling teethers. I just ordered some Zarbees gum gel stuff, so hopefully, that will help. So far, she doesn’t seem to need medication at night.
Otherwise, the only other thing was the weird redness on her arms and knees after eating the noodles that had been in the shrimp alfredo mixture, and I don’t know what that was about, but my kids have always gotten these weird rashes.
Luckily, there hasn’t been any sickness, but I’ve noticed she was having a dry cough for about a week or so, and nothing seemed to come from it.
Personality
Last month she was all about shaking her head no and this month she’s so over that. I don’t think I’ve seen her do it since.
She definitely is one of those babies that move their whole body when she’s excited. She’ll be army crawling all over the place, shriek that you pick her up, and when you walk over to her to grab her, she rolls over on to her back helpfully to give you easier access. And bonus points if you talk to her while bent over before you reach out to her. Her legs are rubbing against each other so frantically, you’d think she was going to start a fire with them.
She continues to smile 21 out of 24 hours and gives us some good belly laughs. In fact, Olivia can really get her going.
When she’s acting tired, which is almost all her waking hours, she’ll frantically rub her eyes and bury her face into your chest. Quite the flair for drama, that one.
She’s vocal, which she’d have to be in order to keep up with her sister. Wow, the kid has a set of lungs on her. I have loud babies, what can I say.
She also knows now when she’s getting into something she shouldn’t. She’ll make a mad dash, usually over to the stairs, and glance over at you to see if you see her. (Newsflash, kid: I always do).
Likes
Exploring on the floor, getting into things she shouldn’t, getting to play with her sister’s non-chokables, walks in the stroller, swimming, baths, reading books, eating books, mealtimes, nursing, the idea of going to bed, startling her so she’s jumps and then starts laughing, munching her baby thighs, being sung to, rattles, her shakers, playing with kitchen utensils.
Dislikes
When you walk away from her, physical therapy, getting cleaned up after meals.
Undecided about
Riding in her car seat, swinging, playing in her pack n play, diaper changes unless she’s good and distracted with a toy, being smothered by her sister.
Looking forward to
Well, I’m definitely looking forward to her crawling, which is going to be any time now. She’s so close to doing it. Because of COVID, we lead pretty boring lives, but I’m looking forward to enjoying another month of our pool before it has to get taken down. I’m also looking forward to her getting the hang of BLW and trying new foods and textures.
I have zero comparison for Bowen and eating so I have no idea here but you always hear siblings can be very different, I guess that is the case! My child is so stinking picky sometimes yet lastnight he was dipping granny smith apple slices in french onion dip…gag me!!
Author
OMG, I’m dying. Olivia dips things in ketchup that have no business being dipped. 🙂
She is SO wonderful. Thank you for sharing her with us!
Author
Thank you! She is pretty amazing. 🙂