11 months old

Can you believe it...this will be my LAST monthly 'Liam' update before my sweet man turns a YEAR OLD!!
I surely cannot believe it!

**A little disclaimer/sidenote about the good ole bloggity blog...As you may or may not have noticed, I've not been blogging regularly. A few months ago, I decided that I had too much on my plate. From raising a baby, creative hobbies/outlets, my Etsy shop, keeping a house, having a social life...basically, I just decided to put blogging, as well as many of my other hobbies, aside and focus on my Etsy business. Ultimately, my career will be in graphic design, so I decided to put most of my 'extra' energies there. Since then, my business has skyrocketed, and turned into an actual business rather than just a hobby! I couldn't be happier and I really am living my dream, doing graphic design for several hours every day. 

So for now, blogging will continue to take a back burner. I'm going to keep up with Liam updates once  a month or so. Maybe eventually I'll get back at it..when I discover more of this mysterious phenomenon called 'free time'...

And a HUGE thank you to all of my customers! Thanks to the many Instagram followers and perhaps even blog readers who have reached out for custom party invitations, wall art, logos, etc. I appreciate your business and support more than I can say!!

Anyway, without further ado..L man is 11 months!!

Weight: 20ish lbs

Height: 28/29

Clothing size: Mostly 9 & 12

Shoe Size: 4...He went through 3's in like, a monthh!!!!!

Diaper size: 3 

Feeding: L man is basically weaned from breastfeeding. When I say basically...a few weeks ago, I dropped his bedtime feeding and went to a bottle at bedtime. Liam mostly sleeps through the night, but not always, and he's been teething so he's been waking up. Sometimes he acts like he just wants to nurse, and somehow I still have a little milk left..so I let him nurse for 5 min or so.

A lot of people have asked about my weaning process, so here goes!

Up until 9 months, Liam was exclusively breastfed, and by exclusively, I mean, no bottles of pumped breastmilk, no formula. He did have table food and baby food/finger foods, but as far as a main source of nutrition, it was milk from the tap. 

So why did I want to stop? Well...to be honest, it was partially because I just wanted to stop! I wanted my body back!

(NOTHING wrong with that!! Ladies, I know breastfeeding is super controversial, but I don't know why! While I do think that breastmilk is the absolute best nutrition for a baby, and everyone should at least try it, every mom has her own right to choose the way she wants to feed her baby! Breastfeeding is a huge commitment. If you breastfeed, you're a great mom! And guess what? If you formula feed...you're also a great mom!)
ANYway. I digress.

The other main reason was because when Liam was about 7 months old, I got mastitis, followed up by an awful case of internal breast thrush (I've also heard of it referred to as fungal mastitis). AKA the MOST PAINFUL thing outside of labor that I've ever experienced. After 5 cycles of an antifungal medication and just as many trips to the doctor....two months later, I still had the thrush. The pain was not as severe, but I was still having to take several doses of Advil, and the pain was always brought on by nursing. So I came to the conclusion that weaning was the only thing that would get rid of it for good!
Ok...so Liam was 9 months old when I finally got him to take a bottle. We tried several, and this was the one that worked for us. Great for breastfed babies!

I started by dropping his mid-morning feed (right after his am nap) and swapping it for a bottle (formula). We did that for a month, so we were down to about three nursing sessions: First thing in am, mid-afternoon, and bedtime.
Month ten, we dropped the mid-afternoon and swapped it for a bottle. About two weeks later, my husband thought Liam seemed fussy in the morning, and tried giving him a bottle after I'd already nursed him.. I protested, but my husband was right. (first time ever!) 

Liam just wasn't getting enough out of me. Since I'd gone from full time BF to dropping feedings, I'd started to dry up pretty quick. 

And just like that, morning feeding was dropped. Glory hallelujah, my husband could get up with him sometimes!
Around 10.5 months is also the time I started introducing cow's milk. I started slow, about 2 oz a day mixed in with his formula, and just increased it by 2 ounces after a week or so.

A little after 11 months (he's almost 11.5) Liam just started to seem really uninterested in nursing at night. I had been nursing him and also giving him a 4 oz bottle because I didn't have enough milk to fill him, so it was time to drop that last feeding and give him a bottle instead. 

Now, he's on full cow's milk as of about a week ago. 

So his feeding schedule goes as such:

6 oz milk first thing in the morning, and then he eats breakfast about half an hour later. Typical breakfasts might include:

-Scrambled egg with cheese 

-Fruit-whatever we have cut up. He really likes papaya, watermelon, grapes, & bananas.
I also like to get the little packs of mandarin oranges or pears for when we don't have anything cut up.

-Frozen waffle torn into pieces with peanut butter on it

-Cheese 

Lunchtime:

(We don't do a bottle after morning nap)

-Grilled cheese

-Cheese quesadilla

Or often, I'll just heat some leftovers from the previous night's dinner. 

Dinnertime:

Sometimes we do a bottle right after his afternoon nap, depending on how hungry he seems. 

He usually has what we're having for dinner, unless it's super spicy, or just isn't ready in time.
Then, I'll usually warm up some leftovers to tide him over.

Sleep: We've got a great sleep routine for the most part. Unless he's teething or just a flukey night, he usually sleeps through 12 hours. He goes down at 8:30, wakes about 8:30. If he does wake up at night, which honestly I would say happens once a week or every two weeks, maybe every night if he's teething, I try to let him cry for a little while unless he just sounds really upset. I'll go in and rock him and walk around the room with him (still with the lights off) and usually he will go right back to sleep. If he's just not having it, I'll give him a little milk to maintain my own sanity and get us back to sleep as soon as possible!

Morning nap is usually at 10:30 and he sleeps about 2 hours.

Afternoon nap is usually 3:30, and he'll sleep an hr/hr and a half.

Milestones: More teeth this month! I think he's got eight in there right now, with maybe two more coming in. He's been gnawing away on his hands, so hopefully they make an appearance soon!

Liam took his FIRST STEPS this past month!!

Cutest thing everrrrr!!! He's since walked around a little bit, but still seems pretty apprehensive about it and prefers crawling. A funny thing I've noticed...he won't really walk unless he's holding something in his hand! I think he's thinking that whatever he has in his hand is helping him stay up in some way, either that or it helps him keep his balance. 

Here's some more of that cute walk:

This month month he also started hugging us back when we hug him. He throws his arms around our shoulders and squeezes! Cutest thing evaaaaa.

Until next month!

-Angie

xx