11 months - The Final Month of Infancy

                                    Birth                  11 Months
                                  7lbs 5oz                 18lbs (+/-)
                               19.5 inches              28 inches (+)

It's hard not to feel the burn of tears threatening to fall as I think we are now 1 month away from our baby turning 1.  Our baby girl that filled us with fear when we first heard the phrase "It's a girl."  The baby girl that was born pouting, sticking her bottom lip out.  The baby girl that learned how to rule the 3 other people that live in this house quicker then anticipated.  That baby girl is already 11 months old.

Sleep has been our biggest challenge since birth.  We are back to only 1 feeding a night, roughly 2am she wakes up to eat, then quickly goes back to sleep.  One night time feeding is much better than 2 or 3!!  During the day she likes to take an early nap around 8:30am that lasts anywhere from 1.5 - 3 hours.  Later in the day she may or may not take a short nap.  Heaven forbid I try to put her down for a nap when she doesn't want one!  Then it's swaddling, rocking and feeding from 7-7:30pm.  Once she starts to fall asleep, I give her a final kiss before laying her in her crib.  I love how warm and soft her cheeks feel after they've been snuggled up against me for the past 30 minutes.  I also love that she buries her hands in my hair as she falls into sleep.

Her eating skills are getting better and better as she now decides what she likes and what she would rather not eat.  When given multiple foods on her tray, she will pick up the items she does not want to eat and drop them off the side of her tray.  You can tell what she favors by what she eats first.  At the end of dinner she has completely cleaned her tray, either via throwing the food overboard or eating it.  Depending on what I have made, I can't keep food on the the tray as she eats as quickly as I cut/cool her food.  She can quickly shovel food in her little mouth!  She still nurses a handful of times throughout the day so she is still getting a decent amount of nutrients that way.  I can tell she is too busy during the day to nurse like she used to.  I would rather her wean herself then me push her to stop nursing....so I'll just continue to follow her lead.

Her love of books makes me so happy.  I feel guilty because I don't spend the amount of time reading to her that I did with Paisley.  However, somehow this little lady has fallen in love with books.  Anytime she is sitting quietly by herself, you will find a book in her hand.  It may be upside down, but she can already lose herself in the pages of a book.  She also snuggles her dolls as she picks them up and she is showing a strong interest in play food.  She doesn't pretend to eat it...usually she just likes banging it on a table, but she often can be found carrying a plastic cracker around.  She enjoys watching Paisley play and if he's laying down she will try to sit on him.  She is starting to learn that he doesn't like having his hair pulled so that particular issue is starting to get better. He is still rougher with her than she'd like so throughout the day I often hear her crawling away from him at warp speed on the wood floor.

Her top teeth have descended.  She has the cutest little gap in between them that I absolutely love.  Her gummy smile was precious but this new toothy smile melts my heart too.

The big development of the month was Lila had her first slumber party! I had very mixed feelings on leaving her as she doesn't take a bottle and she still wakes during the night, but putting it off any longer wasn't going to make our first night apart any easier.  So Scott and I headed to Kentucky to a NASCAR race while Lila and Paisley headed to their aunt's house for a sleep over.  They all survived... :)  I did too....barely.

There were lots of first celebrations this month!  Lila helped celebrate her papaw's birthday, Father's Day, her daddy's birthday and 4th of July.  We didn't let her have any cake and she wasn't very happy about that.  She did enjoy watching people blow out their birthday candles and she also didn't mind the fireworks on the the 4th.  She actually laid her head on my lap and fell asleep while we were watching the fireworks.

Party preparations are under way for our 2 August babies.  I look forward to celebrating their lives with our friends and family and hope our little people feel how loved they are.  They absolutely amaze me.

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