Brady’s 1-year update

Oh me, oh my, it’s Brady’s 1-year update. My baby has been in the world for a full year.

I never understood the importance of a baby’s birthday, until I became a parent. It’s a big milestone to think how far we’ve come. In soooo many many ways. It’s quite significant. It makes me think about all those months and months I spent hoping to be pregnant. Then all of those months spent growing this baby. Then the labor. Then the newborn stage and wondering how we were going to make it through those stressful and sleepless nights and long days. Constantly learning. Constantly growing. Constantly loving our little man more and more and more. Wow.

I didn’t want to let too much time pass after his official birthday before getting this out. (Hope you didn’t miss the first birthday party recap here.) Let’s dig into the TMI, as we always do …

Sleep and naps

We transitioned Brady to one nap a day, down from two naps a day, right when he turned one year. He had been fighting the afternoon nap on some days, and quite frankly, I felt a little trapped at home during the day with his multiple naps. We only had small windows to head out, and although on some adventures we’d let him try to nap in the car — it was always best to keep him in his crib and on his schedule (which was never down to the tee with time, but loosely scheduled), because those naps were the best naps.

Now, his mid-day nap happens anywhere around 12:30 p.m. or so and lasts just about 2 hours on a good day (it’s slightly later on Thursdays, because I teach a noon barre class and we don’t get home until 1:15 p.m.). I wish his nap was a little longer, but I’m just happy it’s longer than an hour — whereas his morning and afternoon naps were both only slightly longer than hour — not giving me much time to get anything done. There have been a couple of days where he seemed extra tired recently since the switch and we went back to two, but I think one will be more of the norm moving forward.

As far as sleep — it’s better, but not perfect. During weeks when he’s been teething or when he had a cold, he would be up a lot (like one bad night last week). But mostly, we can be pretty sure he will wake up one time, any time after 11 p.m. I’ll change his diaper, feed him, and put him back down. Sometimes he takes a little more rocking than others, and Dave will get up and do the extra rocking. (Yes, we rock him to sleep, I know that’s wrong … but we do it.)

We start the night-time routine around 6 p.m., have him asleep by 6:50 p.m., and he usually wakes up for good in the morning around 7:30 a.m., although there have been a lot of days recently when he’s slept until 8:15 a.m., which is awesome for me, but bad for Dave, because that means he doesn’t get to see Brady before heading off to work.

I know most other kids Brady’s age are sleeping fully through the night. But he’s not yet. One day! When it finally happens, it will be a welcome surprise, because I wouldn’t mind a full uninterrupted night of sleep again in the future.

Perhaps the cutest thing is that once he is up from a nap or night-time, he stands up and bangs on the side of his crib or the wall and chatters. It was such a big day when I saw him standing for the first time hehehe! Big boy!

Breastfeeding

Welp, guys, nobody is more shocked than me that I’m still nursing Brady. As of his one-year birthday, Brady was nursing six times a day, which is a lot — although less than the very frequent sessions when he was younger. 

Anyhow, as I’ve talked about in this post on how I keep my milk supply up while working out, nursing has come very easy to us. We’re lucky in that way. But I do know that it’s time to taper it off a bit. I’ve done some reading and spoken to friends who’ve done it, and I have a plan of action for slowly weaning Brady. However, as you’ll see in the next segment, he isn’t super advanced with his solid consumption yet and hasn’t had anything else to drink that he likes … so here we are. I hope to gradually wean him and have that complete by the end of the year. It’s not as easy as you would think on both of our parts. Not at all.

Last week we went down to five nursing sessions a day, and I think that’s good for now … we’ll continue to drop one as it seems possible, most likely week by week.

Solids

I guess I just expected Brady to love food as much as I do, but it’s been a slow process. We started giving him little bits of food once a day starting at six months, and even though he didn’t love it, we persevered. We tried purees, a little mesh bag for sucking, small pieces he could touch and hold (that whole baby-led weaning thing), and nothing quite stuck. Sometimes he eats the food. Sometimes he swats it away.

However, we’ve now found a few things he likes. Once Upon a Farm pouches. Organic plain whole milk yogurt. Raw pumpkin. Banana. Apple sauce. And well, that’s about it. 

Starting at around one year, we began giving Brady solids at lunch and at dinner too, to step it up a notch. He eats a pretty small amount, but is starting to expect it and be more receptive. He doesn’t know how to feed himself yet, but is catching on, so maybe soon.

He’s not exactly eating the same things as us at meals and managing the intake, but as always, we know he’ll do it in his time. I’m constantly trying to get him to eat more, so here’s hoping.

Home and baby-proofing

Once Brady started crawling more, we went ahead and covered all of the outlets that he can reach. We also finally filled our living room in the middle of the house with a couch, ottoman, two chairs, rug and … a baby gate! This new “playroom” has been an awesome space to lay out all of his toys and hang out with him, and he really likes being in there. We got this baby gate, and it’s not pretty, but it gets the job done and is better than some others I’ve seen out there.

Once he starts walking, which he isn’t yet, but perhaps in the next few weeks or months, we will have to remove some things from the bottom shelves of other parts of the house. But we haven’t done a lot of redecorating yet. This kid likes to move though …

Brady as a person

I don’t know if this will make sense, but every single day, Brady is more of a little person. He has his personality, and he loves to laugh and play, and he is very pensive at times. His eyes light up when you look at him across the room, and when he’s tired, he’s a master snuggler. He thinks very hard about the tasks at hand, concentrating on his toys, concentrating on touching everything that he can, grabbing everything that he can. He loves life.

He loves people. He loves Rudy. He loves attention. And he loves to be picked up.

He does not, however, like to be left alone in his playpen for very long (like when I’m in the kitchen preparing a meal), and he does NOT like being in his car seat either. 

He loves being read to at night, and then takes the book from your hand and bangs on it with his hands. He likes to bang on everything actually. And when he finds a new thing to bang, he giggles with glee. His giggles are the best. His belly laugh is so loud and amazing, I literally die when I hear it.

He loves to drop things. In fact, throwing toys out of his playpen and hearing them drop is one of his favorite activities ever. (Such a boy, right?) Oh, but he also loves bathie a whole lot too.

He is ticklish. He is soft. His hair is always a big huge curly mess. He is absolutely the bee’s knees. And I truly love him more every single day, even when he’s a real pain in the tushie.

Brady’s development milestones

• The first two teeth came in the same week, right around 10 months, both on the bottom
• The third tooth, right on the top center, came in around 10.5 months
• The fourth tooth, also in the top center, came in around 11 months
• He went from army crawling on his stomach one day and then did a regular knee crawl at around 10 months, and he has been a super fast crawler ever since — I tell Dave he looks like a little happy cockroach he moves so quickly, but this means we always have to keep him in long pants, because his knees get overused if he is in shorts around the house
• He started pulling up on things around 10.5 months and officially can stand when supported as of 11 months
• He started sitting in the shopping cart like a big boy just around one year, and he is sooo alert and excited to see all the things in stores
• So much chatter
• So much laughing and smiling and watching, he does something we call “peeking” — and basically his eyes follow everything in the room and he looks around the corners of the house to see what we’re doing
• Ma-ma and da-da are definite words, although he’s still using them more often than just to refer to either of us
• He totally recognizes us from far away now! I LOVE to go into the kidcare after my workout and watch as he spots me from across the room — he races toward me, and I melt
• Oh and we started putting shoes on him more often now that he’s out of the car seat more hehheh, these are his current favorite shoes
• He is a professional traveler and has been in the following states so far: Florida, California, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Georgia, with another state on the agenda for this upcoming weekend

Brady’s favorite things

• Crawling fast everywhere he can
• Playing with the little spiral things at the bottom of doors
• His playpen (but not when left alone in there)
• Soft blocks — these are the best, some of them even squeak, so Rudy loves them too
• This fun little thing has the best tunes
• Throwing things and seeing them drop
• Once Upon a Farm pouches
• Giggling
• Banging on everything
• V-tech sit-to-stand player (the songs from this are in our heads every single day)
• Measuring spoons. One of his favorite toys
• This is our cart cover for shopping carts — it’s from Shark Tank — highly recommend
• This is the best thing we got for his birthday, and somehow, someway, he knew exactly what to do when we pulled it out for him and he crawled onto it. Thanks to my mom and dad for picking out the perfect personalized gift — and actually, this makes his second personalized chair, because Dave’s dad made Brady a sturdy white wood one that we’ll probably use as his stool for helping in the kitchen one day — lucky boy
• He likes going on walks in the stroller too …

A big change over the last couple of months: New diapers

You guys know I’m all about non-toxic products and have been adamant about using cleaner and safer diapers and wipes for Brady (I mean, he spends 24 hours a day in a diaper). Well, I started with Babyganics and didn’t love the quality, then switched to a monthly delivery from the Honest Company, which just became so expensive. Well, then, a couple of months ago, one of my friends from Florida (Hi Natalie!) mentioned a newer company called Abby & Finn for cleaner diapers and wipes (no dyes, no heavy metals, no latex, no fragrances, no chlorine — none of the bad stuff you don’t want on your baby’s skin). I went to the site and ordered a trial pack and though the quality was JUST as good as Honest Company, although much cheaper — like I think we save $30 a month or something major like that. Wow! I wanted to tell you guys in case you are in the same expensive diaper boat. So last month, we made the big switch! I’m SO happy with Abby & Finn. Use my referral link for $5 off your first order! There aren’t as many patterns, but the diapers are good and I think the wipes are even better than other companies. Brady likes them too …

Other Brady posts

For a walk down memory lane, here are some posts that will remind us how far we’ve come …

• Brady’s birth story part one and part two
• Life with Brady at six weeks postpartum
• A look at our first 12 weeks of having Baby Brady in our lives
• Brady’s 6-month update
• Brady’s 8-month update
• Brady’s 10-month update
• And don’t miss this one: My favorite things you actually need when you have a baby — which explains all the products we used and loved early on (and are still using today)

My friends, thank YOU for following along and being a part of our lives. We truly appreciate it! We’ll do another Brady update in a few months.

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Questions of the day

Can you believe it’s been a year?

Parents — what has been your favorite age of your kids?

When did your kids start feeding themselves?

How’s your week going?