What a year it has been. Maryn is one! She is rapidly becoming less of a baby and more of a toddler. She's beginning to express lots of emotions - happiness, frustration, jealousy - and trying to figure out how to let us know what she wants. She's using the signs for more, all done, and milk, and she's saying "hi", "momma", "dadda", and "book" and lots of new sounds. She loves the body part game ("where's your nose/mouth/hair/feet" etc). She is crawling all over the place and into everything. She's definitely been keeping us on our toes; if we look away for one second she'll disappear and we'll find her in another room with the door closed getting into who knows what. We're working on "no" and "come to momma/dadda". She is doing much better cruising around the furniture and this last week she started standing on her own without holding on. She's such a big girl!! I think we now get to discontinue physical therapy which is great too!
She had her one year check up (and vaccines - boo) yesterday with her pediatrician. She hasn't gained much weight. She is 16.8 lbs (1st percentile), 27 3/4 in (10th percentile), and her head circumference is 17 and 3/4 in (50th percentile). It turns out she is a little anemic, which can cause decreased appetite. She has to start an iron supplement, so hopefully that will help. We go back in another month for a re-check. Dr. Harvey also wants us to really work on boosting calorie intake. She is becoming very stubborn about eating though. Unless it's yogurt, a yummy fruit, or her cereal, we have a hard time getting her to eat anything from a spoon. She wants to feed herself. Her favorite finger foods are cheese, avocado, blueberries, strawberries, pears, apples, beans (pinto or black), crackers, cheerios, peas, corn, bagels with cream cheese, toast, and waffles. I'm having a hard time getting her to eat much of anything with protein other than dairy and the beans. She refuses all meat and eggs. We may have to add some kind of supplement in her milk (carnation, etc) too. It can be quite frustrating.
We've also begun the weaning process. We have replaced one nursing session in the afternoon with a sippy cup of whole milk and a snack. She does pretty well with the milk. We're going to stay with this for a couple more weeks and just see how it goes. I'm not in a huge hurry to wean but I do want to get down to two feedings a day - one first thing in the morning, one just before bed, so we still need to drop her late morning feeding. She is only waking for a midnight feeding occasionally. I can't believe I've been breast feeding her for over a year now; she's never had to have formula. We are very blessed; I know there are many moms out there who, for various reasons, are unable to breast feed. I am also blessed in that I have received so much support - from Billy, from our families and friends, and from my workplace. I haven't received a single negative comment about nursing her for this long.
Pictures from the big birthday will be up soon. Can't wait to see what the next year brings for our sweet little girl! We'll do another update at 15 months.
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