The Journey of Parenthood…

Spear Summary of Month 12

This post is a summary of Spear’s 12th month of life – it covers the entire month of November and he was 11 months old this month. 

Eating: 

This month we introduced organic whole milk. It was a tad tricky for me to figure out as Spear has always had two sources for his liquid feedings: formula and breastmilk. I wanted to make sure he was still getting the breastmilk each day and was also nervous how adding in a third liquid feeding would possibly mess with his system. 

The first bottle/breast feed I always drop is the 3 pm one. I slowly transition my kids at a year old to eating three meals a day and aim to drop the “snack” feeding at three. 

All three of my older kids have all instantly taken to milk with zero issues and Spear was the exact same! He LOVED it right away!

Spear is my first baby to use these sippy cups and I really like them, def less messy than the normal Take and Toss I use!

I went through the breastmilk stash in the deep freezer and am just SO thankful for all those who donated milk for Spear this year. He was able to have two bottles a day of breastmilk for the first several weeks of his life and has had one breastmilk bottle a day ever since! 

I knew I had enough left to actually go a bit past his first birthday so that means we met his goal of breastmilk for the full first year! YAY!!!

I tried to enjoy the last of the days of bottles while I could. 

Spear continues to love solid foods and I wasn’t overly concerned about the transition to meals with the family for him. When I dropped the 3 pm bottle feeding I moved the breastmilk feeding to the first one of the day. I’d use whatever was left over in his bottle of breastmilk to make him some oatmeal to help him get those breastmilk benefits! He LOVES the oatmeal. Like LOVES it. By far his favorite food! 

Spear truly likes any food he can get his hands on and he cracks me up at how he’ll work and work to get things out of cabinets. He has snatched these packets of crackers before and anytime he manages to get one he chomps down on that thing so quick haha He KNOWS he’s not supposed to so he like rushes to eat as much as of it as possible before I catch him! 

Sleep: Spear sleeps very solid at naps and nighttime. Sometimes he takes a bit to fall asleep and sometimes he wakes up early but he’s content either way. Lately he’s been sleeping so solid that when I come in to get him he’s DEAD asleep! I love seeing him so content. 

Schedule: This month was a transition time for Spear easing away from bottles and starting to eat at family meal times and drink whole milk in a sippy cup during those meals. 

7:00: Get up, breastmilk bottle 

9-11: Nap

11:00 up from nap, by end of the month he’d dropped this formula bottle and transitioned to whole milk and eating lunch with Tess

12:45-4:00: nap

4:00: A bit of milk in the sippy until he adjusted to waiting until dinner time

6:00ish: Dinner with family and bath

6:45ish: Formula bottle before bed 

The 11:00 bottle was the second one I dropped and then the night time one. By the end of the month Spear was done with formula completely and only having a bottle of breastmilk at 7:00 am! 

Other Things With Spear:

Last month we transitioned Spear into his big boy car seat and he LOVES it. It’s been a very, very smooth and easy transition for us all. We went with the Graco Extend2Fit and have been very impressed with it so far!

He only said it ONCE so I’m not sure if it technically counts as a first word. But I swear when Spear was fussy I handed him a toy duck and said to him “here you want the duck…” and he said “DUCK.” 

One first I know FOR SURE happened this month was that Spear went tee tee in the potty!!! Once our kids get close to a year old we start putting them on the potty while we run the bathtub for bath time. Britt went for the first time on her first birthday and started legit potty training at 15 months. Spear went on the potty for the first time at 11 months old! He cannot STAND diaper changes so I’m very tempted to start super early with him on the potty training!

I’m not sure how I handled the gifts under the Christmas tree when Britt was this age…but Spear is ALL about the presents and races right for them. So we ended up getting out our large baby gate and blocking the tree!

Spear isn’t yet standing unsupported but he is into EVERYTHING. He cruises a good bit but mostly just crawls everywhere he wants to go because it’s the fastest way for him. He is quick and curious which is a dangerous combo! 

He is also SUPER STRONG. I have rubberbands over my cabinet handles and he will pull and pull to get it open enough to get into them!

Crying out of frustration because he is determined to get in!

We’ve def entered toddler status!

I’ve had BIG talks with the big kids about shutting and locking the gate on the stairs. It terrifies me how quick he is about climbing but also does make me proud that he’s so great at it!

Spear’s #lifelongdream came true when I rigged him up to ride on the robot vacuum! 

Tessie loves waking Spear up from naps and just adores being around him in general. She’s always talking to him and doting on him and it’s just clear how much she simply loves him and enjoys being the older sibling!

Spear’s independent playtime is often a struggle if Tess is home because she will interrupt him to visit and read 🙂 

She does SUPER well sharing with him, including her balloon!

During Spear’s adoption I purchased an adoption baby book for us to be able to share the journey with Spear someday. I finally started working on it in the weeks leading up to his birthday. It includes many blank pages and I thought it’d be neat for each of the older kids to have their own spot to write a message about how they felt about adoption and about adding Spear to our family. It made me feel very proud to see how seriously they took it and the time and consideration they put into what they wrote.  

Kye came to me with actual tears in his eyes after filling out his page. Sweetest brother ever!

I finished both Spear’s adoption book as well as his baby book by 9:30 at night the night before his birthday!

Love seeing my sweet babies love on each other!

Videos:

It’s crazy to believe Spear has already been in  our lives for a year! Our last month with an infant at home…EVER! Hello toddler life! 

Emily Parker
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