I cannot quite believe that I am writing this already, but our baby girl is one today! The past year has flown by in a sleep-deprived haze, and somehow in just twelve months Polly has transformed from a tiny newborn to a robust almost-toddler in the blink of an eye. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly a baby changes in the first year of their life.
This past month has been a particularly exceptional one in terms of milestones for Polly. On May 19th she walked across the room using her walker for the very first time, and then on June 2nd she stood unaided for a few seconds for the first time. She’s now often found cruising round the room using the furniture, or anything that can be pushed along! She has also added nananana and mamamama to her babbles.
What she still does not do is sleep through for us, and wakes at least once, without exception, every single night for a feed. There has, however, been a bit of an improvement in the self-settling department, and occassionally if she wakes for a second time we can leave her to cry for a minute or two and she will put herself back to sleep. Some nights it doesn’t work like that and we’re up with her for a while, whereas other nights she doesn’t even stir again until morning. There has also been a slight improvement when she first goes down for the night; Polly no longer needs rocking every evening (although she seems to have regressed again on this over the past week).The recent hot weather and the fact that Polly’s top teeth have FINALLY cut through her gum do not help with the sleeping either. And with her new top teeth comes the teeth grinding which she’s already discovered!
Polly is still predominantly on two naps a day, although more and more it’s just the one, which works so much better in terms of her being tired enough to go down at a decent time for the night.
She LOVES her food and will happily sit for ages picking her way through a plate-full of finger food. She’s mostly doing baby led weaning, because a) she seems happy with that and b) it means I can get on with other things rather than sit and feed her. Even things like yoghurt and porridge she tackles herself; using a spoon which she is very good at or – her prefered method – her hands! We’ve been gradually weaning Polly off Aptamil and onto cows milk over the past couple of weeks, and as soon as the current tub of formula runs out that will be it. We’ve also stopped sterilising too.
One of the funny things Polly likes getting up to is emptying the laundry bin and sorting through the dirty washing. She enjoys draping items of clothing over herself, and on more than one occassion I have found her crawling round with a pair of knickers round her neck! She also likes clapping – especially when she hears music – doing row-row-row your boat, and doing walkie-round-the-garden (which she attempts to do the actions for).
It has become apparent how much Tabitha keeps Polly entertained, as on the couple of mornings Tabitha is at pre-school Polly is a lot harder-work and much clingier. I actually manage to get more done when I have both of them here, although I do relish the mornings where I only have one child to look after; it’s a lot quieter!
This past year has been fun at times, not-so-fun at other times, monotonous and repetitive much of the time, and exhausting and tiring all of the time. However, it is an honour and a blessing to share these formative years with my two girls and I know I will never regret doing so (no matter how stressful it can get!).
HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY POLP!
Life with Peachy & Polp 