Brooke's First Year

Brooke is now 14 months old, but I wanted to recap her first year on the blog.

Links to previous Brooke posts:

Brooke's Birth

My Maternity Leave

Newborn Phase

Brooke had a very relaxed newborn phase, as I wrote about in my maternity leave post. Never fussy and easy to figure out what she needed when she needed it. She never took a pacifier and never seemed to need one. A lot of time was spent on the Boppy Lounger pillow, and she liked the repetitive motion of being pulled back and forth. She went to day care at 13 weeks old and transitioned very well. Like everyone, Brooke thrives on routine. She was easy to take everywhere, often sleeping in her car seat during dinners out and car rides. 

Toddler Phase

I'm not sure when an infant or baby officially becomes a toddler, but I'll consider this the stage where she was crawling and cruising on the furniture, between 8-12 months. She remained a very happy baby! She prefers Brian, Cam and my dad over everyone else. She loves being around other kids. Being smothered with love and attention from Kat's kids at the beach one weekend, she seemed to enjoy every minute of it! 

She continues to be easy to take places. She gets a lot of attention from other people in public for being so happy and fun-loving. We take her out to eat with us most weekends and she has been easy in restaurants. She sits in a high chair now. It's not quite as relaxing for us as parents to have to entertain her while we're trying to enjoy a restaurant, but overall she is easy to please and has not yet had any tantrums.

Day Care

Day care has gone great! I'm really happy that it's only ten minutes from our house. This is a much better arrangement than when I had Cam in day care near my office and it was a 45-minute commute for us. Brooke had an infant room teacher that she adored! All the staff give her so much love and attention. She has never reacted negatively to being dropped off and I know the socialization is good for her. I'm always amazed at how day care seems to get all the kids on a routine. Like with Cam, I  relied on the day care to teach me what to do! They are the ones that told me to start giving baby food, then solid food, etc. She has had several minor colds, pink eye, fevers, etc, but no major sickness to report. 

Sleep

Brooke was and continues to be a great sleeper. She slept in an inexpensive Amazon-purchased bassinet beside me for the first few weeks and woke up a few times a night, as all babies do. I mostly slept on the couch in her room the first couple weeks. By 4 weeks or so, she was sleeping in her crib and I would just wake up and go to her room when I heard her on the monitor, usually once or twice a night. By 8 weeks, I'm pretty sure she was sleeping a full 8-10 hours or so, and a short time later she was consistently sleeping most nights 7 PM - 7 AM, which is pretty similar to her current sleep schedule, 6:30 PM - 7:30 AM. Sleep begets sleep! My neighbor told me this with Cam and it's always worked for us (the earlier bedtime being counterintuitive).

In the infant room at day care, Brooke took several shorter cat naps each day, which I think contributed to how well she napped on the weekends at home! She would usually nap 2-3 hours each morning and afternoon. On Sundays after church, she would take her best naps and often sleep for 3-4 hours (basically the entire afternoon!). At one year old, she moved to the toddler room at day care and now naps from 12-2:30 each day instead of the morning/afternoon naps. On the weekends, she still often takes two naps.

As with most things, we are flexible and not not super strict about bed times or nap times. If we are out and get home at 9, Brooke seems content to do whatever, so that's been nice.

Eating

I exclusively breast-fed the first 4 months, which is twice as long as I did with Cam. I think I had a much easier time this go-round for a couple reasons. For starters, there was no lactation consultant that came to my hospital room this time, which I think hindered my experience with Cam. I felt like the lactation consultant's emphasis on positioning, timing feeds, which side to feed on, keeping count of diaper changes, etc. made me over-think the whole thing when Cam was a newborn instead of just naturally trusting my instincts and not worrying about keeping track of anything. Also, I got this Haaka manual pump and I found it much more convenient to use than an expensive breast pump, which I've purchased with both kids and never used.

I stopped breastfeeding when I went back to work, and when my freezer supply ran out a few weeks later, I switched to Similac formula. Transitioning Brooke to a bottle was stressful for about a week, as she seemed confused on what to do but eventually got the hang of it. Around 5-6 months, Brooke started eating solid food, mostly jars of baby food, puffs, then crackers, cheese, eggs, fruits, veggies, etc. Similar to what we did with Cam, I mostly feed her what we eat or various healthy snacks and just make sure it's soft/smaller pieces. I do think I've been a bit more worried about her choking than I remember being with Cam. Our pediatrician told me to keep food at "fingernail size" (and his wife is an ER doctor), so I think I've just tried to be more careful this time around and figured it's not worth having a baby choke. Also, I rely on day care to do a lot of her feeding, since she is in their care for 8 hours each weekday, and the day care teachers are way more laid back than me, ha! I remember them giving her goldfish at 6 months old and she did fine with it, whereas I probably would've broken the goldfish cracker in half. :)

Brooke loves all food. We introduced peanut butter puffs early, and she has eaten eggs and fish and has had no allergies to anything. The only food I've seen her actively not like is avocado, which is one of my favorite foods, go-figure! She is a good eater. She now drinks whole milk or water at one year old. She drinks now from a sippy cup or cup with straw.

Sibling Relationship

Brooke adores Cam and I know the feeling is mutual! Cam has been much more helpful and delighted by his little sister, more so than I anticipated. He is at a great age to help when needed and "babysit" for short times when we need to do other things around the house. He is probably the best person at keeping Brooke entertained and content.

Milestones

Brooke hit all the milestones at basically the average of all babies, but of course I think she is very smart. ;-) She rolled over, crawled, and started walking right at the average time. Her first word was "dada" around 6 months old and she now has about 10+ words, including "thank you," "bye bye," "duck," "sock," and "shoe" along with a few others. I've been pretty good about recording all the milestones in her baby book. 

Best Purchases

I like the Halo swaddle wraps, the Boppy Lounger pillow, the Dohm white noise machine, the Bumbo seat with the tray attachment, a basic plastic baby bathtub and the inflatable duck tub for when she was able to sit. She liked MAM bottles and NUK sippy cups. I bought a few wooden toys with muted colors. We read lots of board books, which are the same ones we had with Cam. I primarily use Dr. Teals Kid's Sleep Bath every night, which I think helps with a calming nighttime routine. 

First Birthday

We celebrated Brooke's birthday at our house with my parents coming over for dinner. We had lasagna and cake. Brooke had a couple of gifts from my parents!

Parenting Thoughts

I am by no means a perfect parent and have room for improvement in many areas (e.g. losing my cool, modeling a loving marriage, getting outside more, etc) but overall I feel that Brian and I do a very good job, and Brooke (and Cam, of course) are the result of our efforts. 

My friend was the guest speaker at an event in Raleigh this fall that I attended on "Low Tech Parenting" and her talk was SO GOOD. There were so many takeaways from that night, but mostly I was reminded to keep a long-term view. Often what feels easier in the short term makes life more difficult in the long-term. She spoke of an American family that she and her husband happened to see twice dining out at nice restaurants while on vacation in Paris and how well-behaved the pre-teen kids were at dinner. The family was talking, smiling, and just enjoying each other's company over a great meal. My friend kept thinking about this family, and how she would one day want that for her own family, realizing that it doesn't happen miraculously. It was the result of every single day leading up to that point. We, as parents, have to put in the work every day. 

Control what we can control. And, of course, pray a lot!

I will certainly make mistakes along the way but I am blessed with the opportunity to pour into our kids, model the behavior I want, take them to church, help them learn, shape their character, and affirm that they are loved, wanted, cherished, unique, talented, amazing individuals that are God's gift to the world (should come as no shock I have a very confident older child, LOL). 

I still live by my parenting rules that I blogged about on Cam's 6th birthday - keep them tired and hungry; more is caught than taught; and try my best to make our home a haven.

As I once read and truly believe, parenting is "all joy and no fun." Brooke is truly a joy!