Autumn has just turned one. She’s gone from a tiny, sleepy baby to an adorable little girl in just a few months. She’s still quite baby-ish in a lot of ways, and I think that’s really nice as she’s my second (and my last) baby, and there’s no rush for her to do things. Not like when you have your first child, you are waiting for their first word, first steps, first teeth. When you have a second, it’s much more about enjoying each new milestone as and when it pops its head up.
For her first birthday, we took her to the Rare Breeds Centre near Ashford. She had a lovely day looking at all the animals and taking part in all the activities there. We also had a family birthday party which she enjoyed. We were lucky with the nice weather, so everyone could spread out and enjoy the garden whilst celebrating with her. It was a lovely day.
So now she’s reached 12 months old, I thought I would put together a summary of what she’s been up to and what she can and can’t do.
Sleeping
She still sleeps rigidly still on her back. She’s a good 12-hour sleeper at night now. She continues to nap twice during the day as well. She’s made great inroads into getting her sleep cycles joined up, so she now sleeps for around 1 and ½ hours in the morning and then for around 45 minutes in the afternoon. She rarely wakes up from her morning nap crying now as she’s getting enough sleep. She’s not very happy about going down in the travel cot when we are at other people’s houses, but she will sleep in her car seat when we are out and about.
She is very good about going down for naps and bedtime at home. She gets a quick kiss and cuddle, and then we pop her down. She doesn’t usually make any fuss and then just lays there until she falls asleep. She’s not an early riser; she will quite happily lay in until around 7 to 7:30 unless she gets woken up by her noisy brother, who rises at 6 am most days.
Feeding
Autumn has come on leaps and bounds since turning one. She’s open to trying new foods, and she will now eat a lot of food she wasn’t very keen on. She’ll now eat breakfast cereal, but not porridge, and she will eat a sandwich if she’s really hungry. She much prefers cooked lunches, though. She loves curries, chilli, bolognaise, pasta dishes, and anything with rice, like paella or jambalaya. She likes jacket potatoes with beans, chilli or tuna. There’s very little she won’t eat these days. The main foods she seems less interested in are creamy white-coloured foods like porridge, risotto or cauliflower cheese. But if I mix these with pureed peas or my homemade tomato sauce, she’ll eat them.
We’ve cut down her milk to just twice a day now. She has 8oz in the morning when she wakes up and 8oz before bed. We moved down from 4 bottles quite quickly once she started eating decent portions of food around her first birthday. Our next step is to move away from bottles to a sippy cup for her milk.
Mental and Physical Development
Her language skills are excellent. She can string two or three words together to communicate what she wants. When she’s had enough to eat, she’ll wave her hand and say, ‘no more’. If she doesn’t like what’s happening, she’ll say ‘no thank you’. She can say her own name. She’s got a really good vocabulary.
She’s very good at understanding as well. If she’s getting dressed and she has a toy in one hand, if we say swap hands, she’ll put the toy in the other hand until she’s got her arm through the sleeve. If I ask her if we should change her nappy, she points to the changing table and then won’t make a fuss about having her nappy changed.
Her hand-eye coordination is excellent. She can post items into slots, and she can put multiple different shapes into her shape sorter. She likes to throw, catch and roll a ball around, and she’s really interested in Duplo. She’s better at taking it apart than building it – much to Austin’s annoyance.
She’s not able to crawl or stand, but she is bum-shuffling around. She’s still quite slow to move around, apart from on our shiny floors when she can make some good speed. I’ve read that bum shufflers tend to be later walkers, so we’ll wait and see. I’m quite happy that she’s not tearing around just yet. Her bum shuffling is very cute!
She’s got 10 teeth now, 6 at the top and 4 at the bottom. The last two teeth didn’t cause her too much bother this time. It will be her molars next, which I’m guessing will be a bit more painful.
She’s fully into her 12 – 18 month clothes. She has quite long legs, so I think she’ll be out of her 18 months trousers before the 18-month mark, although she’s quite slim in the waist, so I may have to look into stretchy or adjustable clothes.
She now weighs 19lb and 2oz at just over the 1-year mark – so she’s still quite light for her height. I hope you’ve enjoyed all my updates on Autumn’s monthly milestones. If you are reading this, I expect it’s because you are interested in what she is up to at the one year mark. She isn’t moving like other one-year-olds, but she talks a lot more. It’s important to remember that all little ones are different and not to compare. They’ll do their thing in their time. Autumn didn’t eat much until she was about 10 months, and I’m sure she’ll be around a year and a half before she walks. Am I worried, not at all. It just means my baby will be a baby for a little longer – although with a whole lot of backchat!
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