Samantha's 11 Month Update!

One more month. Just one more month until this baby girl is one year old! I can't believe how quickly this first year has flown by. 

Height/Weight: According to our home scale and measuring tape, Samantha is 19lbs 5oz (44%) and 27.5in (31%) long! She has not grown much at all this past month, but I remember this being about the time that Vincent slowed down as well, so I'm not concerned!

Daily: So lately, Samantha's daytime routine has been very sporadic. Because of teething and bad nights, her nap schedule during the day is completely out of whack and I haven't been pushing terribly hard to fix it, because we're all tired and the schedule doesn't seem to be helping much. We still get up at around 8AM, but some mornings, following really rough nights, we will get up closer to 8:30 or 9. I nurse her first thing as always, then get her changed and dressed before getting Vincent up (he is always already awake at this point, playing in his bed with this stuffed animals) and getting him dressed for the day. Breakfast is anywhere between 8:30 and 9:30, then we have playtime until Samantha is ready for her first nap. Right now, it's been between 11 and 12. I've really been trying just to read her cues and go with the flow, to take a break from the strict schedule, but I kind of feel like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. :/ 
Samantha still very much enjoys playing with cars and trucks, the play kitchen, her little people house and this American Idol McDonald's toy that plays music! She pushes the button and dances. xD She's been taking a huge liking to stuffed animals and dolls lately and likes to snuggle them and hug them! :)

Sleep: I was so tempted just to leave the same text from the previous month, because absolutely nothing has changed. Sleep has been lacking big time and I am beyond certain that the majority of it is due to teething. Exactly the same as last month and the month prior, Samantha has been completely refusing a second nap, no matter how hard I've tried to push it. Sleep at night has been as bad as the previous month - I will either put her down successfully at around 8 and then she'll wake 20-30 minutes later, or I am unable to get her down at all and she will be up until around midnight or later. Sometimes she'll even wake up in the middle of the night and not go back to sleep until long after the sun has risen. It's been extremely challenging lately and Mike and I are very sleep deprived. But the fact that she's teething helps me to emotionally deal with it better, since I know that she's hurting and just having a hard time sleeping. The upside is that almost every day, she will take one long, solid 2-3 hour nap. On rare occasions she won't go down at all, but thankfully that isn't the norm!

Building blocks past midnight! One of the many activities we
do when she's refusing to sleep.

Eating: I could not be more happy that we're still breastfeeding and going strong! I wanted SO badly to breastfeed Vincent until he was at least a year old and it was hard when we had to stop. Teething has made it a little challenging lately, because she will gnaw sometimes, which is (as you can likely imagine) pretty painful! But it's not as bad as I expected it would be. She is now nursing every 3 hours or so during the day - I kind of go with the flow and feed on demand. She eats solids 2-3 times per day and is doing very well with that! Her favorite food EVER is mashed potatoes, especially with gravy!! I always feed it to her off my plate and have to get a second helping, because she eats about half of mine. Haha! She also really likes refried beans with cheese on Taco Tuesdays. For snacks, she loves puffs! I've offered her about every flavor combo they make and she loves them all. 

Sizes: Samantha is still in 12 month clothing and likely will be for a bit still! I've opened the front snaps on all of her cloth diapers this past month, but she is still in a size 4 disposable diaper when we use those occasionally.

Milestones and Changes:

• Samantha has FOUR teeth now!! This past month, both of her top front teeth have popped through! It seems like she is working on some more bottom teeth right now, but it's super hard to check her due to her gum pain. It's crazy to think that at this exact age, Vincent got his first tooth and Samantha already has so many! 
• She has started giving the biggest and most loving hugs!! She will grip onto you ever so tightly! Here she is giving brother a big hug:

• She is walking assisted, holding onto my finger with one hand! I swear it won't be much longer before she is walking.

• Samantha is a total and complete daredevil. The other day, she climbed over the back of Vincent's couch and went face first into the corner of a book. So she's got a huge red mark on her cheek right next to her eye. I swear if either of the kids is going to need to go to the emergency room, she will likely be the first! She is a LOT less cautious than Vincent was at this age and still is!

• She has started saying MAMA! Oh my goodness it was like music to my ears the first time she said it!! :D I have been waiting for almost 6 months to hear her say it!!
• Samantha picks up anything that resembles a phone and says "heyo?"! She just barely started doing it and it is the most precious thing ever!