Category: monthly birthday

{alligator: Jelly Cat // tee: Molly Moon’s // jeans: babyGap (old) // bow: DIY}

{And the outtake. A bit of sisterly love.}

{month 16} I think this month I am equally shocked that Daphne is 16 months as I am that it is July. Where is the time going? Continue reading “daphne {sixteen months}”

{alligator: Jelly Cat // dress: June & January// leggings: Target (old)}

{month fifteen} In re-reading Eloise’s fifteen month update (linked below) I found myself nodding thru the entire thing since pretty much everything that was happening at that time with Eloise is now happening with Daphne girl. Continue reading “daphne {fifteen months}”

{alligator: Jelly Cat // lovie: Angel Dear (via Amazon) // tee: Old Navy (old; similar) // jeans: babyGap}

{month fourteen} I was just re-reading Eloise’s fourteen month update (which is linked at the bottom) where I mentioned that she seemed more like a toddler than an infant, and that is totally true with Daphne girl! Continue reading “daphne {month fourteen}”

{alligator: JellyCat // top: Carter’s // jeans: babyGap // shoes: Keds x Rifle Paper Co.}

{And the outtake… that finger is just the same size as her nostril, so it must belong in her nose, right?}

{month thirteen} How has it already been a month since Daphne turned one?! It seems like yesterday and forever ago at the same time. Continue reading “daphne {month thirteen}”

{alligator: Jellycat// sweater: Carter’s (old) // jeans: babyGap // moccasins: Freshly Picked}

{month eleven} Oh boy, eleven months. So bittersweet. I am absolutely loving watching the sweet little person that Daphne is becoming, but I am also really missing Baby Daphne too! Gosh, I just can’t believe she is almost one!

This is the first time in a few months that Daphne hasn’t tried to launch herself off the front of the glider while taking this picture, much to my surprise. One of the reasons I suspect is that she figured out if she leans forwards and backwards, she can make the chair rock! And she was pretty excited about that.

Speaking of excited, any time that Daphne is excited about something, she claps. So there is a lot of applause around here! When she sees her bottle, clapping. When she sees me, Eloise, or Papa first thing in the morning, clapping. When she stands up and sits down, clapping. All day long. But I will never tire of hearing her clapping!

Daphne is constantly on the move. She hardly ever stays in one spot for long and is always chasing after something: the Roomba, Eloise, Sadie, Mama. She is standing really well on her own, but as soon as she realizes she is doing it, she sits! But we are amazed how long she can stand (usually holding something in her hands) and we are so close to the standing and bouncing stage (that comes right before walking). AND Daphne took her first unassisted steps this past weekend! At least that we’ve seen. She was holding onto a walker toy and wanted to get to the side table but her arms weren’t quite long enough to get there without taking a step, so she did! I loved that it was right in front of me and it happened so quickly that I barely realized what was happening. Of course, we tried to re-create it, but that wasn’t happening. I feel like any day now I will look over at her and she will be taking steps.

The drool has returned, though not quite as much as before, and I believe it is because she is getting her fourth tooth on the bottom. You can feel it cutting thru the gum even though there isn’t a tooth bud just yet. And with baby teeth, one moment there isn’t a tooth and the next moment there is! It is crazy how quickly they grow in. She doesn’t seem bothered at all by it either which is so nice.

And just in the last two weeks or so Daphne has officially dropped her late cat nap (did I mention this already?) which means she is awake from the end of her afternoon nap, usually at 3:30 or 4 pm, to bedtime around 7:15 or 7:30. It is a long stretch of time considering she is only up for just over two hours between sleeping periods during the rest of the day. It’s nice that she is up so long during this time because it means she gets more play time and to see Eloise and Aaron more, but it also means that I have two kiddos running around when I am trying to make dinner at 5 pm.

We are still nursing one time in the morning, right before breakfast, but Daphne has become more and more uninterested in that feeding. I think it is partly because at that point, she wants to see Aaron and Eloise and Sadie! I can get her to nurse on one side (generally) for maybe a minute, but that second side is pretty much done. This is also really bittersweet for me. As much as our nursing journey was a struggle in those early days, I will definitely miss this time with Daphne! On the flip-side though, I know some mamas struggle to wean toddlers and there are lots of tears, so I am thankful we aren’t going down that road either.

As with Eloise, we are working on (baby) signs and Daphne is really good about understanding them. We have kept to the same signs we used for Eloise (milk, more, please, water, all done, and eat) but have also added “sit” since Daphne likes to try to stand up in her high chair (good grief). It is pretty early to expect Daphne to be signing anything, though she does wave her hands very enthusiastically in the air when she is all done (moments before she just shoves any extra food off her tray onto the floor…) and bangs on her tray for more food.

And as we approach Daphne’s first birthday, she remains such a good sleeper. She has always been a great self-soother (even as a newborn) which is part of the reason. Her lovie and pacifier are almost a requirement at this point though she will find her thumb if she can’t find one of the three (!) pacis in her crib. We also put both lovies in her crib too since she often panics if she wakes up and can’t find it (even if she’s lying on it and can’t see it). And she will hold both in her hands and rub them on her face. She infrequently wakes up during nap or bed time, and when she does, she very often soothes herself back to sleep. And, sleep related, I know at some point soon Daphne will drop this morning nap and transition to just one long afternoon nap, but for now she is doing really well with two naps that are about 1.5 to 2 hours each (sometimes longer!).

{weight} 22 pounds is my guess.
{hair} blackish brown.
{teeth} three bottom middle teeth, top four teeth, one more on the bottom cutting in.
{eyes} dark grey/brown.
{clothes} 9 months (pants) and 12 months, 12 to 18 months, 18 months (Carter’s).
{diapers} just started into size 4 {from the honest company}.
{feeding} nursing in the morning around 8 am. 4 oz bottles at lunchtime, after nap time, and at dinner. bedtime is around 7:30 with a 4 oz bottle.

{likes} watching and chasing the Roomba, eating, bath time with Eloise, watching big kids or babies, crawling, pulling up to her knees or feet, spinning on her back and belly, teething rings, chewing on anything, sitting in her highchair, banging on her tray, staring at her quilt (from Amanda), rattles, nursing, riding in the car (usually), her big sister Eloise, Sadie, singing, lights, paci, being bounced, being tickled, talking, her Lovie.
{dislikes} having gas, lying down flat, being hungry or tired, not having a bottle immediately after seeing it, having her face or nose wiped off.

{nicknames} Daph, Daph Daph, Daphers, Bug, Snorty, Baby D, Daphne Doo, Daph-a-doo, Love, Lovebug.

And here is Eloise’s eleven month update.

Happy ELEVEN months Daphne!

M

This post contains affiliate links.

{alligator: Jellycat // shirt: babyGap (old) // pants: Target (old)}

{month ten} TEN MONTHS?! Ahh, March 1st is way too close. I am not ready for this. Especially when I was putting together our yearly review and seeing all of those tiny baby pictures of Daphne. Where did all that time go?

This picture perfectly captures Daphne’s sweet little belly. Oh my gosh guys, we love this tummy! It is so round and rotund, especially after mealtime, and we have had to start sizing up in shirts in order to cover it! I don’t remember Eloise having quite a belly, but I really hope Daphne’s sticks around for a while.

The biggest change this month has been that I started weaning Daphne which is a pretty big departure from where we were last month! As I have been mentioning in her weekly updates, I started weaning Daphne from the breast to a bottle because she was biting so much. I slowly started dropping nursing sessions and we have been offering a 3 ounce bottle instead and the transition has been super smooth. We had some frozen pumped milk that we alternated with formula in the beginning, and now we are completely on Holle formula (now Stage 3). It seemed like Daphne had a little bit of tummy trouble (crazy diapers!) when we first started with only formula bottles, but she seems to be doing well now. Just yesterday I dropped the lunchtime nursing session so Daph is just nursing first thing in the morning before breakfast. I am still sad about feeling like I needed to wean before I was really ready, but it has been nice at the same time. With Aaron home on leave now, being able to offer bottles gives him more of an opportunity to care for Daphne (and for me to not feel stuck at home). Anyways, we will keep up this current system (hopefully) until Daphne turns one and the formula bottles transition to cups of cow milk.

Despite our guesses, Daphne still isn’t walking or standing on her own yet (we suspected in the fall that she might be walking by New Year’s) but I am thankful. She is already so mobile and for those first few months of walking, there are so many falls and close calls. I am definitely okay on waiting. Daphne doesn’t seem too interested in trying to stand on her own yet and will just drop to her bottom if she wants to move or can’t hold onto something. She is cruising on everything though and has mastered the side-step for sure! We did put up the extra gate in our upstairs hallway to keep Daphne out of the stairwell and entryway. She is learning about stairs still and does well climbing up, but still is pretty far from being able to do stairs well.

In the past few weeks, Daphne has moved into a 4 hour feeding schedule. It has been nice to have more time in the afternoon before she goes down for a nap, especially since Eloise does “quiet time” rather than nap time now. The naps move around a bit depending on what we are doing that day or whether Daphne is more or less tired, but have been averaging 2 hours each!

7:30 am to 8:30 am – wake-up and nursing

8:30 am – breakfast

10 am – morning nap

noon – bottle and lunch

2 pm – afternoon nap

4 pm – bottle and sometimes a snack (if she sees Eloise eating one)

5 pm – occasional 30 minute catnap

6 pm – bottle and dinner

7:30ish pm – bottle and bedtime

And lastly we fully moved Daphne to her convertible car seat since she had outgrown her infant seat (in height, not in weight). Plus, she was getting heavy enough that I couldn’t very easily carry the infant seat! We picked up a new Britax Boulevard with Clicktight for her during Amazon’s Black Friday sale and we have been pretty happy with it. It is basically the updated version of Eloise’s seat so we aren’t learning an entirely new seat (really nice). The Clicktight feature is new for us though (we didn’t opt for the upgrade with Eloise) but it makes installing the seat so much easier! Daphne seems pretty content in her new seat and can see Eloise better now (she is rear-facing while E is forward-facing) and she likes that. She also has more access to her toys (we have this storage console in the middle seat) which is helpful! A rear-facing seat is a little tight in our current SUV since it requires the passenger seat to be pretty far forward, but it works well enough.

{weight} 20ish pounds. we don’t have a scale, so I will weigh her later in the week!
{hair} blackish brown.
{teeth} two bottom middle teeth, top four teeth, one more on the bottom cutting in.
{eyes} dark grey/brown.
{clothes} 9 months and 12 months, 6 to 12 months, starting into 12 to 18 months.
{diapers} size 3 {from the honest company}. At home we are doing cloth (Grovia) and disposables when we go out and overnight.
{feeding} nursing in the morning around 8 am. 3 oz bottles at lunchtime, after naptime, and at dinner. bedtime is around 7:30 with a 3 or 4 oz bottle.

{likes} watching and chasing the Roomba, eating, bath time with Eloise, watching big kids or babies, crawling, pulling up to her knees or feet, spinning on her back and belly, teething rings, chewing on anything, sitting in her highchair, staring at her quilt (from Amanda), rattles, nursing, riding in the car (usually), her big sister Eloise, Sadie, singing, lights, paci, being bounced, sucking on her hands, being tickled, talking (cooing).
{dislikes} having gas, lying down flat right after eating, being hungry or tired, not having a bottle immediately after seeing it, having her face or nose wiped off.

{nicknames} Daph, Daph Daph, Daphers, Bug, Snorty, Baby D, Daphne Doo, Daph-a-doo, Love, Lovebug.

And here is Eloise’s ten month update.

Happy 10 months Daphne!

M

This post contains affiliate links.

{alligator: Jellycat // dress: Peek // leggings: Carter’s (old) // onesie: Gerber (old)}

{Eloise wanted to jump in during the photo shoot with Daphne this morning. I love this picture of them. Sharing a sister secret!}

{month nine} Nine months? Guys, that’s three-quarters of a year. I feel like I am going to blink and it’s going to March 1st. This monthly milestone is definitely emotional for me (emotional, but in a good and happy way).

Daphne is all about standing these days. If she can use something to help her get up to standing, she will, for better or for worse. And she has definitely taken some tumbles from trying to use something that wasn’t strong enough (like a toy or ball) but she is learning and getting so much stronger in her legs. She can stand up on her own and only be holding on by like a finger – she is SO close! But, beyond standing, she doesn’t seem as interested in actually walking. At least yet. She will cruise a bit along the table, but if she wants to get somewhere, she is happy to plop back down on her bottom and crawl. And boy is she a fast crawler! She can get around a room so quickly these days and I think the second gate (to block off the stairs) is imminent. Like this weekend. Daphne has had some exposure to stairs, but still has some learning to do. The actual climbing up part is pretty natural for her (a lot like crawling) but she tends to want to sit down which is scary on stairs since there isn’t much room for that!

Eating is still going well. As I mentioned, Daphne is eating all BLW food (so she is feeding herself with her hands) and it is almost impossible to get her to eat from a spoon at this point. She just wants to grab it and fling the food off, and then chew on it. So, eventually we will re-introduce the spoon as a feeding tool that she can control, but for now, her hands work well! More and more I have been trying to feed her what we are eating (especially for dinner) just a de-constructed version of it. We have yet to find a food that she doesn’t eat, and we have tried a wide breadth of food!

Daphne is still such a good sleeper. (Knock on wood!) Part of the thing that helps, especially for me during the week, is that she is pretty routine by waking and sleeping at the same time every day. There is still some leeway in her schedule where some days she is up at 7:30 am or doesn’t nap in the afternoon until 1:45 pm, but still consistent enough where I can rely on her daily schedule to schedule my own day and week, and know exactly when she is going to be ready for sleep. Before nap times she can go from crazy crawling all over to asleep in 1 minute, but at bedtime, she is ready for bed. Any time after 7 pm is fair game for bedtime and she will let us know when she’s ready for a bottle and bedtime snuggles. We are still alternating between pumped milk and formula at nighttime and she doesn’t seem to have a preference at all.

Like the true younger sister that she is, Daphne never wants to be left out. If there is something going on, she wants to see it and be part of it. It is pretty cute when this means that she is included in Eloise’s play, but it sometimes means that things get moved up to the dining room table or other high-up surface and that Daphne does not get to play. But we have a rule with Eloise that if Daphne is either playing with something that isn’t a Daphne-safe toy or is something really special to Eloise (meaning she doesn’t want to share it), then she has to find an alternative toy for Daphne. Sometimes Daphne will be super interested in that alternative toy (meaning she will chew on it) and sometimes she will move onto something else by speed-crawling away!

Nursing is still going well and is super short these days. Partly that is because Daphne is a much more efficient eater, but partly also because she is SO distracted. I try to nurse her in a neutral setting where there isn’t too much distraction (noise, lights, people) so that I know she will get a full feeding. We are still nursing 4 times per day and I don’t see any early signs of weaning. Yet. I know its coming, but for now it works!

{weight} 19 pounds.
{hair} blackish brown.
{teeth} two bottom middle teeth, top four teeth.
{eyes} dark grey/brown.
{clothes} 6 months (pants only), 9 months and 12 months (Carter’s), 6 to 12 months.
{diapers} size 3 {from the honest company}. At home we are doing cloth (Grovia) and disposables when we go out and overnight.
{feeding} nursing every 3.5 to 4 hours during the day, starting around 8 am. feeding sessions last around 5 to 10 minutes (both sides). bedtime is around 7:30 with a 6 oz bottle.

{likes} eating, bath time with Eloise, watching big kids or babies, crawling, pulling up to her knees or feet, spinning on her back and belly, teething rings, chewing on anything, sitting in her highchair, staring at her quilt (from Amanda), rattles, nursing, riding in the car (usually), her big sister Eloise, Sadie, singing, lights, paci, being bounced, sucking on her hands, being tickled, talking (cooing).
{dislikes} having gas, lying down flat right after eating, being hungry or tired, not having a bottle immediately after seeing it, having her face or nose wiped off.

{nicknames} Daph, Daph Daph, Daphers, Bug, Snorty, Baby D, Daphne Doo, Daph-a-doo, Love, Lovebug.

And here is Eloise’s nine month update.

Happy NINE months Daphne!

M

This post contains affiliate links.

{alligator: Jellycat //onesie: Carter’s (old) // jeans: babyGap (old) // wooden doll teether: old}

{month eight} Haha, I think Daphne looks like a little old man in this month’s picture! We took our family Christmas card photos this morning, so the last thing she wanted to do before her nap was take more photos… she just wanted to launch herself off the front of the chair! It’s super fun and not at all terrifying (said no mama ever).

I think the biggest thing about this month (okay, everything seems big still!) is the four new teeth Daphne is growing! I noticed some serious increase in the amount of drool she was producing (like shirt-soaking) and, lo and behold, four tooth buds. It’s her top four teeth coming thru all at once. She didn’t seem overly fussy or bothered by them cutting, but of course any time she awakes during nap time or at night is blamed on those new teeth. You can’t really see them very well because of her top lip, but she is going to look so much older once they are in! And now I really feel like I should be brushing her teeth, since I need more things to do to fill in my day, right? Daphne will see the dentist next month when Eloise goes in for her bi-annual appointment. If I only have to drive across the city twice per year and both girls see the dentist at the same time, that is a mama win!

She likes to click her tongue on the roof of her mouth lately which started around the time her top teeth started making an entrance. She isn’t blowing raspberries as much as she was a few months ago, but lots of clicking!

Daphne is an eating champ. Seriously. She eats anything and everything. It may be messy, but she will find a way to eat it. And there isn’t a single thing we have fed her that she didn’t devour: broccoli (just like big sis!), brussel sprouts, salmon, chicken, ground beef, Dragon fruit (in Mexico). Everything! Purees have pretty much become a thing of the past though because Daphne really just wants to feed herself. If there is something (like yogurt or refried beans) that requires a spoon, she wants to grab the spoon and bang it on her tray. So there is a lot of “fighting” over the spoon which isn’t super fun for any of us. Plus, since she is feeding herself, it makes mealtimes (for me) much more enjoyable. Also, we haven’t been doing a lot of cup training recently but after reading Eloise’s update (linked below) I realized that we are behind on teaching Daphne how to use a straw. I remember that being a game-changer, so it’s on the to-do list for this coming weekend.

Daphne’s newest tricks involve her pulling up to either her knees or to standing, or bear crawling around on her hands and feet. She is so ready to be moving like a big kid and just does not stay still at all these days! I used to be able to set her on the play mat with toys and she would be occupied, but now she is immediately off the play mat and crawling towards whoever she can see (or to the kitchen)! But then she cries and gets upset when she gets stuck somewhere! It’s the same situation when we are downstairs. I could leave her on the floor of her nursery with toys while I threw away a diaper or washed my hands, but now she is crawling out her door and down the hallway or into the bathroom to see what everyone else is up to! She also likes to reach for anything she can grab and then pull it down from wherever it was (the little shelf on the sidetable, the coffee table).

In the weeks leading up to our Mexico trip, I was planning on pumping just like I had been doing in the morning and evening for Daphne’s bedtime bottle. But, then it started to occur to me that we would need to bring some frozen milk for the first day or so until I had produced enough to cover the bottle (since I wasn’t producing enough every day to cover her bottle) which would require some sort of dry ice and Yeti cooler type of situation. Thru TSA (we are Pre-Check, but still) and then thru Customs and Immigration along with all of the other things we were shlepping on the trip, including both car seats! Yep, that wasn’t going to happen. So I did some a ton of research and bought some formula to take just in case. {Note: Formula, the type and use of, like many other child-related things is controversial. Lots of people have lots of opinions about it. We chose formula that we thought best-suited Daphne’s needs but every family and baby is different.} It turns out the formula I had chosen (Holle which is a German formula) is being imported by a close friend’s sister via her company Purely Loved Organics which is located just north of us in Lynnwood. Luckily, Daphne drank it down with no issues, so we didn’t have to try any other types or brands. Then in the days leading up to our trip, I started panicking about pumping in Mexico. Not the actual pumping part, but the logistics. Mainly the washing pump parts with bottled water in the bathroom part (since you aren’t supposed to drink the tap water in Mexico). We bought this travel Boon drying rack and bottle brush, but the idea of washing my pump just sort of sent me over the edge. So Aaron and I had a lot of conversation about it, and I let my mama guilt go and decided to stop pumping completely. In all honesty, it was an agonizing decision for me to make (and if you are a recent mama, you probably completely understand) but ultimately I think it worked out for the best. I didn’t have to worry about spending my mornings and evenings pumping or washing pump parts, and Daphne did amazingly well with one bottle of formula at bedtime during our trip, Now that we are at home we defrost frozen milk for her bottle and once we go thru our frozen stash, we will do formula until she is one.

And lastly, Daphne has been pushing her feeding schedule out to 3.5 or 4 hours. Her morning nap is usually interrupted by errands (while Eloise is at school) but she will usually at least cat nap in the car seat. I try to not go out more than two mornings per week during that morning nap time so that she can have solid morning naps. If we are home (or even out) I notice she starts getting tired around 9:30 am and will usually sleep at least an hour if not 90 minutes. Then her afternoon nap is after we get home from picking up Eloise (at 1 pm) and it’s length is dependent on her morning nap, longer if the morning was shorter and vice versa. Her late cat nap (which happens around 5ish) is always a crap shoot and it happens about 50% of the time.

{weight} I would guess close to 17 or 18 pounds but our scale is broken.
{hair} blackish brown.
{teeth} two bottom middle teeth, top four teeth (including two front teeth).
{eyes} dark grey/brown.
{clothes} 3 to 6 months (pants only), 6 months and 12 months (Carter’s), 6 to 12 months.
{diapers} size 3 {from the honest company}. At home we are doing cloth (bumGenius and Grovia) and disposables when we go out and overnight.
{feeding} nursing every 3.5 to 4 hours during the day, starting around 8 am. feeding sessions last around 5 to 10 minutes (both sides). bedtime is around 7:30 with a 6 oz bottle.

{likes} eating, bath time with Eloise, watching big kids or babies, crawling, pulling up to her knees or feet, spinning on her back and belly, teething rings, chewing on anything, sitting in her highchair, staring at her quilt (from Amanda), rattles, nursing, riding in the car (usually), her big sister Eloise, Sadie, singing, lights, paci, being bounced, sucking on her hands, being tickled, talking (cooing).
{dislikes} having gas, lying down flat right after eating, being hungry or tired, not having a bottle immediately after seeing it, having her face or nose wiped off.

{nicknames} Daph, Daph Daph, Daphers, Bug, Snorty, Baby D, Daphne Doo, Daph-a-doo, Love, Lovebug.

And here is Eloise’s eight month update.

Happy Eight Months Daphne!

M

This post contains affiliate links.