I know, I know – it’s so cliche. Everyone says it. “It goes by so fast.” “How is my baby a year already?” But you know what? It’s as true as it gets. And when your first baby (and those after!) turns a year, I think you have an excuse to be cheesy. You DID IT. You survived the first year of being a mom. That is no easy task….
Month 1
Labor was hard, the NICU was hard, the first night at home and sleeping for about 40 minutes was hard, but that first month and the newborn fog people talk about? Looking back on it, it was pure bliss. People brought us food, I didn’t feel any pressure to do anything or be anywhere, Gavin slept a LOT (even though it didn’t seem like it at the time because it was mostly during the day), all he wanted to do was nurse and cuddle on my chest, and my husband was off work a lot. I was obsessed with my baby from the beginning and felt a love like I had never known before. Nursing was going so well. It was great.
Month 2
Our cats got fleas and we had to move in with my parents for a month. In a way, this was a HUGE blessing to have the extra help, but we didn’t have the comfort/space of our home, and we just felt a little “displaced.” Gavin wasn’t sleeping well at ALL, but my mom was helping out big time and letting me get a big stretch of sleep first thing in the night, so I wasn’t too tired. I got mastitis and was in crazy pain for a few days, but it cleared up quickly.
Month 3
We moved back home, and it was HARD. I had a few really rough days where all I could do was cry. It wasn’t getting better, so I saw my midwife and went on Zoloft. It made a huge difference in less than a week. Gavin’s sleep had never been so terrible, and I just gave in and started co-sleeping. But he wasn’t just in bed with me – he would only sleep in bed, on my chest and took every single nap in my arms. People had stopped coming around so much, it was winter in Michigan and we were trapped inside, and I was trying to get back into cooking and cleaning. This was a really hard time.
Month 4
Month 4 was really similar to month 3. I started to seriously consider sleep training, because I was slowly losing my sanity with only sleeping in 45 minute-1 hour chunks at night. We also realized how unhappy we were in our condo, so we started seriously house hunting.
Month 5
The day Gavin turned 5 months old, we sleep trained him. I worked with a sleep consultant, and she was an absolute angel. Truly, within 2 days he was sleeping WELL in his own crib. In 2 weeks his naps were great too, and we could actually count on consistent sleep. It changed everything. We also bought a new house and started some work on it which was really fun! Gavin started to crawl and we started feeding him solid foods. He would giggle at me and started to seem like a real person.
Month 6
We moved into our new house, and I was SO happy. We had like, triple the amount of space we had in our old place, AND we moved into my parents’ neighborhood. A serious game-changer. Moving with a baby was stressful, but I was so excited for the end-result that I didn’t even care. Gavin was really on the move at this age and was so happy to have so much space to explore.
Month 7
I started taking Gavin to Gymboree this month! What a fun activity for both of us. He absolutely THRIVES around other babies, and I met some really great mom-friends. He loves going there and exploring all the equipment, watching the bubbles, and playing with his friends. Gavin’s naps were really consolidated by this age and were about 1.5 hours in the morning and 1-1.5 hours in the afternoon. I was still nursing him once or twice in the night. Since the weather finally got nice in Michigan, we were able to resume daily walks outside which was so great for both of us.
Month 8
So much pool time this summer! And we were so happy to have Lana off of work for the summer so Gavin and Cristiano could play together all the time. Gavin got his first 2 teeth this month – the middle bottom ones. Gavin went on his first bike ride this month and ate a lot of blueberries.
Month 9
I think this was really when I started to love Gavin the most. His little personality started to just SHINE. One day we were walking through Target and he reached out of the cart and grabbed a baby doll and stuck it right in his mouth. So we bought it. He loves people and any sort of attention, but hates being held by anyone except “his people.” He became obsessed with his loveys, stuffed animals, and blankets in his crib. We started swim lessons at Goldfish Swim School! He loves them – for the most part. The remote control obsession began, he started to really cruise around furniture, and he slept through the night for the first time.
Month 10
We went on our first family vacation! It was about a 3.5 hour drive to our up north house, and Gavin did so good. Sleep up there was not the best, but he so enjoyed having my family around him all week to play with and give him all the attention in the world. He was NOT a fan of sand, but loved being outside so much. Gavin was always into books, but became borderline obsessed with them this month. He hit his head on my mom’s dresser and got his first little bruise on his eyebrow. He started drinking water really well out of his own cup this month. We took him to his first cider mill!
Month 11
Gavin took his first steps! Nothing crazy – just like 5-6 steps from holding onto a piece of furniture into my arms. But he started doing it all the time! SO cute. He holds his arms out like he’s going to fly and gets the biggest smile on his face like he’s so proud of himself. We gave him his own remote control (an old one of ours with the batteries removed), and he carries it wherever he goes. He got super into smoothies. He started trying to skip his second nap of the day, which made for some wonderful days where he would just nap on me instead. We went on his first tractor ride at a cider mill and picked apples!
Month 12 – One Year Old
We celebrated Gavin’s first birthday with an easy day with just our little family, doing all of his favorite things. We opened presents in the morning, played with all his new toys, went to Gymboree, got smoothies, had pasta for dinner with my parents, and gave him his own little smash cake. He had a blast.
A few days later we had a pumpkin/fall-themed birthday party for him at our house. He had a blast, but was super overwhelmed. I think we’ve learned that we aren’t “big party” kind of people!
Now that he is a year, he USUALLY sleeps through the night, takes steps on his own all the time and is super close to walking for real, smacks his lips when he likes something, pretends to talk on the phone, brush his hair, brush his teeth, and change channels on the tv, and loves anything that has buttons he can push. I am still nursing him 3 times a day, but will probably drop down to 2 soon. He loves watching Paw Patrol, Daniel Tiger, and Sesame Street. Books are his favorite. He loves stroller rides and Gymboree. Not the biggest fan of swim lessons anymore. He does NOT like when I leave the room, but is okay being left with my mom or Chris if I am out of sight. He makes me laugh every day and eats as much food as I do. I am so obsessed. What a year.
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If you are still in the newborn trenches and having a tough time, read the progression above and see how FUN it gets. Sooner than you think it will! There is nothing like watching your helpless little baby turn into a walking, talking real person. It’s unbelievable.
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