William is officially 11 months old! I have no idea where the time has gone. His schedule is needing a change, but cannot be changed much due to scheduling constraints. His naps are showing me he needs a change, however, and his nights are going great still.
He is crawling everywhere, climbing the stairs in the blink of an eye, and he’s close to being weaned off of bottles.
I had to leave William for the first time. I went to the National Society of Genetic Counselor’s conference and spoke about our experience with April. (For those of you that don’t know, April is our middle child that died of trisomy 13.) Read her whole story here.
It was SO hard leaving him! I was only gone for 2 nights and 3 days, but it was brutal. He, of course, did great and so did Caroline and my husband. I actually haven’t left Caroline either, other than to give birth to April and William, so it was super hard on all accounts to be gone!
While I was gone, William mastered climbing stairs, so I came home to craziness…
He had already been crawling, but now he was being a little more adventurous. He doesn’t quite understand the word “No,” but is starting too. We also don’t put baby gates up, so he has full access to… everything.
We like to very minimally “baby proof” so that we teach our children how to live in a world that is not baby proofed. Well, that makes it harder for us! We put some outlet covers on in areas that we feel they are needed, and we anchor furniture to the walls, but other than that, we just teach, watch closely, and teach, teach, teach! We have a freestanding baby gate that we will use at times to help out, but that’s it.
William also puts EVERYTHING in his mouth. Everything. I don’t remember Caroline being quite this bad with putting things in her mouth.
Today, now that William is 11 months old, I am also starting independent play time with him- like official alone time. I’ve always let him play by himself, but this is different. He’s in his own space (a playpen), and no one else is in the room. We’re starting with 20 minutes to see how he does.
11 Month Old Baby Schedule
The schedule we are using is largely dictated by William’s older sister. She has school drop off and pick up times at THE WORST time of day. 1 pm and 3:30 pm.
William is now to the point where he could be transitioning to 1 nap. Those times where we have to be out of the house, however, are right in the middle of what would be his one nap.
And so, we continue with 2 naps, that are also confined to very specific times due to the school schedule.
What we did do in the last month is increase his wake time slightly for the morning, which results in less nap time as well.
These wake times are SUPER short for his age, but it’s either have short wake times, or extremely long ones. We are choosing short so he doesn’t get overtired! I’ll pick undertired over an overtired baby any day!
Feeding and Sleeping Schedule
7 am wake and feed bottle #1, solid food breakfast, 9:30 – 11 am nap, solid food lunch, 1:30- 3 pm nap, whole milk, solid food dinner, 6:30 pm bottle #2 and bed.
The slight change this month was moving his first nap from 9-11 am to 9:30-11 am. It gives him a bit extra wake time but still keeps a solid nap in the morning. We can’t push it out any later, because we then wouldn’t be able to fit in his second nap between school drop off and pick up times. So, we just continue to push through.
I’m hoping he can finish the school year on this two nap schedule. If he can’t, we’ll have to be super creative, and it might involve later naps (still 2), but a much later bedtime. That is not something I’d like to do, so I’m crossing my fingers that he can hang in there with this schedule!
Eat
I went ahead and dropped William down to 2 bottles during this 11th month. Now that he is 11 months old, I am going to drop his morning bottle. When he turns 1, I will be dropping his nighttime bottle.
He’s doing great with the transition! He’s also started liking whole milk. I started introducing whole milk at 10 months, so he could start getting used to the flavor. Often it takes awhile. It took him a good couple of weeks before he started drinking it.
Now he sits down and drinks about 6 ounces easily! He is given the milk in a straw cup, and we heat it to take the edge off a bit.
Solid food is his favorite thing ever. LOL He does great with it. He has had some legit choking moments, though- not just gagging. Like turning purple choking. We always remain calm and hesitate just long enough to let him try and work it out for a second. He always does. He knows what to do and coughs up the food. But it’s so scary. Caroline did not do this!
He takes handfuls of food. We have to really try and space the food out on his plate. He just shoves fists full of food into his mouth otherwise! He specifically grabs multiple pieces at once regardless of what we do, though. Ironically, the times he’s “choked” are on tiny pieces… like one cheerio in his mouth.
He loves lasagna, tuna casserole, and anything pasta. He does not like beans and eggs, unless it’s sweet baked beans. Other than that he’s not picky, and also loves his fruit. Blueberries and bananas are his favorites, but he eats it all!
He’s also gone through messy phases… sometimes all of his food is on the floor. Then he has a couple of weeks where nothing hits the floor. If he does drop something on the table, he moves his plate out of the way to get to the dropped food. He specifically drops food if he finds something to be in his way that he doesn’t want.
He’s pretty good with using a regular plate also. He doesn’t throw things like Caroline used to and actually tries pretty hard to put his cup back on the table when he’s done with it.
William is also doing all of this wonderful eating with NO teeth. Same as his big sister did until 1 year old. I am eager to get these teeth popping through, though so he stops chewing on everything!
Wake Time
Wake time is so much fun . He’s everywhere, though!
During playtime, he’s very interactive now. He’s putting things into bowls and other items, instead of just always taking them out. He’s starting to help clean up. He can mimic what we are doing (shaking toys, tapping, clapping them together, etc.).
Knocking over towers is a FAVORITE of his. He gets a silly grin and looks right at you when he does it! Blocks are a lot of fun right now.
He loves his books at bedtime and can point to them and choose which one he wants to read. He’s starting to point at other things as well, usually at the table while eating.
We’ve been teaching him how to climb the stairs now for about a month. Just now in the last week or so he’s able to do them on his own!
His crawling is also super fast now, so you blink and he’s gone! Luckily he’s loud and slaps his hands down, so you can hear him on the wood floor.
William is also just barely starting to “cruise” and make his way around the couch, etc. in a standing position. He’s super cautious and hates falling down, so he is a bit more reserved than Caroline was with walking.
When I put him in front of his walker, he often just sits down immediately. He loves walking, but prefers to do so holding our hands, instead of with the walker.
He loves playing with Caroline. He also loves playing peek-a-boo and puts something over his head and pulls it down all on his own.
Bath time is so much fun now. We’ve always been super quick with bath time, but he never did much in the tub so that was part of the reason we got him out so quickly. Now he’s splashing and all over the place having a BLAST. He is cracking up laughing the whole time, and I get pretty soaked, but it’s the cutest thing ever.
William also loves outside time. He cries if the door is ever opened and he’s not allowed out! Also fun this month is that he’s finally enjoying the swings and laughing when on them.
Independent playtime
I just started this today. He’s getting time in his playard (we love this large 39 inch square one). He is doing 20 minutes each day. I will place a few of his favorite toys in the area and he will be in the room by himself for true independent play.
I am starting this because I think independent playtime has been an invaluable tool for our older daughter. She is turning 5 this month and is still doing independent play or “room time.”
We started young with her as well, and it’s always been very helpful for her to have alone time. I think everyone benefits from it. So not only will William benefit, we all will take our alone time and benefit as well.
Sleep
As expected with his schedule restraints, his naps are starting to be difficult. At times he wakes up early from his first nap, and at times he struggles to fall asleep for his second nap.
It’s to be expected with the shorter than ideal wake times he’s getting due to the scheduling issues noted above. It’s something we just have to work with right now, however. He’s been super flexible with it, so I have to remind myself that it will all work out.
I have my eye on June. In June he can start doing a 1 nap schedule and be on track with the ideal wake time for his age. Then, come next school year, Caroline will be in Kindergarten and full days. His nap can happen at the time it needs to as a result, and we won’t run into these weird scheduling issues!
If we do end up having to change things up this school year, my plan is to do 1 nap around lunch time. Maybe from 10-12. Then he wouldn’t get another nap until 3:30. It would have to be a short catnap and bedtime would also get moved later. I really don’t want to do such an odd schedule with him and push bedtime too much, so I’m hoping to keep the current one as long as possible.
And, if I’m being transparent here, I also don’t want to give up the one time I have to myself during the day. Mama’s mental health is a consideration as well! Right now I only get about 1 full hour to myself a day (which is why I’ve hardly been blogging)!
Nighttime sleep is going perfectly. He had about a week long stretch where he had a really hard time getting down and required us to go in and settle him a few times. Then he’d sleep and wake up around that 45 minute mark. We’d end up in there again.
It was short lived and he’s back to falling asleep without a peep. I was thinking it was due to the nap issues above, but things ironed out quickly. I think he was just in a little bit of a growth spurt or maybe having some teething pain.
As I describe in my new book on baby sleep, I think it’s essential to let things play out for several days before making any drastic changes. Had we jumped too soon to change things up, we wouldn’t have seen the issue resolve itself and might have created more issues with a schedule change that wasn’t needed.
Favorite Items this Month
Kitchen utensils are a huge hit as always. We give William metal and plastic bowls from the kitchen, whisks, spatulas, measuring spoons, etc. These are always the most favorite toys!
Play pen/playard – We are just starting to use this but I am already loving it. We got a big one so we could use it for things like independent play. It’s perfect at slightly over 3 ft wide (square).
Straw cups – These two handle straw cups have been perfect for William. We have two. One he keeps at the table all day for water with meals. The other we use for milk once a day. They are great. I am looking forward to switching soon to the miracle 360 cups, but he doesn’t quite have the coordination to lift and tip it up the way he needs to on his own.
He’s also really liking small toys like shapes, and he loves this picnic set.
Our favorite items this month:
