11 Months New!

Well folks, today our little Lamb chop turned 11 months old! Just 30 more days until her first birthday!! I don't know why I'm so excited, Al has put his foot down on me not having a party for her. I think it's a little cruel that I can't throw my first baby a first birthday party but I understand his reasonings. First and foremost he knows me. He knows I wouldn't be able to keep things simple. And being that she has NO concept of 'birthday', it only makes sense not to waste the money on a big to-do. So, we will just have a quiet celebration at home with family. I can live with that. God willing, we will have PLENTY of birthdays to celebrate when she is aware of what's going on.

The unofficial home stats for this milestone are:
weight: 21.5 pounds
length: 30 1/4 inches
That equates to 69th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for length. I measured her 3 different times just to be sure and came out with the same stats. This amazes me because at her 6 month check up, she was only in the 25th percentile for her length but I guess she had a growth spurt. Her weight has changed since just last week when she was 22 pounds. The reason for the slight drop is our new food challenge. I have been following the Gerber website religiously when it comes to her diet. Since this is all new to me, I wanted to be sure she was getting the right nutrition. Well, according to Gerber, she should no longer eat ANY babyfood at 11 months and walking. Instead, it gave me daily menu options of real table food. I was soooo looking forward to finally being able to cook for my baby and her eating real food. I thought it would be a good idea to try to ween in some solid foods before today so as not to shock her system by going cold turkey. Let me say, it has been a BATTLE of EPIC proportions! *lol* She has truly been testing my patience. I started with Cheerios...even soaked them in milk so that they'd be nice a mushy. No go. She sucked the milk out of them and then stored the oats in her mouth and later spit them out after a gagging fit. 'Mind you, the girl has 8 teeth. The next day, I tried finely chopped green beans. Same results. I then went on to mashing up pears and mixing them in her pear yogurt. That worked a little better but we still battled during most of the feeding. Today, we had a little success with plain old bread and butter and then later a slice of cheese. It just baffles me how she can be so physically able but then unable to do something as natural as chewing & swallowing. Isn't that a natural progression of eating? The only help I've been able to get is "keep trying. When she's ready, she'll eat." That's all fine and dandy but how much weight am I supposed to let her lose in the process? *sigh* I'm frustrated but I'm keeping a level head and just trying different foods and praying she'll catch on soon.

I guess she just wants to be my baby a little while longer. I can definitely live with that. :)