ENABLING YOUR PASSION FOR HEALTHY LIVING

Happy 1st Birthday Tommy | 12-month update

Last Thursday, Tommy officially turned one! If you feel like it was just yesterday that I announced I was pregnant, I’m right there with you. The first three months of Tommy’s life went by really, really slow but the last 9 months went by in the blink of an eye.

Last weekend, we had a little party for Tommy. He had the best day ever and crushed his cake. I made it at home out of an organic box (Immaculate) from Whole Foods with frosting from Wholesome Sweet.

One Year Old Organic Birthday Cake

Tommy 1 years old

Tommy's Cake

I thought I’d take today to do a little Tommy update, the final one of his first year. I shot a video last week which is below where I go into some more depth on regrets and other fun stories if you’re interested. But if you prefer to read what’s new, continue to below the video. Don’t forget that I upload new videos every week on Tuesday so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel!

Walking

Tommy is walking. He’s been walking for a couple of weeks by now. It’s so cute and scary and funny. When he gets tired, he loses his balance but he can walk across a room no problem.

Nursing

I’m still nursing about 3 times a day, morning, afternoon and night. I’m trying to cut back to morning and night. I’m not really sure how to wean him so I’m just winging it. I did give him whole milk earlier this week and he spit it out. He wanted nothing to do with it.

Sleeping

Tommy is sleeping through the night, and by sleeping through the night I mean 7pm to 5-7 am. Occasionally he will wake up at 5 am. I used to let him cry and eventually fall back asleep but lately, I’ve been nursing him and getting another 2 hours of sleep! If he doesn’t wake up for this nursing session, he’s up at like 6:15 or 6:30.

Napping

We are on 2 naps a day still. He naps anywhere from 45 minutes  to 2.5 hours starting at 9:30 AM. His afternoon nap is usually crap and only about 45 minutes to an hour usually starting at 2:30.

Foods

Tommy’s favorite food is still cheese. He loves string cheese, cheddar bunnies (Annie’s), grilled cheese, slices of cheese, cheese puffs (HappyBaby)… He also loves my pancakes that I make for him using banana, baby oatmeal and an egg yolk. I actually cook them in a waffle maker. It’s easy to heat up and clean. I made a broccoli omelet in the waffle maker today and it was also a hit. I used egg, mozzarella cheese and over-steamed broccoli mashed. He ate it up!

Other favorites of Tommy’s include freeze dried strawberries by Crunchies, anything mom and dad are eating, Earth’s Best veggie nuggets, peanut butter, almond butter, bread, and lots of water from his OXO sippy cup.

Teeth

Still only 4 teeth, two on top and two on bottom.

Words

Mom, Dad, Dog, All Done… all though if you heard him say these things you’d probably only pick up on Mom.

Personality

Tommy is a huge flirt. He smiles at all the ladies (and some gentlemen), and even tries to make them laugh by flicking his lips and making a flutter noise. He is silly and loves to play peekaboo under blankets, sometimes walking around with a blanket on top of his head.

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He is very easy going and acts like a drunk college brah when he gets too tired which is funny and usually ends up with him shirtless, wrestling another toddler on the ground, belly laughing. If you follow me on Instagram or SnapChat, you can probably tell all of these things. He is also a snuggler when he’s tired which I love. He will curl right up in your arms and put his head on your shoulder for a hot second. That’s it though. He does not like to stay still unless he is tired.

TV

I finally gave in to the TV and use it now more often than I’d like. We mainly watch Sesame Street, which is actually pretty good! Tommy literally brings me the remote in the kitchen if he wants to watch a show. I try to limit his TV time to 1-2 shows a day (while I cook breakfast or make dinner) but he only watches in 2-5 minute increments. For example, he will watch the first 3 minutes, then go play with a toy. He’ll come back to watch the “Letter of the Day” song and then leave again to play with his stuffed doggie.

Regrets

I talk about this in more detail on my video but I kinda regret not sleep training sooner. I waited way too long to do this. I also wish we had travelled more with Tommy during those first few months. We are going to go away this Spring with him but we are both nervous for the flight! It was easy when he was young but we had so many weddings and work events that we never flew after June.

I also regret not giving him bottles more regularly in the beginning. Since we did not, he never took to them which means, I have to be home to put Tommy down for bed and home when he wakes up. When I travel, he goes on milk strikes. This sucks because I feel like I can never commit to anything if it means I’ll be away for bedtime. People who don’t have kids don’t really understand this, and I feel guilty not being able to accept work or social invitations that have take place at that time. I just feel so guilty not being there for him. Look how cute his little mug is?

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I do wish I had found a sitter to help me get more work done. I’ve struggled this past year to keep up with my blog and YouTube channel. I feel like I don’t have the time to search and find someone and now Tommy is in the attachment phase so he will freak if I leave him with someone new.

The Fears Not Met

Tommy was an easy baby in our opinion. We never had these sleepless nights that left us feeling like zombies. I was very emotional the first few weeks but I expected it. I expected to be tired and that I’d miss sleeping in but I also was expecting to feel almost nauseas from being so tired, like when you have an early flight but I didn’t. Tommy wasn’t a great sleeper, don’t get me wrong. I as up at least 1-3x up until 11 months!

Maybe Nick and I were good at delegating responsibilities but we never felt in the weeds. We were warned our relationship would be tested and it has definitely changed in ways I didn’t expect. We are however closer than ever.

What I Miss Most

I miss being able to take fitness classes around the city whenever I wanted. I now am limited to classes with childcare that work with Tommy’s sleeping schedule (which is only Recycle Studio) and weekends with Nick’s own schedule in mind. I miss being able to get out of the house in 10 minutes or less. I miss staying up late without the guilt of knowing I won’t be able to sleep in. Most of all, I miss being able to have plans at 7pm as I mentioned above.

I get invitations to work and social events that are always at this time. I can go before or after but typically not at all. If we get babysitters, we always go out after Tommy has gone to bed. This isn’t that bad because he goes down at 7 pm.

He’s probably gone to bed without me present less than 10 times. This makes it hard for me to do adult things during the week. Of course these things will change once I stop nursing or Tommy starts school.

However, I wouldn’t trade my new life for the old one for even one second.

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All that being said, we survived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tommy is the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me. I miss him when he takes a nap and as long as it’s not 5 am, can’t wait to see him in the morning. It’s overwhelming. I feel like I switched jobs this year and I did sorta. I became a “work from home mom”. It’s the hardest job I’ve had and I’m exhausted by 7 pm but every minute is filled with so much more meaning.

THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO SHARED YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND ADVICE.

The best part of my job is the ability to crowdsource and get help when I need it from all of you. I mean it. You guys all helped me so much more than you know. Your kindness, tips and support helped this be the best year of my life by far. I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store…

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