11 Months

11 months have gone by in the blink of an eye.  Whilst I stopped to savour every day, week and month with Dylan, Archie's first eleven months seem to have passed by in a blur of breastfeeding, nappies and chasing a toddler round, and suddenly in place of my newborn there is a cheeky little boy, not really a baby, but not yet a toddler.  A child with his own mind, a determination and the cheekiest smile.  Archie is hurtling towards his first birthday and I honestly can't tell you how nearly a year has passed since I brought him home from the hospital that cold Sunday afternoon.

At 11 months Archie is an explorer, a climber and a little monkey at times.  He is not content sitting still and lying him down to change a nappy requires a small team.  He sees what he wants and goes for it, no matter what is in the way and would rather climb over an obstacle than go round it.  He is not afraid of heights and given half the chance he is half way up the stairs.  He has mastered climbing onto our bed and the sofa, something that took Dylan an extra 9 months!  He is happiest when standing, and although he has been pulling himself up for quite some time, it is only this past month that he has experimented with letting go, getting ready for that scary next stage and those first steps.

Archie has been happy feeding himself, but we have taken a slight step back in the last month as he seemed to be getting more and more unsettled and agitated in the afternoons.  We added in a few spoon fed meals and he is like a different child, much happier and more content.  Although he is confident feeding himself, I think he has a lot of fun spreading his food around the four corners of the room, and this way we know he is getting enough.  Despite turning his nose up at puree when we started weaning, he is perfectly happy for me to be doing the work now and still eats everything and anything on offer (including tumble dryer fluff given half the chance!)

Being a second child, Archie has had to slot into his older brother's schedule and they both nap after lunch.  Archie is still generally fed to sleep for this, unless he has fallen asleep in the sling or buggy, and sleeps anything from one to three hours.  Quite often he will wake after only half an hour,still sleepy with his eyes tight shut and a whingey cry, and he will settle straight back off if I bring him into my bed for a cuddle.  Trying to move is forbidden though and he will sleep as long as he is cuddled in my arms.  Although it may well be a bad habit, there is something so precious about curling up with him for an afternoon nap, and I don't really discourage it. 

Our nights are still eventful with at least one wake up without fail.  It is starting to get really hard, having not had a full night's sleep for so long and I am contemplating getting tough, but when it is 4am and I am sleepy and cold, feeding him back to sleep is by far the easiest and quickest option.  Archie is still breastfed on demand although I have been pushing him to 3 feeds a day (and one night), and this works most days.  when I am at work he quite happily goes all day without milk, but when I am around I find it very hard to say no when he makes it incredibly obvious what he is wanting.

He has two extra teeth joining the original four, and you have to be careful when he comes for a big slobbery kiss (as he does frequently), that he doesn't try and imprint these teeth marks on your face.  He is a very affectionate boy though, coming for cuddles and kisses throughout the day and still happiest when in his mummy's arms.

This next month will be spent planning a first birthday party and my next Archie update will be his first birthday.  I am excited about everything to come, but still wondering where on earth this year has gone!