And again I am amazed at all she has started doing that is new in the last month. Things I wouldn't have necessarily thought of as milestones, but things that she just picks up and suddenly does on her own. For example, grabbing her right foot with her right hand and holding her leg out to the side in the air like a ballet move. Or crawling on her knees and one hand while pushing a rolling car or her rolling phone with the other hand. Or putting her toy rings and toy cups in bowls and shaking them around until they fly out like she was frying up something in a pan. It is so much fun watching her learn new things and then remember and do them again and again.
Cora has been successfully sleeping from about 8-8:30pm until somewhere between 5:30-7am, which has been awesome. We also successfully transitioned to having her fall asleep on her own, sometimes after a little bit of crying, but nothing terrible. When she wakes up in the morning I usually bring her up to bed with me to feed her and snuggle. Sometimes she falls back asleep and we sleep together until between 7 and 8. She usually takes 2 naps per day, one late morning for half an hour up to 2 hours usually sometime between 10am-1pm, and the second one in the late afternoon/early evening for again half and hour up to 2 hours sometime between 3pm-6pm or so.
She's been having 3 main meal times of solid food and still loves to eat just about everything we give her. Applesauce and plain greek yogurt are a couple of her favorites. I just made some new combinations to try out and introduce some new foods...broccoli-kale-apple, spinach-pea-pear, and blueberry-banana-quinoa. Yum! I hope Cora likes them as much as I did. She has started really mastering putting food in her mouth on her own and biting off chunks of crackers. She now has eight teeth through, but not fully in yet...the front top four and the front bottom four. Do most 10 month olds have 8 teeth already?!
She is also still nursing three to four times per day and then having bottles of formula the other times. She'll eat from me when she wakes up, then have a 4 ounce bottle around 9-10am, then eat from me around 12-1, then maybe 2-4 ounces around 2-3pm, sometimes she will eat from me again around 5pm, then she will eat from me and also drink 2-4 ounces at 8pm before bed. I assume she is getting enough. I am thinking about stopping pumping during the work day so that I'm just nursing morning and evening and I'm thinking to be completely weaned by right around her 1st birthday. I really don't want to be pumping at all by the time I travel internationally for work. I would have loved to exclusively breastfeed her for as long as she wanted, but at the same time I have to be realistic as a working mom and do what works for our family. I do think breastfeeding is a bit different for stay at home moms versus moms working a job full time. Part of me feels a bit guilty for not trying harder to pump and have her exclusively breastfeed, but the other part of me doesn't want to worry about if she is eating enough and stress over having to heat up my milk before storing and worry about work trips, etc. I have resolved that she is still getting some breast milk from me and is also getting the iron and nutrients in formula, and she is a healthy girl and is doing just fine. It is working for us and that is what is important.
She's really starting to look like a little girl and less baby like. Her cheeks aren't quite as chubby as they used to be, her hair is getting longer, and she's getting taller and bigger. She can now stand holding on to something and even take a few steps, but she still prefers to crawl or sit up on her knees. Sometimes she wants to be held or to play with you, read, and interact, but other times she is quite content to play on her own, leafing through books, pulling out various toys, and crawling from one area to another to find whatever suits her fancy. It is quite fun to watch. She can now clap and dusts her hands together for "rolling" in patty cake. She still does "so big" and waves "hi" and "bye" on command. She is ticklish and giggles loudly when you pretend to bite her armpits and sides or tickle under her chin and her feet.
Her vocabulary has increased quite a bit. I guess it's not really vocabulary, but rather sounds and her own words for things. She says "mama", "dada" (which sometimes might mean Rooney), "nana" (which maybe means she wants her monkey pacifier or a bottle), and she makes lots of other consonant and vowel sounds as well, such as v, f, e, o, s, m, d, n, and probably more that I can't think of right now. In any case, it is fun to hear what she has to say and how serious she looks at you when speaking her opinion.
This last week also was the longest time that I was away from her, 4 nights, while I attended a conference in California for work. Rita came to take care of Cora for the week, which was a huge help! Cora is very adaptable and of course was just fine and still her happy self. She did seem to get excited seeing me on Facetime and when they picked me up at the airport. I do think it is good for us to be independent and I'm so glad the week went well.
This weekend we played in the first real snow fall, went swimming in the pool, went on walks, played with toys in the living room, read books, snuggled, and all around had a nice relaxing weekend. We hadn't been swimming with her the last couple months, so it was fun to see her a bit older and developed and aware of what was going on. She was fascinated watching the older children swimming and playing, and she kicked her legs and "swam" a bit.
Here are some pictures from the last few weeks, including Halloween!
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