I feel okay skipping 4 months-11 months because as far as development goes, Sophia was right on track and developing typically (rolling, sitting.... army crawl/inch worming... she never "crawled" in the true definition but we've all heard stories about kids that skip crawling and go straight to walking). We never ever went to the doctor, unless it was for a Well Check Up, because she was just a healthy kid who never got sick. I adored this about her, naturally. Come to think of it, she was really a model child up to this point- easy, happy, quiet--- all those things that might make some people say "hmm" but had me quite pleased that I had such a good-natured baby.
Last Summer, when she was 11 months and 1 week old, she stopped nursing. Just completely stopped. It was like a switch went off. I nursed her to sleep at night, and in the morning she wouldn't drink. I chalked it up to just wanting some real food for breakfast- she was almost a year old after all- and thought it would be fine, she'd drink in a couple hours. A couple hours turned into a couple days. I was in pain, because there was no gradual weaning at all. Green light, red light. I was actually in so much pain, that I decided to stop breastfeeding. I figured this is what she was telling me. And I only wanted to go through this particular excruciating experience once. (Hind sight is 20/20, let me just tell you that right now.) But at the time I decided that she could have some cow's milk and we could be done with it, what a nice transition, child-led, no fighting, la-dee-da.
Except she wouldn't drink cow's milk. White. Vanilla. Chocolate. Or Rice Milk. Or Coconut Milk. Or Almond Milk. Or Soy Milk. Or Strawberry Milk. Or strawberry yogurt with strawberry milk and chocolate sauce please drink this pretty please. She immediately spat it all out. So now I had an almost one year old not drinking a lick of dairy.
At this point, I am fine with it. Milk is definitely a cultural thing, and I'm not crazy about it myself. However, a year ago, I was NOT fine with it. This was a big red flag (for later) that at the time, as an event in isolation, I was losing sleep over. Why is my kid the one kid in the world who doesn't like milk? CHOCOLATE milk? etc
Around this time (it might have been earlier) Sophia really threw me for a loop when it came to sleeping. Up til now, I was okay with night wakings because she wasn't quite a year, and breastfed on command. We had definitely grown into a routine where she wouldn't wake up at night since she was about 8? 9? months (or so, sorry, I can't remember exactly). It wasn't like she slept from 8-8 every night or anything like that, but once you put her down, she typically wouldn't wake up until she was ready to be up for the day, whenever that might be.
Then things started to get really whacky. Night was day, day was night, she wasn't calming down at night and would stay up all hours, even though I knew she was tired. I am anti- CIO and even gentle sleep training had no appeal so I just sat with her. And sat with her. Some nights we watched the sun come up. We would miss appointments, social outings, because we were both so tired and miserable. My marriage took a big hit. I complained, a lot. Again... why is this happening, why is she so different, what is going on here? Every sleep/ behavioral book on the market was read or at least summarized, baths and massages were given, lavender, chamomile.... yeah, nothing worked. She was wired completely differently than any other child I had ever met or heard about.
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