Happy 14 months Rowan!

I am pretty sure I am beyond late with this post. I thought I would have been a much more efficient blogger, but in reality, I suck. I am determined to keep up with these posts though. Rowan is changing so much. It blows my mind how much babies change. I am trying to soak in every minute! I truly can't believe how fast time is flying! So, this post is a bit old, but here we go....







Age:14 months, 12.5 months adjusted

Weight and clothing size: 
Rowan is a sturdy 25 pounds! Officially done with 24mo and wearing 2T clothing. Wearing size 4 diapers.



Eating:
Holy crap, I think I have a teenage boy on my hands rather than a baby! This girl finds so much joy in eating, and eats a TON. NO JOKE. She can pack away food like a guy, and in return, her poopies are HORRIFIC, LMAO!!!  Breakfast consists of a whole waffle, milk, and lots o' strawberries. Lunch is some sort of protein, sippy of water, and a good amount fruits and veggies. Dinner is usually whatever we eat, plus fruit and water. She gets snacks with water and a bottle at bedtime. Phew!



Rowan can:
-Is starting to cruise a little! She also is slowly learning to walk with her learning walker. She also likes to "walk" while holding our hands. No official walking, but again, not too worried. I remind myself that walking takes place between 9-18 months.





-do some climbing! She likes to climb into her toy box tubs, climb all over us, you get it. She is SO busy, and crawls so fast! She gets into mischief just fine. If she's this busy now, I can't imagine what she will be like when walks!




-mimics noises we do. If I clear my throat, she will do it. If I make clicking sounds, do silly screams, you bet that she will mimic almost immediately.




-can sign "more". We are teaching Rowan American sign language (daddy is fluent in ASL). We try to sign as much as we can. She now can confidently sign "more",which has helped from her screaming when we don't feed her fast enough. Oh Rowan.




-can point to where her nose is when asked  and knows where "ears" are. Love my smart cookie!




Rowan loves:
- to eat. I know this is repetitive, but seriously, she screams and squeals for meal time. She especially loves fruits and vegetables. Its quite hysterical! She starting to say "mmmmm!!!" with her favorites too, LOL!!
-actual babies, LOL! She joyfully screams at babies, points to them, and wants to touch (sometimes roughly) them. It's the cutest thing ever!

-puzzles. Girl is obsessed! My in law family got her some for her birthday and she is nuts for them! Now she isn't putting them together of course, but she likes to feel the pieces and put them in her mouth.


-the pool. We have gone at least 6 or 7 times in the last 2 weeks. Thank the Lord! Shannon and I were swimmers and water polo players all throughout high school. Shannon has been coaching swimming for nearly 25 years. So obviously we want her to carry on what we call "the Potter swim legacy" (it's even a hashtag, LOL). Anyway, she LOVES the water. Despite our best efforts to stop her, she also loves to drink it. I find that part so gross, LOL.




-her wubbanub pacifiers . I know people have opinions about pacis. We didn't have a choice since day 1 the NICU nurses put one in her mouth. Thankfully she mainly only uses it for bedtime, but y'all, wubbanubs are amazing! I love the precious little animals attached to them, and she loves them too! She has the: caterpillar, elephant, duck and giraffe (we keep it at mimi's). Yes, we may have a problem with buying them.





Rowan doesn't like: 
 -meat, mainly because of the texture. If I cut it into super small pieces, she does fine.


-HATES when we put her  puzzles back together. If she sees we put the pieces back, she will literally stop whatever she is doing to tear it apart. OH ROWAN.


-well this isn't a "dislike" per se, but she is into the tantrum stage. I am beyond ashamed to admit this but I sometimes get frustrated when this happens. I seriously don't tolerate tantrums well at all. I know this is just the tip of the iceberg, which makes me nervous for the true toddler years. I think part of it for me is I just want to help her and take away what's making her upset.  However, I quickly remind myself the reason she is throwing these little fits is that she can't talk yet. This girl sure has some sass!

Sleeping schedule:
Little babe still has the same sleep schedule. However she was having a tougher time with naps. Thankfully she got back into her routine and its pretty cut and dry. The only drag is Rowan STILL wakes up at 6:30, a few times even at 6. I know she can't help it but man it sucks, lol!


 

 New happenings this month:


-Getting a taste of the SAHM life! I am with Rowan all the time and it sure is different from working. Whoever says being a SAHM is easy needs to get punched. Its a lot of work, but also so fun! Going back to work is going to be a serious RUDE awakening!
-Rowan has gone to many birthday parties, but this month she got invited to her first Chinese 100 day party! It was super cool and fun! We were so happy to support our friends Logan and Anna in their journey of parenthood! Their baby Liberty is so beautiful! Rowan LOVED her but I think Lady Liberty was indifferent! Their little pic is below in the first set of pictures!
-Lots of pool time so far! She enjoys it so much!
-We did a road trip to Angel's Camp with my family. It was super fun and relaxing! However, I am noticing traveling is starting to become more difficult, uh I mean different with a "toddler" LOL.

12 months: Happy 1st birthday Rowan!

month 1 vs. month 12

I'm typing this with a lump in my throat. This picture makes me cry.

My daughter is one! How the HECK did it go by so fast? This year truly has been life changing. I'm not going to lie, in the beginning it was hard and crazy. Her early birth stunned me and I battled some MAJOR baby blues. Honestly, I think I may have had a touch of PPD (may blog about this later). Our lives were turned upside down caring for a tiny premature infant with horrific reflux issues. We were up all night, worn out, and exhausted. Throw in the struggle to breastfeed and you've got yourself a big problem. There were many times I broke down, not sure how we were going to do it. However, with the grace of God, things got a little easier and MUCH better. What's funny is I miss those tiny newborn days. I wish I could have it back, lol!! I have been a teary mess for the last few days now. I know that sounds cheesy, but seeing how far my child has come, well, it overwhelms me in a good way. Rowan has brought a joy to our lives that honestly can't be explained. Our lives were quite fabulous before her, but it has gotten even better with her in it. I can't believe that I almost swore off having kids. I love being a mother, and she is truly a gift from above. This year has been monumental, busy, joyous and crazy. I wouldn't trade this life for all the money in the world.

Name: Rowan Decaris Potter

Rowan's age: 12 months old, 10.5 months adjusted age

Weight:
At birth: 5.2 pounds
Now: 24 pounds! Holy tank! This blows me away how big she has gotten! She is in the 92% percentile for her weight. Some people get all offended when people say their baby is chubby, but I LOOOOOVE it! Anyone who knows me well knows I love my chubbies! I love all her precious fluff and rolls! I know it will melt off soon, and honestly, that makes me sad :(

favorite foods:
Pretty much everything EXCEPT frosting. At her cake smash, she got frosting caked on her fingers and she about lost her mind. She threw the biggest diva fit, LOL! More on that later. At her well baby appt, we were given the green light to start whole milk, so we will transition her later this week. Other than that, Rowan eats a lot of what we eat!

Clothing size:
At birth: preemie size clothing, size 1 diapers (sniff, sniff)
Now: size 4 diapers, 24m clothing size and starting to wear 2T! Still super tiny feet!

Rowan milestones (for her adjusted age, 10.5months):

-Army crawling like a champ and is getting better at pulling herself up.

-Now she has officially 8 teeth

-Rowan can stand for longer periods of time. She of course has at least one hand on something.

- Can say : mama, dada, baba, dis, dat. Can say a whole slew of other sounds and blends that I can't quite make out quite yet.

-blows kisses

-When daddy asks "donde esta la luna" (where is the moon in Spanish) She immediately looks up and finds the moon! Also points a lot to her nose as we are teaching her where certain facial are. Points to everything and will say "dis" or "Dat"

-With the above statement, we are teaching her to be bilingual and is now responding to both languages. She can respond to a variety of different phrases. I credit this to my mom, who speaks to her in Spanish all day when she is watching her. Rowan is half Salvadorean, so it is important to me she knows her culture and language. It is incredible to me how quick she is learning!


-Rowan also tries to mimic our arm and facial movements. If we point to our nose, she will do it.

-When you take something away, she is extremely aware of it and will track where you put it, LOL!

 
 Rowan loves: 

-Lambs, thanks to Baby Einstein. She got a lamb who we call Goldie, and Rowan loves her. 

-HANGERS. Why on earth have we bought this child any toys? Rowan is the happiest when she is playing and eating hangers. SIGH.

-Loves her father. I know, a big fat DUH but seriously, this girl is ALL ABOUT daddy. I'm kinda jealous lol! SHe can be super crabby with me, but the minute her father walks in the door, she goes crazy!!

 

-ANy toy that lights up or plays music. Also loves her stackable cups.

 

-Despite thinking cake is the devil, Rowan LOVES ice cream. Oh boy...

Rowan doesn't like:
-being woken up in the morning. For the last few months, we have had to wake her up to get ready for work. She HATES it (don't blame her) and straight up acts like a teenager about it.

-Very demanding about food and throws major fits when it doesn't come fast enough :(

-Being held too long. She wants to be on the floor. This makes my heart ache a little.

-HATES being changed and getting a fresh diaper. She is apparently much too busy to be still!

New things/happenings this month:

Not a ton of "new" things, but still, it was a great month!

-Rowan celebrated her first birthday party! It was this past weekend and we partied hearty! A HUGE post will be dedicated to this.

-We did our final 12 month shoot on April 19, Rowan's actual birthday! We have been seeing Jamie Cardoza for all of our every 3 month sessions! She has done 3-6-9-12 months and IS AMAZING. A post is being dedicated to her! ANyway, we did our final one and Rowan did pretty well, considering she partied too hard the night before (already living the supermodel lifestyle, lmao!). At the very end, we did the cake smash and she SCREAMED like she got spanked! Oh my land, this girl!!! Somehow, Jamie STILL managed to get decent shots!

- We celebrated Rowan's 1st Easter! I can't believe I haven't blogged about this! GAH! It was so fun, and Rowan definitely enjoyed it! Did great getting her picture done with the Easter bunny, which shocked me!

-This isn't super new, but we have been getting busier with playdates. Rowan super enjoys them and really loves babies and kids.

-Becoming more a "fixture" at Daddy's practices and meets! People seem drawn to her and she gets lots of attention, which she of course loves.

 

How is Rowan's spit up?: Well, oddly enough, she was spitting up a good few times this month, even spitting up her whole bottle. Not quite sure what was going on, but thankfully it passed.
 

Sleep:
Still doing decent on sleep! If I am tired its because I chose to stay up! I am a little worried we had it too easy with her, and next baby (Lord willing we have another) might be crazy hard, LOL!

Rowan's personality so far: 
A sweet, joyful spirit is how I can describe Rowan. While she has a HUGE personality when she is upset, she is very good natured and joyful.

This year has been the most beautiful year of my life. It has had plenty of its ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade this job for the world. I can't wait to see what the next year brings! I'm debating if I will do monthly posts, mainly because I don't want to annoy people, LOL!

I am so thankful God picked me to the mother of this extraordinary baby girl! I love you forever Rowan!

My Rowan dump...on the very bottom is a picture of her at the birthday party (WAY more on that later) and some sneak peeks of her 12 month session:

Adjusted

So this pic has nothing to do with my post, but good heavens, I just love this beautiful baby!

Okay, back to the original post...

Ah...those milestones. Every new mama seems to always be obsessed with those, and I am no different.

 I remember back when Rowan was in the NICU, the doctors had mentioned that because she was born six weeks early she may have developmental delays. Basically it meant that she may not be meeting milestones at the same time as her term baby friends. The doctors said we had to use her adjusted age rather than going by her real actual age. What adjusted age means is how old Rowan would have been had she been born on time. For example Rowan is 6.5 months old. Her adjusted age would then be 5 months old. So, that means any big milestones we have to treat her like a 5 monther rather than 6 (I know, monther isn't a word, LOL).

I remember hearing that I just brushed it off. I figured that wouldn't be her case and we would be just fine. At times, even now, I forget that Rowan was a preemie. When I look at her I don't see preemie, I just see my beautiful girl, my little spit fire. She is a fighter and so incredibly strong.  She has had zero problems, and she's even chubbier and bigger than some of her term baby friends. I just figured that 6 weeks really wouldn't make a difference. I just remember feeling and thinking "we're going to prove the doctors wrong". Rowan is going to do everything on time". I remember feeling very smug that before Rowan turned her actual age of 4 months old (only 2.5 months adjusted at the time), she actually rolled over. She was actually quite roly-poly and was rolling for the next few days afterwards. I remember thinking "see I was right!" But then as some days went by she stopped doing it completely altogether. It freaked me out and made me think the doctors may be on to something.

Currently, Rowan rolls around like its going out of style. However, many of her baby friends (many of them 6 months like her) are currently sitting up with no problem, crawling and some are even pulling themselves up. Last week I got an email from baby center about sitting up. In reading the comments, some moms put

"Oh my 4 month old is sitting up" (really!??)
"My 6 month old is sitting up and crawling",
etc, etc, etc.

I see my friends' babies and these comments and I can't help but feel concerned. While Rowan is rolling, holding up her weight through her arms, she isn't sitting up. She sits up for 10-15 before she does a "TIMBER" fall. to the floor. AND certainly, she isn't crawling. I feel a sense of pressure and panic has seem to set in, till I remember....

ALL THESE BABIES WERE BORN AT TERM. MINE WASN'T. THE END.

When I remember that, it gives me a sense of peace. I have to calm the heck down, and realize Rowan will do things when its time, and when her body is ready. It is important to also know that even termies don't always do everything "on time". Despite all of this, it hasn't stopped me from being proactive. For the last 3 months, we have been seeing a physical therapist, to make sure she is developing okay and catching any issues early. In those sessions, the doctor has noticed Rowan has a slight bout of torticollis, which basically a head tilt. Its getting better, but something we for sure need to work on it. In this last session, we noticed she seems to have very slight floppy arms, which means when you pick her up, it feels like she could slip through your fingers. The therapist thinks its minor, and taught us a slew of things we could be doing. She thinks with tummy time and other exercising, she should improve between 1-2 months. On the positive, Rowan is the 95% percentile in meeting milestones as a "5 month old". For her real age, 6.5 months, she is at the 40% percentile for milestones. I heard that number and my heart sank, because as a teacher, 40% isn't good. However, her therapist said that was actually good, considering she is a preemie. With all of that, I left feeling my amazing little girl is on the right track.

All of this said, this is a good reminder to calm the eff down. Rowan is already doing amazing, and will continue to do so. I am so incredibly thankful that her early birth hasn't given way to huge problems. We have a lot to be thankful for. So, I am just going to sit back, continue to work with her, and just enjoy my beautiful girl. Time is flying too fast anyway.