Ten Months Today
May 17, 2009 by Angela White, J.D., breastfeeding counselor
Filed under mothering
The calendar does not lie, as much as I find it hard to believe that my baby turned 10 months old today! I could swear I just wrote about her 9-month well baby visit, but that was three weeks ago!
10 months old
- She’s working alternately on walking and talking, which translates to a lot of night-wakings. Who wants to sleep when you can practice crawling off the mattress onto the floor? Throw in teething and a cold and we are up several times a night. Each night I vow to count how many wakings there are, and each night we nurse quickly back to sleep and I completely forget to keep track.
- She eats lots of solid food throughout the day. I didn’t plan to write about her meals today, so you’re getting the scoop on how it really goes around here. Today her fare included strawberries, guacamole (onion included!), broccoli, bits of pitted olive, pasta, kiwi, grapes, and watermelon. A little heavy on the fruit I see — will have to get some more veggies in the mix. I still consider her eating experiences to be for socialization, experimentation, and frankly, entertainment. She enjoys her food and I want to keep it that way. She controls what and how much she eats. I don’t give her my chocolate chip cookie when she eyes it, but I do give her the black olives if they interest her.
- She nurses as much or more than she ever did. I suspect she’s been going through a growth spurt or making up for lost time when she had that suspected case of rotavirus. Either way, she nurses at least 10 times a day, probably more. I never keep track. We’re a busy family on the go, and she goes with us, so she has plenty of distractions from nursing. She simply enjoys nursing for food, for thirst, for comfort and for sleep.
I know my experience will sound typical to some readers and far from typical to other readers. Perhaps your baby eats different foods or less of it. Maybe you’re thinking of weaning by one year of age and have tried to cut back on the frequency of nursing. While I plug on full steam ahead, what is your experience like with a 10-month-old or thereabouts? What are your feelings on weaning — never thought you’d nurse this long, can’t imagine stopping now, eying that one-year mark?
P.S. Add shredded cheese to that list of foods. When my baby started biting my pants leg as I typed, and she declined to nurse or to play with any of her toys, I offered her some cheese and she is happily enjoying that right now.
I have a 9-month-old, and we’re ramping up with the night wakings too. I do my best not to keep track. It only becomes a problem when he won’t nurse back to sleep – no fun.
And I’m being pretty free with the food. I was much more cautious with my first child than I am with my second. And he loves pretty much everything we give him.
I so hate the night-wakings… on well. I hate it when baby takes a early evening nap too, when he obviously seemed sleepy in the 1st place! Who likes a baby who goes to sleep at 9pm, only to wake at 10pm all bright-eyed and smiling? Grrrr…..
Food…I’m so going to leave the dairy out for the time-being, until 1yo at least, I think. No hurry.
I now have a nursing 2 yo, but this reminds me of when he was 10 months as well! He was just starting on solids at that age, sweet potatoes off my plate were the first.
I have an almost-5 year old but I remember getting the “is she weaned yet?” and “what does she eat?” comments between 10-12 months. I used a line from a La Leche League leader, which was “she started to wean at 6 months” when I didn’t want to explain myself and a reference to the World Health Organization’s recommendation of nursing to 2 years and beyond if I was in the mood. Reid didn’t eat a lot of “real” food until after her first birthday, but she tried everything that she was interested in and now eats a range of foods that most members of my family would consider exotic. She stopped nursing just after her 4th birthday because she didn’t need to anymore, just as she increased her consumption of foods because she wanted to. It’s a matter of trusting in our kids, isn’t it?
I remember around 10 months was when I decided that I absolutely would NOT be weaning at age one and readjusted my “goal” to later. We are now at 29 months and I wonder where the time has gone. Someone asked me if my son sleeps through the night recently, and I had to reply– I don’t know. Yes– two and I have no idea, because he snuggles up to me when he needs me and at most I must lift my shirt for him to nurse.
I can’t tell you what a joy it is to read your blog! I’m a first-time mom and am so happy to be breastfeeding my little girl who will be 9mths this week. We also co-sleep, and while this tends to give me many ‘looks’ and I can’t tell you how many “you’ll never get her to leave your bed once you’ve started that” comments, I still think it’s the one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
Thank you so much for posting such wonderful, realistic, and supportive blogs — I will continue to check-in often!
Thanks so much Steph! I love getting such nice feedback! I have written a lot about co-sleeping (and how my older girls eventually moved out of my bed) — if you haven’t discovered those posts already, look in the sidebar under “Categories” and click on “sleep”!