one אחת en หนึ่ง ένα jeden واحد une एक един uno

1 Year of........... breastfeeding
We had a very hard start to breastfeeding. If I ever do get lucky (luckier that is..) and have another baby, I do know now better. I know to (attempt to) give birth in a place that won't force a seperation right after birth between mother and baby (dare I dream of a home birth?) and to not take child to child development centre until I get the breastfeeding going (seriously, the nurse there was very much on top of me about how I'm starving my child. I do know now that breastfed babies have other charts....) and to seek support like the LLL group (when I did join at 4.5 months, it really was great, one of the main contributers for bringing me back to breastfeeding almost fully. If there will be a next time, I'd like to go to this group much earlier on). etc etc etc.
But with all the difficulties I was having (breastfeeding and pumping, and oh did both hurt, but mainly the pumping, and the pills I took that gave me a back ache and a terrible nausea and a gassy feeling but unable to reasle [and oh, do I know how babies feel!] until I vomited....), I never gave up. It was (still is) very important for me that my girl gets my milk. Unfortunatly for the first few months she was mainly nurished by formula. Some would say how lucky I am to live in such an age. I think otherwise, but well... Anyway she still got some of my milk every day.
And then the nursing got better (or more, I started to believe in myself!) and we slowly dropped the bottle (yeah, solids helped but not at first. at first it was more mummy milk so less bottle milk).
Today we are in a good place [yes, she is one year old and I am still breast feeding. Can I pause and say yay!] where we do eat our solids but we also nurse a lot [and I'll add that bottle is only for water!] . And I'm loving it! And she so obviously loves the breasts too. I do often wonder what is there to like about it, I mean it is hard work getting the milk out, lol, but if at one time I wondered whether I'd ever get to the half year point, let alone the year point, I now know the sky' the limit.. I'd like to breastfeed her until she doesn't want any more, be it two, three or older [can you imagine me in an old age home nursing my middle aged daughter? ha ha ha]
And oh, what a nurser do I have! She is so not a lie in your lap and peacfully suck from the breast. Oh no, not my litttle girl! She has to move the whole time like standing up (if I'm on the mat) or getting of the sofa (if I'm on the sofa..) or climb over me (when lying in bed) all while my nipple is still in her mouth! Yes, we probably could win a gold medal in some sort of catagury in a breastfeeding olympics! And we've nursed in the baths and showers (we now take showers together, both sitting on the floor) and while I was walking (that I didn't like) and when taking her to pee in the middle of the night...


12 Months of............. bedsharing
I know it is mostly called co-sleeping, but I prefer the term 'bed-sharing' as co-sleeping could be the same bed, and could be a parent bed and a co-sleeper cot by the parent bed. We share the same bed.
Coming home from the hospital, after a traumatic birth, mother said: you're staying here (at her place), and so while I wanted to share the bed, Butterfly was mostly in a cradle and I was either on the folding bed (too dangerous to share with a newborn..) or the sofa (probably also not the safest but I would sometimes sleep with her trusting my body and my instincts). So there wasn't much bed sharing in those early days.
Then we went up to my place, first only for the nights, having day time naps at mum's and then for all sleep.
I vaguly remember those early days. I know I was a bit scared about doing the bed sharing thing, but also trusted very much my instincts. And then she was rolling. First time she fell from the bed, I shamefully admit to laughing (she was probably too stunned to cry..). Second time? That's when I decided to take my bed apart and just have the matteres. So now we both sleep on the mattress, and oh, how I love it!! It is so lovely to be able to snuggle up to your daughter at night, even if I mostly turn to the side and sleep with my back to her, I love that all I have to do when she wakes is turn around (and pick up my shirt of course.. which reminds me of those early days when once or twice she woke to nurse and before I was awake, I would feel her mouth more or less on my nipple [though.. hmmm.. I was wearing a shirt, so she wasn't getting milk..]). I also love how when I'm at the computer while she's having her daily nap [at nights she cries] and she wakes up, love how she quietly gets up and crawls over, knowing I am in the other room.
But if we are on to our sleeping arangenments, surly me must add a word or two about sleeping! Well while she is sleeping so much better, it is not always easy. We now have one nap a day, but evan so, there's a little girl here who thinks the day isn't long enough, and evan with a noon nap, would fight going to sleep.


52 Weeks of............... eliminating communicating
Elimination Communicatin is (in short) when you raise your kid without nappies. You learn your baby's signals when s/he needs to go (and baby learns your signals - when and where she can go.
Anyway the main reason for wanting to do EC was the C, communication. Alas, was/is not so easy.. I started just before she turned 2 months (didn't earlier because I first wanted to get breastfeeding right, at two months I realized that if I wait for breastfeeding to be all fine, I might never be doing EC). Taking her nappy off those first two days to seek paterns was quite scary, but it was worth it because I did learn from it. Well I had the peeing going more or less (probably 'less' but still), but had a hard time identifying poos. Till this day she is vey quite when she has a number two, I sometimes realise it is too quite, and sure enough when I turn around she is in the process (sometimes very early as in nothing came out yet so we dash to the loo. Sorry if tmi). Well the peeing, or more knowing when she needs to pee, was o.k until winter came. Somehow with the need to wear long clothes (and mostly also a nappy) I've lost it. I still haven't really yet found it, and peeing is usually a miss (or a refusal, yes, she does that a lot, and how annoying to be right but still needing to clean a puddle..). Today, many times when she needs to pee, she would go to "her corner" and stand and pee (she is so smart!), or come to me while I'm on the computer and cry (which somehow I always miss, thinking she wants me to be with her..). So maybe we're off with the cues, but she knows she needs to pee and she knows it is to be done in a special place. I am going to buy a potty or two on her birthday and try and "toilet train" her this summer.
That is as far as days are concerned. As for the nights.. Well I can proudly announce that at one year of age she has never, yes NEVER peed in her sleep. Needless to say didn't poo either. That doesn't mean we have long dry nights. No, she wakes up every so often to go. And most nights, I do have a miss or two (mainly because I'd hear her stirring but be too tired to realize..). And I embrace those nightly wakings as I am not allowing her to "learn" to loose control of her bladder in sleep. And yes, from the age of two months, she has never went to bed at night with a nappy! Even when we were having a very bad time, and I was really thinking of just letting her sleep with a nappy, I didn't.
Our new thing now at nights, as she is queen of refusals (screaming and getting herself wide awake [as opposed to being half awake] and making it much harder to be put back to sleep, and becaue I'm not always sure if she needs to pee or just wants the breast, well (too long a sentence..) our new thing is to let her nurse while I'm holding her over the bowl!


365 Days of............... personality
Oh my little girl has such a personality! From the minute she was born she was so alert and so curious anout the world. I know I mentioned before how when they took her to the nursery and how all the other babies around her were either asleep or crying loud and she just looked around, absorving it all. Till this day, she is such a curious girl, wanting to know about the world around her. And she doesn't just keep it at being curious, she investigates and learns. Many times she would turn something to look at its back, to see how it works.
She is also very very active. All the time on the go. Sometimes when going to sleep, she would want to lie on me, but then every few seconds she would change positions. She just can't lie still :-).
And she's physical (and might I add very strong!) and many things she taught herself. For examle climbing the slide (and as much as she loves climbing them, she's not too fond of the ride down..) and climbing up the sofa and down (though she didn't do that trick again..).
On the down side, I'd say that like her mother she is not a big smiler. Her face is usually with a serious (should I say curious?) look on it. But when she smiles.. :-)))Love her smiling face in the morning when we decide to indeed get up..

525 948.766 Minutes of........ moving around
They say that new born babies, when put on their mothers' abdomen, can wiggle themseleves up to her breasts. Of course I had to try that when Butterfly was just a few days old, and that is so amazing! And as young as a month or two, I would put her on a mat and she would be able to make some advancment (though with no aim or purpose, just her moving her body, so can not call that crawling..). So I had/have a very active baby, one who is on the go the whole time.
At four months (and one week :-)) she was rolling both ways (from tummy to back and from back to tummy). Then, just before she turned 6 months, she amazed me with her sitting. She simultanously tought herself both to sit and crawl, advancing somewhat on crawling, then the sitting, then again crawling, etc. Crawling, I alwyas knew she'd do early, so not really surprised but that, but the sitting.. I would like to add that we here in Israel are very firm on the no putting babies in a sitting position until they can sit (a bumbo chair, for eg. is a very big no no), which means asking all the time if the angle [and yes, on the laps babies who are not yet sitting are only held in a wide angle is o.k so as not to be sitting] and feeding in a jumper (I think that's what you call it in English. will add that by nine months if baby is still not sitting a high chair for food is o.k...) etc. I think 9 months is when about a baby can sit on their own, and what I was expecting. So how happy was I when she did so at 6 months! And sitting is great, freeing both hands.. [but if they sit before they crawl most likely they won't crawl and that's not the best thing for them. crawling is important].
At 7 months she was standing, and I thought I'll have an early walker, but.. didn't really seem to advance. I think it was 9 months when she started cruising, and then pushing a chair or whatever. On Independence Day she took her first step! (well a quarter of a step, but still a first..) and then almost nothing and then a month later she astonished me by really walking. But then she got a high temperature and she kind of lost it.. She now occasionaly does two or three steps.. Well I'm sure true walking is just around the corner! [and she is funny with those three steps, by the third one her body is so leaning forward, if I catch her she's fall..
But as you saw on the video, she loves climbing the slide (not so going down it..) and loves climbing stairs and going in the tunnel in the playground.


31 556 926 Seconds of........ beauty
My daughter, gorgeous and amazing as she is, does not look at all like me. When I'm out with my mother and her, people quite often will comment how the two of them look alike (they actually don't look too alike besides the blueness of their eyes), but not me. Funny how before giving birth I thought nothing of how she would look. But before giving birth I "knew" she would have some of my features. Well "knew" alright. In the beginning I had a slight fear, not a real fear as I knew she was indeed my baby, but still this thought kept creeping by - what if they made a mistake on transfer day? Not that I wouldn't love her as much as I do if she wasn't biologicaly mine, but.. if she's not mine then she's someone's else! And yes, most likely I've been watching (in my past, haha) too many of those kind of films.
But besides that, I am still having a hard time believing this little girl is my daughter. My daughter. I think it's hard for me to grasp also because of her looks.
And then last night**, when she was sleeping before I went to bed, coming into the dark room, I saw MiniMe lying there. Something about how she lay all spread out (not that I sleep like that, but still) and her hair, oh her hair! (as it was dark I couldn't see how fair her hair is...) What a delight!
And yes, I think Butterfly is gorgeous and amazing and very beautiful (probably a good thing she doesn't look like me, lol). I am so lucky to have her as my daughter :-).


* note - I used google translate for the title, so.. if it's not accurate (in Hebrew, for example, there are two ways of saying 'one'. Google translate had the wrong one..), I'm sorry.

** hmmm... typing this in bits and pieces, so last night was not the 15th (not that it matters)