I am trusting all the parents out there who assure me “it just gets better” because I am loving this baby phase more than I anticipated. Truthfully, when I was pregnant, I told Ryan I wanted to skip the baby phase and jump right into the toddler phase when I could have a little buddy to interact with on a daily basis. I’ve told you guys before that I never really considered myself a baby person, but oh my gosh did that ever change when I had a baby of my own to cuddle, love and nurture. For someone who thought you couldn’t really play or interact with babies, I’m glad I found out that I was very wrong. Chase is so playful and interactive and I really enjoy goofing around with him, showing him new things and watching him learn and grow every day.
I’m constantly impressed by how much he already knows and absorbs on a daily basis. He understands a handful of command words now and will clap (so much clapping happens in our house) or click his tongue (this amuses him so much) when I ask him to and we’re working on dancing and waving which he almost has down.
Chase is a very observant baby and also very social. He’ll smile at just about anyone who looks at him (and start smiling and craning his neck to engage people when they aren’t looking his way which makes us laugh) and chatters up a storm with lots of high-pitched screeches and guttural noises that amuse me to no end.
The water is quickly becoming one of Chase’s favorite places to be, whether it be splashing around during swim class or in the lake or playing washcloth tug-of-war with Ryan during bath time.
Chase now has six teeth which blows my mind! For a while there he didn’t have any and then it felt like a new tooth was coming through every week. Our vampire fang baby now has two upper middle teeth in between his fang teeth and two teeth on the bottom of his mouth.
He is an expert inchworm crawler and can quickly get to anything he wants to but still isn’t doing the traditional alternating hand/leg baby crawl just yet. This seems to frustrate him a lot but the fact that he can roll or inchworm crawl to everything he has his eye on helps!
Sleeping + Dropping the Dream Feed
Last month we were going through some sleep challenges thanks, in large part, to Chase’s first earache, travel, teething and more, but everything got SO much better this month. HOORAY! We went through one or two nights of sleep training to get him back on track (we followed pretty much exactly what we did at six months) and Chase made the adjustment with relative ease, with the exception of some fussing and on-and-off whimpering around 4 a.m. which was to be expected but not horrific at all.
The big milestone that happened this month (for me!) was that we officially dropped the dream feed! WOO!
Up until a week or so ago, I would feed Chase around 10 p.m. while he was basically asleep to both help keep my milk supply flowing and also get him a little extra nourishment to last through the night. I tried skipping the dream feed a month ago and it backfired because Chase woke up hungry around 4 a.m., but a few weeks later he went to bed later than usual (closer to 8 p.m. than his usual 6:30/7 p.m.) and when I went in to feed him, he refused to eat and made it through until 6 a.m. The following night we put him to bed at his usual time and I intentionally skipped his dream feed. He woke up around 5:30 a.m. to nurse (thank goodness because my boobs were FULL) but he went back to sleep until around 7:30 a.m.! After that, I eliminated the dream feed altogether and it’s been amazing! I didn’t realize how much waiting for that last feeding was weighing on me since I couldn’t go to bed early or enjoy a glass of wine or two before bed knowing I had another nursing session waiting for me. Chase basically eased me into dropping the dream feed which was such a blessing since I really wasn’t sure how to go about it myself. Thanks, bud!
Though things can obviously change day-to-day, Chase generally goes to bed close to 7 p.m. and wakes to nurse around 5:30 or 6 a.m. but will almost always go back to sleep until 7:30 a.m.-ish. It’s a big change for us and a welcomed one, as his extra sleep time in the morning allows me to sneak in some work first thing in the morning which is fantastic.
Chase is still really good about getting himself to sleep (thank goodness) and does well when I put him in his crib and walk out the door. He’ll typically babble, play with his Wubbanubs, bang on the sides of the crib and roll around for a while before falling asleep.
As far as naps are concerned, I feel very lucky that Chase seems to take two two-hour naps a day because that is the only way I am able to work from home with a 10-month-old at the moment. (I have no idea what I’m going to do when he drops a nap…) Chase’s morning nap is still his best nap. It usually occurs right around 9:30 a.m. and it’s the one I count on most to get anything work-related done. His afternoon nap is slightly more unpredictable (both the time and the length), but often happens around 2 p.m.
Eating
Oh the stress of eating!
At Chase’s 9-month pediatric visit, our doctor told us he was in the 1.5 percentile for weight (he was only 15 pounds, 10 ounces) which didn’t concern our doctor since Chase is following the same curve he’s been on all along since he was a smaller baby at birth (5 pounds, 10 ounces), but I’d be lying if I said his smaller size didn’t concern me. (It is SO easy to worry about everything when it comes to our babies, right!?)
I’m trying to remember our doctor’s positive words (he said Chase looked very healthy and truly wasn’t worried about his weight at all) and remember that Ryan was a 6-pound baby who was quite slim (up until college!) but it’s hard not to get in my head. I am currently following some of our doctor’s advice for increasing Chase’s calories and while I feel fortunate to never have had any issues with my milk supply, I’m continuing to breastfeed Chase regularly but also adding additional calories to his “real” food by increasing the oils and fats in his diet. Our pediatrician encouraged us to add more olive oil to his vegetables, meats and purees and give Chase whole milk yogurt with olive oil stirred in. Chase would still MUCH rather play than eat which is very frustrating (especially when it’s a battle we have to wage three times a day…), but we’ve already seen him put on weight faster since adding more oil to his diet which makes me feel much better!
Truth be told, for a while there the thought of no longer breastfeeding seemed impossible because Chase wasn’t eating nearly enough “real food” but I’m beginning to see his appetite change as he eats more real food and requires a little less breastmilk. For everyone who encouraged me to trust that it will all eventually work out and understand that babies will eat when they’re ready, I’m beginning to realize this is so, so true. It’s hard not to feel stressed out when I feel like I hear about so many babies who loooove meal time and cry when food is taken away and Chase is the exact opposite. He’d still be totally fine if we skipped meal times all together and kept nursing as his only form of nourishment, but I am finally seeing a small improvement in his eating and that’s a relief. It’s not dramatic, but even a tiny improvement feels like a victory over here, so I’ll take it!
Oh and as a follow up to last month’s feeding check-in, Chase is still all about the breast over the bottle when it comes to nursing. I have a few friends who are in the same boat with babies who all of the sudden refuse breastmilk from a bottle at this stage. What’s the deal!?
I’m also struggling a bit to get Chase to understand how to drink water out of a sippy cup. Any suggestions? He will occasionally get a sip or two out of the Lollacup or Munchkin 360 cup but can’t seem to understand how to really drink from a cup himself, so his water consumption at the moment is mostly limited to what he’ll drink out of a real cup that I hold up to his lips for him.
How Am I Doing?
I had a few of you request a “me” update since I haven’t really talked much about how I’m doing in Chase’s monthly updates in a while. I’m doing well! Better sleep for Chase means better sleep for me which is HUGE. I absolutely love being Chase’s mom and have so much fun with him every day.
I have to laugh because when I was pregnant, I thought for sure I’d have childcare arranged after a few months to help out a couple of days a week so I could get some solid work done but now, even at 10 months old, I am just not ready. Since Chase’s naps are still pretty solid, I can juggle working from home, though I feel like all I really have time to do it churn out a blog post every day which means a lot of the things I really want to do for the blog fall on the backburner, as do my emails (my inbox is truly horrifying) and other behind-the-scenes tasks like tracking expenses (the worst), etc. But it’s all worth it a thousand times over because I am so incredibly grateful to be able to juggle both working from home and staying at home with Chase.
One of the keys to my overall happiness with staying at home with Chase has been connecting with other moms in a similar stage of life and planning regular activities for Chase when he is awake. Not only is it great for Chase – he is now in a phase where he seems to get bored if we’re at home for too long – but it’s wonderful for me to have that social network of mom friends, too. For the most part, I try to get out of the house and and do something interactive with Chase every day, whether it be a play date with friends at a local park, swim lessons, Gymboree, etc.
Body After Baby
As you guys know, I never planned to do monthly “body after baby” recaps, mainly because it just wasn’t an interest of mine or a huge priority for me and I didn’t want to feel any pressure to lose weight or inches quickly. I wanted to let my body do what it wanted to do and focus on recovering and trying my best to live a healthy lifestyle while finding my way as a new mom. That seemed like enough for me!
All that being said, I stepped on the scale for the first time in a while this week and saw that I am back to my pre-baby weight. I gave myself plenty of time to get there and it seemed to happen naturally. The whole “nine months on, nine months off” thing rang true for me. I didn’t really put a huge emphasis on “losing the baby weight” and tried to keep my focus on working out for ME (it’s truly a release for me and something I love) and eating mostly healthy food as much as possible.
Breastfeeding didn’t dramatically zap my weight off (maybe a bit in the very beginning… but then it stalled for a few months) and, to be honest, I think it makes me eat more than I usually would because I can absolutely tell a difference in my appetite when Chase is going through a growth spurt. (It feels like I am going through a growth spurt, too!)
Ten months after baby, I am happy with where I am but know there’s always room for improvement. I’d love to focus on overall toning and taming the sugar beast (my sweet tooth is somethin’ fierce), so those are some goals I have in the back of my mind.
Physically I feel great in the gym again, which is wonderful and I hope to continue to work on my strength and get stronger in my workouts. When I’m able to make it to a boot camp class and utilize their childcare, the 45 minutes I spend sweating up a storm are often the only 45 minutes of the day where I feel like I am focusing on me and only me and that absolutely helps with my consistency. I love my boot camp and at home workouts and feel good about the fitness aspect of my life which has always been easier for me than keeping my diet (mostly) clean. Meal planning and meal prep are key for me for eating healthy throughout the week and I just need to continue to keep up with it!
Likes
- Clapping his hands
- Clicking his tongue
- Banging his hands on everything
- Activity (He needs constant stimulation and gets bored if we stay in one place/do one thing for too long)
- Gymboree classes
- Swim class
- Splashing in the bathtub or lake
- Watching Sadie
- Any kind of meat
- Yogurt
- Being outside
- Rolling around
Dislikes
- When you take something away from him
- Having his nose wiped
- Staying still for diaper changes
- Low voices
- Basically anything that lasts longer than 20 minutes
10 Month Baby Favorites
We’ve had some new discoveries this month that Chase seems to love and I’ve added them to this list that also includes some of our tried and true favorites that continue to be go-to items for Chase at ten months old. (I also removed some past favorites that Chase decided he was no longer into this month like his previously beloved activity jumper. Maybe they’ll make a comeback next month!?)
PLAY
- Tuffo Outdoor Water-Resistant Blanket
- Fisher Price Rock-A-Stack Ring Toy
- SpringWays Swim Float with Canopy
- Fisher Price Kick N Play Piano
- Fisher Price Rattle and Rock Maracas
- Baby Einstein Bendy Ball
- Jelly Strands Baby Teething Necklace
- Sesame Street Silly Sounds Remote
- Oball
- Baby Einstein Take Along Musical Toy
EAT
- Protective Floor Mat
- Chicco 360 Hook On High Chair
- NUK Mash and Serve Bowl
- Munchkin White Hot Infant Safety Spoons
- Lollacup
- Munchkin 360 Cup
SLEEP
Past Baby Updates
- Nine Months
- What I Wish I Knew Before My Baby Was Born
- Eight Months
- Seven Months
- Six Months
- Our First Sleep Training Experience
- Traveling With A Baby For The First Time
- Five Months
- Four Months
- Three Months
- Two Months
- And Then He Smiled
- Three Weeks
- The First 12 Days
- Q&A: All About Birth & Life With A New Baby
- Chase’s Birth Story: Part I, Part II
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Just wanted to give you some encouragement on the breastfeeding/food thing. I have twin boys who are newly 2, and I breastfed them both up to 20 months. Don’t get discouraged about Chase’s eating, he WILL eat food when he’s ready! My boys weren’t that interested in real food until they were about 15 months, and then they just took off, one could have cared less about breastfeeding a ton by that point, and the other had a hard time dropping feedings all the way to the end. All kids are different, and you are doing a great job giving Chase, and yourself, what you each need.
The same thing happened with naps, one NEEDED that morning nap, and the other didn’t, but I just did my best each day at trying to make it work for all of us.
Love your monthly updates. I am still sad about each passing month, but I also love each new stage and age too.
I have a 9 month old and she was doing horribly with a sippy cup, I wasn’t worried about it but everyone kept telling me to get a cup with a straw. I bout about 5 and none of them worked. Then I tried the nuk soft spout sippy cup and she had it down in a matter of minutes. She now prefers that to any other form of getting milk. She hates water….so everything is a work in process. Hope this helps!
http://www.amazon.com/NUK-Cars-Learner-5-Ounce-count/dp/B00GEF7LMA?ie=UTF8&keywords=nuk%20sippy%20cups&qid=1465333847&ref_=sr_1_4_s_it&s=baby-products&sr=1-4
Thank you!
As a speech therapist who works with feeding kiddos, I discourage sippy cup usage. It can cause tongue thrust in little ones (they put their tongue on the spout because it comes out to fast) which can lead to speech and even eating problems (as well as dental problems way down the road). I encourage using the cups with straws or the other cup you linked to Julie (the one where the water comes out the sides) or simply an open cup!
I am SO glad you said that about his weight. I just had my first little girl 3 months ago and shes in the “less than 3 percentile”. My doctor was totally NOT cool like yours, telling me I had to see an LC and making me freak out. Shes 3 months today at 10lbs 5 oz. Its so hard not to worry about as a mama, but its comforting knowing that you are there too!
It’s SO hard not to worry! My friend Brittany has an adorable little girl who is two now and is also still below the 3rd percentile for weight and she is so incredibly healthy and vibrant! Talking to her helped me feel at ease a lot! Her blog is ahealthysliceoflife.com if you want to check it out!! 🙂
i will! thank you!
BTW what high school did you play water polo for in High School? Im from FL too!
I actually went to high school in Illinois and played water polo for Fremd. I loved it!!
My son will be 11 months tomorrow and won’t eat solids at all! I don’t know what I’m going to do when he turns one! Every baby is different because my first enhaled food by this point.
I feel for you! The minimal food Chase eats isn’t nearly enough to compensate for skipping nursing sessions yet. I am not sure what we’re going to do when we’re supposed to stop nursing for his main source of nutrition. I’ll definitely have a LOT of questions for our pediatrician when that time comes.
I’ve been reading your blog for almost a year now! Started reading it when I was pregnant and would wait for your weekly updates and constantly refer back to them during my own pregnancy 🙂 And now I’m doing the same with your monthly Chase updates! He is such a cute little baby and so smiley. 🙂
Question for you – did you do anything specific to get him to nap well during the day? I’m amazed that you can leave him in the crib and walk away. Would love to know what you did to make that happen!
Hi Nrang! thank you so much for reading this past year!! 🙂 I’m not sure how old your little one is, but we saw the biggest change with being able to leave Chase in the crib to settle himself to sleep when he was able to grab his pacifier himself. That really was a huge turning point for us since he could self-soothe. Now it’s honestly to the point that Chase can’t seem to settle/fall asleep in my arms and HAS to be left alone to fall asleep because he thinks Mama = Playtime! It’s all such a process and different things definitely work for different babies. Sending hugs your way!
Thanks for sharing! Very helpful. 🙂
My baby is 3 months old now and loves being rocked to sleep and will only nap if I’m next to him. 🙂 I love it, but am going back to work in a few weeks and worried about him napping when I’m not around! I’m sure it will all be fine. 🙂 Just one more small thing to worry about.
Oh gosh right there with you with the small baby worry syndrome. My son Sully is about a month older then Chase and is small too, and I think what gets me most, is the comments people make ‘like ohh he’s 10 months, he’s soo small’ or one lady at costco asked me if he was 4 months old, I almost punched her in the throat, he was 6lbs 1 oz to begin so any weight is fine by me!! lol…it can be so tough not to worry though! My guy is a terrible food eater too….just so hard to find something he likes other then toast, pasta, bread, crackers and peanut butter…lol…I always try to remind myself it’s all for fun until one..it helps occasionally lol Know we are all in it together and you’re doing amazing!
Chase loves bread, too! Ha! Whenever I’m eating a roll or a sandwich or something, he loves gumming all over the bread. So funny!
Amazing lovely family. That little boy has so much love around him , it almost gives him a glow in the photos. Kudos to you mom & dad.
You can call Chase your baby forever! I just turned 20 and my mom still calls me her baby 😉
What a great and thorough update! I LOOOOOOVE that you gave us an update on yourself, and that you have such a great attitude towards body after baby, and I LOVE that you give people permission to not worry or feel obsessed about the number on the scale. It’s one of the many reasons I’ve loved your blog for years! Great role model for women AND moms! Thanks!
Thank you, Kim!! And yes, I feel like after Chase was born I had plenty of things to worry about without factoring in getting my body into top shape. I don’t think it’s bad for moms to want to lose the baby weight or anything like that at all, but for me I just knew sharing monthly updates would make me feel like I HAD to have progress to report and I didn’t want that pressure since there were many months where I felt like I wasn’t losing (and was even gaining!) so I just try to keep my focus on health and Chase’s wellbeing. Thank you for your sweet words!
Amen to all of that! And you’re welcome, it’s why I’ve loved your blog for years! I never miss a post! I lost a HUGE amount of weight over 15 years ago, and kept it off, and everyone was pressuring me to start a blog to give advice/talk about my experience, but I ended up never doing it. The reason? I didn’t want the pressure of people watching my waistline. I found I did much better (and felt much healthier) when I didn’t focus on numbers or measurements or worry about how I was perceived by others, but instead focused on my overall health. AND not having the pressure of the world (no matter how small the portion of that world would have been) watching my diet was a good thing for me. Less obsession = more success! Thanks for being beside me on my ongoing healthy journey! I make your recipes constantly!
Every time I read your monthly updates about Chase, I am so amazed at just how similar our babies are. I have an 11-month old little girl, but the small size, needing entertainment, breastfeeding, likes and dislikes – wow!!
With drinking water, Eleanor really loves water, which amazes us. It wasn’t until we got her a cup with an actual straw that she would drink it though. She didn’t like the sippy cups – maybe because it was harder to get much out. Also letting her eat stuff she really liked from the little fruit pouches helped her learn how to use a straw. Good luck!!
It’s always so nice to connect with other moms who have similar babies. Love that our little ones are so similar. 🙂 And I love the name Eleanor! So beautiful!
for the sippy cup, lots of babies refuse it. I’m a counselor for babies and nutrition, when they refuse the sippy cup we recommend trying a cup with a built in straw. the Mom’s are so thankful and then they usually say they just skip over the sippy cup stage and practice more and more from the regular cup (with assistance of course). 🙂 hope this helps!
Julie, can you do a Father’s Day gift guide? I am struggling! Haha.
sure!! 🙂 I’ll try to get one up next week!!
Hi Julie –
fellow first time mama here – quick question. I have noticed in pictures recently on snapchat / the blog you have been using a BOB stroller. How do you feel about this? Any chance you have used it at the beach? We’re heading to the shore for a week and I am curious if I should invest the $$$$ into getting a BOB to use on the sand. Thanks!
Hi Sarah!! I LOOOOVE the BOB!! I actually just received it to review on the blog and hope to do so soon (maybe at Chase’s 11 month update?) but it’s fantastic and I highly recommend it. Have you see the website Lucie’s List? It does a FANTASTIC job thoroughly reviewing strollers. I’d definitely check that out since it will likely cover your concerns. As for me, I love it because it’s SO lightweight, collapses easily and has tons of little pockets for all the ridiculous stuff you think you need on a simple walk with a baby haha! 🙂 I wish I could give you more insight about using it on the beach, but unfortunately I haven’t tried it on the sand… It does have fairly large rubber tires, so maybe it would work? I’m not sure from first hand experience though!
I have a Bob and took it to the beach last week–it did an amazing job! Totally worth the $$$ I also live on a gravel road and it does great when I run with it!
Julie – Thank you so much for the insight !! Can’t wait to read the review but from what I keep hearing about it, I believe I will be making the purchase! Laughed out loud at the comment about the amount of stuff needed for a walk. SO true! Two blankets, burp rags, rattles, teethers, stuffed animals… the list goes on and on!
Shannah- so great to hear about the beach! It is going to be a chore taking the baby to the beach so every little thing that will help is a necessity in my opinion!
Thanks for the reviews ladies!
Julie – Thank you so much for the insight !! Can’t wait to read the review but from what I keep hearing about it, I believe I will be making the purchase! Laughed out loud at the comment about the amount of stuff needed for a walk. SO true! Two blankets, burp rags, rattles, teethers, stuffed animals… the list goes on and on!
Shannah- so great to hear about the beach! It is going to be a chore taking the baby to the beach so every little thing that will help is a necessity in my opinion!
Thanks for the reviews ladies!
It sounds like you’ve gotten some great advice already about the sippy cup and food struggles. I’m in favor of straw cups to start with. The Zoli is how both my kids learned to drink out of a cup. Someone else mentioned taking a regular straw and getting some water in it with your finger as a stopper, then offering it to baby. That way they learn that they need to suck on the straw for liquid to come out. The other thing is to just let him have his cup a lot…every meal, in the stroller, etc. He’ll get it! I think you’re doing a combo of solids and purées, right? I might start offering fewer purées now and just do whole soft foods. My son was slow to really get into food, and even now at 19 months he is very small for his age. But around 9-10 months his appetite just took off, and self feeding became the norm. I’m sure you’re doing this, but we always found it helpful to sit and eat at the same time as the kids. It seemed to encourage them to eat more. Chase is so cute!
Hi Julie!
I love the baby posts, keep ’em coming! Chase is such a little cutie I can barely stand it!
I just wanted to let you know as well that I was scrolling through the blog today and came across the Blog Talk Tuesday posts. I was throwing around the idea of starting a blog myself forever, but re-reading your advise pushed me to finally JUST DO IT! I’m so excited and can’t wait to enter the blogger world!
Thank you for being such a great example!!
This means a lot! Thank you!! And I hope you LOVE blogging. 🙂
Hi Julie,
I love your blog! I followed along with you a while back and in the busyness of life it had been a while since I checked in. I was so happy to see you have a baby! My baby is the same age 🙂 (born 7/21/15, but his due date was your son’s birthday!) I love hearing about your life as a new mom! My son uses either the Lolla Cup or just drinks from a regular cup too. He got the hang of the straw by drinking/eating the pouches of purred fruit/yogurt from Plum Organics. Learning to suck the fruit out of that helped him figure out the straw thing, and now he loves to drink water from his cup. Thanks for sharing your life with us 🙂
Pamela
Love following you journey! I have a 3 yo and 1 yo and it’s been so fun to follow your journey as a second time mom with a new baby and remember all the things about the first time! I just want to say I think you are doing awesome!! As for sippy cups, skip them! Speech pathologists and Doctors that works with motor delays will tell you to go straight for the straw or real cup. Doidy cups (Amazon) and Innobaby Sippin for water when they’re learnings or thermos Foogo and basically the kid version of the contiguous water bottle. Those are my faves and they don’t leak! Lastly for Chase have you tried smoothies? It’s a great way to get him some fat and veggies and practice a straw cup. We swore by it and now even with the picky preschooler stage we never have to worry about him getting sufficient nutrients.
Oh my god I’m going out of my mind with worry and really need advice from other mums!
My daughter is 10 month old and point blank refuses any food I try give her!! She is only having around 18 ounce of formula a day too, if I tried giving her more she wouldn’t have it. She won’t drink any water AT ALL. I’ve tried so many different bottles and none of them she accepts at all!
When she was born she was 6 15 and has always been on the 2nd centile. She has slightly dipped under due to having tonsillitis and being unwell. But I’ve tried everything and she just won’t eat!! Or have much milk for that matter.
I know this is a quite old post but if anyone can help a mum out and reassure me or give me some advice.