Ollie: 11 Months

I cannot believe that in less than one month Ollie will a year old. The baby days are very quickly coming to an end. It's bittersweet, I will miss my cuddly little baby but I'm looking forward to all the fun ways he will grow and develop as a toddler. 

I didn’t get around to doing a 10 month update for Ollie, so this is a look at how he has been doing over the past two months. Some of the pictures are from when we were still in Australia - I'm sure you can guess which ones by the amount of clothing Ollie is wearing!

Weight: 9.7kg (62nd percentile)
Height: 75cm (58th percentile)
Teeth: 8 (4 top and 4 bottom)

Ollie continues to stack on the weight! I can barely remember my tiny little 2.7kg baby boy from 11 months ago!

Sleeping and Eating

Ollie is still very much a routine baby. At 11 months his days pretty much look like this:

Wake up: Anytime between 7-8am. If he is not up by 8am we wake him up.

Milk feed: On waking I breastfeed him, although over the past month this has been more like a small starter for Ollie, and then I give him 180ml of formula. I think our breastfeeding days are nearly over.

Breakfast: About half an hour after his bottle - normally porridge with peanut butter toast or a banana.

Morning nap: Two hours after he wakes Ollie is ready for his first nap. He normally sleeps for two hours, almost to the minute! If he doesn’t wake up by 12pm we wake him up.

Lunch/Milk feed: Up until two days ago Ollie would have another 180ml bottle of formula after his nap. But we’ve recently switched to giving him lunch first, followed by a smaller bottle of formula about half an hour later. This way he eats a lot more food, which he needs as he approaches his first birthday.

Afternoon nap: Ollie is normally ready for his second nap two hours after waking from his first. I’ve tried to keep him awake longer, but this always seems to result in a short second nap. So we have stuck to two hours of awake time between naps for now. He normally sleeps another two hours for this nap and he is generally awake by 3:30/4pm. When Ollie was about 10.5 months we cut out his evening catnap. I’m amazed he kept his third nap that long but he seemed to need it up until that age.

Milk feed: We give him a small bottle (120ml) of formula and sometimes a small snack when he wakes up from his nap. I think we’ll cut this milk feed out soon.

Dinner: We usually give Ollie dinner around 5:30pm. I prefer having him eat with us as a family, but having dinner ready for everyone by that time is not always possible. And honestly it is a lot easier to feed Ollie by himself than when we are all trying to eat at the same time.

Bath: Ollie and Ella bath at the same time, once Ollie has eaten, and it’s one of my favourite times of day. They are both so happy splashing around in there together. Ella must be the first one to get in the bath - one of her 3-year-old arbitrary rules. 

Milk feed: Ollie has 180ml bottle of formula before bed. We then sometimes have time for a short play with Nannie and Grampie before starting his bedtime routine.

Bedtime: Our bedtime routine is to read two books and then sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He is really engaged in his books now. He likes to turn the pages and lift up flaps in pop up books. As soon as I start singing the lullaby he puts his two fingers in his mouth (his likes to suck on his fingers as a way to self-soothe) and puts his head on my shoulder for a cuddle. It is very lovely. He goes to bed without any fuss and is usually in bed by 7:30pm. Unless he is sick he sleeps through the night - and even when sick or teething it is rare for him to wake. He’s a tummy sleeper now. As soon as I put him down to sleep he starts trying to roll over, and almost every time we get him up from a sleep he’s lying on his tummy - sometimes upside down on the other side of the cot!

And that is pretty much a day in the life of Ollie. It’s great having him on such a predictable routine as you can plan around it, and it makes it easy for anyone to look after him. The only downside is that having only two hours of awake time between naps makes it difficult to take him anywhere further than the local park. I would like to have him nap in his pram more often, but as it has been so cold since we’ve been in Canada that hasn’t really been possible. I hope that as we move in to some warmer weather we can start doing that more often.

Play & Development

So the main story here is that Ollie is still not crawling. Everyday he seems like he is nearly there, but he just can’t seem to get the hang of it. He’s pretty frustrated by not being able to move.

Jumping is still one of Ollie’s favourite activities. He hardly ever sits still if you are holding him, instead you get a major arm workout lifting him up and down. He loves his jumperoo as well (and it gives us all a break).

Ollie is very playful lately. He will instigate a game of peekaboo by holding a piece of clothing over his face and then pulling it down. He loves it when you give him a surprised reaction and will do it over and over again.

Clapping and waving are new skills that Ollie has picked up over the past month. He also loves it when other people clap.

As I mentioned above Ollie’s main outing is to the park. He absolutely loves the swings now. He giggles the whole time.

I think Ollie tries to kiss us sometimes. He pulls you towards him, mouth wide open, planting his lips somewhere on your face. It’s so cute.

Ollie is pretty good at playing independently. He is often very happy going through a basket of toys on his own. He loves opening and closing drawers and cupboards. We have a cupboard full of plastic plates and bowls and he often sits there when we eat dinner, opening the door and pulling things off the shelves.

Ella and Ollie already have a typical sibling relationship. Ollie thinks she is hilarious, until she gets too close to him and then he gets annoyed, shrieking and looking around for someone to rescue him. Ella often wants to hold him, kiss him, give him is bottle, etc. But she tends to get overexcited when she plays with him and yells in his face or is too rough. I think most of the time it is unintentional, but you can definitely see moments of a jealous big sister. This is usually when she is trying to get our attention. Ollie has started trying to push her away when he's annoyed with her. I think he is looking forward to the day when he's bigger and can defend himself more!

Overall Ollie is a very happy baby and pretty easy to look after. When he's upset it is usually because of one of these four things:

• He's cutting a tooth
• He's frustrated that he can't crawl
• Ella is annoying him 
• We haven't given him his food fast enough

Next month Ollie turns one! We will be celebrating his first birthday in California, where we will be for my brother's wedding. Fun times ahead!