Climbing Tree

Dear Chaya,

You are eleven months old, and a very loved member of our family.

Just a few days after I wrote you last letter you started standing up on your own! Everyone is so excited for you. And it’s very exciting to see you take these next steps (literally and figuratively!), especially after all the work we’ve had to do getting you to reach your earlier milestones. But seriously, this was like over 20 seconds that you just stood there for, and we could hardly believe it. You’ve continued to do lots of standing over the next four weeks.

By the time I write this eleven month old letter though, you are not only just standing for a few seconds, but legit taking steps around the place!! It is beyond exciting to watch you do this, and you LOVE the attention when you take some steps.

You got your second tooth – right next to the first one. This tooth was another surprise attack, as I’ve been eyeing off your two top eye teeth thinking they should come through soon (they’re very bulgy), and I didn’t even feel any gum bumps where these first two teeth have come up!

We had Rosh Hashanah this month, and this is when you took 3 or 4 big steps on your own! You’ve been continuing to practice these every day since. Also on Rosh Hashanah you got chicken pox. Lior had them first a few weeks ago, and now you, Eli and Ahava have all got it at the same time. Thankfully you don’t seem too uncomfortable – just annoyed at all the creams and weedy pesto I try to smother over your spots to help you heal quicker. The itching only seems to bother you at night, and makes you wake up and moan and cry. The up side is that I realised that you sleep so well normally! We’d just fallen into good sleep with little to no wake up so naturally that I didn’t even think much of it (with the others it’s kind of a big deal, with me forcing them to stop feeding in the night or things like this). So Baruch HaShem, you sleep so well. This chicken pox sleep schedule is just a hiccup. Other than having spots on you and getting cranky at night when you should be sleeping, you don’t seem drowsy or “sick” at all. Though you have had some long day sleeps after all these restless nights…

We started you in cloth nappies this month, which is very exciting. Better late than never, right?! I gave you a break from them while you had the pox, because I didn’t want you to get any nappy rash or infections from moisture on the pox. We’re getting into a little groove with it all, but probably need to increase our stash a bit, as a fair few of the second hand ones we were given are newborn size.

Personality wise, you are definitely showing your strength these days CC. You pull things back from people if they’re taking something you’re holding, and you are very opinionated, even if it is mostly in grunts!

Your favourite game is pulling things off people’s heads, and you love to laugh when people rub their head into your belly and tickle you. You are also my potting up buddy, and love to get dirty! You hate baths, and don’t mind showers. You like to babel and explain things to people with your tongue sticking out and your noises not making sense. You love to be with Imma all the time, 24/7. You do not like to be put down on the ground anymore, and you wish you could watch the world from your little perch on my hip! You love screens. You’re not allowed to watch on them of course, but you still love to kit the keys on the keyboard and touch the phone or iPad and see things change. You make your presence known, and it seems the lasting effect of the chicken pox is in making your squeal more frequently (not ideal!). Hopefully that one wears off…!

CC, my chooch, my baby doll, my precious one. Oh how I love you. Oh how I to hold your hand at night, and cuddle next to you when we sleep. Oh how I love your laugh and your smile, and even your crying face. I love every part of you, and hold onto every part of you. I love you Sunshine.

Love Imma.

Dear Chaya,

My sweet girl, what joy you bring. It’s been so interesting to watch you develop this last month, and change from being happy to hug anyone, to just sticking to the people you know. Even Grandma and Pa doesn’t get an automatic hug! I guess it’s just part of your development and being aware of the big wide world all around you. What’s been most interesting is to see the two sides of CC – the way you act and play when you’re at home with me, and the way you act and play when there are other people around.

In the last month you have attended a Bar Mitzvah, started going to playgroup with me and Ahava, worked hard on pushing some teeth through (though they’re not through yet!), slept well some nights and not well the others! Oh, and you’re started to try and stand on your own a bit too!

Earlier this month your sleep was absolutely bonkers. We were waking up more than 6 times in a night, and it was a complete mystery as to what was wrong! We worked out that part of it was teeth – oh how they bothered you, and having some nurofen on really bad nights helped, and just bonjela on the other nights. There were some very big bulges of teeth, and some other tell tail signs of teething in your nappy…

But still, this didn’t explain everything with the bad sleep. You would squirm and wiggle and seem to be in pain, but you didn’t have gas. I wondered if this was still the formula bothering you, and being a bit hard to digest so I started adding some probiotics to each bottle. It took a few days, but it did the trick and you started more or less sleeping through, even on nights when we were sure you were still teething. Halleyuliah (but also not, because formula is expensive enough without having to buy a bottle of probiotics to go with it!).

I even tried at one point in the month to start expressing again, to add to your formula to make it easier to digest, but this wasn’t possible. I mean, physically I was making progress, but it would take a very big commitment to do that properly and get back tony decent level, and I just didn’t have that in me anymore. So probiotics it is and that seems to have done the trick!

Sleep wise you are also not so reliant on the dummy anymore during the night. You still like it to go to sleep, but even then, if it was bedtime and we were in the dark bedroom I wouldn’t feel completely hopeless about getting you to sleep!

My Uncle died this month and we were to his funeral. Not so important to you I guess, but it’s one of those things to record in your first year.

You like to play with Yacov Yoseph, who is about your age. He’s probably the only other baby you really see! You also love to try and climb up things! This month you learnt how to climb safely off the couch by sliding onto your tummy and then pushing yourself back. Clever girl! You’ve started having some little tantrums where starfish all over the ground and cry and cry. I hate to tell you, but it’s a bit cute. But you also make your point down there! I see a little bit of drama queen in you. You like to scream at the top of your lungs when anything touches or brushes past you in a way you don’t like!

You are so keen to give smiles, and even giggle. This month you have really loved looking and interacting with Eli. He is so gentle and kind with you, but doesn’t try to touch you too much or carry you around, and I think that’s why you’re so appreciative of him at the moment!

You are the sweetest girl, and I am loving spending my days with you on my hip, pottering around the house or visiting friends. You’re my little buddy, and I love you Chaya.

Love, Imma

Dear Chaya,

Hello my little choochala! My happy, smiley, friendly, snuggly girl.

What a month! Since we put you on the bottle we’ve noticed you have more energy and “life” about you. You’ve also gained a ton of weight, and started making some big progress towards your milestones. It’s been a funny thing – putting you on the bottle – it’s been so emotional and hard, and we’ve just had to fumble out way through it, but I can’t deny that there have been benefits – like you suddenly growing more! I wish things were different for us, so badly, but it’s not the way of it .

We saw the allergist this month and it turns out that the allergies you had when you were younger are just intolerances. You were so brave for the skin prick test – you watched the doctor do it without any tears! He said you can be having all food to a certain degree, but my gut instinct is no. Even so, I started giving you more and more gluten because it’s easy and he said it would be fine. But guess what, it wasn’t fine. I realised now that he didn’t even actually test gluten on your skin prick test for some reason, which is unfortunate. You were sleeping horribly. Like seriously, SO horribly. We were just at a total loss as to what to do with you or how to make it better. Nurofen wasn’t helping, teething gel wasn’t helping… it didn’t matter if I fed you just before you went to sleep, or an hour before. Tummy presses kinda helped, and you did get some farts out that way, so I had a realisation that the thing I’d changed recently was adding in gluten! So we took that out again completely and within a few days you had dramatically improved! It’s probably not an allergy, but your gut is obviously sensitive, and it isn’t handling gluten well. Things aren’t perfect, but they are better!

I had a second light bulb moment to realise that the only other big change I’d made to your diet recently was removing all the breastmilk. Previously this was about 75% of your diet, and I just weaned you off that in less than a week. So I’ve started using some of the stored donated breastmilk to each bottle just to try and start the digestion process (apparently that’s a thing with breastmilk and formula mixes. Who knew?!). It’s going well so far, though I have to give you a little break because you might remember that there are things this mama ate that you don’t like so much (probably gluten!), so it’s good for a few days, then we need to take a break. I need a bit of a better plan!

You are crawling everywhere! At first it was getting up on those hands and knees, but it quickly turned into proper crawling. Mazel Tov! How exciting for you! And I am not in the least bit sad about it, because I feel like this probably should have happened ages ago, and that you WANTED it to happen ages ago, and were ready for it, but your low muscle tone just got in the way. So after all that effort and exercise and whatnot you can do it! It’s almost as much of a congratulations to me for the work I put in as it is for you! What a great team we make Chaya. 🙂

We moved house this month. Away from your house and city of birth and back to, well, mine. Ha! It’s been a super emotional time for all of us, and sad to say goodbye to our home of 3 years, but we’re moving forward and following the green man.

At nine months you are smiley, friendly, inquisitive, and cuddly. I love getting your cuddles each night and for naps in the day. You are a precious soul Chaya Sefira, and I love you.

Mama

Dear Chaya, what a ride.

The biggest thing that happened this month is that we stopped breastfeeding. Easily the most heartbreaking and difficult thing I have ever had to do in any setting, but especially as a mother. I can hardly even go into the details here now, because it’s still so raw. The short story is that the structural problems in your mouth, combined with the low muscle tone are too great, and the fact of the matter is you are physically not able to breastfeed. Of course this is heartbreaking for me because I LOVE breastfeeding, and I know all the benefits of breastmilk. I can honestly say that I have worked tirelessly to make this work, and that if someone such as myself has given up on this, then it must be serious.

You have been army crawling around like a wild thing – really making progress this month so that you’re getting all the way through a room, and also loving pulling yourself up on things!

We had Shavuot this month and celebrated at home because of COVID.

This month you had lots of appointments with various people – chiro, lactation consultant, dentist… before you had your last breastfeed on the 13th of June. I still had some breastmilk stored in the fridge, so you had some of that for a few more days after that in the bottle.

You and I are getting used to have our 3 days a week just us at home again, now that all the big kids are back at school/kindy. It’s nice to relax a bit and do some one on one things with you! You love to play games, and we realised you liked bashing the jenga blocks together, so we got the duple out for you. I also bought you a little piano like Lior had when he was a baby, and you love to give that a little hit and play some music for us.

You are laughing a lot more this month, and sleeping well (only while being held of course!). Your favourite thing is to pull anything you can off people’s heads, which in our family is fairly problematic because I’ve got a tichel on, and the boys all have kipper on. Only Ahava is safe in theory, but in reality, you just give her hair a big tug!

I love you to the moon and back Chaya. You are my sunshine, and my rain. Sometimes I think about what our family would like if we didn’t have you in it, and I can honestly say it wouldn’t be as good. You have added so much love and kindness to our family, and we are all completely in love with you!

Love Mama