How Avery is already 10 months is literally mind blowing to me. I really just cannot believe how fast time has gone by. It’s truly insane. I’m currently in the thick of planning Avery’s first birthday party so I thought I’d take some time to jot down what’s been going on in our little world.

I’m not a big fan of marking milestones or checking developmental boxes, working in medicine and having read wayyy too many baby books to be good for my mental health- I’ve been very much going with the flow and just trusting that Avery will grow and develop as she’s supposed too at her own rate. As long as she’s eating, gaining weight, and growing well, I’m truly not worried about much else. This mindset has really helped me over the past 10 months and Avery is thriving to say the least.

With that said, we do have a little Disney baby book for marking dates when she first did things, like wave, crawl, say “mama”, so I am writing down dates just as a little keepsake. I’ll summarize some fun things here, but like I said- I’m not a fan of the whole “my kid did this at 4 months, this by 6 months, etc” type of vibe. SO if you have a baby, please don’t compare yours to mine and just know that you’re doing a great job, every baby is different, and you should enjoy the time rather than worrying about some “developmental rate” that some scientist came up with years ago that will likely change next month anyway– case in point: my mom never swaddled me and let me sleep on my stomach as a baby, which according to every book I read pre-baby, was essentially an infant death wish. So there’s that.

Avery Updates

+ Avery started pureed foods at 6 months. She’s loving pears, peaches, and apples but is definitely not a fan of any type of baby meats so far. Green beans and carrots are also big winners!

+ First word was “mama” which warms my heart. We get a lot of “ba bas” and humming and are working on “da-da.”

+ Avery knows how to give kisses and LOVES crawling around kissing her stuffed animals.

+ Not quite sure about water, we give her about 4-6 oz per day now, if she’ll drink it, but usually she’d rather just play with the sippy cup instead of actually drinking anything.

+ LOVES grasping and feeding herself baby puffs, although she sometimes misses her mouth.

+ Can wave “hi” and point to things she wants to touch/see- which lately has been a Mickey Mouse balloon grandma got her at Disneyland last month that it still alive and well, LOL.

+ LOVES to crawl and pull herself up on furniture to stand. She used to love being in this bouncer we bought her but now she prefers to stand on her own in her walker and move around that way.

+ Still thumb sucking and has an affinity for little blankies she can hold at the same time.

+ Recognizes and loves certain stuffed animals more than others, which is SO funny to watch. She will sprint to her Nala stuffed animal from across the room if we move it, regardless of whatever one we plop next to her.

+ No teeth yet, but TONS of drool and constantly bites down on anything she can get her hands on. I’m expecting her to get like 2-3 teeth at once at this point.

+ Bath time is 8:00 pm and bedtime is 8:30 pm, I feed Avery to sleep in the rocking chair and then dad comes in to transfer her from my arms to her crib. She sleeps till around 9:00 am. Avery started sleeping through the night at 3.5 months and has been such a great overnight sleeper ever since- naps are always sporadic (see next point).

+ Still not a fan of a strict schedule and we mostly go off her cues to know when it’s time to put her down and let her sleep. She’s usually up around 4 hours before she starts to rub her eyes and suck her thumb- that’s when we know she’s ready for a nap.

+ LOVES books and pointing to characters.

+ LOVES to dance and listen to music- she has a few baby instruments and her favorites are a piano and little drum toy. Although with both, she’s found the button that automatically plays an entire song (as opposed to her hitting the keys and playing music herself), she’ll hit it and then bop her head up and down which is the cutest thing ever.

+ No TV/cartoons for baby yet.

Mom Updates

+ I have absolutely no shame in saying that I am LOVING this stage we’re in SO much more than the newborn stage. We could not get past those 3 months quick enough! I have a friend who’s advice will stick with me forever, when I was struggling with loving every moment of those first 3 months due to the lack of sleep, my own malnutrition, baby blues, healing from labor & delivery, hormones raging, etc- she told me listen, the first 3 months are about 1 thing only: survival. If you can do that, that’s about all you have to do. PREACH!

+ Mom guilt comes and goes, mainly because I LOVE being home with Avery but also love my job and sometimes feel torn that I shouldn’t enjoy my work as much as I do. But hey, I’m dealing with it and acknowledging that it’s there, and if I’m feeling fulfilled work wise, that makes me a better mom when I come home to my baby girl.

+ TMI- got my first postpartum period last week- so just 1 week shy of being 10 months postpartum and that was ROUGH.

+ Haven’t experienced any postpartum hair loss yet (thankfully).

+ Mentally, I honestly feel like I’m killing it most days. But I definitely chalk that up to the huge amount of support I have with Joey, friends, and family. It’s crazy, but since having Avery, there’s honestly so much less stress and worrying about everything else that isn’t her or my husband. I’m just a lot more focused on our unit and as long as we’re good, I don’t worry about much else.

+ Physically (and I hate writing this, but I know it’s something people worry/talk about- so we’ll go there for a second and then I hope you’ll read THIS post that I wrote about body acceptance after pregnancy), I officially weigh less than I did pre-baby. BUT pre-baby, I had a hell of a lot more muscle than I do now. I don’t do much weight training anymore and have mainly been running with Avery after work and then doing an at home yoga/pilates workout a couple days a week. So I’m probably the leanest I’ve ever been at this point. Maybe weight training is something I’ll get back into in the future, but if I can’t do it with a crawling baby running around, it’s probably not happening anytime soon (sorry squat rack).

Well, that’s about it for now! I hope everyone is ready for Halloween this weekend! I cannot wait to show ya’ll our costumes! We put in some real DIY work this year on ours!