Gloria in Excelsis Deo: David Turns One!

Happy First Birthday, David James!

It's hard to believe a year has passed since one of my more unusual delivery stories, in which my blood pressure spiked dangerously high and I checked myself in to a hospital (after four home deliveries) for a cold induction (and first epidural!) of my sixth baby, while my husband drove back home with the van full of kids until he could find a babysitter. (Click here for a trip down memory lane.)

That first year of a baby's life is always so crazy around here, as I take months before I'm even back to going out of the house or running errands. Of course, I did manage to resume homeschooling at 11 days postpartum!

David is a darling boy and we're all mad for him. His older siblings all fight to take care of him.

His sleep routine is steady, which makes my life so much easier, with a 9:00 a.m. nap that I try to cap at 45 minutes, and then a nap at 1:00 (simultaneously with the three-year-old) that lasts one and a half to two hours. He desperately wants to be tucked in at 7:00 p.m., and his most variable part of sleep is waking up anywhere between 5:00 and 6:30 a.m. Of course, he sleeps overnight like a cosleeping, breastfeeding baby, but this mama doesn't mind, as those wakings are the only alone time I get with this precious soul.

Almost all of David's calories still come from nursing--and he weighs about 22 pounds--but, after almost three months of occupational feeding therapy, this little guy has begun swallowing food! He still won't tolerate any purees or being spoon fed, but he "requests" food urgently and loves to self-feed. Just in the last month, he has begun swallowing bits of food instead of just moving it around his mouth until pushing it out of his mouth. He is consuming some small amount of solids (maybe a cumulative couple of teaspoons?) at all our meals now, and I feel hope that he's on a good path to eating.

Eating sausage link and waffle

He's a happy guy who zooms around after his gang of siblings and wants to be in the mix of action. David says "Mama" very clearly with intention, "Dada," and "Na na!," which may actually be him saying No unusually early.

David is taking steps now--one and two consecutive steps multiple times per day--so I envision he'll be truly walking within a month. He's been going up stairs for many months, and within the last couple of weeks learned how to descend steps.