Growing Baby, Growing Pains, and Growing Heart

This time last year I felt like a beached whale that could barely get around and gasping for air.  Yes, I was pregnant this time last year, with an enormous baby in my belly.  Most people looked at me as though they were uncertain if I was really pregnant, or I had a massive tumor protruding from my stomach.  No, I just got really big, and I’m still battling with trying to get the poundage down, but to no avail.  SIGH.

Anyway, this post really isn’t about me, I promise.  Today my daughter has turned 11 months old, and I can’t believe the time has flown by so fast!  She has come so far and is already running around, knows how to spin around when we’re playing, and mimics mommy putting on mom’s glasses, bracelet, and even mom’s badge holder thing walking around proudly.  It’s an amazing thing that a little human is developing a personality, but just can’t express everything desired.  That little girl pushes me to grow myself and the biggest part of me that grows is my heart.

Until recently, I haven’t had much problems raising my daughter; she’s always been a really easy baby to take care of.  I don’t mean to brag, but she’s awesome!  Then there was this weekend….I get tired just thinking about it…sick, and teething.  Enough said.  I’ve never experienced such feelings of desperation and not knowing what to do.  I’m assuming going through that is a rite of passage of being a parent, and now I feel like I’ve accomplished something really huge…sort of.

I can just imagine what it’s like growing up from infant to toddler since I have no memory of it, but my baby has displayed to me that it is HELL.  Yes, HELL.  I love all the cute clothes that are made for babies, and I got a cute outfit from @babypotential that she’s already growing out of.  I even got the bigger size because she’s very tall and really confuses me in sizes, but when she wore her outfit recently, it looks like she’s been doing some serious growing.  Seriously, the outfit certainly didn’t shrink, and we’ve only had it for a couple of months, and it still fits, but she seems to look like she will be outgrowing it soon.  No wonder she’s been wanting mom and dad to hold her close at night lately….in the rocking chair.  NOT good for mom’s and dad’s backs.

Now with the teething, she was in so much pain, she hardly wanted to eat the last few days.  I bought her orajel and some homeopathic teething tablets, but it wasn’t until today that I really saw them working.  I was skeptical at first, but if you have a teething baby that is refusing to eat or drink formula or have breast milk, I think you should try these tablets, and the orajel just for quick relief.  You can probably get the tablets in walgreen or wal-mart, or pretty much anywhere because I’ve seen them before.  After three days of hardly eating and refusing everything, baby finally had an appetite and can rest.

WHEW! I did it!  Not really, but I got through the roughest days of parenthood so far.  Thank goodness, because there were moments that I was feeling hopeless.  The whole time I was thinking, gee, I had to talk about how well my baby handles things, when literally within minutes, everything unraveled.  Screaming baby=No bueno.

With this 11-month mark, we are quickly approaching a 1 year birthday, and we can’t wait.  We’ve gone through one quickly growing baby, rough growing pains, and our hearts continue to grow for that little girl we call baby bear.

Good times.

~Hale Mom

Tagged as: @babypotential, baby 11 months, baby first year, baby vomit, babypotential.com, crying baby, crying infant, growing baby, growing heart, growing pains, homeopathic teething tablets, infant teething, orajel, rocking chair, screaming baby, teething babies, teething baby, teething baby won't eat, teething tablets, Wal-Mart, walgreens