One year on
Quentin @ 12 months Old
Our little boy Quentin has recently turned one. A huge milestone in his life so far.
I look back on our first 12 months with wonder. So much has happened!
He is now the proud owner of 12 pearly white teeth. He is happily crawling & cruising. He is both adventurous and daring. He Babbles away endlessly and happily eats whatever food we offer and has even started using his own fork & spoon.
Why am I writing this?
As a first time mum, I often wonder if I would have taken the advice from other mums, my own mum, or even health professionals, any differently if I knew then what I know now?
Thankfully We were able to make Informed decisions about the choices we made.
So many times we came close to ending our breastfeeding relationship; Especially when Quentin took to biting but we persevered and got over it!
It would have been easy to quit Baby-led weaning at the first gag, but Quentin wouldn’t tolerate being spoon-fed! Going with the Baby-led approach has worked really well for us.
Does he still wear Cloth nappies? Yes, he does. We love to proudly show them off with a complementary set of huggalugs or babylegs!! Admittedly we have had a few leaks, and hiccups with rashes whist hes been teething but I’m proud to say we’ve saved over 2,500 nappies from landfill since we started using cloth nappies when Quentin was 3 weeks old.
Do I still wear him? Yes, We still babywear, though I’m often now approached by people asking me if I find him heavy. People a generally less aware of him when they’re in a hurry and might walk into us. But he normally gets loads of attention from people when he’s at their height and he rewards them with one of his gorgeous cheeky smiles.
Are we still breastfeeding? Yes we are! albeit only a few times a day now, and since he turned one I also offer him Goats milk during the day to take the pressure off me to express during the day (I now work three days a week).
People are quiet surprised when I say we’re still breastfeeding, as it’s not as common as I would like it to be. But it works for us! I wouldn’t know what to do during the night if i didn’t nurse him back to sleep.
Are we still Baby-led Weaning? Yes, and we’re doing amazingly well. So much so Quentin joins in with all the family meals without ours going cold. I do find his eating abilities still attract attention from onlookers when we eat out in public, but for us his abilities are totally normal.
The childminder finds that his eating abilities make it much easier for her to just let him get on with it whist she tends to the other children in her care.
Would I do anything differently?
No, I wouldn’t do anything differently. I think if some of the decisions I’d made had been left to my hubby this time round would have been very different.
But with a little research and confidence I’ve been able to introduce not only to my hubby but to my family and friends some of the less mainstream methods of parenting; and in all honestly I wholly believe we have reaped the rewards from this!
