Sammy is One!

Sammy is one.  I can't believe it.  This year went by soooooo quickly, although I will admit that the 7.5 months of pumping weren't fantastic.  But I did it!  Like her brother, Sammy never had a single ounce of formula.  I'm very proud of my achievement.  I started mixing regular milk with breast milk around 11 months and once I saw she did fine with that, I started dropping the pumps at work.  Now I only nurse her in the morning and at night before bedtime (although I lately I find myself feeding her around 3 am to soothe her back to sleep).  I'm not sure when I plan to stop nursing her.  I think I'll let her decide.  Unlike with Ian, where I had to stop breastfeeding in order to get my period back so that I could start trying to have Sammy, there is no artificial stop point for nursing Sammy.  I'll do it as long as she's interested.  (And as a plus, 1 year later, I still don't have my period.  :-)  )

On Samantha's actual birthday (this past Wednesday), I had to pick her up early from day care because she had a fever (which went up to 103.3 by 5 pm!).  Poor thing.  She was like a rag doll in my arms.  With a little Motrin, she started to feel better and so I took the obligatory chair photos.  (It was pajama day at school, which is why she's wearing PJs).  This is how happy she is, even with a 102 fever!

She still had a fever the next day and so my husband stayed home with her.  He decided to have a little fun with her and took these photos.  If you look closely in these pictures, you can see the drool dripping from her face.  On top of having a cold, the poor little thing has THREE teeth cutting on top - the second tooth in the middle is coming through, as well as both incisors.  It's been a tough couple of nights for her.

And today, we celebrated her birthday for real with my in-laws.  My mother-in-law made an awesome chocolate cake.  Sammy didn't really like it (I think it was too sophisticated a taste for her).  But she adored the Hershey's kiss we gave her after trying the cake.

I love her so much.  I am the luckiest woman in the world that she is my daughter.