Celebrating my babies 1st birthday and 12 months of breastfeeding!

How is it possible I have an 12 month old baby…child?! Where has my newborn gone? I swear she was here just a minute ago and then I blinked!

This past year has been the best year of my life because I have gotten to watch my beautiful baby develop and change into a proper little girl. There truly are no words to describe just how much love I have for her. Who knew life could be this tiring, difficult, exciting and wonderful all at the same time. Every second with her is a second to treasure.

Not only does a year mark my daughter’s age but also a milestone for our breastfeeding journey! I am incredibly proud and happy that we have made it to a year, as breastfeeding is something that I was really looking forward to before she arrived. I knew that it wasn’t easy for everyone but hoped it would work for us and it did. I have been very lucky not to experience any cracked nipples etc that people can suffer from and although I get blocked ducts very easily, I have so far managed to resolve them myself.

We decided that since she wouldn’t remember her first birthday, we would keep it low key as there will be plenty of future birthdays to throw huge parties for! We instead took her to a soft play centre where mummy, daddy and baby had great fun! She just loved the whole experience and we enjoyed watching how happy she was exploring.

Afterwards we had a small afternoon tea with a few extended family members who had wanted to pop in with gifts. She was a very lucky girl and got a lot of lovely toys. I made her a (refined) sugar free cake which she absolutely loved! In fact not only did she love eating it but she also loved smearing it all over her face, head and clothes! We actually had to bath her straight away as there are not enough baby wipes in the world to have cleaned her up!

It so happens her birthday coincides with another family member so a larger party went out for dinner to celebrate both birthdays. A formal dinner probably isn’t the way most families finish their child’s first birthday but it truly was a great finish to a super day. The staff were so kind and neighboring tables engaged with our daughter which made the atmosphere completely relaxed.

I couldn’t be happier with how her first birthday went. We had such a wonderful day as a family with so much laughter and love; celebrating the most awesome little one year old around!

Wife and mother, x