Isla's 12 month update

Following my post on Isla turning one this last week, I thought I'd write a little bit about where she is now developmentally. We have been a bit concerned about her over the last few months, and particularly more so following her routine 9 month check, which flagged up an area of concern. There were no developmental issues that the health visitor could see, but she was concerned about the fact Isla had an extra roll or crease on one of her thighs. This was flagged up as a marker for developmental hip dysplasia. Queue me reading all about the condition on Google, convincing myself she did in fact have it, and then ending up in a mess because my little baby was almost certainly going to need a big operation and then at least three months with her leg in a cast. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Isla went to the hospital the other week for an examination and, following an examination and an x-ray, was found to have two healthy and perfect little hips. It was such a relief for us and was definitely the bit of good news we needed amongst all the bad news and setbacks we seem to have had thrown our way in recent weeks.

Isla can now say a whole host of recognisable words amongst the incessant, incoherent babble. She knows "dada", "mumma", "bubble", "dog", "there", "boo", "bear", "bird", "car" and "teddy." she greets her teddies (and sometimes the dog) with a big, fat squeeze and says "aaaaaaaaah." Isla can now and again blow us a kiss and she does this super-cute kissy face where she scrunches up her eyes and purses her lips. I keep trying to get a photo but fail miserably every time. She can clap and wave and pretend to go to sleep. Isla loves to sing and dance and she can't help but move to music from the radio or TV. She loves doing the actions to the music from "In the night garden" and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. 

Whilst Isla seems to be hitting all her other milestones, she hasn't been quite as quick to meet her physical ones. Quite frankly, I've been fed up of people asking "Isn't she crawling yet?" or telling me that she should be doing this and that by now or telling mr that their child is/was much younger when they learned to do x, y and z. When something like that is said to you, you always feels like it's a bit of a personal attack, like you haven't done enough to encourage your baby, like you haven't got them the right kind of toys, you haven't allowed them to practise the skills they need to be able to develop. This is, of course ridiculous and children do and will develop at their own pace, often regardless of any input you have. Yes, encouragement will speed things up but it won't  drastically speed up the time it takes for them to hit their milestones.

 Isla has spent some time in strength-developing contraptions but has, most of the time, been left to move around on the floor in whichever way she chose. Believe me I've tried everything the Internet/child-development literature suggests you try to encourage your baby to roll over, sit up unaided, stand, cruise, walk and it's still been to no avail. Sometimes you just have to accept that babies will do things when they are ready. It might take them longer than other babies and you might sit there at baby classes thinking "Why isn't my baby doing that yet?" and "What's wrong with my baby?" and obsessing over how old every baby/young child is that you see and how they compare to yours. It just does you no good whatsoever. 

It took Isla until 11 and a half months before she learnt to crawl 'properly.' But from that point, it only then took her a week to learn how to stand and cruise around the furniture - a lot quicker than we imagined. We still await those elusive first steps, but I don't think it will be long before we get to see them. I can't wait 'til she's running around after her big brother - he won't know what's hit him!