Leap 10: the last one

Picture this, a new mom struggling with an infant who wouldn’t settle for anything, lots of crying, and a mental breakdown on the verge of going down. I reached out on Facebook to my friends to see if there was anyone else dealing with a fussy baby. One post changed the game for me, “Did you look into your Wonder Weeks age group on Facebook?” And that is how I got started with The Wonder Weeks. 

As a pediatric nurse who helps new moms every single day, you would have thought I would have heard about The Wonder Weeks before I had my own child. That is far from the truth though. I am still educating people in my office about it and my little one is 17 months old now. 

I could write a novel on what The Wonder Weeks has done for me and my family, but I want to shed some light on Leap 10 specifically. Logged on to my app about a month ago to check in with where he was in his leaps. Because we were having such a good time with him and his new skills that I was thinking, “there has to be something that is coming up!” Don’t you know it, leap 10 was just about 5 days away!

I actually got a little sentimental about this being the “last leap” in the app and that it meant I don’t have a little baby anymore, but a full blown (almost) toddler. Now that we are in the full swings of Leap 10, I can officially say that all the sentimental feelings are LONG gone. And I am ready to move on from this leap. 

It’s a beast

Leap 10 is a beast; I would say it may be the worst. It’s a very challenging time in our little one’s life around this leap. They are learning a lot more independence and a lot of physical skills and with those new skills comes tantrums and sleep regressions. We hit our worst storm cloud as of yet, which lasted a few days and oh my goodness… I thought I was going to lose my mind.

Had I not known about The Wonder Weeks and all of these time developmental leaps in my son’s life, then I would have felt almost mentally unstable. I actually want to give THAT much credit to The Wonder Weeks. Knowledge is bliss when it comes to developmental leaps. To have the foreknowledge that my child is going through big changes and isn’t just acting out for no reason is very calming. Knowing that this too shall pass has helped my husband and I in raising our child. 

The app that you can download was a beautiful tool to be able to have at my fingertips. If my little guy was having an extra challenging day or even a couple of days, I could pull out the app and look to see where he was on his leap chart. The app is beautifully laid out and easy to understand. Even my husband would ask, “is he in a storm cloud?” and I would inwardly smile because I knew he was using the chart as well.

The Wonder Weeks – Official Talk Group

If you are even the least bit interested in learning more about The Wonder Weeks, then I suggest getting into your Facebook Wonder Weeks group for your child’s age and looking in to the app. I am telling you that as a pediatric nurse who has mom’s call our office almost daily about their little ones being fussy for no apparent reason (meaning they do not have any sickness symptoms, teething,  etc. ) then I suggest to them about learning what developmental leap they may be going through.

Now that we are almost closing out our time with The Wonder Weeks, I can only hope that going into the toddler years will be just a smooth knowing I helped him through those huge leaps as a baby.

AskNurseLauren was created to give new moms tips and tricks from a pediatric nurse to help get through those early years with young children. It was also created to write reviews on products for those new moms to get an honest opinion. The Wonder Weeks was one I could NOT wait to get to typing about.

– Lauren Herren

If your curiosity has been sparked and you want to know all about the 10 leaps, the fussy phases, and all the accompanying skills, download our app now!