Friday, June 18, 2010

6 Months

I thought it would be fun to make a list of the things B now knows how to do at 6 months. I still can't believe how there was a point in time when he couldn't do any of these things!

1. smile
2. giggle
3. pull my hair
4. reach for things
5. grasp objects
6. shake a rattle
7. activate toys by pushing buttons on toys
8. pull a string making his toys move
9. spin objects
10. feed himself a bottle
11. touch his toes
12. put his toes in his mouth
13. feed every 4 hours
14. splash in the bath
15. tummy time
16. push his chest completely off the floor
17. play peekaboo
18. hold a book
19. eat solids
20. sleep through the night
21. roll from his tummy onto his back
22. roll from his back onto his tummy
23. sit up unassisted
24. sit in a high-chair
25. stand for a few seconds while arms are holding onto something
26. squirm/wannabe half crawl

Just like many other first time moms, I was constantly worrying that B wasn't doing something and now in hindsight, many things have become second nature for him. All of those baby books list things that baby should be doing by a certain age, etc. In small print, it always says, "EVERY BABY IS DIFFERENT." Yaddi-yah. When B wasn't able to stay on his tummy for more than a few seconds at a time, I remember thinking that there might be something wrong with him. I worried about this, this, and that.

The best advice that my colleague gave me was to throw out all of the baby books I had. When she initially told me that, I have to admit...I thought to myself, "She's crazy!", but after finally taking her advice I can honestly say that I've calmed down so much. The only time I really think about these benchmarks is when B has his well-visits with the pediatrician. She's the one who can tell me whether or not he's developing appropriately or if he's lagging. I trust my pediatrician and I'll leave that to her.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Eating Solids



Our dinner routine was pretty consistent for a good chunk of time: I'd nurse B and let him digest for a while. Then, we put him in the jumperoo as we ate our dinner. At around the 4 month mark, however, B became increasingly interested in our meals.

Our pediatrician told us that we could start introducing solids to B at around 5.5 months, so that's what we did. We started him off on just a tbsp of rice cereal mixed with expressed milk. Since then, he's tried a few other things:

1. rice cereal
2. oatmeal
3. banana
4. avocado
5. sweet potato (the korean go-goo-mah, yellow flesh kind)
6. sweet potato (the orange flesh kind)

I'd always known that I wanted to make B's food. A girlfriend of mine gifted us Karmel's First Meals and I read it while I was pregnant, but I hadn't thought about it since he was born. After our pediatrician's visit, I quickly skimmed the beginning few chapters of the book to refresh my memory as to what infants can and cannot have and just started making purees using our food processor.

On this week's to-make menu are:
1. apples
2. pears
3. carrots
4. peas
5. cantelope

It is a lot simpler and cheaper than I had imagined! After making batches of different purees, I freeze them into ice trays with lids and then transfer them into ziploc baggies once frozen. When it's time to feed him, I just nuke a cube or two and let it cool down.



We use:
spoons from Sassy
and bowls from Munchkin
The hardest part for us has been trying to figure out how much B should be eating. At our 6 month well-visit, we were shocked when she told us that he wasn't eating enough for his age/weight!! (Have you seen our baby?) His increasing fussiness had been a result of hunger!!

While I was at work (up until yesterday), feeding on a typical day would look like this:
1. nurse at around 6 followed by 2tbsp of rice cereal or oatmeal with 1 cube of a fruit or veggie
2. 5oz bottle at around 10:00
3. 5oz bottle at around 2:00
4. nurse at around 5:00 followed by 2tbsp of rice cereal or oatmeal with 2 cubes of a fruit or veggie (We eat dinner after this feeding and have him continue sitting in his highchair as we eat.)
5. 4oz bottle at around 7:15

Now that I'm on summer vacation, we're in the process of figuring out a good routine. Hopefully it won't be too considerably different from what he's used to. Since I won't be giving him the daytime bottles anymore, I'll have to nurse him more frequently. Plus, we're trying to offer him solids three times a day. These things, in turn, will affect his daytime (or lack thereof) sleep too! Thank goodness babies are more flexible than you think!