Baby Led Weaning:Our Choice

Les and I have really been debating about this solid business. I got the book "baby led weaning" and I still feel that this is just right for us. However, after visitng with the doctor last week Les has some reservations. Our doctor's main concerns are allergies and choking. Well as far as allergies go, we are not introducing highly allergic foods and there are zero food allergies in any family. However, Les is Logan's daddy too and so I agreed we would move forward with the purees I made, a new one every 3 days for at least a month. And so we started first we sweet potato and then avocado which went, well like this....



He HATES it, he hates when I try to feed him, he hates the texture (I am convinced) he screams and fights. Is that how a baby should be fed? Is that the type of relationship I want him to develop with food?

And then he started doing this....not sure if you can tell but he is standing on the foot rest, arching his back, in this particular photo his jaw is clamped shut, although I assure you there is screaming involved. Its like he is trying to escape the torture.

The only way to get him to eat "mush" is to just give him the bowl and spoon, it gets pretty messy but he does eat some of it.

He tries pretty hard to get the spoon in his mouth too! Its pretty darn cute, in my opinion!

Les and I still debated a bit, still both wanting to make the best decision for L. This is until he full on choked on some mush. When I tried table food we had no choking, a little gagging but nothing as scary as the much incident. And the screaming and fighting I can't do. And so we have decided BLW it is, and I am glad it just feels right. I am not sure we will always be 100% BLW I am sure he will get some purees, he does like apples and pears etc, and I am sure when we are eating eat I will help him eat more then you are supposed to.

And so we have taken a step forward with BLW and trusting our own instincts, well mine anyways....

The first thing I presented him with was a piece of apple and a chunk of banana. He mushed up the banana and maybe even ate a little. And then he banged the apple up a little before giving it a good suck.

Up next was some broccoli, now this was a hit! He knew just what to do what it. And despite his sweet toothless littel mouth he bite and chewed the super soft pieces before swallowing them!

Look mom! One hand! He liked the top "tree" parts best!

And then since we were havign spaghetti squash for dinner, so did Logan! Along with some sliced avocado.

HE still gets a little mixed up with which part of his hand to get in his mouth, be I assure some did make it in him!

I think he's even working on his pincher grasp! Still aways to go with it, but I am confident BLW will help!

No tears until he let us know he was done! It was fun to play and eat and explore!

I think he preferred teh squash, however the avocados went over much better this way then as a puree!

I feel like in this photo he is saying "Thanks mom"

I still have reading to do but for now we are limiting his food to soft cooked veggies & fruit. I don't feel like he is ready for much more, maybe in a month or so. I will keep a record of how this all goes!

He just loves water. He does pretty good with a sippy cup but much prefers a big boy cup. Of cousre he needs our help and dribbles a bit but he really does well with it!

Sleep as we knew it

Just look at how sweet and peaceful L is when he sleeps! I would love to see more of this!

It seems that the sleep we used to have was just s trick, or maybe a phase....whatever it was I would like it back! Logan has always been a pretty good sleeper, I am really hoping something has been "off" these last few days that is causing all this unusual trouble!

In the beginning we coslept, this wasn't the plan, but it happened and it worked for us. I loved it. At 7/8 weeks we started a slow transition to hsi room, he was just ready for a bedtime. We initiated our routine and he started goign down drowsy but awake. For the first few weeks he would come back in our bed after his first feed. Then I realized that I was trying to nurse him while he was sleeping, in reaction to a noise he made. Slowly his night feeds got further apart, and so he was in his room all night long.

Just before 4 months Logan gave me 3 weeks of sleeping thru the night, and then the 4 month wakeful hit...and awake we were. He was waking a ton, I think 9-11 times was our highest count, but still *most nights he woke, nursed and immediatley went back to sleep. After that tough period we got back into a routine of him typically waking 2-3 times a night, generally he goes down between 7 & 8:30 pm, sometimes he wakes to nurse at 11pm, then 2:30, then 6 then up for the day between 8 & 9...many nights he skipped wither the 11 or 2 am feed. He didn't STTN and I was OK with that. at 6 he would come in our bed and nurse and sleep for a few more hours.

This past week something has changed....L has decided the best place to sleep is in my arms. Now he has felt this way about naps for sometime, we still need major help in that area. However at night, that is a different story. I think maybe part of the problem is that the little bum is so sleepy I am not always making it to drowsy but awake, he falls asleep to fast. His routine has also been a bit off. He just wakes up screaming, freaking out, nothign calms him except me picking him up (and I mean ME, not his daddy, if Les picks him up he screams louder). As soon as he is in my arms he smiles at me and snuggles into my bossom and is asleep. It melts my heart, but I can't handle this.

I tried a slight CIO going in soothing without picking him up, going in every 2 minutes etc. He cried so hard he started choking and then I lost it. And so for the last few ngihts I have been going to bed with him and letting him sleep with us all night. I am not totally against cosleeping, I just feel like starting it back up at 6 months is a step backwards. Yet my heart is torn because if something is wrong and he needs his momma I want to be there. I am going to get the No Cry Sleep Solution Book and try for some tips. I am not saying I never want him in our bed occasional nights are more then welcome its just that none of us sleep very well while he is in there, especially me, since he wants me to cradle him all night....

Then again he had his shots this week, and we are starting solids and he has a little cold. SO maybe things will settle on their own, a girl can hope right? Tonight, although he went to bed late I put him in his crib dorwsy but awake. Actually tired but awake. ANd he fussed for like 2 minutes then played with his lovey a bit and fell asleep...that was 2 hours ago, mayeb we are our way back to sleep as we knew it (gotta go find soem wood to knock now....)

6 months old!

Logan you are 6 months old! I just can't believe that 1/2 a year has gone by since you changed my life. In just the same amount of time we will be celebrating your first birthday, this is surreal. Your daddy brought you home a tiny cake that said Happy Half Birthday, we took your picture with it, and boy did you want some! You dove for it! You sure are your momma's boy! Of course we didn't let you have any but we sure did enjoy it for you!

You are getting so big! You weigh 17.1 lbs (50th percentile) and you measure 25.5" (10th percentile). Daddy is a little worried that you are going to be short! Mommy doesn't care either way, I think you are just perfect!

You wear size 3 diapers and you are mostly in size 6 & 6-9 month clothes.

You are such a sweet and happy little boy, your smiles are the best!

We think you are pretty smart too, in the last little while you have really been mimicking us! You have started to sign "all done" but just when you are finished nursing. You also do high-five, and lots of funny mouth movements with your tongue too!

You just started giving kisses, mostly to momma but sometimes for daddy, you put your sweet little hands on my face and then kiss my mouth, but you open your mouth wide to do so, so its one big drooly mess, I love it.

You aren't crawling yet but it seems like you want too, you just get so frusturated! You can roll both ways now and you are much happier on your belly now. You can move around pretty good on your back you push your little feet into the ground and move sideways and backwards. When you are on your belly you can turn in circles.

You aren't the best sleeper. You used to sleep so well! You still go to bed pretty well usually around 7:30-8:30 and you LOVE your seahorse Sammie. You still wake up at least once but usually twice a night to nurse, every now and then you surprise mommy tho and sleep longer.

We started you on cereal and while you liked it at first in the beginning you started to not like it but now you are doing better with it. we have also tried a few other things and you seem to like it! But you are very independent and really just want to feed yourself!

This past week you have found your feet and you seem to love playing with them, holding them and putting them in your mouth, its so cute!

You are starting to be very vocal, you make lots of cute noises and most receantly you started making this super high pitched noise thats actually hard to hear!

You still love bath time and love swimming as well! We hope to start you in lessons soon!

You have really started to take an interest in your toys! You love to chew on and snuggle Mr Monkey and you are a big fan of Sophie, the winkle, and your infantino bugs & blocks.

You still really like your exersaucer and you jump like a mad man in your jumperoo.

You take a bottle well and often get some formula before bed but you still love nursing and snuggling momma!

We love you so much baby bear, we are sad to see you grow but so excited to see all that is to come!

Food for thought

With the 6 month mark looming (tomorrow!!) solids have been on my mind of late. I fully intended on delayign any solids at all and EBF for the full 6 months, however just after 5 months L was really showing signs of being ready and so we offered cereal. The plan on was to offer it once a day and he could eat or not, whichever. For a while he ate and gobbled it up, and then he decided he hated it completely. He opens his mouth with excitement, and as soon as he realizes what I have given him he gags and cries and then will not open again. And so for the last week I haven't even really been offering it. I firmly believe that food assocations start in infacy, I do nto want him to be force fed, to be made to finish his plate or to associate meal time with displeasure. This led me to doing a lot of reading.....

The first site that I came across was wholesomebabyfood, it is a plethera of knowledge. I liked what it said, I felt good about it. I decided I would make all of L's purees, I am not a big fan of commerical babyfoods anyways. I want him to move to new tastes quickly, I am hoping to nourish him and encourage him to have a broad palate. So one Sunday evening I went to work in preperation of this week.....

I steamed many my veggies, and even some fruit. While other fruit I baked, still some things I roasted. All of the "recipes" I followed were from wholesomebabyfoods. I saved the extra fluid...

And into the food processor it went, adding liquid as required to reach the right consistency...

And then into ice cube trays it went, once frozen I transfered my little cubes into labelled freezer bags, after just a few hours of work we ended up with sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, apples, peaches, pears and mango. I felt so proud and like I was doing what was best....

And then L started gagging and hating the cereal. I felt like I was forcing something, I questioned myself, is he ready? Yet he continued to be so interested in MY food. So I mashed some banana into his cereal, he did a bit better with it, but still he was reaching for the spoon, he wanted to do it himself. I left the bowl on his tray and he dug in, with is hands, I think he ate more that way then when I tried to spoon feed him....so again I started reading.

I had heard about baby-led weaning and didn't really think much about it, I thought it was weaning, not solids...so I did some reading here.

I like this theory, it feels right. Tonight, on the eve of L's 1/2 year birthday I gave him an offering of broccoli and he picked it up and nawed and sucked and did super well with it. Dr. Jack Newman reccomends a similar approach to solids. I am still breast feeding 6-8 times a day, some days only 5 tho. I am trying not to worry about my supply, he is acting satisified and nourished, he is active, alert & meeting his milestones. I have ordered the BLW book, and feel really good about this. Now my only slight concern is if our DR is OK with this. I really hope he is. Its awful that I am considering not even talking to him about this, I am so afraid he will shoot it down and then Les won't be OK with it.....I guess we will see what happend Monday!

I am trying hard to be a momma and not a nurse to not worry about the 4 day wait......there are no allergies in our families. I am still sticking to veggies and fruits and the already introduced cereals. I am avoiding the common allergens. I never realized how much stress something so small can cause one momma!

Do any of you do BLW or have any other info on it? I would be really curious. I plan on continuing to breastfeed for at least a year, thats when I go back to work (I am next to tears at the thoguht of that...). And at that point I would like to continue breastfeeding in the evenings and night time. Hopefully this all works out for us.

EDIT** I wanted to add a few other links I have found very informative on this BLW process, firs this blog has a ton of info, its just momma's trying otu the same thing and this blog is one momma's experience with her babe.

A bit of routine...

It wasn't all that long ago that I talked about L's routine, but its changed since then, everything is changing so quickly with him! With 6 months fast approaching I suspect it will change up again so I will talk about how we do things now, on a typical day (which is rare!).

Logan wakes up between 5 & 7am to nurse, he comes into our bed then and we all fall back asleep. We are up for the day between 8 & 9 am.

Logan is not hungry right away so we do playtime. He is rolling and doign much better with tummy time so he is pretty content to play with his toys while I get coffee & breakfast & make his cereal.
Around 9:30/10:00 am Logan gets his cereal, he eats 1-2 TBSP of rice cereal in the morning, his favourite part is drinking water from his sippy cup. This is my mom, feeding him here.

After cereal its nap time, sometimes he nurses a bit first but not typically. He sleep from about 10:15 to 11ish, usually 30-45 minutes. He sleeps best with someone (like daddy here!) or in my arms. Very rarely can I get him to nap in his crib.

After his nap we play and read stories for a bit. Around 12:00pm I have my lunch and Logan often gets a baby mum mum to keep him busy during that time, so I can eat a bit!

Around 12:30/1:00pm Logan nurses and has another nap. If we are home he usually only naps 30-45 minutes. Often in my arms or in our bed. We are working on this! If we are out and he is in the stroller or car he will nap and hour or two.

After his nap its playtime, and probably a little TV time too! He nurses again about 2:30 pm, although he has been skipping this or nursing less at this time lately!

Around 5pm Logan nurses again and an hour or so later around 6pm he eats his cereal. He usually makes a pretty big mess, he loves playing with his food and trying to feed himself.

After dinner he gets a bath right away, I mentioned he gets messy. He loves his bath and splashes and plays away! Its so cute, he's so happy in there!

After his bath we go int he nursery for a diaper, lotion/massage and fresh PJs, if he's too fidgety we get dressed in the livingroom. I put on in the night garden and he winds down by watching that & snuggling hsi lovey. While he is doing that I clean up his cereal mess & maybe work on dinner. After his show we read a few stories in the livingroom till he seems sleepy, then its off to bed. I read him "Good Night Moon" in the rocker, then dim the lights turn on his sound machine to Ocean AND turn on his lullabyes. He nurses and snuggles a bit, I sing a special song to him and say prayers over him and then lay him down with Monkey & Sammy the seahorse. Doesn't he look so peaceful? I love him more then words.

Thats our day, although most day s we have stuff going on we are still pretty much in this routine. He is so much fun!

My Water Baby

I have been a terrible blogger, once again. We went away on our first family trip last week & had an awesome time. Since then we have been busy with all of the winter activites I signed us up for, more about that soon!

We decided on a last minute trip to an indoor waterpark, Kalahari in Ohio. Its about 2 & 1/2 hours from here by car. We got a great deal & went with a friend of mine, her husband & their 3 year old. I was nervous as L has never been swimming and I thought if he didn't like it things would be rough. Well, he LOVED it! He is a little water baby!

Here are my two men! I love this photo, I think its one of the best pictures I have of the two of them. We drove an hour out of our way on the way home (which meant over 3 & 1/2 hours to get home!) just to go eat at the Cheesecake Factory. Let me tell you it was SO worth it. I would drive that far just to eat there is Les would let me! We had lettuce wraps, corn fritters & susage & cheese stuffed olives to share (oh my it was amazing!) and then of course the cheesecake...Les had white chocolate caramel macademia nut and I had red velvet (AWESOME! serisously). My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

We spent some time in the arcade workign hard to win Logan a keepsake (we should have just taken teh $$ to the gift shop but it was fun!). Logan was all snuggled in my ring sling, I LOVE that thing!

He fell asleep and was so cozy in there! I can't believe he still fits in there that way!Look at those little feet stickign out! melt my heart.

Isnt' he so cute!? I had to use the opportunity to dress him tropoical even tho it was just a pretend paradise!

Here is our little family on our first vacation. Logan did pretty well, if we could afford it I would head off some place tropical for real!

We brought the pack & play which Logan slept in for some of the night but he found the hotel bed much more comfy! les and I were looking forward to EACH sleeping in our own queen size bed and instead I had a bedmate afterall!

Look at that smile! I just love this little boy so much. Here he is at a lunchtime break in the room

My little fish fell asleep both days in my arms while we were tubeing on the lazy river. I just stayed on it and went around like 4 times. He was awake a few times when we went thru it and we went under a few waterfalls, he just laughed! He is hilarious.

Here's daddy and Logan, he was getting sleepy here. His swimsuit was SO cute, I forgot to get a pic of it without the life jacket, we are super safety freaks especially when it comes to water & carseats!

Daddy floating Logan in the water, he loved this so much, jsut kicked and floated! I can't wait to get him in swimming lessons!

Daddy tried to put him on a tube for pics and he wasn't a big fan at all! The tears were gone as soon as daddy picked him up tho!

Here he is floating away! He was in the pool for a long time on our full day there, from about 10am-5ish PM with a short lunch break. I just nursed right beside the pool I don't think anyone even noticed!

Momma & Logan in the wave pool. Notice how I strategically placed Logan in front of me to try and hide my awful body, which is certainly a work in progress, much progress is still needed.

haha I love this pic! Logan is ALWAYS picking things up with his feet, I think its hilarious.

Here is my happy little monkey playing before bed! These are two of his favourite toys, his winkle & his links

We had such a great time, it was a nice break and a nice family recharge it can be so hard in the day to day grind to appreciate one another and all of our many many blessings.

Show us your life-New Years Resolutions

In honour of this post here is a photo of L and I on New Year's Eve coming home super late from a fun family friendly party, he was such a trooper!

I have yet to sit and write out my resolutions, sure I have them in my head & I have even KINDA started to work at them, but maybe by writing them out I will be all that more committed. So since Kelly over at Kelly's Korner is sharing I thought I would too. Head over there and be inspred by some other's 2010 Goals!

1. Be a better wife and mommy. Although most days I think I am doing pretty good with the mommy part I have my days of frusturation. Its tough some days when I don't even get a shower because Logan will not let me put him down and then I feel burnt out, that makes me feel guilty. I want to try to have a better attitude. I can definetly work on my marriage. Les and I are still very much in love but this has been a tough year between the pregnancy, bedrest & adjusting to becoming parents.

2. Get on a budget. Although we are OK financially I feel like there is a ton of room for improvement. For both Les and I shopping is a bit of recreation and we spend a lot of money on stuff. Stuff we don't really need. We had to purchase a new vehicle and I am really hoping to return to work on a very part time basis. There are a lot of to-do's around the house too. I want to read Dave Ramsey's book and put us on a good budget!

3. Get healthy. This includes not only losing weight but living a healthier lifestyle all together. I want to cook healthy meals for our family instead of eating out so much. I also want us all to be active together. Les & I both have weight to lose, and we both come from over weight families we went to lay good foundations for Logan.

4. To pump twice a day and build up a freezer stash. I had a good stash but between my surgery & leaving L overnight with my mom its gone. I need to feel like i have back up.

Girls Weekend

I got brave and took Logan away for his first girls weekend. I figure he might as well get used to it! We just went for one night and we had a blast! It was so nice to have a little change of scenery! We left Saturday around noon, it was a 2 hour car ride. My friend drove and brought her 11 month old daughter, who is ADORABLE! Both babies were in the back and just kept looking at eachother! It was so cute! There was a 45 minute period where they both screamed and then took turns screaming, ugh it was brutal. We even pulled over and tried to calm them or nurse, no go they just did not want to be in the car!

Once we got there tho things went so good. Logan went down in his PNP in the guest room like a champ. I did have to rock him to sleep which we don't normally do but considering there was a party going on in the next room he did so good! There were 6 girls, only 2 of us are mommies so they other girls had fun playing with our little ones. I enjoyed some wine and board games and just had an awesome time. Logan woke at his usual 11pm, nursed and went right back to sleep, despite the loud laughter and fun going on just outside the door.

All went so smoothly until 1AM, about 1/2 an hour after I went to bed and I heard a fire alarm going off. We were staying on the 8th floor of an apartment building. I got up and woke up my friend who lives there, she thought maybe it was a test. In my gut I knew it wasn't. I opened the door to the hall and smelled smoke. She called one of our other friends who lives in the building. She told us that she heard the alarm & called 911, they told her there was a fire and we shoudl evacuate. Seriously the fear that gripped my chest was undescribable. I just kept thinking about L. We bundled up our babies so quickly and threw on coats and shoes and went down 8 flgihts of stairs in lightening time. The stairwell had more smoke in it. I was so scared but relieved when we made it to the bottom. The fire department came quickly. Apparently there was a kitchen fire on a floor a few below ours. It took close to an hour but once it was all secure we made our way back upstairs, except this time we took the elevator. Once we got back to the apartment the babies thought it was playtime, I mean their mommies just pulled them out of bed and took them outside afterall. After some nursing and a little "In the night garden" all was well.

The ride home was smoother both kiddies slept the entire way and mommies got soem nice chatting in. I hope to have more fun filled baby friendly weekends like this in the future. Not too many of our friends have little ones so this was a really nice treat for me. I love beign hoem with L but feel a little isolated at times, this was exactly what I needed.