A's first experience with solids didn't go so well. First, I am not sure why we thought it would be a good idea to introduce them all informally on the bed, of all places. But I think it was just a combination of that and this new runny substance and why's my dad coming at me with this spoon. I think we may have made the rice cereal too soft, too. What a waste of breastmilk that meal was.
Anyway, so we gave it a break for another week before trying again. Then, I was in the kitchen preparing dinner or at least getting started and I decided to eat a banana. Ajay looked intently at my banana and then started squirming like he wanted my banana. So, I jumped at the opportunity and thought, "okay, let's try again" and so we did.
First, I just let him kind of suckle on the banana while I was holding it. He liked it. A LOT. A whole lot. So, then I mushed the banana and started feeding him that. Every time there was a pause between bites that was too long for his liking he would hit the tray with his right hand like saying, "more! more!"
He must have eaten a banana and a half the next day and boy you would know it, too. He was con-sti-pated. So constipated. Poor guy. So, we've put a halt on bananas and he only gets a very little bit as an occasional treat.
I remember when Ajay was first born he wore these tiny, tiny diapers that they give you in the hospital and he wore those for about the first 3 weeks, maybe a month. I don't know, just until we finally made our first trip to Costco. After that, he wore Kirkland brand 1-2 diapers. He's 6 months now and still fits pretty well in the 1-2's.
Every time we would go for our diaper buying trip, Arvind would do the calculation of A's weight and age to see if we would need to buy a box of 3's. Well, based on his weight, he's just not quite there yet. BUT, ever since he was about 4 months old he has been soaking the 1-2's during the overnight AND I think that may have been disturbing his sleep. So, about 2 weeks ago, I moved him into the size 3 diapers just for the overnight. They looked a little giant at first, but have worked like a charm for keeping my boy comfy and dry so he can get a good night's sleep.
So, I guess the whole point of the post is just to say, that a good rule of thumb for going up a size in diapers is not just taking weight into account, but how much your baby is soaking their current diapers, especially for the overnight. Who wants to sleep in urine?? Haha, I mean, I am sure it is all warm for the first minute but after that I'd be waking up, too!
Hey there, new mom! How's sleep these days? Oh, you probably don't remember what that is, do you? Well, here is a refresher. In the meantime, the main purpose of this post is to help you and your baby get more of it. At least a couple of hours anyway. So, the first two weeks, all the baby does is eat, sleep, poop. repeat. And for a brief moment in time, you think -- piece of cake, I can do this new mom thing. Then, week 3 hits and BAM! where's your sweet, sleepy baby. Gone. Or at least you think. But alas, there is hope and it's name is Swaddle! Below, I give a step-by-step guide to swaddling your baby. My little ham is 5 months and we still swaddle. He goes to sleep in less than 5 minutes every time. EVERY. TIME. So, I'm not sure how we are going to wean from swaddling. But that's another time, another post. Would you like to learn how to get your baby to sleep soundly in less than 5 minutes for naps and help him on his way to sleeping soundly through the night? Yes? YES!!
First things first. In order to have a successful swaddle, you need a large, sturdy blanket. At least 40x40 inches, but all the way up to 45x45 will do the trick. DO NOT use a muslin blanket. These blankets allow to much give and the result is a wriggly baby wiggling out of the swaddle and out of sleep.
Now this next item is very important...before beginning the swaddle make sure your baby is tired (or it is naptime or bedtime), diaper is changed, tummy is full (unless you plan to feed after wrapping) and baby is burped. Baby doesn't have to be calm, he can be crying -- the swaddling will actually help to calm him and you'll watch as he drifts happily into dreamland.
Without further adieu -- here's your guide to swaddling your baby.
1. Lay your large blanket on a flat surface (don't get all Dr. Karp on us, trying to wrap the baby in your lap. That's just showing off.) The floor or a bed work great!
2. Bring the top corner down, just so it is about parallel with the left and right corner.
3. Place the baby slightly off-center on the blanket with shoulders just below the folded top corner.
4. Bring the bottom corner up with your right hand and tuck the blanket under the baby's waist on each side. Make sure there is plenty of kick room for baby at the bottom.
5. Holding the baby's right arm down by his side with your left hand. Reach over and grab the top left corner of the blanket and bring it down across the baby's chest. Move your left hand on top of the blanket (holding the baby's arm by his side) and immediately tuck the blanket underneath the baby. Pull it snug by placing your left hand at the baby's waist and pulling the blanket from the top right corner.
6. After pulling the blanket snug, hold the baby's left arm down by his side with your left hand and bring the top right corner of the blanket down across the baby's chest with your right hand -- essentially, creating a V-neck at the top of the wrap. Now watch and read carefully, this next part is essential to a snug and unbreakable swaddle. This is your "good night's sleep"! We are going to create a pocket to hold the remaining fabric in the swaddle.
7. Keeping your right hand as seen in the picture above, take your left hand and grab the remaining fabric of the blanket. Left it up and over -- pull it tight.
8. After pulling the fabric tight, bring the slack around the baby and give it all one more tug. Baby likes it snug (the womb was very snug)
9. Finally, tuck the little tail into the pocket. Voila!
Now, you'll just need to pick the little lovebug up and cradle him, pat his little butt, give a pacifier (if you offer pacis) and he'll be out in less than 5 minutes! Adding a white noise machine will also help expedite the process.
And here's a recap photo montage of all the steps. Good luck!
You can get a good oversize blanket from Swaddle Designs (although their swaddle instructions are not as good, so better to ignore them and use this technique here) or Moms On Call .
I also did some digging around and found this video on YouTube -- remember the key is to pull TIGHT at every fold. You can do it!
Oh my goodness, how the time sure does fly! Little Man is almost five months old already and at his four month check-up our awesome pediatrician, Dr. Dixon, gave the go ahead to introduce solids. I don't know, I was somewhat melancholy with the news, but Arvind was very excited. Once I got over the notion of exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months, it did get exciting for me. In the grand scheme of things we are close enough, right? So anyway, we started solids last week. Here's how it all went down.
First, about two days before we were set to introduce rice cereal, I gave Ajay a spoon to play with (of course, supervised). He seemed to enjoy this new "toy".He took it from my hand and shoved it in his mouth. And then pulled it back out and looked at it again and then mouthed it some more. It was quite cute -- I'm not just saying that because I am his mom, either.
Then, we decided Mother's Day would be the big day. Arvind really wanted to be home for this event and I mean really, can you blame him? So on the big day, I fed him some of Momma's Finest and then we presented the cereal to him. At first, Ajay was really curious.He checked out the bowl and seemed to really be into this new experience.
But it didn't take long for him to let us know that rice cereal simply was not his thing. At least not that day.
Are you thinking about getting started on solids with your little one? I found this article on the Dr. Sears website super helpful! I hope you do, too.
I read in the "What To Expect" book that you are supposed to go ahead of time and choose your pediatrician. Then, you are supposed to interview them before the baby is born and finally, take the baby for their first visit about 3-5 days after you are discharged from the hospital. Well...procrastinator checking in. We didn't do that. I did, however, ask a trusted friend who had just had a baby recently for a recommendation. We went with her recommendation.
We were discharged from the hospital on a Saturday and told by the in-house pediatrician to make the first available appointment the following week. Ajay had lost more than 10% of his body weight and was slightly jaundiced, so they wanted us to keep an eye on him. Well, when we called our pediatrician, he wasn't available until Wednesday and we needed to get Ajay in, asap. First mistake. We took Ajay in on Tuesday and he saw one of the other doctors in the practice. Well, this doctor prescribed supplementing with formula and I was devastated. We'd been working so hard to get things going and I wanted to make sure that Ajay and I were able to continue breastfeeding. I knew that supplementing would not only hurt my supply but it was unnecessary. But with the doc not on my side, I had no leg to stand on. Arvind thought (but has since been re-educated) that formula was somehow superior. It was awful. We were supposed to bring the baby back in a week to get his weight checked, but we were snowed in and so had to actually wait an extra couple of days - I think it ended up being 10 days in all. We were supplementing with one feed a day. I hated it.
When we got our appointment with the recommended doctor, Dr. Dixon, I was so relieved. He checked Ajay out, thought he looked great. Told us we could stop supplementing and just let Ajay call the shots. Feed every 3 hours during the day and go as long as 5 hours in the night. He seemed to have no lack of confidence in my breastfeeding ability. It was then and there, that I understood why it is important to choose a good pediatrician. The pediatrician should act as the baby's advocate and should have similar beliefs and principles as the parents. I wanted to breastfeed, I did not want to supplement. I should have had a doctor who believed the same. Oh well, what's done is done. You can't turn back time, but you can make good decisions going forward. Thankfully, Ajay is now almost 7 months going strong and while we've had our hiccups, the breastfeeding relationship is also going well.
So I guess my advice would be to make sure that your pediatrician is on the same page with your parenting styles, i.e. breastfeeding, co-sleeping, cry-it-out, vaccinations, etc. so that together you all can make the best decision regarding the health and well-being of your child.
I was sitting here, baby in bed and hubby on the way home from work, wondering what I could write about this evening. I mean, there are so many things that I could talk about but tonight I want to talk about my baby's eye color. Why? Well, let me tell you.
My husband is full-blooded indian. He is first generation here in America and his family is from a little city called Tamil Nadu in Madras, India. I am a hosh-posh of things, very far from full-blooded anything. I'm mostly Italian and Swedish, and the rest is anyone's guess. Why does that matter? Well, let me tell you.
From the moment that I started thinking about my husband and I having, I just assumed they would have strong indian traits, including but not limited to big, beautiful brown indian eyes. Not only did I assume this, but from the moment we were expecting, I pretty much shot anyone down with the whole genetics speech when they would even hint to the notion that our baby would get my eyes. I would talk about big B's and little B's and pretty much tell everyone it was impossible. Well, I guess God is here to prove once again, that nothing is impossible. Our little guy did in fact, get blue eyes....not just any blue eyes, but I think he got my grandpa's blue eyes. We are pretty happy and still at times, in disbelief.
You've probably waited until the last minute to pack your hospital bag and if you are anything like me you're probably missing half of the things you'll really need once there with baby. I think the main reason I procrastinated is because I wasn't exactly sure what I would and would not need. So, with this in mind, I have compiled a list of the things you'll need to remember to bring with you to the hospital. I think this is a pretty comprehensive list, but it is inevitable that something is missing and you'll have to send hubby/family member home to retrieve.
For Mommy
1-2 button-up pajama tops -- these are for breastfeeding and just general comfort
Night Robe for breastfeeding discreetly and also to wear for walking around the maternity ward - the hospital gowns are annoying
Nursing Cover - 'cause your gonna have guests, but baby's got to eat!
Slippers - so you can go out and walk the halls with Baby
Socks
Night nursing bra
Going home outfit for you (Something cute you wore at 5 months preggers)
. At least 40x40 inches, but all the way up to 45x45 will do the trick. DO NOT use a muslin blanket. These blankets allow to much give and the result is a wriggly baby wiggling out of the swaddle and out of sleep.
