Chatty Cathy!

She's officially found her voice.
I have to admit, it was in the back of my head about how she hasn't really made any of the Consonant sounds up to this point. I wasn't really concerned, but I was wondering if she should be there yet. Well no more wondering. Over the last few days she was consistently saying Mama, and then yesterday she started Dada. It seems Dada is her favourite sound cause she won't stop! Its so funny to listen to her "voice" I've got it on video, and if I get a moment to figure out how to get it on here I will.

Right now she tends to say Dada when she's playing and happy. Mama/Nana/Baba comes out when she's upset. Not sure why, but thats the way things are right now. Its just funny how much she likes making these noises. My husband and I have been laughing so much at her for the last couple of days!

On the feeding front, things have once again changed...surprise! haha. She's eating more again, and isn't skipping the snacks anymore. Although she tending to want to "snack" on the bottles. Eat a little, play, then eat the rest later. It's kind of a pain, but I guess it can't hurt??

Brrr, its cold out, so we've been hunkered up in the house for a few days...looking forward to getting out this upcoming week!

Full of beans!

Well, the feeding schedule must have been enough for little OHH, cause she slept through the night. Not 12 hours, but at least she didn't wake up to feed. Just woke up several times cause she soother fell out (we're thinking of trying to wean her off, but not sure right now) so we had to go in to give it too her several times.

Plus, OMG she is so full of beans for the second day in a row. Seems she's got a whole lot of energy the last couple of days. She's not happy anywhere but on the ground crawling around, and trying to get into trouble. (as in chasing the cats around!)

I don't know if its possible, but I think she might be starting to grasp the word no. When she tries to grab something she shouldn't I first tell her no, and seems the majority of the time she stops. Sometimes she'll go back to trying after looking at me (hope this isn't an early sign of defiance haha), in which case I move her away. Other times she'll turn around and go somewhere else.

Well gotta go, shes on the move!

Feeding change-up

Here is little Ohh's new feeding schedule. We'll see how long this lasts for.

Im needing to change it because she's been just snacking a couple oz of a bottle at a time, and then waking up a couple times during the night to eat.

It seems she really doesn't want to drink her bottles lately. I was a bit worried, but after doing some research and talking to some other moms at Mother goose today, it is quite normal when they are eating more solids, and they are more interested in crawling around and discovering the world then eating.

*note I offer 6 oz, but rarely does she eat all of it, more like 4 or 5**

AM - 6 oz bottle
Cereal and Fruit
- sometimes she'll eat like a champion at breakfast, other times not so much.

Snack - I think we now skip this. I had been pushing this on her, but today, we skipped it, and she did just great.

Lunch - 1 6oz bottle
Veggies and fruit
Because of skipping the snack, she did much better at eating almost the whole bottle at once.

Snack - I think this might be hit or miss if she wants a bottle. She drank it today, but I was forcing her to stay on my lap for a movie, so it might have been more out of boredom then hunger - since she did puke most of it back up. I think I will try not to offer her this bottle unless she is protesting.

Supper - This is her favourite meal I think, as she'll drink a whole bottle, and eat a lot of the other food.
6 oz bottle
Meat/veggies mix
Fruit
1 triangle of laughing cow cheese ( I just started this yesterday. I know, you're not supposed to give cheese til later, but the soft cheese is the better choice, and I hear the high fat content is good for brain development. If nothing else she LOVES it! And it's slowly helping me get over my fear of her choking, since she can practice biting of little pieces and it essentially just melts in her mouth.)

Bedtime - 6 oz bottle
Tonight she didn't really want too much, but she did go to sleep at 8 ish.

So the test will be...will she wake up to feed in the middle of the night cause she's hungry tonight?

P is for.....

If you are squimish or don't like the talk of poop...please move on, I might be rather graphic. (there, that is my disclaimer ) :)

It's day 2 of my little girl having the poops. I feel so bad for her, but I'm not sure what else I can do.
In the past 30 or so hours she has had about 6 poops. She normally has 1, maybe 2 a day. Not all are the normal full amount, but some are just like water or pretty runny. She never seems in pain while pooping, I don't even know she's done it half the time until I smell it. It's when I change her diaper that it really bothers her.

I still think it's the oat cereal which I have obviously stopped. Today is day 2 of no oats, so I am hoping this will end soon. My understanding is I don't need to worry unless she gets dehydrated. She's still eating/drinking and is happy as long as she has a dry bum, and I'm not trying to change her.

Her nether regions are so very red. She never gets diaper rash so I can only imagine that this is unbearable too her. It looks so sore.

This is what I've been doing...but if anyone has any suggestions on how to make her more comfortable, I'm all ears!

• Change her diaper as soon as I notice it's wet (even her going pee seems to be hurting hurting, it must be burning?) So it's been at least every hour, or more frequent as needed. I almost want to wake her up while she's napping right now to keep her dry, but I've learned, that would just be stupid! :)
• Put penetin cream (hmm, can't be bothered to see how to spell it at the moment) on after every diaper change.
• I gave her a bath to get her nice and clean (she was happy in there, but within 15 min of getting out of the bath she had a poop)
• At the suggestion of my mom I've put a warm cloth on the redness the last couple diaper changes for a few minutes, then patted it dry.
• My mom suggested using cornstarch and airing it out. I haven't tried that yet. Will need to get cornstartch, and how do you air it out when you know she'll pee everywhere? I guess I could put her on a towel..but she loves to crawl around, I doubt she'd stay put!
• We gave tylenol last night. I haven't given any today, but if she gets bad again tonight we may do that again.
  

Fingers crossed that the worst is over, and she'll be on the mend now!

Yummy food!

Feeding solids is going pretty good now. She is really a good eater I think, compared to some stories I have heard from other moms. It really is quite funny sometimes. All she wants to do is feed herself by grabbing the spoon, but I know if I let her, she will either shove the spoon down her throat or all the food will be in in her hair or mine! :)

I think I still need to tweak the scheduling as we've had a slight change in her eating habits while she was sick with a cold. It seems she was wanting to eat less then, but now I think she's back up to her old ways since she's protesting if I don't put enough in the bottle. And she has also been waking up once during the night wanting too eat. It's kind rough doing that again when we've been spoiled for a little while now. But I am telling myself it is short lived...she must be off because she was sick.
She also seems to have pushed back her sleep time. We were able to get her to bed around 7, no later then 8. But now it seems to be happening around 9 or 10. Earlier works better for Dada and I, so we're hoping to get it earlier again soon!

So... The foods we've tried so far:

• Rice cereal - she gets this every afternoon. She's been up and down on how much she eats, but I think that has partly to do with her being sick, and also because I'm not quite sure the best time to feed it yet. Before a bottle? after a bottle? between bottles?
• Veggies...all homemade...and she eats them just fine! (Sweet potato, peas, beans, carrots)
  

up next...
Squash
then onto Fruits (Bananas, avacado,apples,pears)


This is her current feeding schedule (on a good day!)
7:30 - veggies and bottle
10:00 bottle
12:30 bottle
3:30 bottle
5:00 cereal
6:30 bottle

So we'll see what the next few weeks bring, especially with going away for the holidays. It should be interesting!

Hungry Girl!!

She eats about 35 oz formula each day...sometimes a bit more
She eats 2 cubes veggies in am
She eats 4 tsps rice cereal in pm

And..if I let her, I'm sure she would eat more solids!

How does a petite little girl eat so much.
She surely has packed on the pounds...but I just don't see it. Here clothes aren't getting any smaller yet.
I'm not complaining, cause I'm sure this is what allows her to sleep through the night....I'm just amazed how much she eats!

Feeding Part 2

I feel much better now with my plan for starting solids. I had another friend go through with me what she did for her kids. She even wrote down for me what a typical day was like at 6 months of age.

So this is my plan as of right now.

Today:
Start feeding cereal twice a day (once at 7am ish feeding, once at 4pm ish feeding - still feed 6 1/2 oz bottle.)
I may need to decrease the amount in the bottles if I start feeding more cereal, but I will play that by ear.
Sunday:
Start Oat cereal.
Stay on oat for 1 week, unless there is a reaction.
Next Sunday:
Start on wheat cereal
Stay on wheat for 1 week
The next week:
I will look into if there are any other cereals I should try...but if not will start veggies.
Will feed veggies in am, keep cereal in PM (will give me time to see if she has a reaction to new food) Will try each new food for 4 days to 1 week.
Will start with sweet potato, then carrots, peas, green beans. ( these are the foods I already have made)
During this time I will get a sense if she likes the homemade stuff, and how she reacts to new foods, and will then reevaluate which other foods to continue with.
When I am ready to start proteins, I will likely start with chick peas at it may be easier to digest then meat. I will not rush starting the meat, as I was previously planning.

I figure she will be almost 5 1/2 months by the time I start the real food, so that is good timing in my mind.

So in summary once we start real food, this will be what the day will look like.

7am ish New food, and bottle
10 ish bottle
1 ish bottle
4 ish cereal and bottle
7 ish bottle

I feel so much better now with a solid plan. I will still need to take it as it comes, but at least I understand the process a better.

Now my next worry...what if

Feeding baby

Who knew this was going to be one of the biggest challenges of taking care of a little baby. It seems there are so many different opinions out there, and knowing what is the right things isn't always so easy. It's just that I want to do what is right, and I don't know exactly what is right.

I had a heck of a time in the beginning, with breastfeeding not working, and trying to find the right formula. We had that figured out since about 6 weeks old, that is until now when I need to start solids.

It sounds straight forward enough, but it's the logistics that have me confused. Some people say one thing, others say something else. There are so many opinions/experiences out there.

It's a matter of finding out what works for us.

The things I figure you need to decide when starting is.

• When to start (Canada pediatrics say wait til 6 months. The states say 4-6 months. Most moms seem to be starting around 4 months). I had planned on waiting until 6 months, but ended up starting at about 4 1/2 months (about 2 weeks ago)
• What to start with (Rice cereal seems to be the most common)
• How much to start with (about 1-2 teaspoons)
• When to increase the amount you feed. ( still haven't figured this out yet)
• Homemade vs Jarred (I had started making homemade, but have recently learned that not all babies like it...so I'm stopping till I find out what works for us)
• Which foods to feed first after cereal. (Canada says meats then fruit/veg, which is a new recommendation, States says vegetables/fruit, then meat; most moms say veg first, then fruit, then meat)
• When you do you try different types of cereal (ie oats) (I still haven't figured this one out yet either, but I think I am going to try it after the rice cereal before I try the other foods)

My original plan was to follow the guidelines set out by Canada's pediatric society. That is start at about 6 months, start with meats, and go from there.
But I already started earlier then that, and now, hearing from other moms that the meats are really tough on their digestive systems, I'm not so sure. This is the last thing I want for little OHH, so I've been rethinking, and might try veggies first.

The reason they say to start with the meat is their iron levels start to drop off around now, and they need more of it. But really. I'm feeding formula that has iron in it, and most moms haven't started with meat, but with veggies, so it can't be that wrong of a thing to do.

I think I need to make a decision this weekend, and just go with it.

Even with my confusion, it sure is fun feeding her the cereal. Right now at least she absolutely loves it!