Brush Your Teeth!

Helping your toothless child brush his teeth

Is it too early to start brushing your teeth, if you don't have any?   No.  But moms have enough to do and if wiping your baby's gums after each meal doesn't seem practical?  or if your little one won't stop moving long enough for you to stick a washcloth in his mouth-here's a solution.  

Baby's First Toothbrush

My 6 month old son loves it.  He likes to grab it and put it in his own mouth.  It's good for teething. It soothes his gums.  Its also a great distraction after his evening bath when he has a meltdown on the changing table before bed.  Now it's part of his routine after his meals and before bed. 

Homemade Baby Food

You may be thinking don't I have enough to do as a mom? who has time to make baby food? Well now that I've done it, its actually not that bad.   Plus, what could be better than fresh organic fruits and vegetables.   I'm not knocking food from the jar...that's what I grew up on, but if you have the time and interest you should give homemade a try.   You could buy all the recipe books out there, but I think for first foods there's really not much to it.  As they get older the books will help with variety.

Here's what you need:

-a food processor (I bought a cuisinart mini)  saves space

-a steamer/oven

-ice cube trays  (Kid co. with lids, but I like the plain ones too, but they don't have lids)

-freezer bags

Here's what you need to think about:

-Fruits or veggies first? (apples, pears, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, peas are good 1st foods)  Some say start veggies  first because they are less sweet. 

-Pick one and stick with it for 4 or more days before introducing another food to test for allergies.

I started with butternut squash and my son loves it.  5 days later I gave him pears.   He made faces like it was tart, but still ate it and it helped with constipation.  It really moved things along which was great. The rice cereal was filling him up and he would only get a bm every 5 days.  Recently I also added oatmeal cereal which has more fiber.

Recipes 

Butternut squash Puree

Wash, cut in half, bake 400 degrees for 40 minutes with water, scoop out, add water from pan or fresh and puree in food processor, cool, save 3 servings in fridge to eat immediately and freeze the rest in ice cube trays, then pop out and store in freezer bags with date and labels, use within a month. (For a $3 squash it made about 25 2oz cubes)

Pear Puree

Wash, cut pears into quarters, de seed, steam for few minutes, cool, puree a few slices to eat immediately and keep in fridge for next 2 days, freeze the rest and defrost, mash or puree when ready to eat.(pears don't freeze as well pureed)

    If you need more recipes, Click here.

Prune Juice Anyone?

So tonight was girls night out!  I was celebrating my birthday-martini, dinner, cheesecake yum.  But I must say the highlight at the end of my evening was going to Ralphs to buy something my baby needed for the morning...PRUNE JUICE.  There I am all dressed up in the 10 items or less lane...with just a bottle of Prune Juice....I wonder what the young man at check out thought oh well.

That's right my baby is constipated or so I think.  He hasn't poo'ed in 7 days yikes.  I called the pediatrician and the nurse told me to give him 1 oz of juice diluted with 1 oz of water.  Also to stick a rectal thermometer or q-tip with petroleum jelly in his bottom to stimulate a bowel movement.  I know graphic, but if your baby has the same problem..you understand.  For more tips. Click here.

He started solids 2 weeks ago- rice cereal and had one bowel movement, so I thought everything was fine, but that was last week.  I also gave him his first bottle of formula to supplement my breastmilk  yesterday which is diminishing.  So for now no more rice or formula till my baby is free!!!

Ahh the joys of motherhood.

A Different Kind of Soccer Mom?

Is it bad that I'm cheering for my son as he sleeps in his crib and I watch on the video monitor? Well at 4 months old he's too young to play sports, so I'm sort of rooting for him on the sidelines in another way.  Insane I know, what did they do before there were any monitors? 

Anyways the reason for this insanity is today my son broke the 45 minute nap mark. You go  Baby!  This is a major milestone for him considering just 2 weeks ago he couldn't go to sleep on his own and I had to carry him in a sling for naps.  Everytime he woke up usually at 20 min and 45 min, I would have walk and jiggle to get him back to sleep until he had a full nap.

  Now he's sleeping in his crib, but naps have been tough.  45 minutes was not enough for him and he would wake up fussy and we would start the process all over again..all day long.  Eat, Play, Sleep, Eat, Play, Sleep.   I stopped swaddling once we started sleep training and he was able to go to sleep.  They say developmentally its good to stop swaddling around 4 months so they get to use thier arms and legs.  But he still has some of his startle reflex, his overactive legs wake him up at each sleep cycle, but at night he is able to resettle, but not in the day.  So I started swaddling just his legs today.  Seems to have worked. Longer naps mean more rest for him, less fussiness, and some downtime for me to finally get some work done.  Will this trend continue?  I hope.  We'll see...as you know with babies each day is different.

The Short Napper

It's been more than a week of sleep training and we have the overnight sleep worked out.  He goes down between 5-6pm after a bath and a feeding and sleeps until 6 or 7 am with a 3 or 4 am feeding.  What a miracle! But naps that's a different story.  

How long should naps last?

All the books say if it's under 1 hour its not really nap you should leave them in the crib and see if they will fall asleep again.  Sleeping on his tummy my baby slept for 1 to 3 hours, but now that he has learned how to flip over-naps only last 30-45 minutes. It's like clockwork at the 45 minute mark...his eyes open and he can't go back to sleep.  It's not a problem, except that his window of awake time is so short.  About an hour or hour and 10 minutes and then he starts to yawn, get tired and fussy.  So back into the crib he goes.  I miss him.

How many naps should a baby take?

At 4 months, babies should nap 3-4 hours total. So ideally 2 naps of 1 1/2 to 2 hours and then late afternoon nap at

for about 45 minutes. Right now my baby is taking like 5 naps because they are so short. But I don't let him last nap go past 4:45 so it doesn't interfere with his night sleep. It's been hard because now that I'm sleep training him in the crib he's not as portable and all day long

I'm monitoring his naps, but it's complete shift from when I had to carry him all day. He is now able to self-soothe. I know all this scheduling and monitoring will allow my baby to well-rested, happy and healthy.

I'm not pumping enough milk?

I remember the days when I was learning to breastfeed and my biggest problem was an overactive letdown.  This made my baby gassy, he would choke and cry after every feeding, and I literally had to lay on my back and contort my body to feed him.  It was a nightmare. By  5 weeks my supply leveled out, but now that he is 4 months old his needs are changing.

Now my concern is I'm not pumping enough milk.  I used to pump about 4 oz-5oz per session. I'm still getting that amount now, but when I give him the bottle he no longer just needs 4oz he needs about 7oz per feeding.  I talked to a lactation consultant and she suggested I eat more protein, make sure I drink enough water, try Milk Plus tea.  If you have had similar issues here are some links that helped me.

Overactive Letdown Solutions

Tips to Increase Your Supply

Sleep Training Day 3

So Aaron went to sleep at 5:45 pm and by 6:08 he was asleep.  So far so good.  Sleep Training has been going very well, but at 2:00 am we hit a roadblock.  Aaron has learned how to roll over and everytime he ends up on his back can't get back to sleep.  I went in his room several times to help him, but now it's starting a new habit.  So now we may have start sleep training again. 

 He's such a fast learner.  In one week in a half he went from us rocking him to sleep, in his pack and play, swaddled, with no way to self-soothe waking up every 2-4 hours, to sleeping in his crib with no rocking,  learning to suck his fingers, roll over, and sleep straight through from 6 pm to 3 am.