Baby-Led Weaning

When Henry was born, Before Henry was even born, I knew I wanted to nurse. And my goal was to nurse exclusively for 6 months and then introduce food. But as it got closer to the 6 month mark, I wasn't sure if I was ready to give him solids. Mainly because he was thriving so well and I really enjoy the bond you share with your baby through nursing. I didn't want to give that up. But Henry had a high interest in food, so I didn't want to deny him the opportunity of eating solids if he was interested either. Then a friend told me about baby-led weaning. I did some research and I knew that was exactly the answer I was looking for. Basically, baby-led weaning is offering your child (6 months+) food that is safe and age appropriate and letting them do the rest. You feed them the same foods you eat every day. At 6 months, they have the capability to put food into their mouths and they can choose what they would like to eat and how much of it. No purees and no worrying about making a separate dinner just for baby. It is all about following your child's cues and  letting them do the rest. Here is the wikipedia link for those who are interested. And here is a book on Amazon that I would highly recommend. I've really enjoyed reading it. So, because you are letting your child feed themselves, they obviously are going to be very messy at first. Henry has only had a handful of meals with us and it has been very messy, but I can see an improvement already. But because you are letting your child feed themselves, you are allowing them to put what they want in their mouths and at first they are just going to be tasting or playing with their food. It can take a little while before they actually start getting any substance out of it. Which I really like the idea of, because we are still nursing just as much, so I am getting what I want and Henry is able to try eating foods, which is what he wants. (Though he really likes nursing too.) Henry has loved everything we have let him eat so far. Yogurt is super messy because I just put it on his tray and let him go to town. If I give him a spoon with yogurt on it, he will eat the yogurt and then just likes to chew on the metal spoon and splash the yogurt around. The other night we made sweet potato french fries and he really liked those. Not much ended up on the floor that night. P.S. Be forewarned that your pediatrician will probably not agree with you/think you are crazy/ try to persuade you differently. Do what you feel is best for you and your child. As for us, we are going to continue our BLW journey. Enjoy the mess! Oh yeah, and a plastic high chair with no cover is probably best. We now have Henry in a seat that attaches to the table and he loves it. We tried out these two high chairs we already had and neither one worked.

 Carrots and pears. This high chair we got from a friend, unfortunately it is angled weird so you need a blanket behind baby in order to get them sitting where you would like them. This doesn't work when you are letting baby have a free for all with their food.

 Banana, yogurt, and scrambled eggs. Messy! We thought this high chair would work fine because it was all plastic and therefore easy to wipe off when it was dirty. Turns out Henry can reach a vast part of the chair the high chair is strapped to. So the chair became filthy after just a few times of use. Strike 2. I'll post a picture of the third seat later. It's a keeper though. Henry is doing well in it.

Henry is now enjoying being rinsed off/showered in the sink. He has always showered with Kevin or I and doesn't ever take baths. But, with BLW, things can get quite messy. So we just give him a quick rinse when he is done eating. He seems to like it!

3 months

I can't believe Henry is 3 months old already. Some things about our not so little guy-

•He has been smiling since just 12 days old and we absolutely love it!
•Slept through the night for about a month but now he likes to wake up at least once and have a 5 minute snack. I am in and out of bed in less than 10 minutes so I really can't complain there.
•Is definitely built like his daddy. He is 3 months and a solid 15 pounds.
•Loves to lay under his play mat and grab his toys. He'll usually stay there for about 20 minutes at a time.
•Has started sitting in his bumbo and doesn't mind it as long as he is in a good mood.
•Loves when Daddy gets home from work. Starts smiling and talking up a storm as soon as Kevin walks in the door. Their new thing is holding Henry's feet in Kevin's hand and balancing. Henry is starting to get the hang of it.
•Henry hates the car. Cries almost every time we start driving somewhere. His new thing is to start screaming and arching his back as soon as you try to put him in his car seat.
•Still sucks on his hands like crazy. And I just keep the mittens on to try to break the habit. He's not giving up without a fight though.
•Everyone comments on how old he looks, most people think he is 6 months old. Maybe I need to dress him more like a baby since he looks like a little man already.

We love having this little man around and seeing him grow. It goes way too fast for my taste though.

Henry Weston

Our sweet baby boy made his entrance into this world(finally!) on July 2nd. I chose not to be induced with hopes of going into labor on my own, and I finally did while I was at Target with my mom and sister. A storm came through Friday night and knocked out our power, so by Saturday evening it was quite warm in our house. And there is always something to be bought at Target. I realized my contractions getting harder and more regular as the evening progressed so I started timing them. Sure enough, they were around 6 minutes apart. Saturday night they got closer together and more painful so by Sunday morning I decided it was time to go to the hospital. I was hoping to stay at the hospital because we still didn't have power and it was so stinking hot at our house, but even though I had been having regular contractions for quite a while by then, I still wasn't dialated at all so they told us to go home. All Sunday I had contractions and tried to rest, but that is hard to do when your house is 80 degrees. I kept trying to eat and drink, but everything kept coming back up. By Sunday evening, I couldn't handle the constant contractions and I had no energy from being up all night already and not being able to keep any food down. We went to the hospital again and I was finally at 1 cm and 70% so they admitted me. I got an IV for fluids. They gave me some pain killers in my IV so I could sleep a bit and I felt much better. I think they gave me the pain killers again a few hours later so I could try to sleep a bit more. After that it was game on for labor. I labored all Monday and got to 9 cm. I stayed there for a while so I asked my doctor to break my water to help me get to a 10. Once I was at a 10, I pushed for more than 4 hours but little man just wouldn't fit so we went in for a c section. In the operating room when they put him on the scale, it said he weighed 10 lbs 1 oz. I couldn't believe it!!!! A few hours later when they weighed him in the nursery he was 8 lbs 3 oz. So obviously the scale in the operating room was wrong, but he was still a pretty big baby! Overall, it was a little disappointing to have to have a c section, but I am thankful for modern medicine and I am glad I was able to do what I wanted to do which was go into labor on my own and do it naturally with no epidural. So glad Henry is here and happy and healthy. We love him so much!