As of today, Merbaby is about 7 1/2 months old. He now has 6 teeth and I'm 80% sure another is pushing its way through as I type. At his latest appointment he was right around 17 pounds and over 26 inches long. He is my whole world. I can't even begin to describe the happiness that comes from being his mommy. This week is winter break so I'm off the entire week, which means more time with my baby boy! (He's napping as I type so we'll see how much I can get done before he wakes).
Introducing Solids... Baby Led Weaning Style!
This has been the most exciting thing we've started since my last post. I did a lot more research on Baby Led Weaning and joined an online support group. I read the introduction to the cookbook, which eased my mind and provided the motivation I needed to try it. Mr. Merman and I discussed it and he was 100% sure we should try it out. We drove 45 minutes to Ikea to purchase the infamous $25 highchair and started letting him sit at the table with us so he could familiarize himself with the process of mealtime.
At our 6-month appointment, the pediatrician and I discussed BLW vs. Purees. He was very supportive and mentioned that he has plenty of patients that do BLW and love it. He advised that we still introduce new foods and give it 3 days to watch for allergic reactions. He also mentioned that he has families who do the traditional pureed baby foods and that, no matter what, the babies are healthy and happy. Ultimately, he was leaving it up to me. But before I left, he commented on a 15-month-old that is still eating purees because he just won't transition to real food. And that was all I needed to hear to push me into making the final decision. (I can't imagine having a 15-month-old eatingonly purees)! We jumped right in when Merbaby was a little more than 6 months old and started with avocado.
Okay, okay. "Jumping right in" may not be the right term. First, I attended a family/infant CPR and first aid class to be trained on how to revive or save a choking infant. Then, I decided we would start with something mushy and only give him that for 3 nights so that I could ease myself into the idea of it. Finally, I mustered up the courage and we gave him one slice of avocado while I sat on the edge of my chair ready to pop into action if he started choking.
He did so well! I think he only gagged once and it wasn't nearly as scary as we thought it would be. After 3 nights of this, I decided to go a little further and we started giving him a few different things: green beans, zucchini, eggs, pancake, pasta noodles, steamed bell peppers and shredded carrot sticks, and more. Now, here we are! A month later and he's eating full meals with us. We've moved meal time to the dining room so that we can have a family dinner every night. Unfortunately, Mr. Merman doesn't always get home in time to eat by 5:30 or 6 so Merbaby and I have a lot of one-on-one dinners but I love it! It's like having a date with my favorite guy every single night. Clean-up by myself with a tired baby isn't so much fun on my own though...
Watching him eat meat gives me heart palpitations but he's getting better and better each time. He has learned how to manipulate chicken and swallow it rather well but it produces more gags than other foods. His absolute favorite food right now is blackberries and raspberries. He also loves salmon. Earlier this week, I made little mini pasta casseroles for him. Our big casserole had ground sausage in it and I'm not ready for him to experience that. So, I made a meat-free, salt-free version of it and he couldn't get enough! He tried asparagus spears and swallowed them right up.
Another exciting eating adventure has been the SPOON! We've been practicing with plain yogurt during breakfast and he took to it like he'd been spoon feeding himself for ages. Other than grabbing the wrong end of the spoon and making a huge mess, it has been pretty successful. The best entertainment is when he throws the spoon overboard and yogurt goes splattering all over the floor, the dog, the wall, our legs, the chairs... you get the idea.
Overall, BLW has been very successful! I'm so glad we chose to do this. I sit down every other weekend and plan our meals for 2 weeks in advance. This was recommended by the authors of the BLW cookbook to deter families from eating the same meals/foods over and over. It's so important for Merbaby to experience a variety of flavors and textures during this time when his tastebuds are developing and he's learning preferences. We want him to be able to enjoy and love several different flavors, especially vegetables. By planning meals well in advance, I'm able to ensure that he's getting an assortment of foods. It has also forced me to eat better as we're including fruits and more vegetables with every meal. I'm not using salt since Merbaby can't have any. And, we're not resorting to pizza, fast food, and chips on nights that we're tired or busy. I'm hopeful that by doing this, we're creating am open-minded child who is willing and wanting to eat healthy foods for a lifetime and that we're not teaching him that he has to finish his plate. He needs to feel that it's okay to stop eating when he's full.
Check out some pictures from our adventures into food:
Flu Epidemic
Mark 2018 as "The Year of the Flu!" The vaccine has proven to be 30% effective in our nation this year but reports are showing that it is even lower in certain areas, ours included! In fact, our state seems to be getting the worst of it as far as the number of deaths. The pediatrician gave a disclaimer that the flu shot is only 10% effective right now before we could agree to give it to Merbaby. With that said, Mr. Merman and I both got our flu shots through work in the early days of fall. I opted in for Merbaby to get his in early January. We were all protected as much as we possibly could be.
I've never had the flu before. Mr. Merman has had it several times and I've never caught it from him so I was honestly shocked when... BOM! BOM! BOM! I got the flu, type A. :(
Exactly 2 weeks after Merbaby had his flu shot, after being off for a week due to snow, I woke up feeling pretty crappy. My throat was sore and my skin felt prickly. But the thermometer showed a normal temperature and I hated to call in to work after having a whole week off. So, I sucked it up and went about the day as usual. As the day went on, I knew something was up. I couldn't drink my coffee, I could barely eat lunch, and my chest felt like it was on fire every time I coughed. I had never experienced this before. My students kept telling me that I looked really different. Leave it up to kids to let you know the truth. One girl asked if I'd forgotten my make-up cause I looked terrible and should probably go home.
I made it through the work day! Once I got home, my temp was 101.2! I took the next day off. Mr. Merman did daycare duty and I alternated the Tylenol and Ibuprofen to treat the fever. In complete denial that I had the flu, I took naps, soaked in the tub with epsom salt, and kept brushing off everyone's encouragements to get to the doctor. At the last minute, I decided to just go get tested so I'd have an answer. But, every. single. clinic. was booked up with no appointments open. The walk-in wait time was almost 2 hours. After an hour of searching, I finally found a clinic that could get me in later that evening but it meant that I would have to take Merbaby with me, which made me so nervous. But I did it anyways (with motivation from Mr. Merman). The NP swabbed my nose while I was breastfeeding Merbaby in hopes that feeding him in that environment would fight off the germs. It threw me into a sneezing fit. Yep, I surely was sneezing all over my poor baby. Within seconds of starting the test, it came out positive and she declared that I had the flu. For the first time in my life! She wrote a note to my employer and told me I couldn't return to work for a full week! All I could think about was how I had just sneezed my contagious-airborne flu germs all over my baby and a pregnant nurse practitioner. The next patient to enter was going to breathe in that air. I'd been coughing and sneezing at work with all my students around the day before. GUILTY IS ME!
I acquired a mask, a Tamiflu prescription, and Probiotics then got the HELL out of that place so as not to infect anyone else. I was so afraid that Merbaby's babysitter was going to ask that I keep him home all week to prevent spreading possible flu germs to all the other children. Fortunately, she did not. She was very supportive of my staying home and resting. I did everything in my power to ensure that I wasn't sending flu germs to daycare with him. The next 3 days were spent napping, taking bubble baths, and binge watching TV (a luxury I've missed since having a baby). My fever broke 3 nights in so I spent the next day cleaning every inch of the house and washing everything I touched. By some kind of miracle, neither Merbaby nor Mr. Merman caught the flu from me.
Fast forward two more weeks... Mr. Merman texts me halfway through the day that he has a fever. By the time I got home that evening, he wasn't looking well at all. I gave him a mask, told him to steer clear of us, take some Tylenol and make an appointment. Sure enough- FLU! Here we go again! His symptoms lasted much longer and seemed worse than mine. He slept in the guest room for over a week so as not to wake me up or fill the room with his germs. I definitely didn't want Merbaby to catch it so I took care of Merbaby on my own until Merman's fever was gone. It was pretty exhausting and I was more than glad when he was finally feeling well and able to help with the baby again. But, the good news is that Merbaby never caught the flu from either of us! And I'm claiming that my breastmilk did the job.
The pediatrician and the NP at the clinic told me that breastfeeding was the best thing I could do. My milk was creating antibodies to fight the flu before I even knew I had it. No lie, I even chugged a few ounces while I was sick hoping it might help fight it faster. They say this season will last til the end of May! Let's just hope Merbaby can avoid the germs and continue to be healthy.
Swinging Away
I know I haven't been able to write about all the snow we've had this year. It's very unusual to have so much snow where we live but I've enjoyed the extra time off work with my little dude. Ironically, it's still the middle of winter and our temperatures are now hitting mid-70's. The peeping frogs are out, Cheery Blossoms are blooming, and bugs are starting to appear. All of this means that it's the perfect time to get outside and PLAY!
On Sunday, we decided to walk up to the neighborhood playground and let Merbaby try out the baby swing. He didn't know what to think. He was smiling and giggling. It was absolutely precious. I took him down the slide in my lap and we let the dog run around. It was such a nice family outing, something I've always dreamed of having and thought I may never get once I was diagnosed with DOR.
Since Sunday, we've been back twice. Yesterday was GORGEOUS so I took Merbaby to the local park to swing then jogged a little over 2 miles while he rode in the stroller, which he also loved. After running errands today, I stopped at the top of the neighborhood and let him swing again for about 5 minutes. Today was probably the most fun he had with it. He was laughing and squealing the whole time. I'm so ready to spend spring and summer break with this cutie!
Other Fun Tidbits
We're working on crawling. He has started to get up on all 4's and rock. Sometimes, he's able to move himself forward but mostly he gets tired and gives up. He also loves to be upright and is trying really hard to pull himself up on toys and people. It won't be long til we've got a mobile baby on our hands.
He's cooing and being cute but hasn't really started making consonant sounds. There have been a few <G> sounds here and there but nothing more than that. However, he does like to blow spit bubbles which is almost the same as producing the <B> sound, right?
Sleep is mostly pretty awesome. For about 2 months, we've had nights with only 1 wake-up and several nights where he slept 10+ hours without waking up at all. A friend of mine did lots of research on dropping the night feeds and getting baby to sleep off the boob. She was reading the Ferber Method book and sharing what she read. I took her information and ran with it. Within just a few days, he had dropped his first feeding (hence the longer sleep patterns) and was able to fall asleep on his own without nursing. Both of these things have changed our lives drastically. Bedtime no longer lasts 45 minutes! We start at 7 with PJ's, massage, teeth brushing, and nursing. He's almost always asleep within 15-20 minutes of that. It's unreal and feels so good to have a little extra time at night to read, watch a show, spend time with Mr. Merman, and/or go to bed super early. Since the last blog post, we transitioned from the swaddle (arms out) to a sleep sack. He wasn't even phased by it and transitioned like it was no big deal.
He has begun to interact with the dog more by reaching out and grabbing her, taking her toys, making sounds at her when she whines or barks. He adores his dog and it is so fun to watch them together. Piper loves him too! She is so excited when he wakes in the morning. Running to his door, she can't wait to greet him. As soon as the door opens, she runs to the crib and starts trying to lick or touch him through the railings. He just smiles down at her while my heart is just melting away the whole time.
The in-laws are coming to visit this weekend. They haven't seen him since he was barely 3 months old so we're very glad they can come. They've both been having medical issues which has made it difficult to visit. I know they are heartbroken and I feel so terrible that we can't just hop on a plane to go see them. After speaking with the doctor, they decided to come visit now. My FIL will be having back surgery soon and the recovery could take a good bit of time.
I have a dentist appointment in the morning and will be leaving Merbaby with my dad. This man has 2 daughters and watched my niece all the time when she was a baby but I'm still nervous about it for some reason. I'll likely only be gone an hour (if that) and know everything will be fine but I'm still going over every little detail in my brain so that I don't forget to tell him.
Speaking of grandparents and surgeries, my mom had surgery on her foot right before Christmas so she's been recovering from that. We haven't asked her to babysit because we wanted her to be able to heal completely and not feel obligated to watch our kid. But she's doing better now and we've already got a couple of dates lined up for March. I'm looking forward to going out with my husband at night for a change. As much as I love this little guy, it's so nice to get out and have some adult time. I didn't realize how much I needed that time until the only sitter I trust had surgery... leaving us without any time together for over 2 months.
Hey, look! I finished another blog entry. It only took 2 days, 2 naps, and an hourish after bedtime to finally wrap it up. I love this new life of mine. Being a mom is even more amazing than I thought it would be. In all honesty, I think I have infertility to thank for that.
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| trying seaweed for the first time |
Check out some pictures from our adventures into food:
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| bell peppers, onions, sweet potatoes, cheese toast, and beef |
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| Pad Thai noodles, carrots, celery, green &yellow bell peppers, chicken, & baby corn |
Flu Epidemic
Mark 2018 as "The Year of the Flu!" The vaccine has proven to be 30% effective in our nation this year but reports are showing that it is even lower in certain areas, ours included! In fact, our state seems to be getting the worst of it as far as the number of deaths. The pediatrician gave a disclaimer that the flu shot is only 10% effective right now before we could agree to give it to Merbaby. With that said, Mr. Merman and I both got our flu shots through work in the early days of fall. I opted in for Merbaby to get his in early January. We were all protected as much as we possibly could be.
I've never had the flu before. Mr. Merman has had it several times and I've never caught it from him so I was honestly shocked when... BOM! BOM! BOM! I got the flu, type A. :(
Exactly 2 weeks after Merbaby had his flu shot, after being off for a week due to snow, I woke up feeling pretty crappy. My throat was sore and my skin felt prickly. But the thermometer showed a normal temperature and I hated to call in to work after having a whole week off. So, I sucked it up and went about the day as usual. As the day went on, I knew something was up. I couldn't drink my coffee, I could barely eat lunch, and my chest felt like it was on fire every time I coughed. I had never experienced this before. My students kept telling me that I looked really different. Leave it up to kids to let you know the truth. One girl asked if I'd forgotten my make-up cause I looked terrible and should probably go home.
I made it through the work day! Once I got home, my temp was 101.2! I took the next day off. Mr. Merman did daycare duty and I alternated the Tylenol and Ibuprofen to treat the fever. In complete denial that I had the flu, I took naps, soaked in the tub with epsom salt, and kept brushing off everyone's encouragements to get to the doctor. At the last minute, I decided to just go get tested so I'd have an answer. But, every. single. clinic. was booked up with no appointments open. The walk-in wait time was almost 2 hours. After an hour of searching, I finally found a clinic that could get me in later that evening but it meant that I would have to take Merbaby with me, which made me so nervous. But I did it anyways (with motivation from Mr. Merman). The NP swabbed my nose while I was breastfeeding Merbaby in hopes that feeding him in that environment would fight off the germs. It threw me into a sneezing fit. Yep, I surely was sneezing all over my poor baby. Within seconds of starting the test, it came out positive and she declared that I had the flu. For the first time in my life! She wrote a note to my employer and told me I couldn't return to work for a full week! All I could think about was how I had just sneezed my contagious-airborne flu germs all over my baby and a pregnant nurse practitioner. The next patient to enter was going to breathe in that air. I'd been coughing and sneezing at work with all my students around the day before. GUILTY IS ME!
I acquired a mask, a Tamiflu prescription, and Probiotics then got the HELL out of that place so as not to infect anyone else. I was so afraid that Merbaby's babysitter was going to ask that I keep him home all week to prevent spreading possible flu germs to all the other children. Fortunately, she did not. She was very supportive of my staying home and resting. I did everything in my power to ensure that I wasn't sending flu germs to daycare with him. The next 3 days were spent napping, taking bubble baths, and binge watching TV (a luxury I've missed since having a baby). My fever broke 3 nights in so I spent the next day cleaning every inch of the house and washing everything I touched. By some kind of miracle, neither Merbaby nor Mr. Merman caught the flu from me.
Fast forward two more weeks... Mr. Merman texts me halfway through the day that he has a fever. By the time I got home that evening, he wasn't looking well at all. I gave him a mask, told him to steer clear of us, take some Tylenol and make an appointment. Sure enough- FLU! Here we go again! His symptoms lasted much longer and seemed worse than mine. He slept in the guest room for over a week so as not to wake me up or fill the room with his germs. I definitely didn't want Merbaby to catch it so I took care of Merbaby on my own until Merman's fever was gone. It was pretty exhausting and I was more than glad when he was finally feeling well and able to help with the baby again. But, the good news is that Merbaby never caught the flu from either of us! And I'm claiming that my breastmilk did the job.
The pediatrician and the NP at the clinic told me that breastfeeding was the best thing I could do. My milk was creating antibodies to fight the flu before I even knew I had it. No lie, I even chugged a few ounces while I was sick hoping it might help fight it faster. They say this season will last til the end of May! Let's just hope Merbaby can avoid the germs and continue to be healthy.
Swinging Away
I know I haven't been able to write about all the snow we've had this year. It's very unusual to have so much snow where we live but I've enjoyed the extra time off work with my little dude. Ironically, it's still the middle of winter and our temperatures are now hitting mid-70's. The peeping frogs are out, Cheery Blossoms are blooming, and bugs are starting to appear. All of this means that it's the perfect time to get outside and PLAY!
On Sunday, we decided to walk up to the neighborhood playground and let Merbaby try out the baby swing. He didn't know what to think. He was smiling and giggling. It was absolutely precious. I took him down the slide in my lap and we let the dog run around. It was such a nice family outing, something I've always dreamed of having and thought I may never get once I was diagnosed with DOR.
Since Sunday, we've been back twice. Yesterday was GORGEOUS so I took Merbaby to the local park to swing then jogged a little over 2 miles while he rode in the stroller, which he also loved. After running errands today, I stopped at the top of the neighborhood and let him swing again for about 5 minutes. Today was probably the most fun he had with it. He was laughing and squealing the whole time. I'm so ready to spend spring and summer break with this cutie!
Other Fun Tidbits
We're working on crawling. He has started to get up on all 4's and rock. Sometimes, he's able to move himself forward but mostly he gets tired and gives up. He also loves to be upright and is trying really hard to pull himself up on toys and people. It won't be long til we've got a mobile baby on our hands.
He's cooing and being cute but hasn't really started making consonant sounds. There have been a few <G> sounds here and there but nothing more than that. However, he does like to blow spit bubbles which is almost the same as producing the <B> sound, right?
Sleep is mostly pretty awesome. For about 2 months, we've had nights with only 1 wake-up and several nights where he slept 10+ hours without waking up at all. A friend of mine did lots of research on dropping the night feeds and getting baby to sleep off the boob. She was reading the Ferber Method book and sharing what she read. I took her information and ran with it. Within just a few days, he had dropped his first feeding (hence the longer sleep patterns) and was able to fall asleep on his own without nursing. Both of these things have changed our lives drastically. Bedtime no longer lasts 45 minutes! We start at 7 with PJ's, massage, teeth brushing, and nursing. He's almost always asleep within 15-20 minutes of that. It's unreal and feels so good to have a little extra time at night to read, watch a show, spend time with Mr. Merman, and/or go to bed super early. Since the last blog post, we transitioned from the swaddle (arms out) to a sleep sack. He wasn't even phased by it and transitioned like it was no big deal.
He has begun to interact with the dog more by reaching out and grabbing her, taking her toys, making sounds at her when she whines or barks. He adores his dog and it is so fun to watch them together. Piper loves him too! She is so excited when he wakes in the morning. Running to his door, she can't wait to greet him. As soon as the door opens, she runs to the crib and starts trying to lick or touch him through the railings. He just smiles down at her while my heart is just melting away the whole time.
The in-laws are coming to visit this weekend. They haven't seen him since he was barely 3 months old so we're very glad they can come. They've both been having medical issues which has made it difficult to visit. I know they are heartbroken and I feel so terrible that we can't just hop on a plane to go see them. After speaking with the doctor, they decided to come visit now. My FIL will be having back surgery soon and the recovery could take a good bit of time.
I have a dentist appointment in the morning and will be leaving Merbaby with my dad. This man has 2 daughters and watched my niece all the time when she was a baby but I'm still nervous about it for some reason. I'll likely only be gone an hour (if that) and know everything will be fine but I'm still going over every little detail in my brain so that I don't forget to tell him.
Speaking of grandparents and surgeries, my mom had surgery on her foot right before Christmas so she's been recovering from that. We haven't asked her to babysit because we wanted her to be able to heal completely and not feel obligated to watch our kid. But she's doing better now and we've already got a couple of dates lined up for March. I'm looking forward to going out with my husband at night for a change. As much as I love this little guy, it's so nice to get out and have some adult time. I didn't realize how much I needed that time until the only sitter I trust had surgery... leaving us without any time together for over 2 months.
Hey, look! I finished another blog entry. It only took 2 days, 2 naps, and an hourish after bedtime to finally wrap it up. I love this new life of mine. Being a mom is even more amazing than I thought it would be. In all honesty, I think I have infertility to thank for that.
