May 2010 Mamas and babes - want an update!

[HonkyTonka]

Hey May 2010 Mamas!

How is everyone doing? What is your babe up to?

For us, we are currently working on getting G to sleep in her crib - again. She STTN in her crib in our room until 5 months. Then, she decided to start waking every 45 minutes - 2 hours. It was hard going from 10 hours uninterrupted to 5-10 night wakings! I got 4 colds and 1 bout of strep throat. It sucked. It was also taking us 1-2 hours to get her to go to nap (in our arms/nursing). She was not sleeping very much at this point (maybe 9 hours at night (cosleeping) then three 40 minute naps...) so we had to make a change. Anyway, we are making some progress, thankfully. The bags under her eyes are slowly disappearing.

Otherwise she's a lovely little girl. She's crawling, but doesn't do a lot of it because she's most interested in standing. She cruises slowly. She's not a great roller, but can get from tummy to sitting to standing in seconds. She is currently in a quiet phase where all she says is "oo oo". Two weeks ago she would say "dada". My DH would say "dada" and she would respond with "dada". So cute!

We're doing BLW and G is loving it! I'm not holding back on any foods except dairy and citrus. I don't really know why I picked those two but I did. She's a great self feeder and has a wonderful pincer grasp which she practices on me! 

[To-Fu]

Hiiii!  So nice to see an update thread in here.

We're also doing BLW and delayed solids.  So far my guy has only played around with stuff like apple chunks, carrot sticks, avocado, and banana.  We aren't in any hurry.  He looked so betrayed the time he actually ate some banana. :P

He has no teeth (his brother had teeth by now), but he's pulling up on the furniture and cruising a bit (what?!), and crawling like a pro.  He also bobs his head like a pigeon and has little dance parties when we turn on the music. 

Sleep is hard.  All four of us sleep in the bed together and I find that the baby wakes up around 5a every day (no matter what time we put him to bed the night before).  If I don't get him out of there, he'll get noisy and wake up his brother.  We want the big brother to get as much sleep as possible or everyone suffers, heh.  But if I leave, he's usually downstairs within a half hour or less anyway.  I feel like it's a catch-22.  And I am so, so tired.

I hope other mamas will post!

[HonkyTonka]

We also have no teeth over here!

Sounds like a sucky sleep situation. Hope you can find some rest somewhere, somehow, someday...

[NullSet]

It's nice to see people posting!  We are doing well.

We do BLW too.  Not really for any reason other than that I am lazy, lol.  It's so much easier to go with the flow!  Dd has tried a bunch of random stuff (bananas, peas, carrots...), she's not a huge fan of actually eating anything though.  I did buy some Baby Mum Mums the other day and she loved those darn things.  I feel a tad guilty as they have some sugar and salt...

And dd has seven teeth!  We were joking when she was 7 months that it was 7 teeth for 7 months.  I feel like she is growing too fast and I can barely keep up.

I'll post more later!

[NicolleLynne]

Hi All,

My little one was a late May babe, 5/26. She's just beginning to crawl but far more interested in standing and practice walking. The moment I set her down she's reaching out for my hands to pull herself up again, both adorable and little exasperating. We're also doing BLW but so far DD's had little interest and being kind of overwhelmed with life and work, I'm content to just keep going with BF for the time being. She has nubbed a bit on carrots, apples and sweet potato chunks.

We have no teeth as of yet but she's drooling and gnawing like mad so I'm thinking any day now.

Speech-wise we have "Muh-muh!" and "Bah!". I think the first is either "mama" or "milk". "Bah", I don't know but it sure is cute!

Best wishes to all the May mamas and babes!

[NWnewmom]

Hi May mamas.

DS was born on the 8th so is just now 8 months old.  He LOVES standing but could care less about crawling, he gets really frustrated.  He pushes himself in a circle to which ever direction I am at.  He's very much a mama's boy right now.  He can roll either way easily and recently I have been finding him on his belly when he wakes up crying at night.  I feel like he's at the verge of crawling but he hasn't gone to hands and knees even once...

Ahh, sleep.  This has been our biggest struggle.  He was doing well, only 2-3 wake ups at night and then just this week he has been waking EVERY hour!  We are all so tired.  I read something about sleep regression at 8 months, if that's the case he sure has it.  Since about 2 or 3 months he has been a great napper, at least 1-2 hours each time, this week his naps have been wonky too.

DS has 5 teeth and is working on two more I can see!  Were doing combo BLW; he just started showing real interest in food about 2 weeks ago.  We hear all sorts of things from da-da to coo-ing to random made-up words, I feel like he's very vocal (although I don't have any other baby to compare to). 

We just found out a week ago that (gasp, BIG SURPRISE) we are expecting baby number 2 in September.  They will be 16 months apart.  I'm in shock and I don't think it's quite real yet.  I am getting just a little more excited about it each day.  

[Zangua]

Hey Mamas,

Amaya is doing wonderfully. She is such a happy, smiley baby. She is gaining a real sense of humor- she can direct peekaboo on her own, chase me, dh or the cat around the house and laughs hysterically when she catches us, loves to be chased by us as well and totally dances/shakes/waves her arms when we turn on music or sing to her. She is also way more interested in walking than crawling. It's her primary focus these days.

She loves to eat EVERYTHING- sushi (avocado rolls), lentil soup, avocado, spinach and veggies and fruits of all sorts, hummus... she really likes food. We also do BLW and it has just sort of naturally happened that she eats 3 meals a day and then nurses to supplement in between. She wakes up once at night to nurse- although the last few days she has been teething/has a cold so she has been up more and fussy which is no fun for anyone. We also just transitioned her to her own bed. I think she sleeps better/longer than when she was between us. I know I do. I tend to bring her into the bed in the early morning, so we can get our cuddle time in.

I am slowly transitioning back into full time work (as a midwife), so she is in daycare. She seems to like it, but damn if she doesn't catch every germ every other kid has. She has had a non stop cold for weeks. Meh

Love hearing from all of you!

[Shannie77]

I am so glad to see this thread!!

Maisie was born on May 26, so she is just over 7 months - she is 27.5 inches and 17 pounds.  She is a really happy baby and truly adores her big sister (3.5).  It is amazing to see the bond they have already.  Maisie just wants to do everything Everly does, luckily Everly is quite good about playing with her.  Everly is also a great helper which is a wonderful surprise!  

She has been crawling for a couple months now.  She is EVERYWHERE.  She is cruising now, and doing the stairs.  She tries to stand on her own (or perhaps she just forgets she still needs to hold on :P)  Her sister walked at 9 months so it won't surprise me if Maisie is walking in the next couple of months.

She has no teeth or signs of teeth.  She really hasn't started solids.  I usually give her an apple or pear to suck on while we eat but that is about it.  She just isn't too interested.  I am planning on delaying grains until she is well past a year - her sister is gluten sensitive so this seemed like a good idea.

She is babbling a bit.  Mostly just Gooo Gooo and Daaaa Daaaa.  She started signing milk a month ago but then stopped.... probably because I got lazy with remembering to sign.  

I sleep in a queen with her and her big sister (Dad is in another room).  My 3 year old is still nursing a lot at night.  Maisie probably wakes up once or twice and big sister 2-3 times.  I am pretty tired!!  At this point I think I will night wean them together next fall. :P

Can't wait to hear from more of the May 2010 mommies!

[wannaBmom_NICU_RN]

Hi All!

  Josiah was born on his due date 5/31, so we're just over 7mo.  He's about 18lbs. Has 4 teeth with a 5th coming soon.  No crawling yet, he'd much rather stand and cruise anyways! 

    We're doing BLW as well. Started at 6mo., so end of November, was very frustrating because he has such a sensitive gag reflex whish results in a big spit up, yuck! But about a week ago he stopped spitting up and started swallowing and yesterday saw a change in his diapers finally!

    He slept 8-10 hrs during the night for the first 3mo. then started waking frequently since then, so a couple weeks ago we went back to an early bedtime and more consistent bedtime routine with some success.   He's sleeping 6hr stretches most nights now which is a big relief!

   Glad to catch up w/ you all!

[KSDoulaMama]

Well, Grace and I are doing great. I can not believe she is almost 8 months old. It seems like just the other day we were all waiting for these babies to be born. I have to say, being a mom is a whole heck of a lot more fun and less tiring than being pregnant!

You can add my little girl to the list of toothless babies. She has none yet and I am perfectly happy with that! She went through a short phase of biting with her gums and that was painful enough. Grace is a little talker. She can make all kinds of noises including ma ma ma and all variety of gurgling and clucking. She could care less about moving around and has only recently started really getting around on the floor. Mostly she rolls, and she's figured out how to pivot, but she's not crawling just yet. She'd like to move forward but the best she can do is scoot backwards with her arms. She is still a happy little thing and she is smiley as can be. She loves to nurse and co-breastfeeding is still going well with my wife. Gracie has tried solids but isn't a huge fan yet. She's slowly getting there, but we're not pushing it too much. We are doing semi-baby led weaning meaning that I feel like it's baby led but we do a few purees here and there. She is not tolerant of too many textures of food so I'm trying to give her lots of options. So far, her favorite thing is gnawing on apple slices with her gums.

As far as me, I was able to be a full time SAHM for the first six months, and even though our budget was super tight it was wonderful. I am now easing into working full time (part time WAHM, part time WOHM), and we have a great situation where Grace never has to go to daycare. I am taking care of a friend's little boy during the day while she works. She's a substitute teacher and she's just beginning work again now that her son is 10 weeks old. She's working 2-3 days per week and will be increasing as she feels comfortable doing so. I am also directing an after school program site for the YMCA, which is about 2.5 hours per afternoon and it works perfectly with our schedule so I can babysit during the day and DW can be there for our daughter in the evening. And, it's short enough that I don't have to pump while I'm at work. I've also been plugging away with my Etsy shop which is fun and earns a little cash here and there. (GracieBabyDesigns.etsy.com)

Anyway, it's nice to see people's updates. Hope more people post, I'd love to read more!

[trumpcard]

Hello May Mamas!

N was born 5/19 so we are coming up on 8 months. She weighs 20 lbs. and has been around that weight for quite some time. She is stretching out though, I notice that pants that were long on her the last time she wore them are fitting much better now. We started BLW just before 7 months and she LOVES eating. I noticed a change in her diapers very early on in the process and there has been no looking back for her. She still loves her mama's milk though and she nurses more now than before we started solids. She doesn't have any teeth yet and I don't expect them for at least another month. I was almost 10 months old before I cut my first tooth.

She is not crawling and sometimes I wonder if she ever will. She has always hated being on her tummy and when she figured out how to flip over when she was 4 months old she essentially ended tummy time forever. I put her on her belly several times every day and she looks at me like I'm crazy and flips over onto her back within seconds. :) She loves to stand and bounce in my lap but isn't cruising yet at all. 

N likes "talking" and "singing" and I am noticing more and more sounds everyday.  We started swim class in the new year and she was a bit hesitant the first 5 minutes and then decided it was the best thing ever! We are still happily co-sleeping and she wakes several times in the night to nurse. I am sometimes tempted to transition her to her own bed for some better rest but DH and I both adore co-sleeping so I think I'll just continue with the sleep deprivation a little longer. 

I look forward to hearing from other May Mamas!

[LaydieBugs]

DS came 5/22, right on his due date, and is doing well ...

We're doing the Sears vaccine schedule for the most part, but a move across the country added some delay.  Now we're in Iowa, where the vaccines come from the health department instead of the doctor.  Not having insurance, it's great for us that it's just $10/visit ... so we can do our alternate schedule without big financial penalties.

We've got five teeth.  Two popped up 10/5, and another three came around Christmas.  He seems to have mouth pain every month when I'm on my period, since his third month.  Hyland's teething gel, Tylenol, and Ibuprofen help a lot. 

No crawling, but a lot of rolling and scooting on his belly, and wanting very much to pull up on me to stand. 

As a child of a speech pathologist who specialized in early child development, I try not to press the speech too much, but we've got some repetitive consonant-vowel combos.  He started clapping along with "AAAAYYYY" this week, miming our clapping with "YAY".  We'll start baby sign this week, to help him communicate until the fine motor skills permit speech. 

He LOVES to watch Animusic and Stomp while in his swing -- the way I tend to get dinner on the table.  Thankfully Animusic is fun for me to watch/listen to also (clips in YouTube ... it's really amazing).  He also still goes to sleep best to Def Leppard, to my chagrin, but is branching out to reggae. 

He's at 75 percentile in height and weight, up from 50 in both at 2 months.  We credit a policy of feeding on demand and cosleeping with his excellent growth. 

Mom is not getting much sleep still, his waking schedule has not changed much since he was born.  (In fact it still is almost identical to the night he was born).  He sleeps with me in a full size bed, and I've never never slept well ... I'm wondering if *I* might be keeping *him* up, and if he's frustrated that *I* have not yet started sleeping through the night ;-)  BUT, he and I mastered side-laying nursing a long time ago, so usually all I do is slip back close to him and let him find his way, and go back to sleep.  The past few weeks though, he needs me to pick him up when he wakes up, and he's been grabbing for the other nipple a lot, so I have to wake up enough to pick him up, put him on the other side of me, re-situate him, and quickly cover the nipple that is "off"! 

Still not one diaper rash, thanks to the cloth I think. 

Solids are coming along using a schedule for allergy prone babies that I found through the Kelly Mom website.  His Dad has food sensitivities, which we found through IgG blood tests while I was pregnant.  Turned out I can't eat those foods when nursing, or he gets colic and eczema ... but I'm hoping that a careful introduction to solids can help him avoid long term allergies himself.  The solids are mostly for fun, though I'm not following BLW principles (he loves to be spoon fed, and hates chunks).  He doesn't eat solids every day, even.  His favorites so far are turkey and lamb. 

[katelove]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for starting this thread, it's great to read what everyone is up to. It seems like we have a group of toothless movers

Juliet is just gorgeous. She was born at 41+6 so will be 8 months on Wednesday. No teeth and no teething either but apparently my brother and I didn't get teeth until 10 months so maybe she takes after us. She is very chatty, saying "baba", "mama" and "dada" and a couple of times she has said "mam!" very emphatically to me

We are still co-sleeping and still loving it. She wakes a few times overnight to feed but I don't feel ridiculously sleep deprived like I thought I would. I'm sure it helps that DH takes her every morning at 5:30am when she wakes up so I can sleep in. I haven't mastered sleeping while she feeds though. At best I doze on and off.

We're doing BLW too and she is loving it.  We're not doing any meat or grains so far and she's only had a tiny bit of dairy so it's all just fruit and veges. Favourites are watermelon, apricot and pumpkin. We don't really have regular meals at this stage. She usually has breakfast with DH but the rest of the day just depends whether she's awake or not. Some days she has 3 meals and some days she has none. I'm ok with that though, I'm not ready to stop being the primary food source just yet!

Think that's all from us. Great to hear from everyone.

No crawling or cruising here either. She can go from lying to sitting on her own and can sort of get on her hands and knees but she keeps one foot tucked into the opposite knee. She *loves* standing though. She'd probably be more mobile except for the fact that she really only moves when we're on the bed. No idea why. She will fling herself around all over the place but when we're on the floor she is happy to just sit or stand. She may get that from me

[maydaymom10]

Hi all! This post is so fun. L turned 8 mos last months & I still can't believe it. Needless to say we're doing great. The first few months were a challenge with L's reflux and colic, but now he's very mellow and happy little man. The change is remarkable.

He's been sleeping in his own bed for months now, but just recently starting STTN, or at least getting so long spans in (5-8 hrs). Last week he caught a bug and was up more, and last night he woke up twice. I don't know if we're reversing our progress, but I kind of hope not. He usually goes down around 7:30 and is up about 6. I bring him in with me until 7 or so for some good cuddle time. I also take advantage of the times that I'm home to get a good nap in with him. He still loves his naptime "boob buffet" when offered

L was a bit underweight at his 6 mo visit, so they had me go ahead and start solids with him. My milk supply has been up and down, mostly due to the fact that I've been back at work since August. He's an OK eater. I usually offer solids 3x a day and then just let him decide if he's hungry and how much he wants. Sometimes it's a couple spoonfuls, other times it's a cup.  He loves his orange foods - squash, yams, carrots, etc & is also a big fan of spaghetti. I try to at least make my own food which is fun for me. I've try some of the BLW techniques, but he really prefers the purees to the chunks right now. We're still working on the pincer grasp.

We have no crawling or teeth. I evidently didn't get my first tooth until 15 months! DH got his at 5 months & my sister's kids got theirs at about 10 mos, so I figure it could be any day. L seems really eager to crawl, but just hasn't figured it out how to stay up on his hands and knees and go. He spins around and pushes himself backwards, but no forward motion yet. He loves to stand on my lap and bounce, but hasn't tried standing on the ground yet. Although I'm looking forward to him getting more mobile, we're not quite ready for it. He also really loves music, which is great since I'm constantly singing silly songs to him. :D

As for me, I'm back at work part-time, so I have DS in the mornings and then he goes to daycare in the afternoons. He really seems to like it there & the staff loves him. We even have some of his artwork posted on our fridge. The downside is that he's caught a lot of colds. As much as I'd love to have him home with me full time, it's just not going to work out for our family for me to me a SAHM. As a teacher, at least I get breaks and summers with him.

Glad to hear that everyone else is doing so well. Can't wait to hear more as this year goes on.

[pleasantlyfurious]

Hi Mamas!!  It's nice to see some familiar names!  Leo is doing great.  Crawling, pulling up and even cruising a little.  He has two bottom teeth and we are doing some BLW which he showed very little interest in until this last week and today he ate a TON (well, for a baby).  It's really starting to show in his poo which makes diaper laundry less fun.  He's unpredictable as far as sleep goes - which can get trying at times, but I'm grateful this is our biggest battle.  I'm holding up pretty well, too.  I love being a mom and love staying home.  My relationship hit a few bumps in the first few months of parenthood (nothing really major, but significant for us) but we are finding our way back.  I could still stand to lose some of this weight that I was hoping would melt off with BFing (ha!), but overall feel good and almost ready to consider another one   I'd love to see pictures of all these babies that I still think of as tiny squishies!  Here's chef Leo...

[Mommabean]

Hello!!

Well Sweet T will be 8 months on the 29th, she started crawling Thanksgiving afternoon and is now at a full on crawl.  She figured out the 2 inch step out of the family room and will fervently crawl after me when I leave a room.  Hit the hallway and cal out a "heh!"  ..too cute she looks so tiny sitting there calling out!  She started to call out Boo towards only me a couple months back, dh and I totally believe she was calling me boobs (so does the rest of the fam)...so we've been working on getting her to call me momma...but I think I'm still boobs.  She got a push and ride toy at Christmas and will walk around with it and I just can't believe I may have an early walker, How scary I'm not ready!

We too do BLW and she loves just about nothing haha...So I had to revert to some organic baby foods to start getting her to taste things at least, a great friend gave me tons for free...slowly she is finally eating different foods but it's taken the better part of 5 weeks trying so many different combos...she just seemed to hate the taste of everything she would try, the looks and shakes she would give were way too funny.

No teethe here either, so we're a toothless almost walking crusin mess like the rest of you all ;)

[KSDoulaMama]

Good idea about the pictures!

Here's one of our happy girl sitting in a restaurant:

And here's one of my favorites!!!

[HonkyTonka]

Here's my gal during our xmas photoshoot

and this is how it ended...

[stephbrownthinks]

My DS was born May 3rd, the day after his due date! He has 2 teeth on the bottom and is crawling all over the place. We waited to start solids until 8 months and now he just wants to eat everything. We're doing BLW and so far his favorites are enchilladas, and quinoa salad with onion and avocado. He definitely prefers the savory to the sweet.

We have been so lucky, he is such a charming, funny, EASY baby. I already want another. I keep telling my husband if I knew they would all be like this, I could have 8 babies:) He hasn't been sick yet *knock on wood.* Not even a diaper rash! It is so fun watching him figure out and learn new things. His favorite right now is clapping. After he started crawling, we moved him to a Montessori style floor bed (he doesn't do well co-sleeping most of the time) and it has been a great success. In the morning when he wakes up he talks and sings and climbs over to his shelf and plays with his books and bead maze. He's started crawling into bed and laying himself down when he's sleepy too! All in all he is just a snuggly, happy, giggly little guy. This is from a trip to the snow this Christmas:

[maydaymom10]

I love all the pics. I thought I'd post one of Liam to add to my previous post.