Notes for my memory, not yer entertainment

The day after I wrote the last blog, she stopped being constipated. Prunes are fantastic and she loves them. She's been regular and great since. So far she's tried butternut (2 stars in her book), cauliflower (1 star), carrots (1 star), prunes (3 stars), greek yogurt (3 stars), sweet potato (3 stars), avo (no star), plums (3 stars, my book too). I make all her food with a variety of styles and textures (spices will be next month). She chews so nicely with her mouth closed. So polite.

She discovered her feet a week or so ago. When she is sitting, she holds her feet. When she is laying on the changing mat, she's got her feet in her hand. She almost put them in her mouth today so that stage isn't too far off. And when she is sitting in her high chair eating a non 3 star food, she watches her feet moving back and forth. Soooo cute.

She has also discovered her tongue. She sticks it out and sometimes chews it a little bit.

We took her to the beach for her second time on Saturday. She really does love the beach. Mommy and daddy aren't interesting when she's on the beach. I walked over to the line where the waves wash ashore and she freaking loved it. She was screaming with joy at each wave that came in.

She's been laughing for a few weeks now, but it is big work to get her to laugh. She'll give her smiles away all day but a laugh costs big money. Daddy has only heard her laugh once this past weekend. The almost guarantee to get her to laugh is me doing sit ups. Yup, sit ups crack her up. Not sure why. So I did a lot more sit ups the other day than I cared to do. That's when daddy heard her laugh. She'll squeal with joy but to get her to laugh is work. I love her laugh. Kinda reminds me of Beavis and Butthead...well, Butthead really.

Today, when I was putting her down for her second nap of the day, I walked out of the room to get something. Then I heard this woman going lalalala in a real sing song style (made up of course). I couldn't believe it. Singing already! So cute.

Feeling Stressed

My baby hasn't grown in length in 3 months. She's been stuck at 62cm for a long time. She is also quite constipated now (with the switching to the 6 month old formula). I'm like sweating bullets that I'm not doing a good job here. She is gaining weight and has enough wet diapers (at least 6) but her pee is looking a bit yellow. She drinks about 525-750ml of formula a day and she is content with that amount. But I've read that she should have at least 710ml now but on the other hand many many tell me she is too fat and drinks too much formula (including a nurse).

The constipation is stressing me so I try to give her water/baby rooibos tea (40-100ml a day). I never gave her much water until her 4 month mark when the teen tiny BMilk of mine ran out (and then it was about 30ml water/tea in a day to help her poo). But now I'm reading a baby shouldn't have water cuz it interferes with their mineral/vitamin absorption. Is this why she hasn't grown in length? She doesn't really even accept the water anyways. I've read that a little prune juice for baby is ok for the constipation so I bought prunes and boiled it and used the liquid as prune juice (1 tbsp with enough water to make 40ml). I pureed/strained the prunes and am giving a few tsp for her 3rd food intro for this 24hr period. She really strains and cries a bit when trying to poo, which of course makes me cry a lot! I don't want my baby in pain. I also don't want her to be fat and suffer in life like I have. It really sucks to be a chunky woman!!! I want her to be happy and healthy and fit.

I am still traumatized by the whole BF fiacso. I tried for 4 months to get her to latch. Barely any milk came out with an electric pump too. The thought of it still brings me to tears. I don't think it'll stop hurting until I see her grown up healthy and happy. I know this whole BF failure is what is causing her to be overweight, underheight, and constipated. She is quite happy tho (unless we're getting close to nap time whether she wants to nap or not-again, I'm sure it's lack of BF related). I wanna go to the paed but it is really really expensive and our medical aid wont cover a specialist for a routine check up. So, trying to go to GP for her 6 month check up (difficult to find a day with hubby's busy job and we only have 1 remote for the complex gate and I really don't wanna hit the sketchy streets of Parklands where our GP is with my precious little one without a car/hubby). On another note, she is quite lazy physcially. She rarely ever rolls. She hates tummy time. I wonder if she'll ever crawl.

Any moms out there experience/ experienced any of this????

Prunes all over her cutie face. She is a smart, happy, curious, funny, strong baby, I'll say that!! And I love her more than anything. I miss her when she is sleeping. She gets a million cuddles a day.  I want the best for her

6 Months

Well, we're halfway to a year. Baby is 6 months old...YAY! This age group of 6-9months is an exciting time including crawling, giggling endlessly and intro to solids. She had her first bites of butternut today. She was so extremely cute in her high chair. We are doing the BLW way which in a nut shell is baby leads the way. No real hard and fast rules other than don't put food in the baby's mouth and ensure the food is soft and conveniently shaped so baby can grip with her palm. Here is a link that explains baby-led-weaning nicely.

She was reaching for the butternut straight away. I helped place it in her palm and she put it straight into her mouth. She was chewing it and having fun. Then she dropped that piece in her hand and quickly reached for another one. Unfortunately, I had steamed it to be a bit too soft so it mushed and broke up before it got to her mouth. We tried a couple sliced chunks at noon and then a couple more chunks at 5pm. As barely any made it into her mouth (due to the mushyness), I took a spoon and put teeny bits on it and she brought the spoon to her mouth and took it off herself.

The first round, she did gag a bit as she bit off more than she could chew but she quickly learned not to put too much in her mouth. I'd say about 99% of the butternut ended up on her bib, high chair or floor. But that's ok. She's just learning about food and how eating works. The mantra of BLW is food under one is for fun as babies nutrition comes from milk.

A friend of mine who has 7 kids discovered BLW with her last baby and she said she had wished she'd known about it way before. She says her last baby is the best eater (not picky, doesn't overeat) which is what many who do BLW say about their babies.

The beauty of BLW is baby learns to chew before swallowing, is a less picky eater, and less likely to overeat as they control how much they want. The downfall is BLW is messy, very messy. Also, much patience is required. I was tempted to just take the butternut and mush it and feed it to her but I'm trying to keep my patience as I think it will pay off well in the long run.

Bottom line, baby really enjoyed her first experience with food. She was so relaxed and very in to it. Words cannot describe how cute the experience was. Another baby first!

Ps, this has nothing to do with BLW but since last Sunday baby has really gotten into babbling words like blebleble, mamamama, lalalala, dadadada, nananana. So adorable.

Pps, she has become so anti nap I go a little crazy during the day. She is tired when I take her for her nap but yhoo, she has no desire to sleep and throws a fit. It's a big exhausting job to get her to nap.