Milestones, strollers, baby-wearing, and co-sleeping

It’s been a while since I did an update on how things are going with me and my new world of mommyhood.

Baby J is about 5 months and 1 week old. He’s been sitting up for couple of months, but had to lean forward with his weight on his hands to balance. He just started balancing yesterday without his hands! Look at my big boy (ignore the sock coming out of his head):

He has a really big head, I know. He’s like Megamind.

Baby-wearing advocates may not like to hear this, but I’m pretty sure that he’s sitting up this well because I’ve been using the stroller the last few weeks, not the carrier. Don’t get me wrong, I think baby carriers have their place, most definitely, and I’m sure they do help babies work out their core muscles. But the last few weeks, we’ve been spending long hours away from home, and the stroller is great for this. I can recline it so Baby J can sleep. He doesn’t sleep that well in his carrier now that he’s bigger. I have a place for the diaper bag (I always take a big one if we’re going to be gone for long), a wet bag for used diapers, shopping bags, cups, sunglasses, baby toys, etc. When he sits in the stroller, he does not want to lean back. He’s been insisting on sitting straight up, away from the back rest of the stroller, and I think he’s just really been developing those core muscles due to this.

We also stopped co-sleeping (for the most part) with Baby J. Co-sleeping advocates won’t like this one either, but Baby J is sleeping better away from us. After observing him in the bedroom with J and I, I realized he most likely would sleep better away from us. He’s a light sleeper, and my husband is a terrible snorer. I usually come to bed late, and that also wakes him up. If one of us gets up to use the bathroom, that wakes him up too, etc. We finally set the crib up, bought a monitor, and he’s been in his own room for about a week. I still usually bring him into bed with me once J leaves for work, but other than that…he’s on his own. And it’s working. He’s sleeping much better and for longer periods. Initially, I would go in his room constantly to check on him, but most of the time when I would do that…I end up waking him up. Oops! I think if we’d done this sooner, we all might have had more sleep, but I think the lack of sleep was worth it to have him close to us when he was going through the highest SIDS-risk age. I don’t worry as much about him now that he’s older, bigger, and very good at rolling.

In a few weeks, I’ll be starting Baby J on solids, and I’m excited to reach this new milestone! I haven’t decided yet what foods to start him with. I’ve talked to a bunch of other moms and gotten so many different opinions. I do not plan on practicing baby-led weaning for a couple of reasons, one being that I have a Baby Brezza my mom bought me, so I’m going to get use out of the thing!

What do you suggest? What food should I start with? Veggies, fruit, meat, cereal?

You may also like

8 Comments

  1. It’s funny, I was thinking back, and I couldn’t remember for sure past the first couple of foods. I kept a food journal in case of any reactions (my pediatrician highly recommended). So now that I was curious and annoyed that I couldn’t remember, I went back and checked. I know we did cereal first because I wanted to be getting the iron into him. After that, I did a new food every few days. I tried to introduce a variety, so I could get him different kinds and colors of food. These were my first few:
    1. cereal
    2. butternut squash (you can get A LOT of baby food out of one squash – I cut in half and oven roast with the skin on, which means no peeling!)
    3. Apple (he was not a big fan of this one at first)
    4. sweet potato
    5. peas (you also can get A LOT of baby food out of a bag of frozen peas very inexpensively)
    6. avocado (he loves this one… I think with my next baby, I might do that one sooner… it’s nice because you don’t have to cook it.)
    7. pears (another favorite)
    8. mango (too much work for not very much fruit, I thought, but I do throw it in occasionally or buy it as packaged food)
    9. turkey
    10. cherries (I’ve done both frozen and fresh.)

    There are a lot of websites with ideas. If you’ve spent any time looking, you’ve probably run across http://weelicious.com/. I also got this book that had a lot of good info and ideas for prep and combos to do: http://www.amazon.com/Parenting-Love-Spoonfuls-Editors-Magazine/dp/0811871312/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350309336&sr=1-2&keywords=baby+food+parenting+magazine I’m still using things out of it regularly.

    We waited until almost 6 months to do solids, but ever since he’s started on solids, he LOVES to eat. There have been very few things he hasn’t wolfed down. I am thankful I got such a great eater.

    1. I’m definitely going to keep a journal. The cereal seems like a “safe” start, so that might be what I go with. Then again, he may hate the texture, but I think a box is only a couple of bucks, so it’s not a big waste.

  2. I started with baby cereal….he pretty much hated it at first….I think the texture bothered him (he is highly sensitive to textures) His favorite baby food was sweet potatoes and it is a perfect time of year for that as well since if you want to you can make him fresh sweet potatoes.

  3. Great post. I am sorry co-sleeping wasn’t working for you. I think you have to learn your children and then you get a better sense of what works. With my first she slept better on her own and my second slept better with us because he was breast fed and my third I think likes it both ways it depends on his mood. As for the foods keep a journal because there will be stuff he eats immediately and others he won’t want to eat as much. Hold off on meat until he is a little older and just try cereals and fruits for now. Good luck

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.