My 7 Months Old Starting Solids

My Baby at 7 Months Old:

I have not been posting a lot lately since we were on vacation for about 2 months and we hit a couple of rocks along the road with the little one, resuming in me not being able to do anything during the day, other than spend my time with him, playing, sleeping, feeding, etc. nothing else!

Today, I have returned to the writing of our baby process as a new mom, not easy, as he is still going through a next phase milestone, I am guessing, that he is just attached 100% to mommy.

Anyway, we have hit a new milestone, we are in the introduction of solids!!!

Yes, that does sound great, specially breastfeeding moms, that always need to be with the baby, as you are their only source of food. This new milestone is, I believe, more exciting for me than for him, he doesn't seem to interested, honestly.

We started about 3 weeks ago with solids, I have a list of what he's tried. At the beginning, it was very simple, I was not sure of what I was doing, my husband even clueless, but we gave him banana, 🍌 yes, a fruit! (I already was told that starting with fruits is not the right thing to do, as its sweet and then the baby won't like vegetables and so on, LECTURED! However, after my training course, I found out it does not matter what you start with, baby milk is sweet, so they are familiar with sweet taste, the important thing is to evolve so the baby gets the right nutrition)

This is our list so far:

*Need to add zucchini to this list, he also didn't have a reaction, but is not a zucchini lover.

At the very beginning it seemed like he was interested in food, as he was looking at us when we ate, he would open his mouth and simulate eating, but now, he just doesn't seem as interested, is more like playing for him.

I took a little training, as mentioned above, on starting your baby on solids and nutrition. A lot of information I found out about and of course, that I was introducing my baby to food a little bit different ( I was going to say "wrong", but that is really not the case, as long as you don't give him unhealthy food).

In summary, we have to introduce all food groups to our babies, almost since the beginning, of course it takes some time, but by the end of the first month, they should have tried them all. It works pretty easy. What we did, so we could catch up, we just started putting all the different groups for all his 3 meals, and make a new schedule where he eats. Since we had just 2 meals for him, some fruits or vegetables in the morning and some cereal in the evening.

By now, his schedule looks, somewhat, as follows:

Of course, for him, breastfeeding is still the main meal, so even though he ate, I still feed him before every nap and before bed.

Starting my baby on solids, comes with new challenges for our family life and in general, for me, as a new mom, there is still a lot I need to learn, in order to hit greatness in the most important task in life, being a parent.

We got some stuff at Amazon and local stores, to start this new phase, if interested, take a look at these items:

Maybe you find some of these useful, maybe not, but at least you have somewhat a guide of what your little one might need.
We did not buy any kind of food processor, we are using what we have at home already, but you can find some really cool ones. Not sure how much you really need those, but that's a personal decision!

The diaper horror story!

The Diaper Horror Story!

Since our baby was born we have had the same issues with the diapers, they leak!!!

Well, not the first weeks, but kind of after the first month, and with the first diaper size change. Of course, as I first time mom, I was not sure of when I had to change the diaper size for my baby. I tried looking it up on the internet, but I really did not find anything about it. It would mainly show information about cloth diapers, and well, we do not use those kinds, but the commercial and well-known disposable ones.

So, one of my questions on this was, how do I know it is time to change the size? Some my think, it is super easy, look at the kilograms indicated on the diapers packaging and your baby's weight. But, I have to say, it is not that easy. Plus, depending on every brand, the weight limits changes.

My baby was still between the limits of the size 1 diapers and it was time to move on to size 2, how did I know that? After many many many dirty clothes. The diapers seemed to fit ok still, but somehow it was one after the next onesie dirty with baby's poop or pee even.

I do not know how true this is, but I share with you what worked somewhat for us.

How to check for the right diaper size?

• look for the weight information on the diaper
• plus the way it fits on our baby, around the belly. 
• that is not too tight around the legs and belly
• also, your baby's size (cms/in)

As I understood, all of these points above are important to make sure you have the right size, but, most important of all, to know if the diaper works for you and you do not have the same leaking issue like us, is that the brand you are using is working for your baby.

Diaper brands

We have tried many different diaper brands, from the well know Pampers, to the store brand cheaper version.

Here a list of what we have used, what the diapers offer and what we found out after using them.

(None of these brands have paid us in any way to do any kind of testing or advertising, this is just our experience, and we want to share with you.)

• Pampers: this brand we all know, we tried the premium baby-dry diapers. According to the package, they hold up to 12 hours, have wetness indicators and keep the baby dry. Our experience: at the beginning seemed to work great, but then the leaking started. We tried changing the size to 2 and then to 3, but the leaking never stopped. It would not hold until the next morning, the pee will slip from time to time, and the poop pretty much most of the time.

•  BabyLove *DM brand: this one also offers 12 hours of protection, good with the distribution of the liquids, suction, and soft on the skin. Our experience: they are indeed good with the liquid intake, but also with some leaking (I started to wonder if maybe we were the issue or the baby), also not that soft on our baby's skin.

 

•  Lupilu *Lidl brand: This diapers also offer 12 hour protection, good with liquid absorption and soft to protect the baby's skin. Our experience: this diaper was great for us, we were so happy, because there was no more dirty clothing with poop leaking. However, to our disappointment, this diaper leaks the pee. We did not push it to the 12 hour protection, but still sometimes during changes in the middle of the night, I will have to complete undress the baby due to his clothes being wet.

• Mamia *Aldi brand: This diaper also says it has good liquid absorption, special suction canal, soft on the skin, dermatologically tested, without any extra substances or additives, protection from leakage. Our experience: so far, this is the best diaper we have tried. It does great on leakage protection, it does lasts for up to 12 hours, and its soft on the baby skin. So, finally we feel like we may have found the right diaper for our baby.

• Lillydoo: This is another diaper we are going to try, we have not yet, so there is not much I can tell you, but we have order the test package and will write a review after we are done with it.

So, we have not yet found the perfect diaper for our baby, we are still on the search, but it looks like the Aldi diapers might be the winners. It is important to try out different ones, before sticking with one brand, all brands are different and the same, but some have better marketing than others. However, the most expensive diaper is not necessarily going to be the best for your kid.

A lot of money is spent on diapers, better to choose wisely and with the most benefits!

Please let me know how your experience was!

Thanks for stopping by!

How I got my baby to sleep!

How I got my baby to sleep!

This is the million dollar question!

I started this post with one idea in mind, but since it has taken me over 2 weeks to finish it, I am changing the content and starting all over. The idea is the same, but what I wrote before was no longer relevant. Unfortunately, a baby not sleeping during the day or night, does not help to keep up with things as good as one would like to!

Any way, back to the topic. I/we have been struggling for a month with the baby not sleeping. For about 3 weeks was total nightmare, no naps during the day, very difficult to get him to sleep and during the night, no more 4-6 hours stretches of sleep, instead 2 up to 3 hours, but also every hour waking up.

Two weeks ago I started trying toys to concentrate him on falling asleep. It worked a couple of times, he will fall asleep without crying after listening to the toy for some minutes, but the nap would not last more than 45minutes. Then, this stopped working again. As I mentioned in the post before, I tried some of the sleep training things I read about. But, you know how it is, not all that you read on the internet you should do. Specially when it comes to baby sleep training. It is a VERY IMPORTANT factor to mention, that the baby should be at least 6 months old in order to start with this sleep training, specially in the cases of letting the baby cry.

In any case, I abandoned all sort of training stuff and focused on the well being of my baby and paying even closer attention to his needs and cues. Let me tell you, sometimes it does not matter how much you pay attention, you either still miss it, or its just a phase you definitely have to go through and things will settle on its own.

So, what worked for me during the day, was to help him fall asleep for the naps, there was some crying -not a lot-, but he will fall asleep after some walking around the room. Then, I found an incredible thing/tip, babies fall asleep when having a cloth over their eyes. I tried that before reading about it and by coincidence, we were at the store and he was super tired but not falling asleep. I was wearing him, but at some point I put my jacket over him and he closed his eyes in a second. So, I thought I should try that at home as well, and yes my baby fell asleep. After, I decided to look for information about this, because I was concerned that maybe that was not something good to do to the baby, but to my surprise, it was one of the tips to help them sleep.

At around 4 months, babies are taking in so many things from the world around them, developing their brain at a faster speed, that it is hard for them to just shut down and fall asleep. Reason why, this tip, together with laying them in bed before they are completely asleep, or letting them fall asleep in your arms while still (not rocking), etc. Which none of these tips work for me by the way, but the cloth over his eyes works. Of course, important to mention, when he is tired and is ready for a nap, otherwise, he fights it. This is important to pay attention to, so the baby gets his sleep when he needs it.

In any case, my baby turned 4 months now, and things are beginning to settle. I am not saying he is sleeping through the night or anything close to that, but we have established a better routine. Slowly, but steady. He wakes up at different times between 7-9am and for one and a half hours is happiness, then comes the whining and rubbing eyes, sometimes even crying and then I know its time for a nap.

During the day he eats every 3 hours approximately. So, I breastfeed him at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm and 7pm when its his time to go to bed for the night.
Between these times, he plays and takes his nap. He is not taking any long naps, like before, of 2 hours. His naps go from 45min to one hour, but he is following this routing pretty much to the point. Only trouble now, is that he naps most of the time in my arms, which is not ideal, but this is helping him to get the rest he needs during the day, to have a better sleep through the night.

Speaking of sleeping at night, last night, we had again a good night sleep. I put him down to bed at 7.30pm, had some issues and woke up half an hour later, but went back to sleep until 11.30pm, I fed him and he slept until shortly before 4am, one additional feeding and back to bed until 7am.

Most likely is still no time to celebrate that everything is going to get better, but we sure are in a good path for it.

I cannot tell you that things with babies are easy, and that after reading articles and blogs from other parents, you will master your own child. But, I can tell you to be patient, ask for support from your family and anyone willing to help; and things will improve, unfortunately it can be months of the same, but it can also surprise you from one day to the next.

I just want to say, be patient with your kid, what works for others might not work for your own, give your child love, that is what he needs the most. When he cries, is not to make you upset, or not to let you sleep, or not to let you clean the house or prepare a meal; when your baby cries, is because he needs you, needs you to hold him, to care for him, to be there for him, to ease his pain, any of them or all of them. HE JUST NEEDS YOU!

This post has no answers of what to do, it just has my experience with my baby, and the hopes that things improve at some point.

Thank you for stopping by!

All your comments are welcomed!

My baby won't sleep!

My Baby Won't Sleep!

Remember my last post with the perfect 3 months milestone and sleep routine??? Well, forget about it!!! My baby has decided he no longer wants to sleep during the day... or at night! Yes! At night!!!! Mama is suffering for real now!!!

My baby, the one that so perfectly slept for the first 3 months, just completely changed his sleep patterns!

I will try to finish this post as fast as possible, before he wakes up, I hope it does not have too many mistakes, but otherwise, is almost impossible for me to write anything. For the past week it was impossible to sit down to write something; either I was trying to put him down to sleep, trying to sleep myself or falling asleep with him in my arms. My husband is a great help, however, he also goes to work everyday, so I try to use him when he is home and can spend time with the little one, but at night, the least possible amount of time. I exclusively breastfeed, so it makes no sense for me to keep him up as well. Of course, I am exhausted, but this family does not need two exhausted parents, one needs to maintain the sanity!

Anyway, back to this post. I have read many articles about baby sleeping, sleep training, and other blog posts about how many moms have achieved to have their babies' sleep from the 6, 8 or 10 week on; this, as I believe, many other moms that are not sleeping, find it very frustrating. My baby has a routine since the early weeks, but HE HAS NEVER SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! He had, until two weeks ago, slept a maximum of 6 hours in a row, no more. I believe this can be because he is a exclusively breastfed baby? Not sure, please, if you know this, share it with me! Maybe bottle fed babies' have this advantage? My husband has suggested this by the way, to give him a bottle at night, but for me, this just means being selfish, just because now I feel tired, I want to change his feeding, do not think so.

To manage this situation, I have done the following things, some of these things were a mistake, but hey, I am learning!

• First thing, the sleeping routine for the night. This is something good to do, works for both, babies and parents. It creates a schedule for them, that helps with the sleeping through the night *not for all kids, but helps with an improvement on their night sleep*; and also gives the parents time to do their thing and to spend some time together. And even, moms can join the baby going early to bed, to take advantage of the extra sleeping hours.
• Second, read a lot about babies that do not sleep, either at night or naps. This gives you a better view on the sleeping techniques that exist for babies and possible solutions for your baby's sleeping issues and solutions, depending on their age. As well as letting you know that any baby under 6 months will have sleeping problems; and letting you know that you are not alone, even though you will find all these posts about "How I got my baby to sleep by 6, 8, 10 weeks..."
• Third, put all together into my current situation. This means, I kept on with my baby's night routine, trying to combine it with a nap routine during the day, which basically consists of observing my baby for tiredness cues and feeding him, rocking him, giving him the pacifier, until he falls asleep. Putting him into his crib for the nap time and, in the cases of him waking up before the 2 hours 'need of sleep', letting him sleep in my arms.
• Fourth, letting my baby cry. This part, I did before the third one, but it was TOTALLY WRONG! That is why is coming after, as this was one of my mistakes.
• Is very important to read a lot before trying to find a way to get your baby to sleep. Why? Because, you find tons of information about sleep training right away, specially blog posts of other parents' experiences of their baby sleeping through the night, which on one hand, make you feel even worse about your situation and second, some do not specify that sleep trainings are age related, and that if your baby is under 6 months, sleep training will not work or will worsen the situation, as the baby's brain has not reach a maturity to understand and assimilate the sleep training yet.
• I have learned, that babies between 3 to 5 months experience the so called "sleep regression", which is an important milestone on brain development and learning of sleep patterns. And this can be the cause for the baby not sleeping. Naturally, you have to rule out serious sleep conditions on your baby, but for the most part, this will be the case.
• So, after reading all these blogs and before finding all the right information, I tried letting him cry, it worked one time, he fell asleep, but for the most part, it only made it worse; and, I felt like the worst mom, after, I was not only exhausted, but also depressed, for letting my baby cry. We are not the kind of parents that let their baby cry, he barely makes a sound and we pick him up and comfort him, feed him or whatever he needs, so, doing this for a day crushed my heart. Specially, because letting your baby cry can generate so many psychological issues for the rest of his life and during this moment, tire him and his brain out, not really teach him a valuable lesson.

Bottom line, we are still struggling with him not sleeping, I am struggling keeping myself awake and at the same time, trying to have a life and keep the house in order. It is hard to do everything at the same time. So, I would say, give him all the love your heart has to give, try to calm yourself down and think this is only a phase and it will pass. Ask for help, take turns with your partner to take care of the baby and even ask grandma, grandpa for support. And ANYONE that is willing to be there for you and your baby. (I suck at this, but it is a great advice!)

A little summary on this:

• hold your baby if he needs to be held, 
• pay attention to him and his cues for when he is tired,
• important is, do not let him get overtired, about 20min over his sleep time, will get him to this point and make it harder to make him sleep.
• do whatever it takes for him to fall asleep (feed, hold, pacifier),
• when he finally sleeps, take advantage of this and sleep as well, the rest can wait!

If you have any comments, questions, complaints, suggestions, etc, please leave them down!

Thanks for stopping by and reading!