One big fat baby update

I have several emails in my inbox that are more than a month old and just waiting for some replies, and most of them are baby related.  So, I thought I would finally get right down to it and download a whole bunch of updates in the surviving-life-with-a-baby-turned-toddler category.

I can hardly remember where I left off, but I’m pretty sure it was my 10-month product round up in October and my lame post about baby food purees back in August.  So yeah, an update is probably in order.

First, let’s see how far we’ve come in a year’s time.  Here is Ike back on February 9, 2011, all bundled and ready for a car ride:

And here he is now, all bundled and ready for a car ride:

Sorry, I have to show off my child’s cool outerwear any time I can.  Now we can get down to business.

Eating
Let’s skip back to when we started solids.  We didn’t start solid foods in earnest until the 6 month mark.  We tried a bit earlier, but Ike really didn’t have any interest in solids until around the same time his first tooth came in.  We started off with simple pureed fruits and some yogurt one time a day (at lunch) and eventually added in dinner.  At the same time he was still having four bottles a day (pumped breastmilk supplemented with small amounts of formula) at 6:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.  I didn’t add in a third solid meal until around the 10-month mark, which was about the same time we really started pushing finger foods.  A common breakfast was baby oatmeal mixed with some mashed banana, a common lunch was yogurt with pureed fruit, and a common dinner was often pureed chicken mixed with some apple and paired with a vegetable (he loved things like pumpkin or sweet potato the best).

Using puffs and rice rusks, we slowly introduced finger foods to Ike.  Then we graduated to pieces of banana, cheese and bread paired with spoon-fed items.  Now we hand Ike anything from a half graham cracker, Cheerios and goldfish, to small pieces of pizza, chicken, ground turkey, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, apples, pasta…basically we’ll let him try anything.  He has had tuna fish, peanut butter and eggs all with no problem.  He adores grilled cheese and will chow down a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the go.

I use our pizza slicer to create bite-sized grilled cheese pieces...

These days we are trying to push independent eating and I only spoon feed purees if I am worried he hasn’t had a good share of fruit or vegetable that day.  My best piece of advice I have around independent eating is to just give the kid what you’re eating.  There have been so many times that I have made something special for Ike to eat for dinner because I think he will just love it and he refuses to eat it, opting for a slice of cheese.  It’s hard to cook special meals for a little human who has no idea what he really wants!

Drinking
Around the 10-month mark, we switched to full-on formula (up until that point he was still having breast milk for 3 out of 4 bottles.)  The transition to formula was totally fine because he had been having a little bit here and there for a couple months.  Right around 12 months we started mixing whole milk into the formula and after a couple of weeks he was drinking all milk.   He still drinks anywhere between 20 and 30 ounces of milk a day (which will come up again when we get to the diapering section ). Up until just a couple of weeks ago, a bottle was still Ike’s beverage dispenser of choice, but we have finally found a learner sippy cup that he will accept.  It’s been a hard transition, but we’re getting there.  For the longest time, we would let Ike drink his bottle while propped up on a pillow on the floor.  When he saw his bottle he would speed race to the living room and roll over on the floor.  It was adorable, but we knew we needed to transition to sitting while drinking.  So, these days he is reclining in his high chair for milk time…usually reluctantly so.  But we’re making progress.

Sleeping
I’ve said it once before and I will say it again:  The Baby Sleep Solution book worked so well for us that I would literally throw it from roof tops to new mothers everywhere.  Ike goes to bed between 6:30 and 7 p.m. and wakes up between 6 and 6:30 a.m.  Without a single exception, he has slept through the night, home or away, from the age of about 4 months on.  Through teething, through sickness, through everything (except that night recently when EVERY smoke detector went off at midnight for no apparent reason…but he went right back to sleep).  I don’t mean to share this in any bragging sense at all.  It’s just the cold, hard facts, and I thank my lucky stars every. single. day.

Diapering
As much as it pains me to admit it, we are taking a temporary break from cloth diapers effective about two weeks ago.  Our little guy is regular, but let’s just say that his style of regular is every two days or so and in large, messy quantities…if you get my drift.  Aside from wrapping his bum in a garbage bag, there was just no way one of his “little” explosions was going to stay in the cloth diaper.  So, after a fateful day when Ike somehow managed to crawl out of his pants and across two carpeted floors at daycare, leaving a trail of you-know-what behind him, our daycare provider and I agreed that we would use the amazing poop-containing disposables until Ike was past this stage.  And then I promptly made her a tray of brownies (we’ll call it a poop peace offering). We’re thinking that his amount of milk intake is still high compared to his solid foods and, well, it shows.  I’ve considered doing cloth diapers at home only, but to me it seems like an all or nothing process.  We’re planning to get back on the cloth track once our little guy is a little more…solid.

Teething
Ike got his first tooth around 6 months (a bottom tooth), followed by a second bottom tooth and two top front teeth.  In the time since he’s earned himself four more front teeth (so four on top, four on the bottom) and 2.5 molars.  For the most part, the only sign of teething for Ike has been drool.  He gets a little irritable, but generally teething has been a non-issue for us.

Daycaring
Ike is still spending his week days at the same daycare (we call it baby camp) and he seems to be thriving.  Someone recently asked me how to go about finding a day care provider.  Where we live it is particularly tough because there are so few options, and the good options are hard to get into.  We originally had our eye on a daycare center, but the waiting list was over a year.  After great reviews and references, we went with our current daycare provider who runs her business out of her home.  My best advice to anyone looking for daycare providers (whether it’s before you’re pregnant, while you’re pregnant, or after your baby is born) is to ask around.  Ask friends and family members who they used, why they liked that daycare and what they would have done differently.  Check references, check certifications, make visits and follow your gut instinct.  Admit to yourself that no daycare situation is going to be absolutely perfect, pick your priorities, and then find someone who fits them.

I’ve thought a lot about this, and there are two things that consistently make me feel confident in our daycare choice.  First, our provider notices things about my son that I think only I would know; she is clearly paying attention and appreciating his quirks and personality traits.  Second, she teaches me things and treats me like a partner.  We can bounce ideas off each other about how to tackle that sippy cup, or we can have an honest discussion about a diaper situation.  With daycare, you have to check your ego at the door.  You have to admit that this person (or group of people) is going to be a partner in raising your child, and value his or her opinions and perspectives whether you agree completely or not.  And you have to be okay with the fact that your provider might notice that your child has two new molars before you do.  It’s just going to happen.  And it doesn’t make you a bad mother.

Playing
Oh, I can so easily remember the days when Ike enjoyed his simple activity mat or even his jumperoo for what seemed like eternity.  Now, his attention span is all over the place and we have hurricane Ike on a regular basis with toys flying everywhere.  He is a big fan of trucks and tries to say “vroom vroom.”  He is also a big reader; he can sit and flip page after page for several minutes.  And rarely will he actually let us read the book to him…he just wants to turn the page!

In attempt to boost his interest in walking, we recently got Ike a Radio Flyer wagon walking toy.  So far he mostly pushes it around on his knees, or spends time climbing in and out of the wagon.  Ike loves to clap and listen to music, and he’s got a decent arm-flapping dancing rhythm.   He loves pulling pots and pans out of the cabinets (we let him do so; the only baby proofing we did was one set of cabinets under the sink and the outlets) and lately he has learned how to stand up and open drawers in the kitchen.  He is very busy.

So, there you have it…one huge baby brain dump!  Did I leave out anything essential?  Any advice for this mom as I take on toddlerdom?  And really, which one of the 900 sippy cups did your child take?