Rachael Led Weaning

I know I just posted, but as this will be an ongoing topic, I thought it deserved it's own post.
I am proud of Rachael and myself for having exclusively breastfed for 6 months.
As Rachael is now 6 months old, it's time to start introducing food other than breasmilk into her life.
After doing my research, I settled on trying Baby Led Weaning, as it makes a lot of sense to me.
As you may not be familiar with this approach, some info may be a good idea.

"What is baby-led weaning?

Baby-led weaning is a way of introducing solid foods that allows babies to feed

themselves - there’s no spoon feeding and no purées. The baby sits with the

family at mealtimes and joins in when she is ready, feeding herself first with her

fingers and later with cutlery.

Baby-led weaning:

* allows babies to explore taste, texture, colour and smell

* encourages independence and confidence

* helps to develop their hand-eye coordination and chewing skills

* makes picky eating and mealtime battles less likely"

http://www.rapleyweaning.com/

Lessons learnt with Rachael so far:

-Don't bother to put food on a plate. A plate is the easiest way to ensure all the food ends up on the floor within 10 seconds.

- Pretty much every food discolours clothing

-A bib is designed to keep clothing clean, but a baby is more likely to eat the bib and skip the food

Attempted foods:

Banana. No luck- see plate comment above

Carrot. Some sucking acheived. Turns clothing orange

Toast. Sucking acheived. Small amounts broken off. Gagged a little. (Note. Gagging is ok. Babies gag reflex is quiet close to front of mouth as a safety mechanism. Gagging is different than actually choking).

Meat. Rachael loves meat. Has enjoyed sucking several pieces. Makes clothes dirty too.

Has she actually ingested anything? No, but that's ok. We've only just started, and she is getting food from table to mouth, and sometimes into mouth. It's a good start

Toast two days ago. Not sure if we got the roast beef on camera or not

6 Months

6 Months- Can you believe it? We made it this far.
Health checkup isn't until next week, so I'll have to add that info later.
Teething has started. I got my first tooth at 6 months, but Rachael's bottom teeth are still a long way down her gums, so it could be a long ride yet. Thankfully, I have been told about Baltic Amber teething necklaces.
For the uneducated, check out this onfo from the website http://www.whiskersonkittens.com.au/

"How does an Amber Teething Necklace work?
Amber has many therapeutic qualities and provides natural pain relief.   Amber works by the skin warming the amber which releases healing oils and the oils are then absorbed into the blood stream. Amber reduces red inflamed cheeks and stimulates the thyroid glands to reduce drooling. It is known to boost the immune system, reduce inflammation, accelerate would healing, reduce inflammation of the throat, ear and stomach infections and respiratory disease.

The active ingredient is succinic-acid which was analysed by the pioneer of modern bacteriology, the Nobel-prize winner Robert Koch who confirmed its positive influence and recent scientific research has also proved that succinic acid has a very positive influence on the human organism.
Succinic acid is a powerful antioxidant that helps fight toxic free radicals and disruptions of the cardiac rhythm, succinic acid has been shown to stimulate neural system recovery and bolster the immune system, and helps compensate for energy drain in the body and brain, boosting awareness, concentration and reflexes, and reducing stress."


I chose this supplier as I had seen good things about them. No point paying for an expensive fake. Teething/screaming started Friday, continued Saturday and Sunday. Monday I was able to borrow a necklace until the one I ordered arrived. Three hours (and one nap) after I put it on her, my baby girl was back to laughing at me. It's not a magic cure, but it does seem to help.

Rachael has improved in both her rolling and sitting. Her rolling is more turning really, she doesn't roll continously, just one 180 at a time. Sitting is semi-assisted at the moment. She can't sit up alone, but when she wants to, once sat can sit unassisted for up to an hour.

Besides her ongoing obsession of putting everything in sight in her mouth, Rachael's two current obsessions are blowing raspberries, and making a gargling sound in her throat.

5 months

Rachael is 5 months into the world today. I don't really like saying 5 months old, as that doesn't credit the 9 months pre-birth I was creating and nuturing her for, and the living (kicking, punching) she was doing.
Anyway, an update on Rachael. She's not really fond of the heat (like her mummy), so she's not enjoying this heatwave.
Although she's small for her age, she's still our big girl. No weigh-in this month, but I have just been given a picture of her baby cousin Clementine, in the same t-shirt Rachael wears (well obviously not THE same shirt, but the same brand/design/size), and what Rachael is just about busting out of, her little cousin wears like a dress. Show's how much bigger she's gotten.

Just today Rachael has started to roll from her back to her tummy. I'm not even sure she knows that she's doing it or how she's doing it, but it gets her to her toy. Tends to get one arm stuck underneath, but she'll figure it out with time.

Rachael is really enjoying assisted sitting. It must be much more enjoyable than lying down. She's also enoying a good giggle from time to time. Two nights ago, it was discovering the fun of pushing an empty water bottle off the table (and having grandma pick it up again) over and over again. Last night, it was a new spinning toy that grandma bought out. A week ago she accidentally made a gurgling sound in her throat, and spent the next 10 minutes trying to replicate it, and giggling the whole time at her new discovery.
I will get video of it soon and post, as it is seriously cute

Half month update

It's not the month yet, but thought I'd update anyway.

Rachael is currently feet-obsessed, as many babies her age seem to be. She rather enjoys spending much of the day holding her ankles over her body.
Rachael still has a thing for her fingernails. Grandpa's leather seat got a workout last night.

Thanks to Wonder week 19 (which we sort of missed, I think it coincided with her 4 month injections, so we blamed it on them), Rachael has figured out how to take her dummy out, and put it back in. Ends up in her mouth about half the time, the rest shes gives up after shoving it into her nose, or putting the wrong bit in her mouth. Can't do it when she's tired, which is when she actually needs the dummy, but she'll get there. I remember in earlier months wishing for the day she could put it back in herself (after getting out of bed multiple times to pu it back in), and I guess that day has come. She's growing up again

Pictures of Rachael at mum's group

4 months

So time has been ticking away, and Rachael is 4 months now.
Her health visit was tuesday, and we have anew lot of stats.
Weight- 6.02kg. That's pretty much double her birthweight. I knew that little girl was getting heavier.
Length- 61cm. It seems she has a quite small head to most of the baby population, now under the 3rd percentile line. No wonder all of her clothes necks are huge on her. She has now reached, at 4 months, the size clothing manuacturers decide she should be at 3 months. Figure she hasn't got any tall genes from her parents.

Developmentally wise, as you can see from previous post, she has learnt to roll from front to back. Can't roll the other way yet; her bottom half goes over, but the top half stays. I think her motivation to roll that way isn't very high- why would she want to roll onto her tummy? She's just got off it.

Her favourite current skill is to scrape her fingernails on surfaces to hear the sound it makes. The couch, mirror, rug and of course mummy's skin are all getting a workout.

As she has been from the start, Rachael still loves to hold onto things. She has learnt if she has a good grip on whichever parent is holding her when she goes to sleep, they can't put her down. She is also quite fond of holding onto her mummy's hair during feeds, so is ending up holding a whole lot of it at the end of a feed, due to mummy's post-partum shedding.

Rachael has gotten over lying down; she wants to be sitting up at all times, and seems to want to be standing and walking if she could.

Rachael has also had two successful bottlefeeds after switching bottle brands. However she is still not fond of people other than her parents at the moment. Hoping we can overcome that before a wedding next month

Roll over red rover

8 weeks

8 weeks was Rachael's next major milestone- SLEEP

At 8 weeks, Rachael first slept 7 hours straight at nighttime.
Mummy slept right through this momentous event (yay!), while daddy woke up to make sure she was still breathing (awww).
I wish I could say she repeats this feat every night, but she is getting there little bits at a time. In total, she nows often gets 10 hours sleep over the night, with the one single feed, usually at 5am.
A full nights sleep is great to finally regain