Puffs, the Magic Finger Food



Look what these chubby little fingers are up to. Doc started Sam on finger foods Monday (he had his 9-month check-up). He suggested Gerber Graduates' Puffs, rather than Cheerios, to start with because they are a little bit easier to gum. He was right. I tried one (yuck) and they pretty much dissolve in your mouth. But Sam loves them, so we'll stick with these for a while. Plus, the tube they come in makes a cool sound when you shake it, keeping aforementioned fingers busy while Mommy finishes grocery shopping.





Excitement


Sam likes to eat.  Yes, I know, he takes after his Momma.  Here is the new "excited" move I told you about in this picture that starts as soon as he sees me get the baby food bowls out of the cabinet and continues well into his meal.  He also does it when he gets a giant pumpkin basket for Halloween, when he sees Sophie run by, pretty much any time he's feeling extra happy.
Happy Sam from Sara Straka on Vimeo.

Baby Update

Thought you might like to see some pictures of Sam. Life here is busy as usual. Sam's still trying new baby foods - thumbs up for apples, pears, bananas and prunes, thumbs down for peas and green beans. As for carrots, squash and sweet potatoes, it depends on his mood.

Sam's not crawling yet, but we think he's getting pretty close. He can creep all over the room (and under his crib), and pivots so fast on his little round belly we're always afraid he's going to get a rug burn on his tummy! He's also close to sitting up on his own, but right now he still needs the Boppy (when Sophie's not using it) to help keep him upright. He laughs more and more each day and loves to be silly with us. Poor kid's still trying so hard to get Sophie to pay attention him, but no luck yet.

Enjoy these photos of our cutie-pie!

Really, Mom?


Sam started real baby food yesterday. He's been trying different cereals for the past week or so - rice (which he'd been eating), and two new grains, oatmeal and barley. I think they may have been a little taxing on his tummy, so I checked on one of our trusty baby websites for some ideas to...get things moving, so to speak. Last Friday I held a one-woman baby-food-making marathon in our kitchen. Of the five veggies I pureed that day, peas were the only type mentioned as a possible solution to Sam's diaper difficulties.

Yes, peas.
Smooshy, mooshy peas were the poor kid's first taste of real food.
Sorry buddy.

I got my cameras ready and, to mark this momentous occasion, fastened a very special bib to Samuel. It's on loan from a friend. If I remember correctly it was the only bib of the many that her mother had sewn for her children that she was able to save before evacuating New Orleans four years ago. We'd been saving it for this special moment.

I think these pictures of our little guy say it all...



Oh! But look! There's that smile. He's forgiven me already.

Did the peas do the trick you ask? No. Since peas can't do much good when they're just smooshed up on your bib, Sam still had some tummy trouble this morning. I called the nurse and she suggested pureed prunes. We added some to his oatmeal at lunch today and his tummyache was gone by dinner.

And guess what?

He LOVED them!

Rice Cereal Attempts 2 and 3


There's a lot going on at our house. Sam's accomplishing so many things. Brian fed him his rice cereal Monday night while I cooked dinner and Gram fed him Tuesday afternoon while she was over for a visit. Both times I made the cereal thicker and that seemed to do the trick. Little Bird gobbled it all up, no problems. We'll practice with this for a few weeks and then we'll try some fruits and veggies. Yum!

Makes My Head Spin

There's much too much information out there for parents these days, and it's ALL conflicting. Having access to all this info is helpful sometimes, but no one can agree on anything. Even our pediatrician seems to different stances on issues within the same visit. Right now our big question is "when and how should we start cereal?". This is what we're getting from books/doctors/people we know/strangers we don't:

"Never before 6 months - he'll get allergies and be obese! Eeek! "
"Sometime between 4 and 6 months when he's lost his tongue-thrust reflex."
"When he seems hungry after having just finished a feeding." (ok, that would have been a long time ago for Sam)
"Whenever you feel like he's ready."
"Two weeks before his 6-month check up, if you want, or do it earlier, or you can wait longer, whatever." (that was Dr.G)
"Hurry up and do it so he'll sleep through the night."
"Don't rush solids - it's a myth that babies sleep better after eating cereal."
"Put it in a bottle."
"Don't put it in a bottle."
"Warm it up."
"Don't warm it up."
"Buy it at the grocery store."
"Make your own."
And my favorite (from a former collegue): "Put it in a bottle at 9 weeks...that's what I did even though my doctor told me not to, and look at her, she turned out fine."

Now, I'm a big rule-follower, so this makes me crazy. I'm ready to do The Right Thing. Unfortunately, no one can agree what rule it is I'm supposed to follow. And the cereal issue is just one minor thing. All of this mommy-info has made my head spin from the moment I found out I was pregnant.

So...long story short, I decided to try it at 4 1/2 months (not in a bottle, not heated up), and was fully prepared to find that he's not quite ready. And that's exactly what happened.

Our high chair wasn't in yet, so we had to put him in his Bumbo on the table (no one panic, we never left his side) and then I ended up just holding him. He liked it - he didn't protest at all - it just seemed like he didn't quite know how to swallow it. Most of it ended up on his bib, his hands and his Mommy.

Brian recorded the event, so we're posting it for y'all to enjoy. Maybe all he needed was his snazzy new high chair to get here, so we'll try again in the next week or two, and let you know if it goes any better!

A New View


Sam's got a new view. And we have yet another piece of baby furniture in the house. Yay.

It's actually a pretty neat high chair. It has six chair heights (Sam seems to like the highest setting right now; he can watch Mommy work), three reclining positions and three, nesting trays. The thing Daddy and I like is it folds up super skinny and matches our kitchen and living room furniture, which is nice when you have a smaller kitchen area. A big ole' blue and white high chair would have stuck out quite a bit in our cozy little space.

Even though he's not eating solid baby food yet, and won't be for another month or so, it's nice for Sam to have a way to join us while we eat, get off the back of his head, and enjoy another view of his world!