Baby-led weaning

Noah is a little over 6 months old now (can you believe it?). On the night of his six-month-aversary, he got to have his first taste of non-breastmilk food. We're doing baby-led weaning, so Noah gets to feed himself- which, at this point, means he gets to play with food and squish it in his fingers and drop it on the floor. I don't think he's actually eaten anything at this point, just tasted things and has made lots of cute faces. In a few more weeks, though, he'll probably start actually figuring out that the fun stuff he gets to play with actually tastes good and will fill his belly.


It's really interesting, apparently babies at Noah's age (and younger) don't know how to chew and swallow yet. When he nurses, the milk goes to the back of his throat and he swallows, but it's not something he knows or understands. When babies are spoonfed, the spoon bypasses the gag reflex, so the baby is forced to swallow. With baby-led weaning, Noah will learn through exploration how to chew and swallow.

So basically what we do with baby-led weaning is give Noah food that he can handle and bring to his mouth on his own and let him do his thing. The first night, we gave him some avocado, which he didn't seem to care for. He's also had (by which I mean played with) broccoli, carrots, banana, and mango. He seems pretty intrigued by broccoli. Bananas he likes to squish, and the mango he didn't really care about.

I know a lot of people don't really know about baby-led weaning, so I'm trying to explain it... I think most people know about the four-day rule with food, but that isn't necessary with baby-led weaning. Babies have remarkable instincts and tend to refuse food that they're allergic to (if they're spoonfed, the baby can't exactly refuse it very well, which makes the 4 day rule useful). They also tend to eat exactly what they need at whatever point, so if they're going through a growth spurt, they'll eat foods that contain exactly what they need for it. So we offer Noah food that we're eating anyway and don't force him to do anything with it. Sometimes he plays with it, sometimes he doesn't.

I think that's the basics of baby-led weaning...

So all that to say we've started (sort of) solids. Pictures of that are below!

Sea Monkey also has a little tooth breaking through (on the bottom)! He was a bit fussy for a few days while it was breaking through, but only when he was getting tired. I keep trying to look at his tooth, but he almost always has his tongue covering it. He likes to put our fingers in his mouth and bite down and then we can feel his little tooth.

He's very close to crawling. He can go backward very well, and can turn himself sideways and go backward more, but he's not so good with the going forward bit. Once in a while he'll lunge forward. He'll get up on his hands and knees and rock back and forth, trying to figure out the whole going forward motion. He also likes to do something resembling the 'downward facing dog' pose in yoga (here). Cracks me up.

I think that's about all the Noah-related news. And an update on Zach and I...

Zach has started a new job. He's doing sales for a company called DubTizzle, who does internet marketing stuff for different businesses around the area. Zach's very happy to be done with his old security job and is enjoying his new position. I'm excited for him, I think he's going to be great at this. =) This past week was his first week doing it full-time and it's been very nice- he gets to work from home now, except for when he's out at meetings making sales. He spent a few days at home this week doing research and making calls to set up meetings, and having him home, even though he wasn't interacting with Noah and I was really nice. I'm very happy for him.

I'm still rocking my stay-at-home-mom gig. In the little free time I have, I study something pregnancy/childbirth/baby/parenting- related, because it's fascinating to me (I've been studying this stuff for 3 years now and I'm still thoroughly intrigued). And I've started using my sewing machine (which, by the way, is a very pretty 60 year old machine)! I've mended some pants, made a changing pad cover, nursing cover, nursing pads, and I want to make a blanket for Noah. And curtains. And an apron! In my vast amount of free time..... :-/

One more newsworthy thing: at the end of our lease (October/November), we will be moving out of the Midwest and (probably) settling in the Las Vegas/Henderson area for a while. Where we're moving isn't set in stone yet, so it may still change, but we will for sure be moving out of the Midwest. So if you're in the area and want to see us, let us know. We've only got a few months left! (6 or 7... but still)

Soooo... that's all that's going on right now.

Tasting avocado

 He bumped his head on the stand =(

 Here's the bump =(

 Banana reaction =)

 This is posed.... but he was very excited about standing. So excited he slobbered all over the couch. =)
















THIS is wonderful. I made breastmilk popsicles to ease the teething aches and he was very surprised by how cold it was. =) He liked it, except for how cold it was.

It's been a while...

Well. I had a post for 4 months half written, but didn't get it finished. Then I had a post for 5 months, but didn't get it finished. And here we are, a little more than a week from 6 months. So... here's an update.

Noah went through a brief period of rolling. He seemed to be excited about it at first, but then realized that rolling meant he ended up on his tummy. And that's unacceptable. So the rolling back-to-tummy stopped. He only rolled tummy-to-back a couple times. I put him on his tummy one time, he shrieked, rolled over, and glared at me (seriously) and hasn't rolled that way since.

Instead of rolling, he's been working on crawling. He can get up on his hands and knees for brief periods of time (and he rocks back and forth trying to move forward while he's there), but most of his tummy time he spends scooting backward. I'll put a toy just out of reach in front of him to persuade him to move forward and he ends up moving farther and farther away from it.

He sits up on his own very well. He's gone through 5-10 minute spurts of sitting up unassisted. He still topples over (which is quite funny to watch...) often.

What else...

I think he might just be the happiest baby ever. Seriously. Unless he's hungry or very very tired, he's pretty much all smiles. He loooooooooves people. When we're at the store or visiting Zach at work, people stop to look at him and comment on his supreme cuteness and Noah will almost always give them a big grin. =)

We've been going to a "rhymes and rhythms" thing at the library that's geared toward pre-walkers. We sing songs that have actions, read stories, etc, and Noah loooves it. I don't know if it's the songs and actions or the people or the babies that he enjoys... but he really, really likes it. =)

At his last appointment (4 months), he measured 27 1/2 inches long and 22.4 pounds.

Pictures!