Ingenue Mom

Okay moms (& dads) I've got some questions!! We are approaching Isis' first birthday so things are changing with her! Her little body is just growing & growing & she keeps moving from milestone to milestone! So here's where I'm wanting some input & different perspectives/strategies. When did you switch baby to a forward facing carseat? We are waiting to 12 months, but I'm wondering how many people kept them rear facing & for how long. What was your strategy with transitioning to a cup/weaning from the bottle? Isis has taken sippy cups with water since 6 months old, but we tried putting the formula in a sippy cup & she HATED it. Also, how did you transition from formula to milk? And at what age was your baby fully off the bottle? When did your baby transition to just one nap per day? What is your feeding schedule like after 1 year? Like when do you do solids, snacks, what does night time look like? Like dinner at 5, snack at 7, then be...

Today was my final day of breastfeeding with Isis. We made it 10 months & I think that's pretty fabulous! I wanted to breastfeed to 1 year, but I mentioned before that when I started student teaching, there was a significant drop in my supply. After less than a month of student teaching, Isis went from exclusively getting breastfed to taking 1 bottle a day, then after a couple more weeks 2 bottles a day. I stopped nursing her at night about a week ago and today was the last time I nursed her in the morning. I wasn't producing much, so Isis & I had a little chat this morning & we were both just done. It had been a struggle to get much of anything the last couple of weeks. So 10 months!! I'm proud of myself.  It was hard, then it was easy, then it was hard again, but overall I have been incredibly happy with this experience & I look forward to breastfeeding my future children for as long as possible!

Notice the yummy papaya from Whole Foods in her mouth & then the Cocoa Puffs in the background. We definitely find ourselves somewhere in the middle... I'll admit that I've just recently heard the term " crunchy ." According to Urban Dictionary , the term refers to anyone who has "adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons." It is a derivative of the word " granola ," which I actually have used before to describe things. A crunchy mama would then, in my mind, just be any mom who chooses to follow more environmentally conscious efforts with their children.  According to Urban Dictionary , and I guess many others, " crunchy mama " refers to a mom who "supports homebirth, breastfeeding, baby wearing, cloth diapering, co-sleeping, gentle discipline, etc. One who questions established medical authority; tends to be vegetarian and/or prepare all-organic foods." Well, I consider myself to be fairly environmenta...

We had Isis' 4 month visit with the pediatrician today! She's perfectly healthy...and chunky!! I love it!!! She weighs 16 lbs 2 oz & she is 24 inches long! She's gained almost 4 pounds in 2 months! She's in the 90th percentile for weight & the 50th percentile for length. I like it! She's doing just great! He told me that she doesn't have to start solids until 6 months, which definitely works just fine for me! I am curious about starting solids & excited about getting to make baby food (hopefully with the Williams-Sonoma baby food maker!), but I'm not super eager to start anytime soon. For one thing, it's just one more thing I have to do. For another thing, she's clearly getting what she needs from the breast milk. I can tell she's interested in the food we are eating, but I'm still going to wait a while. We'll see how I feel a month from now. I always feel better after seeing the doctor & getting my questions answered. It...

About a week ago, I started noticing that she wasn't eating well if I fed her on her regular schedule. For about 1 month to 6 weeks, we'd been following the feeding schedule below: 7:30am 10:30am 1:30pm 4:30pm 6:30pm But about a week ago, if I fed her at 3 hrs, she would maybe nurse for a minute or 2 and then just be totally distracted by everything around her. I tried everything to get her interested in nursing at that point, but nothing working. I'd usually just wait another 30 minutes and try to feed her again and she'd finally eat well when it had been 3.5 hours since her last feeding. So this made me think it was time to try to stretch her schedule. Although I've been doing Babywise, I've never really had to MAKE her go longer to get a feeding. She started out about 2.5-3 hours everyday, then as she got older, I noticed the same thing as above and would move to offering a feeding around every 3 hours. So now she seems to be ready to go longer. I started try...