First Food!

Is it just me or did this day come WAY too quickly? This past weekend we made our way into the world of "real food" with Charlie, and although I'm constantly wondering "how did we get here?" this really did seem to just kind of sneak up on us.

I decided to hold off on solids until I felt like Charlie was fully ready, and right around the 7th month mark it seemed like it was time. He'd been grabbing for our food a lot, staring at us whenever we would eat (seriously entranced!), and smacking his lips while watching us. With Henry I had started with rice cereal, then oatmeal, then puréed veggies and fruits, but with Charlie I wanted to take more of a baby led weaning approach, although I didn't want to follow that exclusively. So we started out with mashed up sweet potatoes on his high chair tray and let him go to town. He was curious of course, and put some of it in his mouth, and loved it! After that I decided to purée a bit of it and spoon fed him, and he liked that too. It was so cute when he got his first taste- that little smile and those wide eyes.



The next day wasn't as easy. It was just me feeding him and when I tried to do the puréed sweet potatoes again he continuously pushed the food out with his tongue, and I couldn't get him to "chew" and swallow. I was a little confused because I know that's a sign of not being ready for solids, but the day before he ate like a champ! So I put the food away and figured I would try again at dinner. When Hank got home I ended up running out to the gym so he was in charge of feeding. I warned him that it might not be easy, but he said he was good to go, so I headed off, thinking I would come home to a baby refusing to eat. But to my surprise when I got back Hank told me he had ate everything I set out for him! He told me he mimicked eating while Charlie was, opening his mouth when he wanted him to open his mouth, chewing, etc. and it worked! That was a week ago and since then he's been eating pretty well with the exception of a few instances.

So far we've tried broccoli, apples, and oatmeal. I make the baby food in a small blender and I've mainly been spoon feeding him, but also mashing up some of it and letting him feed himself, which is really more of him playing with the food and maybe accidentally getting it in his mouth! All in all though it's been a successful week and I feel like we're in a good place with solids.

Also, here's our schedule as of right now, in case anyone is interested. I know always love reading about things like this!

6:30am wake up and nurse
7:30am (breakfast)- oatmeal with pureed fruit
8:30ish-10:30ish nurse then nap #1, then wake up and nurse
12pm (lunch) today was the first day I gave Charlie a little bit of regular food at lunchtime too, while I ate. He did a broccoli/apple purée
1:30-3:30/4 nurse then nap #2 
4:30 (dinner) veggies- so far he's only done sweet potatoes at night
6/6:30 nurse then bedtime

A little sleep update too- up until this past week Charlie had been going through a really rough sleeping patch. He was waking up at least 2-3 times a night (sometimes more), and like I mentioned before, I wasn't sure what to do because he had no problem actually going to sleep. All of his waking would occur well after midnight after going down around 6pm, so I wasn't sure what approach to take as far as sleep training. We started the solid food and I think that definitely helped, because that first night he slept through the night. I also let him fuss a little more than usual before going in, and the one time he woke up around 2am I didn't need to go in there- he put himself right back to bed. It's been a week now and he's been sleeping MUCH better. If he wakes up it's around 5am, and I nurse him and he goes back to sleep until 6:30. His naps have been good too, so I'm hoping we're out of the woods for now. Although really, we all know this could change at anytime (probably tonight since I said "sleeping through the night" out loud! haha) but for right now I am soaking up any and all sleep I can!

xoxo

A Weekend of Firsts

So Hank and I might just be crazy but we decided we would transition Henry to his big boy bed just days before Charlie makes his grand arrival. I feel like he's been ready for awhile, but because he's never really tried to get out of his crib and really loves sleeping in it, I thought we'd hold off for awhile longer. Recently though I've been feeling like he's just way too big to be in a crib and I really wanted to emphasize his big boy/big brother status to him, so we went for it. I'm actually redoing his whole room- don't mind those wrinkly curtains, they're temporary- and the first three pieces (the locker nightstand, new dresser, and bed) are in place, even though the whole room is still bare and needs decorating. It's been so fun planning a "big boy" room and I can't wait to share when it's completed.

I'll talk about the entire crib-to-bed process in a post dedicated to the transition soon, but I'm pleased to tell you that the move was seamless and we haven't had one issue! Hooray, Henry! I really attribute this to waiting longer than we even thought we should. It's only been a couple of nights and naps, but so far so good. Once we're a good week or so into it I'll share more.

Another huge first this past weekend was taking Henry to his first movie in the theater. We chose Planes (he's a big fan of Cars already), and after watching the trailer a few days prior, he was totally excited. Hank and I were both a little apprehensive because Henry is super chatty and doesn't always like to sit still, but we were pleasantly surprised. We talked a lot about how to behave in a theater before we went in- how we need to be quiet, stay in our seats, all that good stuff. A couple of things- even though Henry is 35 pounds he still wasn't heavy enough to keep the seat pushed down on his own. Luckily I had a full water bottle with me and that fixed the issue when placed in the seat with him, but if you have an even smaller kiddo I'd definitely plan ahead and bring something to weigh it down if you don't want to keep your hand on it the whole time. I was also worried he might not be able to see without a booster seat, but we sat right at the bar level, and he could see just fine (he's 3'3" for reference).

Overall it was a great experience. He was blown away by the big screen, the comfy seats, and all of the loud noises. I'm kind of weird and even though we absolutely allow treats and fun food from time to time, because it was his first experience and I feel like that first experience defines what a movie is, we didn't do popcorn or candy. Instead I brought fruit and got some healthy snacks. I know, I know...where's the fun, Mom? ;) Next time I figure we can do popcorn but I just didn't want him to think that a movie means bad food, you know? So that was part of it too, picking out healthy snacks together to bring in.

The only speedbump we hit was towards the end of the movie- there was a scary scene with a storm, and Henry got frightened and said he wanted to go home a few times. Hank took him into the lobby for just a moment, then they came back in and we were all good. All in all I'd highly recommend the movie Planes as a first film for a little one! We loved it.

So yay for a weekend of firsts- and our last weekend as a family of three!