Challenges and Joys of Crawling & Cruising

We're amazed that our little baby dude (LBD) has already started standing and cruising around. From what I hear, cruising is when a little dude/ette starts to mobilize from standing to moving along edges of things they can hold onto.

Perhaps this isn't odd, but it seems really funny that LBD hasn't yet learned sitting- at least not on his own, and doesn't stay up if we put him in a sitting position.

I've read that our little folks will each be very different during this first year or so of development, and it's so fun to watch!

It's totally the coolest to see LBD put on his determined face (lips tightly pressed together against his new two teeth, in a straight line) and pull himself to standing using fabric on our sofa, chairs and bed. He looks so pleased when he sees our smiles back at him.

One of the hardest things to watch is our son tumbling down when he's in an impossible position or when LBD just can't hold himself up any longer. Sometimes he sticks his bottom out so far that he's standing at a 90 degree angle. We now feel that he needs constant supervision- no more leaving him a couple minutes on the bed thinking he wouldn't be able to roll or scoot too far... nor leaving him on a blanket "knowing" he'll be there when we return. Now, if I get up in the night, I check to be sure he's still in bed before I stand, worried about tripping over him if he got up and fell asleep on the floor. Not that it's happened. I guess that part of parenthood- worrying about things before they even happen- but it makes it easier to baby proof.

So far, we've put caps on all our electric outlets. We've tried this cheapest Munchkin brand baby gate (image below) but it was such a piece of crap (sorry, it's true) that we returned it the next day. I couldn't even get it to lock in position between our walls... we both tried and we read the instructions. No go. Someone else I know has a really similar gate for their dogs. I asked if it worked and she said they don't test it... This is exactly the problem: I'd expect our son to test it thoroughly if we or something he wanted (including Miz Kitty) were on the other side. Or just because it is there and wasn't before. When I touched our gate it fell over. For now, darling hubby and I have decided to continue with constant supervision.


Eeek! Speaking of constant supervision, I was setting up the high chair with our son out of his normal "mommy pocket" (Girasol carrier review LINK) and he was pushing a ball around. (New Favorite Game!) The ball, and then our son went under an old armchair. My hubby's folks refurnished the chair some years back and our cat took to it immediately when the gave it to us. She loves to sit in it these days to keep her above the LBD's reach. It was pretty funny to see her react to him climbing up and looking at her in the chair today. Anyway, when he climbed under the chair, his head was rubbing against the underside so I inspected it for danger. And, danger I found. The chair has half inch iron nails (guessing by appearance) pressed into the underside to secure the fabric. This never mattered before our precious LBD started scratching everything he could. (around 5 mos?) Now I think we're going to either declare the office totally off baby-limits and move the chair there or *sigh* let it go... this would be sad though, as it is really our kitty's favorite spot, and we both love to sit in it.

These are challenging and such fun times. It is so cool to see our LBD as a person, gaining a small semblance of autonomy and it's nerve-wracking to see what he gets into, and it feels so right that these steps of development are paced as they are.

The BIG 6 Month Update:

Teething, Crawling, Nursing and Elimination Communication 

Well, it's been about a month since I've posted much of anything here, so it's update time!

We are thrilled that our little baby dude (referred to as LBD hereafter) has started to show front teeth and to crawl.

Teething

The two bottom teeth just popped out three weeks ago. That Tuesday evening as we were getting ready to nurse I pushed a finger (gently) along his lower gumline. I read on la leche league international mommy's forum that massaging his gums may help to reduce biting as teething progressed, so on days that I saw him chew a lot on toys, I started doing this before nursing. This evening I felt this intensely sharp little edge on his gum, like a razor sticking out. They have arrived!

Crawling

The same week, he had been pulling himself around with his arms, and on alternating days, pushing his bottom up. It was so fun to watch, first little baby push ups, then gathering his feet under his bottom, sometimes sort of hopping them under him like a little bunny.

By the end of that week, the moves had coordinated into a full all 4's - knees under, arms straight and reaching forward. He also started waving that week. It's all happening so fast!

 New Feelings

And, though it has been totally inspiring, sweet, and beautiful, something else happened that totally surprised me. I felt sad, overwhelmed, and worried.

My darling husband helped me figure out what was going on. I wasn't feeling sad that our baby had teeth, nor that he could crawl, and waving is positively the coolest. It wasn't that I was worried that he was healthy, nor that I worried about his learning environment- I was feeling stressed because suddenly our son ha(s) a whole new set of skills for us to keep up with. I'm overwhelmed because suddenly the folding metal chairs (they have really comfy seats & are heavy- well made!) that we love so much seem really, really dangerous. Actually, besides our books being in danger of baby slobber, most of our house now seems a danger to a baby.

We can handle this, and we anticipated the need to baby proof. It just happened so, so fast.

Nursing: Ouch, Baby Bites?

And then, the inevitable. We were sitting at the dining table and our son was hungry, so I offered him the breast. He smiled and hungrily lunged for it and - moment of suspense?? - totally bit me so hard my nipple started bleeding. Before this time, when he bit my nipple (especially before the teeth came through) I laughed and squealed and gasped and felt/acted really surprised and sometimes said "ow." This time I cried, "Owwww" and looked at him as if I was crying, then made a short act of crying. Oh goodness. Our LBD broke from smiling at me (he thought it was funny at first) to crying in earnest. The poor little guy! And, oh, his poor mommy! We were a mess. Worse, we were both worried about nursing.

Throughout this day, LBD wouldn't nurse the right breast (the one that bled from little razor teeth marks.) When he awakened from his nap and realized his [brave] mommy was nursing him with right breast, he burst into tears and popped "on & off" the nipple intermittently crying.

Finally, after dinner, with right breast just about to pop (so engorged from a day of no nursing), we took a bath and LBD nursed as normal. He was so relaxed in the tub! Thank goodness. That night at bedtime, he nursed both breasts as usual, and then (as usual) popped off the nipple and rolled away. SO CUTE!

 I wouldn't do it differently if I had it to do over. Although it made us both really sad (when I feigned crying and he actually cried) this was a great way to train our son not to bite the nipple that feeds him. He hasn't done it since- and even that day was super gentle with left breast. Thank goodness. Whew!

Elimination Communication (read: Elimination Radio Silence)

We've moved into using mostly the large size prefolds in our diapers, and occasionally the intermediate (blue edge) with a doubler. See the article on diapering if you'd like more details. Our son's peeing so much more liquid each time now that the old diaper liners just weren't doing it.

These days, our EC is kinda out the window. I was happy to run into an old friend yesterday for the first time in about eight years, during which he had a beautiful daughter. She's about six, so they've had plenty of time to work out potty training, and I said to them that with teething and crawling, our son is waaay to busy to tell us about pottying, but that I felt bad, because it seemed like a special way to honor our communication when we were doing it so well. Pepy said, "ah, don't worry; it comes and goes." This totally felt right.

I think we will continue to give our LBD opportunities to EC, but not worry about outcomes. I felt like we'd failed him, or he forgot how to use his potty, or something like this, but I think Pepy is right. It's happening just right; it will work out.

So, instead of 90% potty use as we were a month ago, and around 60% since 2 months age, we're now at about 10%. So it goes.

More updates to come! Things will surely change again.

Berkey FAIL :(

I had high hopes for Berkey filters. I felt I'd done plenty of research. The few naysayers I found (before I saw the amazon.com reviews!!!) seemed far out and really, just plain mean.

I read review after review (before I went back and saw they are "affiliates!!!") and they all were happy customers. I saw a return policy and didn't question that the filter was available from different companies with the name Berkey in the title... Sites such as Berkey Filters, GetBerkey, BerkeyWaterFilters, and Directive21. Yowza, the latter gives a clue. Is a red flag waving yet? If not, maybe the name Mike Adams will ring a bell? He endorses Berkey Filters. I've linked to a wiki page for his website, as wiki calls it "dedicated to the sale of various dietary supplements, promotion of alternative medicine, controversial nutrition and health claims,^[3] and various conspiracy theories."

 *SIGH*

So before doing enough research, and after reading about Berkey filters on Wellness Mama's blog (and I love her recipes!) I ordered one on a great sale from one of the above sites.

And it arrived really quickly! Oh, delight, we were excited to have great water. My dear hubby was a little concerned when I told him how much it cost, but considering it could filter for 4-6 years without replacements, it seemed cost effective. Our current system (countertop Z,ero water filter) would cost about $40 per 3 months, or more, depending on city versus well water.

I ordered it with the arsenic/fluoride removal filters & I followed the directions. Over and over we "primed" the filters and each time they dirtied the beautiful stainless steel basin they filled with "purified water." Finally, I decided to test the water to see if it was indeed cleaner (even though it tasted like metal and had a whitish residue, with rainbow surface. Again, yowza!)

Our total dissolved solids wands (we have 2) both read 30 ppm for our well water when running cold, 40 and higher for warmer water. When I put in in the Berkey water, it read 60 ppm and higher, and as high as 120 ppm. This is twice to four times more dissolved solids in the filtered and purified water than before we filtered it at all.

A week and about 20 "primings" later, we gave up and returned our filter.

I called Berkey and a super nice, super helpful employee suggested I might need to reprime. I told him how many times I'd done this and our method. He agreed we were doing it correctly. I told him about our total dissolved solids (TDS) wands and the increase of dissolved solids in the water, and I asked if he knew what would be coming out of a black berkey filter, or an arsenic/fluoride white berkey purifier. He said he'd ask and returned to the phone a few minutes later. His coworker suggested it was sulfur from our well water. This does not explain why it would be an increased amount of solids in the water, or the rainbows or white chunks. Finally I told him I really appreciated his help trouble shooting, but would really like my money back and to return the whole system to his company.

We did this, and it worked great. The customer service was great, much better than the filter.


Thank goodness we got our money back.

SometimesOften, simple is better.

Yum, Homeade Butternut Squash Babyfood!

Hubby & I think butternut squash is delicious and we're excited to share the eating experience with our son soon. 

I'd hoped to wait as long as possible to feed him anything but mommy milk- for simplicity and to see if his teeth come in before his interest. Basically, we're in no hurry to feed the little baby dude (LBD). Note: He's now 5 months and 3 weeks... nearing 6 months and the magic pronouncement by many docs of "ready to eat."

We won't be waiting much longer. If he's in my arms and I'm eating, our darling is lunging for my food. If he's nearby and we're eating and he's not in our arms, he fusses until we hold him.

In short: it's feeding time.

How exciting!

His first foods (last 2 weeks) have been little teeny bits of slightly cooked egg yolk and sips of bone broth- from local grass fed cows and lambs. (I'm a little sad for the lambs but they make AMAZING broth) We plan to wait as long as possible for grains and sweets, but to include vegetables, animal products and eventually some fruit during this first year.

For fun, and for months now, we encourage LBD to smell things like essential oils, herbs, spices, and of course, food. This has evolved to our LBD opening his mouth and slowing moving toward the foods we're holding out to him. (He does not do this for the other smelly things. He knows.) 

It's been pretty neat to see his experience with food change, and will be really neat to feed him more and more diverse kinds of food. 

For now, we're taking it easy. There are no teeth in his mouth and no sign of them (besides drooling, tons of drooling, and his chewing practice on toys.)

So, when I made butternut squash my favorite way tonight, and it came out mushy, of course I thought of our LBD and saved some. Here's how I made it:

One butternut squash, sliced into 1" pieces (triangles, actually)

About a 1/4 cup of OJ, lemon or apple juice would be nice also

Two ladle fulls of lamb stew with lots of the fat that had congealed on top

Put into a baking dish (I used a glass one) and bake at 425 until your preferred doneness. I liked it about 40 minutes and pretty mushy- The squash still held its form, the liquids were bubbling, and it smelled divine.

We ate part of it ourselves and once cooled, put the leftovers into the freezer tray pictured below. 

Next, I'll pop them out of the tray, bag them up, label & date them, and replace them in freezer. 

We'll have a fun and wholesome food to warm up for our son someday soon.

OOoh, awesome *new* IKEA glasses

 

hehe, just had to share. These are only .99 at IKEA... so pretty!

The Fin Art of Ray Troll, Salmon and Ratfish's crazy jaws.

I found this article (while researching cod liver oil & ratfish oil) about a fossil that finally helped scientists understand how to put together an ancient fish's mouth. There's such cool stuff out there, and are/used to be so many strange creatures all over our Earth.

Through that article at National Geographic on the ratfish jaw structure, I also had the pleasure of discovering "the Fin Art of Ray Troll." This guy is amazing. Check it out. Above is an image from his site. It's such awesome and inspiring art, with really fun twists and plenty of science thrown in.


Alright, one last thought to end this post. Have you ever seen a picture of a salmon? It's long been among my favorite foods, but sometimes we end-users can be quite detached from our food sources. I'm hoping to improve that one step at a time in my family's lives. (future LINK)

Here's the real deal, folks: (wild! Oncorhynchus nerka)

"Oncorhynchus nerka 2" by Dave Menke - This image originates from the National Digital Library of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service

so much squash!

Hubby and I planted 18 squash seeds and each came up. Mom planted 25 more (or so) and they all came up, and now we have totally plenty of squash. I visited Grandma Betty and she gave us more squash. How could I say no???

Time to cook it up. (or pickle them?) While looking for quilting recipes patterns, I found these.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-squash-is-on.html