6 Months
I can’t believe my baby is 6 months old today. He is learning and growing so fast. According to my baby books Damian should:
- know how to roll over, sit up and should be getting ready to crawl.
- respond to his name.
- know how to pick up a toy with one hand and switch it over to the other hand.
- notice different people
- use his voice (gurgling, babbling, squealing)
Check on all those! Except… Damian has been doing most of them since Samhain. Like crawling, it started off an a lurch and scuffle, but very quickly became full fledged speed crawling. I cannot believe how fast he can get over to stuff he shouldn’t have. He is also pulling himself up on stuff, like the futon, boxes and my leg. Today it seems like he is trying to stand on his own, which apparently is an 8 or 9-month-old skill. He has three teeth right now too, woot!
I am not in a rush to introduce solids, I know that breastmilk still has all of what Damian needs. I have been waiting for Damian to express an active interest in food, which he has started doing recently. I was thinking about starting him some rice cereal this week, but I am thinking about doing baby led weaning. Does anyone have any experience with this method?
Anyhow, so he is 6 months old today, half a year! Oh my gosh, time really does fly doesn’t it? I’m loving it though.
(Sitting in Mommy’s lap this morning.)
Moving Beyond Politics
The blogosphere has been saturated with politics as of late (my own musings included) so I think it is time to redirect with some kind of update. Nothing too overwhelmingly interesting has been going on though, so brace for rambliness.
I think the seedpod to the left is some kind of thistle, but I am not sure. I keep seeing their fluffy husks in ditches around here lately. I have a better picture of them from a few weeks ago in my photoblog if anyone wants to try to identify them. They remind me that Winter is indeed here, I think we will even have to turn on our heaters tonight…
I’ve started working on my next podcast, so far I have received pretty good reviews on my first one, through email and comments. I appreciate all your input.
Today Damian turns 5 months old today and is crawling! He gets better and better at it each day, yesterday he got all the way to the catfood and turned the bowl over… time to move that! He is a lot happier now that he is more mobile. My bumblebee is growing up so fast!
When I was a teenager I really loved the SeaQuest books and Netflix just put the tv series up on press play (didn’t even know it existed!) It has been playing in the background for the better part of two days. Star Trek in the ocean!
This Friday the UU church in Spokane is holding the Samhain Witches Ball, we will be going. I am very much looking forward to it! I have to admit, I like the chance to dress up.
Anyhow I have to make some bread, clean, finish patching my jeans (have you ever had a favorite pair of jeans that slowly became more patches than jean?) and try to keep up with my son!
Trick or Treat!
Me in my Green Man costume Mommy made me for trick or treating!
We had so much fun on Samhain. We went trick or treating with Shannon and her daughter Rachelle (who was Hannah Montana.) Mommy made me a Green Man costume. It was really fun to yank on the felt leaves she stuck all over my shirt.
On Saturday we had a bunch of people over for a feast (I tried some carrots for the first time and spit them EVERYWHERE! Ewww, I don’t want solid food yet.) We set a plate of food for the ancestors on the altar. I love crawling across the floor to the altar and trying to pull the cloth off of it.
Oh ya, I am CRAWLING now. I can get across the living room in about 6 minutes, sooo fun but exhausting. I want boob twice as much now that I am burning the baby calories.
On Sunday we made a dreamboard with Mommy and Daddy’s goals and dreams for the next year. I tried to grab the pictures to help place them but Mommy wouldn’t let me, something about me slobbering all over them. Oh well!
Today my Goddessmother is coming over to take care of me while Mommy is in the dentist. I’m excited about seeing her. Mommy doesn’t seem so thrilled about the dentist though.
Teething
I am chewing and slobbering on everything lately. Dr Kincaid says I am very close to having my first teeth breaking through. I love my teething ring but much prefer the wooden spoons mommy uses in the kitchen. I know I have been a little cranky lately. I think chewing on mommy while I eat makes her a little cranky too, but she is very understanding. I am working on not doing that so much.
Mommy is making me a Green Man costume for Halloween. Hopefully we will be able to get Andrea to take photos of me in it, I love seeing her and her boyfriend Peter. An opportunity to make more people fall in love with me!
Video: I’m rolling over!
Baby Sign
I have been working on learning “Baby’s First 100 Signs” in American Sign Language (ASL) from this site. I had read about baby sign language in various places but it wasn’t until it came up in conversation with my friend, Shannon, that I really gave it any serious though. She taught it to her six-year-old sign when she was a baby. Researching it lately it has apparently become quite the fad.
I hate fads. However if there is some validity to this and it will give me an edge in communicating with Damian and prevent a tiny bit of frustration, I am willing to set aside my fad issue for him. Funny how parenthood changes our tolerance levels. So baby sign…
The logic behind baby sign is that an infant develops the fine muscles in their hands before they develop the ones required for speech, this means, theoretically, that they are able to communicate with us (adults) far before they are able to speak. There are studies to show that it does not delay speech either, which was my initial concern. I have spoken to several mothers who taught their infants sign, and it doesn’t seem to be as crazy as I initially thought. When it comes to me investigating if things like this work I look more towards other parents then scientific studies. Experience is an awesome teacher.
To teach Damian sign I must first learn the signs myself and then use them in conjunction with my normal speech. For example if I say mommy, I will make the sign as I say the word. Over time Damian will begin to associate that sign with the word and use it when he wants to. This does make sense I suppose, Damian is already beginning to imitate things that Michael and I do after all, the next step if for him to consciously use them, to communicate.
I am just using basic “need signs” with Damian at the moment. For example, when he starts giving indications that he needs nurse I sign “milk” and then nurse him. Consistency is the key and I sign milk every time I nurse him. So far I only use five signs with him, milk, sleep, diaper, mommy, daddy. I do not want to use too many with him yet because I don’t want to overload him with too many concepts he doesn’t currently need (such as food item names, like apple, since he doesn’t eat them yet.) Still, I am working on learning the 100 basics and am going to start using them with Michael even if Damian isn’t watching, eventually we will begin to use them with him.
So we will see where this experiment goes, at 6 weeks old Damian is not signing yet and probably won’t for several months. If he picks it up, great! If not that is fine too, I will have learned some ASL!
Is eating your mother anti-Darwinian?
perhaps not, after all the babies of the Australian social spider eat their mothers.
(Ooooo wallet!)
Anyhow, so about my first 11 days of breastfeeding Damian…
I started off using nipple shields, though I only used they for a couple days, I got really nasty bloody blisters on my nipples from them. Surprisingly enough Damian latched on right away without them. Super suck reflex!
Damian definitely does not have any form of nipple aversion but I might be getting it! Don’t get me wrong, I love breastfeeding him, it releases all kinds of happy hormones in my body but my left nipple is a leaky bucket. I am not engorged or anything, if anything it is less full then the right side! I can completely soak through a cloth prefold diaper stuffed in my bra in 20 minutes if I am feeding him on the other side, or if I am sleeping. I also have developed a small cut that has scabbed over on my nipple. Wow that hurts when he latches. I don’t know what I would do without Lanolin (it is a greasy yellow skin ointment made from wool. It moisturizes and it safe for to use while breastfeeding.)
I also have been writing this journal entry since 2 this afternoon, it is now 7. Damian is constantly feeding today and my poor breasts are sooo sore. I’ve read he naturally does this just before a growth spurt (he should be having one about now, then again at 2 or 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, etc) but wow, today has seems to have been totally about my boobs and his wet diapers. Damian has been sleeping for about an hour now though and Michael is napping too. I probably should be but I need to take some me time (so I blog…)
Michael is being so awesome about it all, he is becoming the cloth diaper changing king. He was wearing the baby in a sling for awhile today which was really cute. If only he could help breastfeed too… Still I love breastfeeding.
Damian and I also took a bath today, which was really fun. Babies float! I totally didn’t know that, he loved being in the tub with me, he was so mellow and great (and didn’t want a boob for 25 whole minutes!)
Yesterday we had our first outing. We went out and got me some more nursing bras (so long B cup, hello D cup. A country could get lost in this cleavage) and then had a lunch stop over in Friendship Park, where Damian decided he wanted to poop and have lunch too. I fed him in the van, I am not comfortable enough with nursing to do it in public yet… Then we went grocery shopping, he was fantastic in the store, unless he stopped the cart for too long (he had this problem with the van stopping as well) then he started getting restless.
My main goal for this week before Michael goes back to work (next Monday) is to get Damian use to being in the moby wrap so I can wear him around while I work.. He doesn’t like the newborn wrap so I am going to try the kangaroo wrap tomorrow.
One handed typing now, just finished another feeding, sleeping (kinda) baby in arms. I’m going to post this now, sorry if it sounds disjointed.
TFS Weekly Question: Social Interactions
Every Saturday I try to post a new question on the Temple Free Spirit yahoo group. This weeks question is as follows:
Is knowing other people who are on your same path important to your spiritual growth? How do you feel the different forms of social interaction (ie: face-to-face discussion, online chat, telephone) affect your spiritual development? Which method do you prefer?
I want to say, first and foremost social interaction is vital to my well-being (as well as the “alone-time” I need after deep discussed.) I love laughter and debate, I think both grow the soul and one’s personal experience. I am told I am one of those people who can get along with most people. I tend to agree, I love to hear people’s story and am quite good at coaxing it out of them.
I feel we are all connected in some way and that there is a reason people come into my life at certain points, even if they are seemingly disruptive. (One such person came into my life recently and I feel this person is here for a very important reason, to develop inner calm and under-developed ability to let some things go!)
I do not seek out disruptive people though! I tend to form friendships and with those whom I can relate with on multiple levels (I think it is human nature to do so.) Many of the discussion groups I frequent are full of people who are not necessarily on my same path, but at least compatible with it. That way there are enough similarities so closed-minded fights are avoided but enough disagreements to encourage spiritual development.
I can go on and on about social interactions and how important I feel they are to our civilizations wellbeing, but I will leave this here. If you happen to blog about this same topic, drop me a link, I’d love to read our opinions.
Baby Toys
Every baby needs their favorite plushy right? I think we should get our baby a Giant Microbe. I posted about these last year, I liked Ebola back then but I am quite partial to the Pond Scum and the Dust Mite now.
Really though, I was reading a study the other day that one toy stands above them all for teaching baby’s about problem solving. Blocks. Yes, just simply colorful blocks. (Yay for cheap!) I want the blocks I had as a kid.
Actually I think they were my dad’s blocks from his childhood. He still has them I am sure. They are wooden and painted and are in a little wooden wagon. I don’t know if I played with them as a child. I do remember my hoards of plushies though, so many that if I put them all in my bed I didn’t fit with them. My brother and I use to play “animal wars”, the red animals against the blue ones. My brother was quite partial to Tonka Toys. Not the crap plastic ones that they have now, but the old metal ones with all those little choking hazard parts; you know, the good ones!
What was your favorite toy as a child?
I still have my favorite, it is a brown horse plushy named Star.
