Hope is 10 months old! Update on her reflux and background from that time.

Miss Hope is 10 months young :)! She will be 10 and a half months tomorrow actually! Which means... We only have a month and a half until her first birthday!! So exciting!!!

I will start off with an update of her reflux issues. I have not noticed any more Sandifers episodes in over two weeks now. The zantac has very much helped but I have noticed she is gulping a lot again in these past few days. I have been introducing more table foods and I think something is bothering her... Her pediatrician said to continue offering everything (excluding dairy for now) and I have been so its hard to keep track. Until I notice any more Sandifers episodes I will continue her on her dose before I call her pediatrician. She has been spitting up a little the past few days too... Poor baby. The good news is she WILL grow out of this the question is when...

Last month was a very stressful month. I was offered an opportunity to work at my old spa for two weeks with lots of hours for early August. I am a stay at home mom and have been since I was pregnant ;)... I thought it would be a great opportunity to get out and make a little money while getting back into my old profession. My mom was going to watch Hope all of the two weeks. Being that I breastfeed Hope and she is still to this day not super crazy about solids I was stressed out about bottles. I used to be a mass milk producer when she was a newborn but around 6 months I was lucky to pump 4 extra ounces in 24 hours. I decided I needed to start working with her on taking at least one bottle of formula at least once a day while I was gone. I have absolutely NO freezer stash of breastmilk. There were other reasons this sounded good to me. I was feeling overwhelmed to put it frankly. Normally when a baby reaches 6-7 months of age they are taking in a good amount of solids and only nursing like 4-5 times a day. Well with miss Hope I have to force feed her solids which is only successful once a day and she still nurses 7-10 times a day! So yes giving her at least one bottle a day sounded like a good idea at the time.

I tried giving her a bottle of organic similac formula and she gave me the funniest look. She would not take it and started arching, screaming and literally threw the bottle across the room... My frustration set in. This was not going to go well. I tried mixing it in discreetly with a bottle of breastmilk but she was not fooled. This resulted in wasting the last of the breastmilk in the freezer and wasting the formula. I became very worried. What would we do while I work? She wont take bottles of formula and there is no way I can pump that much breastmilk to sustain her... The struggle lasted two days then I decided to just quit the bottle thing and sure enough the next day the sandifers spasms started. So with the dairy of yogurt and formula that was introduced to her her doctor concluded this would be the culprit. I felt and STILL feel awful about all of it. I was stressed out and just trying to do the right thing for when I was going to leave her for those two weeks. God works in mysterious ways though. JP and I decided it is not the time for me to go back to work for any amount of time. Hope nurses A LOT for a reason. Now that I know she has reflux it all makes sense. Reflux babies dont drink or eat large amounts at a time. They eat very small frequent meals in the day.

This only strengthened my passion for breastfeeding. Breastmilk has been her one and only safe food in her diet. She has no reactions to it whatsoever and it is the healthiest thing on Earth a baby and toddler can have. So needless to say breastfeeding is still going strong and will continue Im sure through her toddler years. It is very much a part of our routine and yes there are days that breastfeeding 8 times in a day is less than convenient especially with a curious 10 month old. Did I mention my 10 month old is walking now?! I just once again want to thank everyone who kept Hope in their prayers about all the spasms. Our prayer now is for her to heal and grow out of this reflux now!

Good News!!

Hope had her EEG on Tuesday the 3rd of July. It was scary but JP and I were confident this would just show our little one is perfect and healthy. She had quite the meltdown having these probes taped to her head and she absolutely had every right to feel that way. They had to scrub her head with an exfoliant and attach like 50 wires! It was looking like they may have to sedate her or reschedule the test but I just nursed her and her daddy put on her favorite song (letter sounds by Barbara Milne) and we got through it.  They did this crazy light in front of her eyes for like 5 minutes and she actually liked that part lol.

I got a call from her pediatrician this morning after 3 days of waiting and her results came back perfect and normal NO seizure activity. He is confident in these results and he is diagnosing her officially with reflux and posturing from the reflux. We are continuing her on the Zantac because it is working well for her. If we miss a dose and she eats a large breakfast then we see minor episodes. They don't bother her but we are sticking to a strict every 8 hour dose. She is eating solids SO well now! And the gulping has stopped! Woo hoo! It is such a relief to have confirmation that she is healthy but just has that annoying reflux. Its treatable and she will grow out of it. Thanks everybody for your prayers and good thoughts! Love you all!

Update on Hope

I just wanted to update everyone on Hope so far. We had her GI test on Thursday morning which showed her upper GI is functioning normally. This does not rule out reflux this was to make sure there are no abnormalities. There are none thank goodness.

Her doctor is pretty confident this is all reflux related and we are working on getting her reflux under control. She is on Zantac right now but I think we may need something stronger. She is still spitting up about once a day and having very minor episodes (2 on average mainly when she is tired). We have never had a day like the first day thank goodness so that means there is progress. If this is reflux triggered by a milk allergy then it could take 2-3 weeks to get the milk protein out of her system.

We are still doing the EEG which is a test to monitor her brain activity and look for seizures. I am extremely confident these are not seizures but as her doctor said we just need to cover all the bases. After the EEG we will probably also meet with a neurologist to show him the video of her movements. I'm not looking forward to these but I am confident all will come back normal.

Hope has been so much happier since starting the Zantac. She is content playing with her toys for longer periods of time and the gulping noise has subsided tremendously. She is also eating far more solids than ever before. About 8 ounces of baby food in a day. This is not a lot for most babies but for a reflux baby its definitely progress.

I will keep everyone updated.

Rough Patch...

This is not blog post I really want to write but I know it will help me feel better. I'm just so confused...

Hope has had some reflux issues from the beginning. Issues that I thought and was told are normal for infants to go through so I never thought much of it. I noticed around 3/4 months Hope was spitting up A LOT. She would projectile and it would just go everywhere. Being that she was so small and not keeping much of her food in it concerned me. It was suggested it could be a milk intolerance to the dairy in my milk which I was consuming a large amount of dairy products in these days. When I took the dairy out of my diet within a few days massive improvement. She would spit up maybe once a day a little bit instead of large amounts after every single feeding.

Infant reflux is supposed to improve especially when they start solids around 6 months. She seemed fine. She has always been a high needs baby and I would assume she just gets bored easily. At 9 months I was told anything except whole milk and honey is good to go. So I introduced yogurt to her and she loved it. Hope is a picky eater so I was ecstatic! Yogurt is full of probiotics, protein, healthy fat and calcium. I figured this is perfect since she doesnt eat much. I started giving it to her sometimes daily if not every other day. About a week after this (last week) I noticed her doing a strange swallowing noise. She would cry and do it but also be happy playing and do it. The best I could describe it as is a gulping noise. I thought maybe she had a sore throat.I called her pediatrician and he said yeah sounds like a little reflux. Nothing to be alarmed about. So I continued doing what we were doing. Giving her lots of new table foods, yogurt anything I can get in this picky monkeys mouth.

Last Thursday after giving Hope a yogurt and fruit meal I put her in her playpen after and visited with JP. She just started crying out of nowhere and I looked at her and she was doing this strange movement. I picked her up and she immediately stopped. I thought that was weird... I nursed her to sleep and she didnt do it anymore. The whole weekend I never fed her yogurt we were actually pretty busy and just doing regular baby food jars or the frozen food ive made her. Then Monday morning I got us back in our routine. I made her a BIG, baby bowl big, breakfast of rice cereal, two dollops of a fresh carton of whole fat yogurt and some fruit puree. She ate the whole thing. In my head I knew she was over eating but again she is picky and tiny I didnt feel right stopping her either. I picked her up and put her in her pack n play. I looked over at her about 20 minutes later and she was in the corner doing that strange movement again. I called her name and she snapped out of it and started crying for me..

I only saw it in the corner of my eye and missed it fully so I thought maybe its a weird thing she has discovered her body does. About three hours later I was feeding her sweet potatoes for lunch and she was fussing and then bent over and I then saw it up front. She did it again and something was not right. I immediately picked her up and I looked at the clock to call her pediatrician and of course it was 10 after noon... They lunch from 12 - 1:30! I took her upstairs to watch her play and I got this video of her doing it. This was the biggest one of them all.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pl2g2oPxYU

Due to her increasing reflux issues and the fact that she is so developmentally advanced and is present and can be brought out of these spasms if I interfere I was pointed in the direction of Sandifer Syndrome. This is a syndrome that affects 1% of babies with GERD (acid reflux). Basically its where the acid is so bad that it actually stimulates the vagus nerve. Her doctor thinks its a contender too when I bought that up. I just had to explain to him her symptoms and that she does in fact have reflux issues more than we both may have thought. So we are seeing a GI specialist tomorrow and Hope will have to fast all night and in the morning. They will give her a barium swallow to watch what it does. We will also be doing an EEG to rule out anything neurological for sure.

Please keep Hope in your prayers that this is just reflux because this can be controlled with the proper meds. She has continued having reflux symptoms despite giving her zantac prescribed by her doctor but she does seem a little better and happier. She has not had an episode in about 24 hours which is a good sign... I will keep you all updated.

Hope is 9 months!!

Our little Hope Leticia is 9 months old! I walked into Carters childrens store today and I was looking at the corner we used to shop in there and those days are long gone... Adorable newborn baby girl clothes.... The cutest little frilly dresses for an 8 pound human being. The teeny tiny onesies...I just cant believe my baby is growing up so fast.

Well even though my munchkin is growing up that doesn't mean she is a big girl... ha! She is far from being a big baby even at 9 months. We went to her well baby check up today and they weighed her in at 14lbs 12ounces. She is now 26.5 inches long. So 5th percentile for weight and 25th for height. She is such a munchkin! Her pediatrician was so amazed at how full of personality and energy she is. He said there is absolutely no sign of developmental delays and  she has zero red flags for autism or other neurological issues. She is extremely bright and curious. They had to do a toe prick to check her iron levels and her numbers came back perfect, yay! She didnt even flinch she was fascinated by the process. Future doctor?

Miss Hope decided to start working on those first steps last week. She will stand there for a few seconds and take a step and just plop to the floor. She wants so bad to take off running but shes just working on her balance right now. She cruises all around her room grabbing onto the wall, dressers, her crib and just walks all around. She also said mama! She only says it when she is crying for me though. She just cries mama mama mama! Its adorable.

She is pretty much over purees now and moving onto table food. I wish I could keep her on purees because choking risk scares me but she would rather munch on food herself. Aside from still nursing and cosleeping the rest is a new adventure! Sometimes I have no clue what im doing honestly lol! Soon my baby will be running all over this house and eating big kid food! Next phase is onto the planning of her first birthday party!! Stay tuned!

Things I wish I had known before baby....

In the last month before I had Hope I had all these expectations if you will. I had her co-sleeper set up and just knew that she would sleep in there. I had all her clothes for her size washed (or size I thought she would be) and imagined putting her in so many of the outfits her first week. I thought breastfeeding would be painless and amazing. I thought regardless of what people said that it would be easy.

Here's the top ten realities of having a newborn were for me:

10.) That we should have had some preemie clothes on hand because she was so teeny. She wouldn't fit in any of her clothes for at least a month.

9.) That because breastfeeding can be an excruciating experience for some mothers; you should have a nipple shield on hand. I believe if I had one on hand, it would have saved us a very expensive visit to a lactation consultant.

8.) Breast pumps are not only for moms who go back to work. Having one when baby arrives is extremely helpful in pumping for engorgement, having someone feed a bottle of expressed milk so you can take a nap and if you add a couple pumpings on top of feedings you will establish a very plentiful supply.

7.) That your baby may not sleep in a crib or bassinet. This was my biggest shock becoming a mother. Every time (and to this day) I would lay Hope down when she was asleep she would wake up kicking screaming and punching out of her swaddle. If I had educated myself on safe cosleeping in our bed before she came, then I would have been a much happier and rested mama the first week.

6.) Having formula in the house as a "just in case" could have been breastfeeding sabotage. I harmlessly kept a sample can of formula that was mailed by a formula company and I was literally (this close) to using it when I had my breastfeeding issues. When a mother is hormonal, tired and frustrated this is a sure way to sabotage a breastfeeding relationship. If it weren't for my husband and close friends, who knows what would have happened with breastfeeding for us.

5.) I wish I had done cloth diaper research before having her. We spent a lot of money on disposables the first few months even with having many boxes from our baby shower. Newborns go through about 12 diapers a day. That is about 360 in just the first month. That is about $100 on disposable diapers in just the first month when you can get quite a large stash of cloth diapers that will last you forever.

4.) That you may have a rashy baby... Hope has very sensitive skin and she gets diaper rashes very easily and she has mild eczema. I used aquaphor, desitin, A&D, coconut oil, breastmilk, Caldesene (yikes dont use that) and even vaseline... Finally after her awful rash would NOT clear up I saw my lanolin nipple cream lying there. I thought "If that stuff could heal and soothe my blistered, raw and bleeding nips why wouldn't it help this?" BEST discovery I ever made. I have never used anything else for her rash it works EVERY single time. Plus a lot of the products above use petroleum which is a known potential cancer causing ingredient :(. Wish I had known that before. 

3.) That your baby can be allergic to milk in YOUR milk... Hope has always been quite the spitter upper but around 3 to 4 months it got really bad. Like projectile. Naturally, spitting up does peak around this time but something wasn't right. There was a little blood in her dirty diaper and it was greenish and her spit up was so aggressive. I was told to analyze my diet and if I had added something new. I had started having a bowl of cereal with milk every morning and JP and I had gotten into a bad ice cream habit at night. So it was determined she was having an allergy to the dairy in my milk (very common). I switched to almond milk, stopped the ice cream (good idea for me) and her spitting up decreased significantly over night. WISH I had known...

 2.) That there is such a thing as a small healthy baby. Hope was born at about the 25th percentile. She has continued to drop from this percentile gradually and was in the 2nd percentile at 6 months. She has never lost weight since her first week of birth but she just does not gain quick at all. I would say about a pound a month or so, sometimes less. Thankfully I don't have a pediatrician for her that is fixated on "fattening" her up. She is healthy and small and this is possible and normal. Phew....

1.) That they are only teeny babies for a few months... For some reason looking at all our newborn stuff in her room before her arrival I thought she would be using and in these things for months or for a year! Boy was I shown wrong. They grow so fast. My 8 month old is almost walking!


I just wanted to share some of the things ive learned for our family. I have my own parenting style than others. I am passionate about certain things and other moms are passionate about other things or maybe even the same things. I guess thats the journey of parenting though. You dont know what kind of parent you are going to be until little one gets here. I wish I had known those things as it would have made things easier but no matter what Im here regardless. Just educate yourself on every possible thing you can and you will do great. The real prize is that baby burrito in your arms! Oh boy mama is getting baby fever again... :-P

Hope is 8 months old!

Our little baby girl is 8 and a half months old now! Its taken me a few weeks to write because I feel like each month goes faster and faster! She is standing by herself often and working on those first steps now!

I dont have too much to update on as far as events in the past month. Im just enjoying her so much. I love being a stay at home mom and being able to just watch her grow and change every hour each day. I feel so blessed and lucky to be able to do this.

Our kitchen is ALMOST done. Tony, JP's dad, has been doing all the tile work in our kitchen and we are looking at finishing this weekend. I will post a before and after picture. That will be nice when its all done. I cant wait to have my kitchen 100% back!

This month Hope seems a little less interested in solids than last month. She will eat one good solid meal in the day (only if its sweet potatoes or blueberries) but if I offer more or different foods she just kind of plays with it. She would much rather just chew on her spoon. This is very normal as food before one is just for fun. Some babies just have more fun with it than others I guess. So I am still nursing a good 8 times a day and maybe more on extra cranky days where she just wants to pacify. Im convinced this is why I am not losing any weight. Im always sitting on my booty nursing lol! But Im not complaining who am I kidding. This is the life!

I need to schedule her next appointment but she is in the 14-15lb range. Teeny tiny little thing! She is getting to be so funny. She has this personality already. She says "dad" ALL the time! Just yesterday I repeated "mama,mama,mama,mama" and she looks at me and says..."dad." lol!! stinker! We missed her 6 month shoot due to just being so busy with the house stuff so we will be doing 9 month pictures. I will post those next month :-D!

Hope Leticia is 7 months old!

Oh my goodness! I have a 7 month old daughter! These monthly updates are coming up quicker and quicker. Hope celebrated her first Easter this weekend. We spent it alone as a family and we had a wonderful day. We BBQ'd and watched movies and just spent nice quality time together.

Hope has a whole bunch of new milestones for this update. Lets see... She is crawling all over, pulling up and standing up, saying dada and almost mama, bouncing and she has two little teeth poking in! Once she turned 6 months all her development just went hyper speed. Her pediatrician says she is very advanced for her age. She was only 12.9lbs at her appointment which is only the second percentile. So she is below average in height and weight but she is developmentally ahead as far as her mental and physical milestones are going. He said she is approximately in the 9 month range developmentally. Basically she will be walking in the next two months... Her ped was not concerned about her height and weight in the slightest. He is a realist (love him). Her dad and I are not huge people by any standard. When I'm not large and in charge from baby weight I am petite and I was a generally small baby too. Not nearly as small as my sisters and Hope is right along the lines of what their growth patterns were. She is so strong, so healthy and so happy. I am just so blessed with an amazing little baby girl.

She is still exclusively breastfed. She has to this day never had a drop of formula and rarely rarely ever gets a bottle. Its not something I'm against its just something that has never been a part of our lifestyle. I am still nursing about 6 times a day and then once or twice in the night time. She gets solids twice a day and her favorites are peas and sweet potatoes :). I add coconut oil and mama milk to up the calorie and fat content to her solids. She loves her some food! But some days less so than others. I get the "your still nursing?" every so often too. Im so confident in it that I am proud to say HECK YEA! I will nurse her as long as she wants. If she doesn't wean by 3 or 4 so be it. When she starts Kindergarten this will most likely be when it stops naturally. Babies benefit greatly from DHA until they are 2-3 years old and so on into adulthood like ourselves. There is no greater source that they can get it in the composition necessary for absorption than straight from mamas milk. When she is tired, cranky and upset it is an instant comfort and pacifier.

Is there any place safer than nestled into your mamas arms? We come from a generation of "independent" parenting. Our parents were taught to parent us in a way to make us as independent as possible from as early on as possible. So as babies we were laid in our cribs to cry. Much of our lives we were placed on time out when we were hard to handle. The goal was to always teach us to be alone and to become content with that. Some of us took to this easier than others of course. The attachment parenting style is you never withhold love and affection. When your baby is crying you cuddle and/or nurse. When your toddler is throwing a temper tantrum you cuddle/and or nurse. When your child is feeling insecure and sad your cuddle and/or nurse if they haven't self weaned. You give love and they will become secure and outgrow needing mommy. They will "I want to do it by myself mommy" eventually on their own time. Is it hard? Yes motherhood is hard. Its a sacrifice. More of a sacrifice than I ever could have imagined. Hope is a wonderful and happy baby but she is a pretty high needs baby emotionally. She needs mama to soothe her to sleep right now. She needs mama with her at all times and I am glad to do that for her.

It is no secret I am a research junkie. Before motherhood I was naive to every single thing. I was going to repeat ways I grew up seeing things done because everyone else does it they turn out fine. Im not saying the research and conclusions I have come up with is right. But it is what I believe. I don't know many mothers like me and sometimes that is hard. Its hard being the "odd man out". My own family thinks im a nut job sometimes. I know in my heart I am doing what I think is best for her. All we can do is our best and pray we made the right decisions. So in conclusion up to this point at 7 months. We are cuddling to sleep, co sleeping, breastfeeding, non medicating and not using any sort of schedule...

What is your parenting style. Be loud and proud of it!

Hope is 6 months! (And update on Mom and Dad)

They really don't lie when they say that time flies when you're having fun... My beautiful baby girl is 6 months old... You know sometimes I just cant believe I have a gorgeous little baby girl. My entire life since I was 2 years old playing with baby dolls I wanted a baby girl. My whole life was meant to lead up to this achievement. I have no clue what I was doing before her because it was just not important frankly. She is my life. And I know her daddy feels the same way, minus the playing with baby dolls at 2 years old but hey who knows... ha!

She has brought us so much joy. She has been rolling over for a few months now but now she is ALL over the place. She is also able to army crawl on our bed. Basically instead of using her hands she uses her forearms. If she sees a computer or phone on the bed forget it because she is after it. We have ordered all the baby proofing materials. We don't quite have to put it all up yet but we are prepared because she is going to be crawling very soon. She has said dada a few times but I dont think its purposeful yet ;), dont tell her daddy... She loves to scream, babble and laugh. She is truly a little joy. She also loves her food! I try not to give her too much because breastmilk is still all she needs. If they fill up on solids they fill up on less nutrient dense foods that can fill up their bellies. Basically full of less important food which is not a good thing for a tiny growing baby... So we still have a little while before solids become a big part of her diet, however I am letting her wean herself. I give her solids twice a day with a little teeny bit of coconut oil to give her healthy fat to complement the nursing. She still nurses just as much to this day and it is such a special time. I love it more and more each month. I love how her eyes lock with mine and she touches my face and will smile. God truly designed this special relationship between a mother and child and I am going to continue it as long as possible. Thinking about stopping truly breaks my heart into a million pieces.

On Friday Hope came down with her first cold :(. She woke up and coughed something nasty and has been congested and coughing since. There is snot (TMI) everywhere! She has had a very low grade fever but I keep an eye on it. The more and more research I put into illness and immune systems the more I am able to get through this. When your kids are sick I truly believe it is harder on us parents than them. She is still happy, laughing, rolling and scooting all over the place.

As for JP and I... wow.... Okay so about a month ago when we came back from being gone for about a week we noticed a leak outside our house. Well of course it was coming from inside. We got a plumber out asap and he found the problem. When the builders were building the homes someone hammered a nail into the pipe. I guess it rusted recently and triggered the leak all over. So basically our kitchen has been out of commission since the beginning of February... This is a situation that is covered by insurance but because of that it is a lengthily process... The good news is we get a nice new kitchen out of it but it is taking SO long. With a baby and just moving into a house that is not a fun situation and a week will easily go by that I hear from nobody and we have half our kitchen torn out. Its no fun. But I know it will get done and it will be worth it. Other than that JP and I are doing very well.

Also an update on our dog Maxi. He has a lot of anxiety when away from us. Since I am home all the time with Hope he is very bonded to the two of us. When we leave he gets into stuff and more recently he has found Hope's silicone pacifiers and ate a good amount. They have caused some problems and he had to have surgery. Unfortunately and fortunately the pacifiers had already moved into his colon when they opened him up so putting his little body and our wallet through the surgery was absolutely useless. But we are glad that our little doggie is okay. He is recovering very well.



Our 4 year wedding anniversary is in one month! So stay tuned for Hope's 7 month and we will be going on a nice fun trip!

A day in the life of a stay at home mom

I am 23 years old and blessed with the opportunity to be a stay at home mom already! This was always my dream since I was a little girl believe it or not. I have always wanted to be a mommy! My dreams have come true and it is BETTER than I could have ever dreamed!!

Hope is 5 and a half months old now and the fun is really beginning. We co-sleep with her and all that means is she sleeps in bed with her daddy and me. People think, "woah arent you afraid you will roll on her?" You would be surprised how aware you are even in dream land. The second she squirms at all I wake up and dream feed her. Basically that means I nurse her once or twice a night when she is still half asleep. I dont do it so she will sleep longer but because shes teeny and I dont want her going all night without eating. She sleeps great and has slept great since day one with co sleeping. She always has her hand on me to know that her mommy is there :)I coudnt imagine having her away from me while we sleep. Its not for everybody, but it works very well for our family.

She wakes me up with little babbles. She never wakes up crying. She grabs my face, my hair and just stares at me. Morning time is such a beautiful moment and we just snuggle and play in bed for a half an hour or so. Then mama needs her coffee!

The rest of our day consists of nursing, nursing oh and more nursing!! She loves to nurse! She is a comfort nurser. She wont take a pacifier. As long as we are at home I really dont mind. And when we are out and about she is so fascinated with the world and looking around that she doesn't need to nurse much. So basically all day it is nurse, sleep, play. That is usually the order things go.

I only give her a few tablespoons once a day at the most of solids. Sometimes she eats most of it sometime she only eats a few bites. But she loves every food we give her. Bananas, yams, and avocado especially. All of her food made by mommy with love of course :). Okay you dont make bananas or avocado, you mash it... Mashed with love!

I seriously feel like super mom when I am able to get the kitchen, laundry and living room straightened up. But most days this doesn't get done but usually at least one. Between playing, nursing and snuggle time I honestly could care less what needs to get done. JP understands of course. Every weekend he is reminded of the hard work it takes to take care of this little angel! So basically the life of a stay at home mom is beautiful. It is like being on summer break all the time and spending the whole day with your best friend in the world who you never get tired of! Even more than that. It is just indescribable... Its a beautiful life...

Hope's 5 month check in!

Little Hope Esperanza is 5 months old!! I just cant believe how fast she is growing. Everyone said it would, but wow!! Pretty sure she is 22 weeks old?

I am still breastfeeding 99% of the time. We have introduced solids but I do firmly agree with experts it is best to compliment breast milk with solids for the first year. So in the morning I will give her a few bites of something until she turns her head. Then at night she usually eats more, but then I nurse right after. So far she has had brown rice, bananas, sweet potatoes, apples and peas. She loves bananas so I usually just mash her up a little banana and it keeps her happy :).

Her personality grows daily now instead of weakly. Shes rolling, inch worming, grabbing everything, turns to voices and noises, trying to babble to us and knows just how to have us wrapped around her little finger. She is such a delightful little girl. Things are getting fun!!

Hope's 4 Month Check In

Hope is 4 and a half months old now :). They say that the first three months of a babies life should be treated as the fourth trimester. And this month I have really started understand what they mean by that. The first three months she was dependent on sleep, nursing and a little awake time just looking around. However in the fourth month she is having double the awake time and her personality is shining through. She loves to make noise, and she hits her arms down to her side as hard as she can in excitement. She smiles a big gummy smile and giggles often throughout the day.

Her physical development has reached being able to hold herself up on her belly at a full 90 degrees. She is also rolling from tummy to back and back to tummy now. She is able to grab things out of purpose and loves to chew on them (her sophie the giraffe is her favorite). She sits up very well when supported on your lap as well.

I think the most exciting new thing is that we have started her on complimentary solids now. Research shows that it is best to wait until 6 months and I truly wanted to however I couldn't escape her signs that she was ready. She became increasingly cranky, not sleeping well, nursing so much where she was just spitting up constantly. So I talked to her pediatrician and he felt it is time to start introducing her and giving her the "full" sensation. She is 4 and a half months and it is an acceptable age. I started her on organic brown rice cereal just to get her used to some texture. And have since given her a taste of sweet potatoes which she didn't seem to really care for right now. I have been giving her bananas this week, which she really loves! It is a known fact that once you introduce solids you have started the weaning process. So therefore I am not over doing it. She is still so young and tiny she does not have a grown stomach so I know a little bit goes a long way. She only eats a few spoon fulls (baby spoon) in the morning and a little at night and it has made a world of difference in her. I still nurse her just as much, because solids before one year do not take place of a nursing session. They simply just add to it. There is more fat, carbohydrates and calories in breast milk than solid foods so it truly is her perfect source of nutrition. The solids just make her feel more content and who are we kidding, its fun! :-D

We are loving all the new adventures she is bringing into our lives. I cant wait to see what the next month brings, oh boy!!! hehe


Hopes first bite of organic brown rice cereal (mixed with mommy milk)