Championship Eater

Susannah is still doing great with solids. She is now eating sweet potato, squash, bananas, avocados, apples, pears, carrots, and green peas. We're starting her on vegetables and fruits first and will probably wait until she is closer to 9 months before expanding into other types of foods. Kid's got a lot of green vegetables in her immediate future, though.

Oh, and have I mentioned that she has two teeth now? Two sharp little bottom teeth that emerged when she was about 5.5 months old.

Yummy, squash!




I am so pleased with her little attachable high chair. It is such a smart use of space and I can rotate the seat around so that she can watch me cook and do dishes.

Watch Out, World!

It would figure that the people living in the 480 square foot house would have an extremely active baby. At 6.5 months old, Susannah can now sit up, crawl, and pull herself up to stand. Over the past few weeks, she has crawled over to Charles' favorite plant, plunged in her hand, and pulled out a handful of dirt. She has pulled a pile of magazines off the bookshelf. She has knocked over her car seat. She is into everything and she moves so fast!

She is also in a big sticking-out-her-tongue phase. She's actually quite like a puppy right now. She pants, sticks out her tongue, and plays fetch with balls. It's so fun to watch her. She gets so excited and fixated on an object, and she's so curious.



Here's some video evidence of her antics.
Jumping energetically


Laughing hysterically

Catching Up & A Big Thank You

I'm so far behind at updating this blog that I missed a number of big events.

Christmas:


Family wedding in New Jersey:


And that's just the beginning... December and January were so hectic. I was extremely busy at work, plus the holidays, plus we all got bad colds. Plus it seemed like everything around the house kept breaking. Since December, Charles has installed an extra heater upstairs, reorganized the house, fixed our refrigerator, fixed our hot water heater (repeatedly), fixed his truck so that it could pass inspection, and pulled his heavy equipment out of a ditch.

Luckily my wonderful cousins Rachel and Judith came to the rescue. They flew up from New Jersey for three different weeks to watch Susannah and help out around the house. It was so fun to have them here, and I was spoiled coming home from work to a happy kiddo and a home-cooked meal. They are wonderful with Susannah and she just loves them. Thank you Rachel and Judith!!


With Susannah at Sara's wedding celebration in New Jersey.

Thanksgiving

This year, I am so thankful for my beautiful baby Susannah, my wonderful and hardworking partner Charles, my support network of friends and extended family, and of course my ever supportive first baby, Samadhi the cat. I am also thankful that we live in beautiful Vermont, such a wholesome and healthy place to raise a child.


Standing in our new house!


With some of the friends we've made at our baby group at the nearby Waldorf school.


View from the window of our new home.

Sleeping and Eating Issues

So as I mentioned, Susannah's sleep fell apart when she was around 3 months old. Before that, she was regularly sleeping 8-9 hours through the night. After her sleep fell apart, she was waking up 6-8 times a night to eat. At first I thought she had developed sleep issues, but then I realized she was actually hungry most of those times. She is pretty big for her age and super active, spends the day rolling all over the place. Plus I am away at work 3 days a week and haven't been able to pump enough to allow her to have much extra breast milk during the day. I was barely keeping up with pumping (despite drinking Mothers Milk tea and trying More Milk herbal supplement) and breastfeeding on demand 4 days a week. I was struggling with what to do, given the recommendations to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months. Theoretically I could do this, but she would be up all night eating and I would need to spend all my spare time pumping on the days I am home. I was going crazy from lack of sleep and this is just not a solution I could sustain. In fact, I feel like my stress and exhaustion were contributing to lower my milk supply.

I began researching formula and had the Vermont Organics cows milk brand recommended both by my naturopathic doctor and several friends. It is sold at Hannafords and I believe on Diapers.com. I was then lucky to find a local mom who was willing to share her extra frozen breastmilk. I also hemmed and hawed about starting her on solids. We started bananas this week and she loves them, ate half a banana yesterday. Now I am able to nurse her in the evenings, then give her a bottle of my friend's breast milk and some banana to top her off. She is sleeping so much better already and is only waking up 2 or 3 times a night rather than every hour.

It was really hard for me to admit that she wasn't getting enough from my breast milk alone, not to mention get over my guilt for not wanting to breastfeed her all night long or pump around the clock. But I was a shell of myself and barely able to function at home or work, bursting into tears from lack of sleep. Now we are all happier and sleeping better despite not following LLL recommendations to the letter.

See, Susannah is having fun with bananas!

Highlight Reel

I can't resist posting some highlights of Susannah's cuteness. Her smiles are infectious and we spend lots of time trying to capture them on film.

Framing the House

This really deserves more than one post, but Charles has been doing an amazing amount of work framing up the house since I last blogged about it. It's really exciting to watch it start to look like a real house. Scroll down fast - it's like a flip book!