Friday, February 09, 2007

Jackson's 4 month doctor visit/Advice on Starting Solids

The 4 month check up went well. He was 15 pounds and 11oz and in the 50 percent in weight and over the 50 in height. His head is in the 25 percent though but it is growing---haha. The doctor said that as far as food goes I can wait till he is 6 months or so. The key is that they need to learn to eat by 1 year because baby/real food is their main source of nutrition by 1 year when they go to whole milk. He did run a temp. after the shots. I do not handle it well when he is sick because he is so helpless. Right now naps are the hardest thing for us and he still is getting bored and wants me to play with him all the time. I am not going to try to be real strict with the whole food thing till 6 months (mainly because Katherine always told me 5 months was the easiest when they eat 4 times a day and if you do not start food). Also, some doctors say their stomachs are not ready until 6 months. When I do offer cereal I mix it with 2-4 tablespoons of formula and 1 tablespoon of cereal (that way he does not get choked)

Eventually Baby Wise II says:

Breakfast (8am): cereal and fruits----Lunch (12pm) Vegetables and fruits----- Dinner (4pm) cereal, vegetables and fruits-----then one last bottle at 8pm. That would be my perfect schedule in a perfect world----haha!

Before you start fruits or vegetables offer you baby Rice Cereal or Oatmeal Cereal (if they struggle with constipation) for 2 weeks three times a day. Baby Wise recommends this but the doctor says you do not have to do it. It takes a while for them to figure out how to swallow. At first, they will only take half of the fruit or vegetable (make sure you buy 1st food not 2nd or 3rd).

I do know that for the first year of their existence they need at least 24 oz of formula a day and no more than 32. Jackson usually likes 27 (to get him through the night) but recently he has been eating 32 every day. I think he is going through a growth spurt. Right now we offer 7 ozs to him at 8:15, 11:15, 2:30, and then 6 ozs at 5:15-:5:30 and then again anywhere from 8:15-8:45. So we are still feeding him 5 times a day but I think he would take 8 ozs 4 times a day. I am just lazy and my platex drop in bottle only holds 7 oz. Recently he has been going to bed at 9:30-10:15 and sleeping till 8 or at the latest 8:30. He still will only sleep 10 hours a night (my doctor said that was wonderful) so we put him to bed later so he will sleep later and I can get a shower!

I have tried cereal for breakfast, lunch and dinner but it is so time consuming---it took like 45 minutes! He still wants to spit it out. He has major constipation problems recently so the doctor said to do oatmeal rice cereal and go ahead and try pears and apple sauce. She said that it did not matter if we started vegetables or fruits that they are all gross and have no good taste. She said to try a new food (it just needs to be a first food---it does not matter if it a fruit or veggie) for 3 or 5 days in a row to make sure he does not have any food allergies. We tried pears today and he gave this terrible face like this taste terrible and spit most of it out. I usually try the food after about 4 or 5 ozs of formula so that way he is not starving but not completely full. That has worked best for me but as you know every baby is different.

As far as naps I know at 6 months it is ideal for them to have just two big naps a day from 1 1/2 to 2 hours---one in the morning and one in the afternoon. So little Sophie is doing great! Before that they say 3 naps (at at least 1 1/2 hours) once they hit like 12 weeks I think The one in the afternoon does not need to be too close to bed time, Our naps are hard right now. He will only sleep for 45 min for the morning nap (probably because he sleep so late) and then he has one at 1 that he usually sleeps for 1 1/2 hour and then another nap at 4 ish for another 45 minutes. After he has been up for like 2 hours or so he gets so tired. We are trying to get read of the last mini nap at 7-7:45 but it is hard because he is so fussy. The first nap of the day he will go into the crib and fall asleep but the rest of the naps I swaddle him and put him in the middle of the bed and he goes to sleep fine.

He is a big grabber now and I am glad I read that Baby Wise II book because I am not letting him play with our phones and stuff because I will not let him play with other people's phone when we go to their house. The book said it is fine to let them play with the remote, your phone, etc but not to punish them when they do that at other people's house because they do not understand. He also plays and rolls around in the pack and play every day because that is a safe place for him. Once he does start crawling I am not going to let him have rule of the entire house he will be limited to certain room----I guess I will get some baby gates. They say that that is just too much freedom to let them crawl around the entire house. He is rolling over on his stomach and yesterday he rolled back over to him back to get to something he wanted but that is the only time he has rolled back over.

2 comments:

C.L. said...

would you say Babywise II and Shepherding a Child's heart are comparable? Meaning, (I have not read babywise II) it seems it is more on behavioral issues than Babywise? What do you think?

PS we are expecting!

Emily Wallace said...

Baby Wise books are definitely how to exactly get your baby on schedule, and mainly focus on how to get them to sleep through the night. They give you so many details about your baby. The only problem is that every baby is different and I never bought into the whole letting your baby cry for a period of time. If you take this book to strictly you could have a starving, screaming baby. So Shepherding a Child's heart is not really like the Baby Wise books at all. The writers of Baby Wise books are Christians and they do give new parents specific instructions that maybe your doctor will not even give you. The main focus is that the child should not be more important than your relationship with your spouse. However, when they are first born they need attention 24/7. Shepherding a Child's Heart is more just on disciplining a child with communication and the rod.

Congratulations!!!!!!! I am so excited for you and any questions you have please please let me know---anytime. When are you due????

I would definitely recommend buying Baby Wise before having your baby (Baby Wise II is for 5-15 months old). They also have Toddler Wise which some of my friends say was a life saver. Also, I think I did a post on Jackson’ schedule when he first came home from the hospital (under the label “schedule”) which will hopefully help when he or she first gets home. Again Congrats!!!!!!