Baby food recall

AAAAAARRRRGHH! I've been feeding my baby rancid food.

Here's a notice of My Organic Baby food recall.

I checked and sure enough, the box of oatmeal I've been feeding Dex is part of the recall. How absolutely infuriating!

Filet mignon

Another milestone for Dex tonight: first taste of red meat! We went to the butcher and Carmen from Royal Beef said that the tenderest would probably be the best one to introduce so we got a couple of filet mignons for him.

Jon broiled it and we shredded it into manageable pieces. We didn't give him much tonight.. about the size of a nickel in total and he seemed to enjoy it okay. We'll see how his system reacts to this.

He is growing up sooo fast.

This one goes to 11

In addition to sleeping in his own crib in his own room, have I mentioned that he's now standing?


Dex is now 11 months old. Can you believe it?

Things are happening so quickly. When we got back from holidays, he was just starting to get the hang of crawling. Then he started pulling up. Now he's standing all the time and trying to cruise holding on to furniture. He's also experimenting with letting go and trying to balance.


Here's the progress report:
- eats three good meals of solid food a day plus a snack
- now eating chicken, egg yolks, garbanzos, lentils and cottage cheese for protein. Red meat is next on the list.
- self-feeds cracker and Cheerios
- stands all the time
- crawls like a pro
- can climb two steps on the stairs
- now wears 12-month+ outfits and shoes
- can sometimes point out the cats in his picture books
- initiates play like peek-a-boo (he's been doing this for a while)
- can shred the edges of his books with his new teeth (he now has eight!)
- rolls over and tries to crawl away when being changed
- sleeps in his room for 10 hours a night (he still wakes up for a snack around 3 am)
- takes a one-hour am nap and one- to two-hour pm nap
- can say "mama," "dada," "kitty," "there," plus a lot of babbling
- can throw a ball to us when asked
- can sometimes give a kiss when asked (basically just opens his mouth and smears slobber on our cheeks)
and lots more that I can't remember at this time of the night.

Overall, our days are getting really busy. When he's not in his high chair eating, we spend lots of time practicing crawling, standing and balancing. He also enjoys reading books, listening to music and doing sing-a-longs. Outside the house, unless it is really cold (colder than minus 10, I mean), we take a daily walk around our neighbourhood as we do our errands. We also enjoy going to our mommy group meetings once a week. Once in a while, he gets dragged to a social event like lunch with my former colleagues, or dinner with friends.

Since I didn't get a chance to post his 10-month picture, I'm adding it here now. He's been experimenting with facial expressions and this one was between a grimace and a smile. Thanks for teaching him this, Grandpa!


Oh, and now that he's eating more solids, Aunt Flo finally came to visit.

Update on the sleep thing

We're getting there. He's slept in his own crib in his own room for five days in a row now. I think we're on a roll! Here's a summary of the last few nights:

Thursday night/Friday morning

10:30 pm - tucked in by Dad (1.5 hours to settle him, half an hour of vocal protest)
2 am - Dad went in to comfort crying baby
4 am - dream feed by mom
6 am - Dad went in to comfort crying baby
8 am - wide awake and ready for the day

Friday night/Saturday morning

9:30 pm - tucked in by Dad (20 minutes of protest)
woke up several times in the night, but Dex managed to settle down on his own
7:30 am - brought Dex to bed to nurse
9:30 am - Dex woke up

Saturday night/Sunday morning

11 pm - tucked in by Dad (two minutes of protest from Dex, eight minutes of patting)
3 am - 20 minutes to settle with Dad's help
6 am - Mom nursed Dex
8:30 - Dex woke up

Sunday night/Monday morning

9 pm - tucked in by Mom (20 minutes of protest)
12:30 am - crying and ear pulling (it's teething time again), needed intervention from mom and dad
6:30 am - Mom nursed in bed
8:00 am - Dex ready for the day

Tough love

I can't believe that Jon decided to let Dex cry it out in his own crib. I mean, we had talked about transitioning him to his crib from our bed, but Jon did not give me any warning that he was going to do this tonight. Sure, Dex has been sleeping in bed with us since we got back from holidays, and I know that Jon has not been sleeping well as a result. But when I got sick and Dex got sick it was just so much easier to be sick in bed together.

It was painful listening to my little boy cry. It would have been better if I was actually away from the house before he did this, but I guess Jon did not think that far ahead. To be fair, Jon did a great job settling him down and there was really less than half an hour of intense crying. I've listened to Dex cry for a lot longer.

So, Dex is now sleeping peacefully in his own crib in his own room, and here I am wondering what to do next. Why am I left with this feeling of resentment then? Is it possible that it was me, not Dex, who was not ready to move on?

Weaning

I think the official definition of weaning is the process of teaching the baby to take food/drink from something other than the breast or the bottle. By this definition, we have started weaning Dex at age five and a half months (contrary to the recommended six months that Toronto Public Health now recommends).

At this point of Dexter's life, I think we are close to the halfway mark, that is, he is probably getting half of his nutrients from non-breastmilk. Here's a typical day for the boy:

6 am - breastmilk in bed
9 am - cereal (made with breastmilk) plus a couple of tablespoons of fruit du jour (he loves pears!)
12ish - dollop of vegetables, a smattering of protein du jour (chicken, chickpeas or egg yolk), fruit with yogourt
4 pm - breastmilk
6:30ish - rice cereal (mixed with breastmilk), plus protein, plus veggies, plus fruit
9:30ish - more breastmilk
middle of the night - breastmilk on tap whenever he demands

We are also starting to feed him from the table as in the occasional bite of bread or whatever fruit or veggie. By next month, I'm supposed to be feeding him similar food to what we are eating for dinner. That should be interesting.

The tooth is out there

The long awaited tooth number eight is finally poking through after days of almost emerging, retracting and threatening to emerge again. But two days ago, the white sharp edge of the lower left incisor?/canine? is undeniable. He is at the halfway mark of the 16 baby teeth he is supposed to be sporting until age six.

Dexter has been drooling big time. We have been having six-bib days lately, partially from this tooth, and partially from something big that is probably next on the list. He's been shoving his fingers to the far back right hand side and I'm afraid of that one. I see sleepless nights and inconsolable baby all over again.

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We're back to blogging again. When we got back from holidays, Dex and I came down with a nasty virus, and a week later, after mine has subsided, Jon was out of town for a few days. He got back on Friday and I spent the weekend trying to catch up. Dex is still not 100% (read: still sleeping with us and sniffling a bit). I'm waiting until he's better to move him to his own bed in his own room. He's become quite adept at pulling himself up so the priority last week was childproofing the house including lowering his crib beds.

Breastfeeding tip

Champagne boosts breastmilk production. Seriously.

Where did 2007 go?

I can't believe an entire year has gone by! We got back yesterday from a great visit with the Nova Scotia grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. We're still trying to get the baby back on Eastern Standard Time so can't chat much. I'll post highlights from our trip in a couple of days, but in the meantime, just wanted to wish everyone a Merry New Year! I never did get around to sending Christmas cards (how's that for the ultimate in environmentally-friendly greetings). All our best wishes for the coming year -- peace, love, happiness, and prosperity. Much love from our little family to yours.