Tips on Tuesdays

This tip might not work for everyone and it might not work forever, but, for us, it works really well right now.

A few months back, I had to move Jack's seat to the middle seat in my car. After a couple of days, I noticed that both my kids were happier. As you can read here, my kids are not great car riders.

Here are the reasons I like having them next to each other:
1) They can look at each other and for some crazy reason, my kids like each other.
2) Jack can tell me if the baby is sleeping.
3) If Bailey drops her toy, Jack can hand it to her.
4) "Taking care" of the baby gives Jack something to do in the car and makes him feel like big stuff :)
5) I can easily reach back from my seat and unbuckle Jack. Then, I get out of the car and close my door. Jack will then climb into my seat to get out when I'm ready for him (a lot of times I put Bailey in the front pack when I have them on my own), which saves me having to go around the car and get him--it's just a better, safer plan all around.

FYI--that picture is not posed--on a 4th of July road trip I looked back there and they were holding hands all on their own. Matt was driving, of course, so I took this precious picture to show him.

Bottles and the Older Baby

As I type this, Miss Boo is laying on the ground near the computer trying to pull down the curtains! I can hardly believe that my baby girl is already big enough to 1) grab the curtains 2) move from where I laid her to the curtains 3) crack herself up about the whole situation. Who knew curtains were funny??

As anyone with children knows, babies grow up waaaaaaaay to fast! At 4 1/2 months old, she smiles when she sees me, leaps out of my arms for her daddy and is "playing" with Bubby on the floor. She's practically in college! Boo is already rolling all over the place and eating cereal--and it won't be long before she's moving on to fruits & veggies (more on that later).

It's important to remember as our babies pass these milestones that they are still babies and formula (or breastmilk) needs to be their main source of nutrition for the first year. Try to think of those solid foods as a snack or a side dish to the "real" food--the ba-ba.

This oatmeal is a yummy snack, but my ba-ba is still where it's at!

Welcome, Noah

Noah Matthew Dougherty was born at 11:14 pm on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009. He is the first blessing of Justin & Susan Dougherty (unless you count Fuzz!) and from the pictures I've seen, he is absolutely precious.

I'd like to take this time to welcome Sue into the world of Mommyhood. Enjoy those blearly-eyed newborn days--they go by so fast! I offer you only one piece of advice, Suse: This is YOUR baby with whom you can do whatever you want--hold him, kiss him, and love on him until you are both blue in the face! Don't share him unless you want to and please, don't hesitate to ask for help! Remember this:

Cleaning and scrubing can wait for tomorrow,
For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow.
So quite down cobwebs and dust go to sleep,
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep!

Moving on to Solid Foods

It's hard to believe, but my little Boo is already on solid foods! You've heard me say before that every baby is different, and in our family, that couldn't be more true than when it comes to solid foods. My doctor recommends starting solid food at around 4 months of age. He recommends we start with cereal and move on to purees later (more on that later). Jack turned 4 months old in October of 2007, so I bought some cereal, washed the spoons and bowls I'd gotten as shower gifts, and tried to feed him. Below is a photo of the result:

HE WASN'T READY.

Not, by any means, that my doctor was wrong. Jack wasn't ready for solid foods at 4 months. And he wasn't ready at 5 months. He was a full 6 months old before he could keep down solid foods of any kind. Before that, any time I tried to feed him cereal--or even those little "puff" things--he projectile vomited. His little system wasn't ready and I wasn't going to make myself and him sick by forcing something on him that he wasn't ready for--so we waited.

Bailey has been a different girl all together. She took to solid foods like a duck to water right at 4 months. From her very first feeding, she followed the spoon with her mouth and had no trouble swallowing like Jack did. I always knew she was brilliant.

I started Boo out on baby oatmeal from the Gerber Company. Jack never really cared for the rice cereal even after he was able to swallow it. My friend Christy recommended the oatmeal and both my kids have loved it. I like to use cereals from the Gerber Company because it has the iron and DHA/ARA supplements that my doctor recommends. Most formula feed babies never need an iron supplement, but cereal is a good place to add an iron supplement to your baby's diet if you need to. There are also iron drops out there, but that's another story for another blog.

Tips on Tuesday

In honor of my friend's Sue's due date being this week, here's a photo-related tip for mamas with new babies.

Every month on the day he was born, we took a picture of Jack in the same spot next to the same toy. It was so fun to watch him grow and change throughout the year. In July, CVS has a free photo book deal, so we had these pictures turned into a photo book for us to keep. I love to look at it and watch my boy grow--Jack likes to look at it too! We've done this for Bailey as well--maybe you'll get to see her pictures in March!

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months6 months7 months8 months

9 months10 months
11 months1 year!

Never Do This!

I'm pretty sure "Tips on Tuesday" should simply say this week:

Never do this!

But my kids sure had fun :)

What dangerous things do your kids do--or maybe something YOU did as a kid? Leave some comments & let us know!!

Top 10 things I love about bottle feeding

10) Efficiency. I have my system down. Read about that here and here
9) Ability to share feeding duties. Not that I always share :) Read about that here
8) Sharing on this blog with all of you.
7) Dr. Brown's Bottles. Read about them here
6) The "for recreational purposes only" state of my body ;)
5) My ability to easily feed my baby in public. Read about travel here.
4) The support I've received from my husband, mother and doctor. And getting into a good "battle of words" with a closed minded person.
3) Holding Boo's hand while she eats.

2) Knowing exactly how much my baby eats each day/meal.
1) Knowing that my babies are fed the best that I can possibly feed them and that they are healthy and loved.