Tags
babies, baby led weaning, baby proofing, crawling, milestones, object permanence, parenthood, seven months, solid foods
I can’t believe he’s seven months old.
The first three months lasted an eternity, and the last four have winged by. My mat leave is more than half over. How’s that for a scary thought? Maybe I should, like, look for daycares and a job and such.
Most of the time, Babby is happy, occasionally fussy, and continually sleepless. His good napping fell apart a week or two ago. I won’t dwell on the sleep thing, though, because I have a sleep mega-post coming down the chute, so stay tuned for that.
He has also been fussier this week. I think his teeth are starting to come through – when he opens his mouth, I can see two well-defined nubbins on his bottom gum. He still bites everything in sight.
As far as milestones are concerned, he’s fine. He can sit up (although he still thinks the best way to stand up is to arch his back, so when he’s had enough sitting, he flollops onto his back). He hasn’t figured out crawling. He’s still working on the theory that lifting his hands and feet off of the ground so he’s balancing on his belly and then waggling his butt energetically like a stranded dolphin is the way to propel himself forwards. This works great in the bath/the pool. Not so much on land.
SCOOT!
When he props himself up on his hands, he pushes himself backwards instead of forwards. The more he tries to creep, the more he just ends up scooting away from the object he’s trying to get at. Then he gets frustrated and wails until I come and rescue him.
I haven’t been looking forward to him becoming mobile, and when he started flipping over at 6 weeks old, I thought I was doomed to an early crawler. However, I am relieved to realize that I didn’t factor something in: when a baby can flip onto his back before two months of age, his tummy time becomes drastically reduced, through no fault of the mother. So that slowed things down, I think.
This is probably good because we haven’t babyproofed in the least – the house is a death trap. Electrical sockets without their plates on, let alone protective covers. Plastic bags on the floor (PH pointed out the irony of the fact that there is a big plastic bag in Babby’s room… filled with baby-proofing equipment). Toothpicks and elastic bands in unexpected places. Man-eating tigers under the bed. That sort of thing.
However, I’m not thrilled with him getting bored and fussing to be moved every five minutes. I’m starting to wish that he would get crawling so he can stop complaining about it.
It’s not a strength issue, that’s for sure. He’s been able to support his own weight practically since birth, so he likes to stand on the ground while one of us holds his hands. Then he tries to walk, but it’s really just a controlled wobble forwards. It’s not walking.
Also, when he’s pissed off he arches his back and he ends up doing this weird thing where only his head and his toes are touching the ground. So strength? There. Finesse? Not so much.
He definitely has object permanence.
Peekaboo, once his favourite game, no longer holds any surprises for him, although he still enjoys the occasional game of it. Hidden objects don’t faze him – he immediately tries to lift off the lid/move the blanket to reveal the toy.
He especially thinks it’s hilarious when I hide behind a blanket and then, when his fingers come thrusting underneath to find me, I bite them. HILARIOUS.
Also worthy of big belly laughs: dolphin kicks in the bathtub, having adults imitate his noises with excessive dramatic flair, tickles, being held upside down, and anything startling.
The biggest thing this month has definitely been the food. This month, for the first time, he has taken in energy which I did not provide. Up til now, every molecule in his body came from my body. Now he is taking in food that I did not make for him. *weeps*
Of course, I’m still the primary source of food. Solids are just supplemental at the moment. All he ate today, for example, was an arrowroot biscuit. But yesterday he gobbled a hunk of soft chicken and masticated a big piece of chewy steak. I try to make sure he gets something with iron in it on a regular basis, like red meat. The paediatrician actually told me that they are thinking of changing the recommendations, and listing meats as ideal “first foods”, because of the iron.
At first he just played with food – it was something new to put in his mouth. But around the middle of the month he really got the idea. I noticed that he was actually eating when I gave him some pork gyoza, two, and realized when cleaning up that there wasn’t nearly enough scraps left over.
Then he sucked the entire pulp out of a slice of pickle and we knew he had the idea.
He has eaten: apple sauce, squid, shrimp, pork, beef, chicken, carrot, green pepper, orange pepper, red curry (actually, he didn’t enjoy that much), spicy thai chili sauce (he did like that), potato, cauliflower, broccoli, gyoza, pickle, lemon sorbetto (just a taste), tomato, oatmeal, arrowroot cookies, saltines, and probably more.
NOM NOM NOM
Got anything that needs eating? Babby will eat it for you.
Nom.
*No cats were actually harmed in the making of this baby.
If By Yes 
It’s great that he’s introduced to so many and so varied food items, and that he likes them! I mean, 7 months old and already has a taste for spicy Thai chilli sauce? It’s so sad when you look at kids menus in restaurants here, because all they offer is really bland food: mac & cheese, fish & chips, spag bol … When I grew up, there was no “special menu” for the kids, we had to eat what our parents ate and we never questioned this. Many kids today are so far removed from reality that they don’t even know french fries are made of potatoes. The more varied the diet as kids, the better they’ll eat as adults, I say, so I salute you! 🙂
That’s what I’m hoping! The theory behind Baby Led Weaning is that if you get them to eat what you eat (within reason – no chokable peanuts or high sodium McDonalds), and if you don’t make eating a battle ground, they’ll eat all kinds of weird stuff voluntarily. We’ll see!
Ah, the backward scooting thing. The baby I look after was going through that phase at seven & eight months, and it is the very definition of frustration for them.
He’s ten months now, crawling forward as fast as a two year old can run, and pulling up on all the furniture.
As for the baby-proofing, we don’t have outlet covers on anything. We put up baby gates, keep toxic cleaning supplies up high, and don’t leave precious heirloom breakables on the floor. That’s it. Teaching them to stay away from things they shouldn’t touch is very time-consuming, but ultimately safer for the kids. They learn very early on not to touch things they shouldn’t, and your house doesn’t have to stripped bare. You can then take them to other, childless people’s homes without worrying every second that they will hurt themselves. My opinion, but it’s worked well for us, and even in the dayhome I haven’t gone overboard babyproofing.
I think that I will have a couple of bomb-proof areas, like his own bedroom, where he can pretty much bang around doing whatever, and there will be some rooms, like the computer room, that just can’t be baby proofed to a certain extent. Even once we tuck the wires away, there will still be cat poop in the closet and books on low shelves.
Just so long as the man-eating tigers are not in a plastic bag. That would be bad all around.
Well, THAT would be plain risky.
So close to crawling! He’ll be there soon. Yay!
It’s interesting what you said about meat becoming the recommended first food: it actually WAS the recommendation in Ontario when Liam was a baby, for exactly the reason of iron needs. I’m not sure if it’s still the same, since I didn’t bother looking into that stuff with Jonah, but probably. (Of course, being a vegetarian family, we didn’t follow that one. 😛 But we tried to introduce beans early on. Liam used to eat them, but won’t now. Jonah ate them a couple of times, but not anymore. Ugh. Feeding them has always been very frustrating!)
Good luck with the babyproofing! I hope Babby turns out to be one you don’t have to go crazy for. Liam was — we had to move furniture in front of the phone jack, tape down cords and heating vents, put EVERYTHING out of reach, etc. Jonah has been much easier in that way, but then again, my living room/dining room is still “safe” from Liam’s baby/toddler days. 😉 Everyone has different ideas about this stuff, so do what works for you. (Personally, I wasn’t gonna chase him every.single.minute of every.single.day and I followed the concept of giving them a “yes” zone to explore rather than a place where you constantly are telling them no. Either way, he’s a pretty well-behaved preschooler these days, so I don’t know how much it matters in the end except that it was easier for me, and still is since he was still used to the baby gates and booster seats and so on that I now need to have for Jonah.)
“This is probably good because we haven’t babyproofed in the least”
because we haven’t babyproofed in the least
haven’t babyproofed in the least
How? How are you a real person who has grown to adulthood and had a child? Lady, this is pretty much the ONLY area in which a child is like a puppy! You have to proof the house BEFORE you bring it home! And yet somehow, in this ONE AREA where a child is EXACTLY LIKE A DOG, you are fucking it up!
And while we’re on the subject, kindly stop babbling about the poor child potentially being gifted and/or autistic. He’s going to be screwed up enough with you raising him, he doesn’t need you forcing your bizarre interpretations of completely normal behaviours on him too.
I think the worst part is that you legitimately can’t see how messed up what you’re trying to do is. Try leaving the sycophantic little echo chamber you’ve built for yourself and maybe you too can begin to notice the important distinctions between a child and a puppy!
Look, everyone! A troll!
Nice! I happened on this by accident, reading over old entries! You know you’ve made it when… 🙂
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