6 months means a lot of things:
Namely, solids. Bowen has not had anything, ever other than breast milk, so this is a bittersweet thing. We're doing Baby Led Weaning so that means, no spoon feeding for our Bo. We've been reading lots of things, like this article from NPR about the benefits of allowing babies to feed themselves, and also, about skipping rice cereal. I'm not trying to sham anyone. I'm just letting people know, what we're doing, and why. This is what we have decided would work best for us, and our family. I know this is not conventional, but hey, we're not.
In the past couple of months we've started trying to make more conscious decisions on what we're eating, and I think that has a lot to do with the fact that Bowen is about to be eating what we're having for dinner every night. I've always been one to choose organic, when I have a choice. I try to avoid high fructose corn syrup, which is basically impossible, processed foods, frozen foods, I try to eat healthy, and local if at all possible. These things have always mattered to me, especially for the past 5-6 years, when I've really felt like I've had a choice over what I eat. Now that Bowen is joining us in the world of solid foods, this has become even more important to me. I have done so much since his birth, 6 months ago, and the previous 9 months that I carried him, to give him the very best. Whether that be what I ate, or didn't eat during pregnancy, to breastfeeding, to watching what I'm eating while I'm breastfeeding, because as we're finding out Bo has inherited some of our food allergies, which I'll discuss next. I've given everything I can, to give him what I feel is best for him, as all moms do. I truly feel like I now understand the sacrifice moms make for their children.
Things we know Bowen is CURRENTLY allergic to (as children can outgrow allergies and I'm sure there is more to this list that we've yet to discover):
- Shrimp
- Cow's milk protein (there is a fairly large difference between being lactose intolerant, and having a protein allergy, hence the distinction)
- Banana's (We think this one is a severe allergy. Both times Bowen has had "the stomach bug" as his doctors have put it, I've eaten a banana that day. He ended up not having any other symptoms of the bug. I don't eat banana's often due to Shaun's allergy, so it took us several weeks to connect those dots.)
So we'll see how solids go, if they do go. We're going to try just a few little things until we go to the Dr.s for his 6 month check up on the 20th, and possibly talk about delaying solids even longer. We made a list of everything that our immediate family is allergic to (this list comes from allergies had by at least one of the following people Shaun or I, siblings or parents (Bo's grandparents)) and came up with a pretty extensive list:
- Dairy
- Strawberries
- Melons
- Cinnamon
- Shrimp
- Chocolate
- Banana's
- Tomatoes
- Curry
- Citrus
- Pepper (like black pepper)
- Caffeine
- avocado
Reactions range from hives, to just a stomach ache, to life threatening, throat closing reactions. So we're not 100% sure what's in the future for Bo, and solids. We'll keep you posted.
Ok enough talk, time for some pictures.
Bowen was about to eat in this picture, hence the drool
The only way things get done in our house. He's not normally that unhappy, we promise. He normally loves being in the Ergo, but lo, not that day.
I love that picture. Such a happy boy.
We took a million pictures of him in this onesie, because I made it for him. We're growing a lil Nole.
I love this picture. We were having a great night, just cuddling. I wish we could cuddle all the time. That would be the best thing ever.
We took pictures of him laying in his crib because that was the first time he fell asleep without the swaddle. It was a big deal! He is now swaddle free at night. Took 5.5 months, worth every second.
Happy swaddle free boy. Side note, he still needs to be wrapped to go to sleep, so we just wrap him in his blanket, and once he falls asleep, we loosen it. Sleeps like a champ!
And last but not least, this is what happened to my laptop. We intended to post last month, but well, that didn't happen, obviously, and for well, rather obvious reasons. So please give us some time to figure out my new laptop, and the keyboard. Hopefully soon we'll be back to posting more regularly.
Sorry there are no pictures of Shaun this post, he has been super busy with papers and midterms, but he did agreed to play photographer this round. He's "practicing his photography."
Ok, that's all for now. Hopefully there'll be pictures of one messy boy enjoying his first solids soon. :)
Kirsten and the boys. :D
