Fun DIY Baby Boy Gift!

I have done so many baby girl DIY projects and am so happy that I finally have friends having a little boy that I can try out some of my cool baby boy projects on. This project was pretty easy but does require a little bit of sewing.

I used 1 yard of the brown fabric, 1 yard of the packer fleece and 1/4 yard of the white fleece. To cut the football shape, I folded the rectangular piece of fabric in half the long way and then in half the short way and rounded the corners to make it look like a pie slice. Then I placed the brown folded pie piece over the packer folded fabric and cut an identical pie slice. My outer white stripes were two inches wide and sewn about 10 inches from the ends. The inner stripes for the laces were one inch wide and about 4 inches long. I eyeballed the lengths for all the of the laces and moved them around the blanket until they looked like they were in the right location and were the right length. I sewed the white fleece on to the brown first and then put the two right sides together and sewed the football almost all the way around. Then flipped it right side out and finished it off.It was a pretty simple project that made a great gift for a sporty little guy. I got the directions for this project from here. My next project will be to make Brewer baseball and Badger basketball blankets! More to come on that!

The Trouble with Swaddling

Swaddling has gone back and forth over the years as a technique commonly practiced. Right now, swaddling seems to be the "in" thing to do with babies. Swaddling a baby helps by restricting their arms and giving them a feeling of being in the womb. It provides deep pressure and stimulates the production of serotonin which is a calming chemical.  This works the same way that us adults have a serotonin release from the deep touch of a hug or a massage. 

Despite what I knew about swaddling, I had not expected my baby to be a swaddle baby because I just didn't think that sleeping all tied up seemed appealing for me, (I personally would be quite claustrophobic) therefore I thought my child would not like it either. But when we were still in the hospital and the baby wouldn't stop crying, the nurses put her in a swaddle sleepsack made by Halo which we then proceeded to borrow until ours showed up in the mail. Swaddling seemed to be the ONLY way we could get our little one to get even a wink of sleep and as desperately tired new parents we took what we could get however we could get it. 

6 months down the road it became obvious that we needed to retire the swaddle. She was starting to move and roll around more in her crib and was getting herself into positions that she was unable to get out of, bringing up a concern with safety. The problem was, after 6 months of being swaddled every time she slept, she had no idea how to fall asleep or stay asleep without it. We attempted to slowly ease her way out of it by loosening it little by little over a few week span but that wasn't working.

Then I came across a product called the Zip-a-dee-doo when I was searching google for suggestions on weaning from the swaddle. This was a blanket that gave her use of her arms but the arms were created to be short so it limited her movement giving a slight feeling of being restricted. I decided to give it a try. I am not sure I can necessarily brag about the effectiveness of this product because she still has not learned how to fall asleep efficiently with it. However, it does help in the sense that she tends to scratch herself when trying to fall asleep and the covered hands prevents her from doing so. So she still wears it every night.

We are now at 8 months old and we are still trying to figure out how to sleep without the swaddle. We have been letting her "cry it out" for naps and overnight for the last 6 weeks because I truly think that's the only way she will learn how to fall asleep on her own. It usually takes her anywhere from 10- 45 minutes of crying to fall asleep and on a typical night, she wakes up and does it every 3 or 4 hours. 

So looking back on our weaning experience from the swaddle, would I do it again? Well if I were to have a similar child that we just couldn't get to sleep without it and we were desperate, I probably would swaddle them as well. I think I would try not to swaddle EVERY time the baby slept. If I had a child that slept ok without the swaddle though, I would definitely try to use it as little as possible to avoid this issue again.

DIY Babyfood

I have always wanted to make my own baby food but never realized how EASY it actually was to make! In reality, it takes me less time to make several meals for my baby than it does to make one meal for myself and my husband. I love being able to choose fresh, organic, in season, fruits and vegetables straight off the farm for my baby's food and it is great knowing exactly what is going into her meals. Other benefits include low cost, a wide variety of options, its healthy and it is environmentally friendly.  All you need is a good blender, some nice produce, and a stove/microwave/steamer and you're ready to go!

Here is my list of go-to baby food recipes that I always have stocked up in my freezer (I often make double or triple batches to really stock up!):

Spinach, Peas and Pear

• Blend together 2 cups steamed spinach, 2 cups cooked peas, 2 cups steamed pears

Pumpkin Applesauce 

• Equal parts pumpkin (I often use canned pumpkin) and unsweetened organic store bought (or homemade) applesauce. Blend and season with cinnamon and ginger (as tolerated by your child)

Plums

• Steamed and blended (great for when baby needs a little extra help pooping!)

Potato Squash Stew

• Steam and blend together 3 small yellow potatoes, 1 sweet potato, 1 butternut squash

Green Baby

• Blend 1 cup steamed green beans, 1 cup steamed broccoli, 1 cup sauteed kale (I usually sautee in olive oil) and 3 ripe bananas

Bananas

• Blended and frozen (they will turn brown in the freezer but they still taste fine!). Great to mix with oatmeal.

Eat your Greens Puree

• Steam and blend together 1/2 cup of the following: sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, broccoli, peas

Carrots and Cauliflower

• Steam and blend together 1 cup of carrots and 1 1/2 cups of cauliflower 

Pears

• Steamed and blended (keep the peels on for more nutritional value if you have a good blender!). This is another great fruit to mix with oatmeal!

Sweet Potatoes

• Steam sweet potatoes. Blend with 1 tsp cinnamon per sweet potato.

Banana Berry Quinoa

• Blend together 1 whole banana, 1 cup of berries and 1 cup of cooked quinoa

Homemade applesauce

• Blend together 8-10 apples. My favorite types of apples to use are Macintosh for a less sweet sauce or Jona Gold or Ginger Gold for a sweeter sauce. Add cinnamon to taste.

Other tips for DIY baby food

I always leave peelings on all fruits and vegetables (except sweet potatoes and butternut squash) for added nutritional value. Also a huge time saver!

Need more time savers? Buy pre-cut, frozen or canned fruits and veggies (check the labels for additives that you may want to avoid though). Some frozen veggies can even be microwaved in the bag they come in for fewer dirty dishes!

During the cooking process, some of the vitamins and nutritional value transfers from the fruits and veggies into the water they are being cooked in. In order to add that nutritional value back in, I pour some or all of the water that that they were cooked in into the blender with the fruits and veggies (to desired consistency).

I taste all of my recipes and make sure I would be willing to eat them. Some of them are not my first choice for food but I want to be sure I am not forcing her to eat foods that I find disgusting. This isn't a big deal to some people but in doing this, I have found that I have never given my daughter a food that she doesn't like!

I freeze the food in silicone ice cube trays from Walmart that are "double cubes." When we first started solids, I filled up the trays half way for smaller portion sizes but now at 7 months, she eats a full "double cube" for each meal. After the cubes are frozen, I store them in ziploc freezer bags. I prefer the kind with the pull zipper on it as opposed to the traditional snap zip. 

When heating up the cubes to eat, I put them in the microwave in little pyrex containers (I have a thing about avoiding plastic in the microwave). I heat them for 20 seconds the first time, then stir/mash it up and then continue to heat and stir in 10-15 second increments until it is heated evenly to the desired temperature.

Happy Freezing!

Media Use in Infants

We've all done it. I desperately need to take a shower and need something to entertain my child for a few minutes so I plop them down in front of the television. No harm right? Most people would say not at all, and for the most part I agree. Television and iPads can be great ways to distract a child so us moms can sneak away for a few minutes to take care of our basic needs. But where do we draw the line? Obesity is the most commonly discussed reason for the movement of decreasing media exposure in children. We all know that childhood obesity has become an increasing issue in the United States and many people attribute a portion of that to a sedentary lifestyle. It's no secret that the combination of moving less and eating more leads to weight gain so I don't think I need to go into detail about how excessive television viewing and computer/ipad usage can lead to obesity in children. But is media exposure actually that harmful to babies, I mean we do tend to love our babies chubby, right? My answer: it depends on how much. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends parents "strongly avoid screen exposure for infants under the age of 2." As an occupational therapist, my problem with the use of media is not what the exposure does to the baby, its what the exposure doesn't do for the baby.

Visual Interpretation
Exposure to media screens does not provide a baby an accurate visual interpretation of our world. Sure they have bright colors and flashing lights but they are 2 dimensional. They don't have shadows and they don't teach a baby how to focus their eyes in different depths of field. Staring at a screen for too long can actually cause a baby's eye muscles to atrophy just as they do with adults. Have you ever gotten a headache from staring at a computer screen for too long? You have the sense to look away and rest your eyes but babies don't understand what is making them feel that way and they can't communicate to you that they have a headache.

Sensory Stimulation
Exposure to media screens does not provide a baby with enough sensory stimulation. Sure they have plenty of visual stimulation but screens don't have texture variation or a form, they don't have much of a smell and the auditory stimulation comes from a speaker. Compare playing a piano app on the iPad to playing with a piano toy.

The iPad is flat. You touch the screen and a sound comes out of the speaker. The screen may light up to show the key you push. The definition between keys is shown by color (only visual), the feedback for pushing the button is the sound (auditory and maybe visual if the key lights up), and the sound from all the keys comes from one location (the speaker). When using the toy piano, there is space between the keys that can be felt with your hands, you receive feedback that you hit the key by your finger moving in a downwards direction, and the sound that comes from hitting the key comes from wherever the key is that you hit. The toy stimulates your senses in more ways than the iPad, therefore you have the opportunity to learn more and understand the experience better.

Social Interaction
Exposure to media screens does not provide a baby with social interaction. Language development is extremely important for infants which is why talking to your baby all day long is one of the best things you can do for them. I often get stares in the grocery store as I'm walking down the aisles having a full out one way conversation with Joanna. "Joanna, where is the BBQ sauce? It must be by the ketchup because they are similar condiments." Now Joanna has no idea what ketchup is, or condiments, but hearing words all day long gets that little brain of hers working as she tries to figure out what all of them mean. Maybe all she got out of that was the word Joanna, but she recognized it and realized I was talking to her. Social interchanges are the basis of early language development. Baby smiles, Mom smiles back and then baby smiles again and Mom laughs. This is the foundation for conversational turn taking and establishes a pattern of coordinated behavior. Baby learns that when she says something, Mom will respond and vice versa. A screen can not respond to baby in the same way, decreasing its ability to improve language skills as well as good old fashioned communication. A baby gets so much more out of singing, reading a book with you, playing peek-a-boo, watching you cook dinner or listening to you talk about ketchup in a grocery store than what they get from playing on an iPad or watching television.

Mobility
Exposure to media screens does not provide baby with the opportunity to increase mobility and endurance. Sitting on the couch and playing on an iPad or watching television do not encourage much range of motion or strength building. When playing on the floor, baby has many opportunities to work on problem solving (how to get to a toy, how to make a toy do what they want it to do, ect.), engage their core muscles (by reaching for toys, rolling over, maintaining a sitting position, getting into 4-point, ect.) and improve balance (as they are reaching for items or maintaining a position).

Crossing the midline
Crossing the midline is an important term that we use frequently in the therapy world. Crossing the midline refers to one hand reaching across to the other side of the body. When a child crosses the midline, both sides of their brain are communicating with each other and they are building stronger neural pathways within their brain. This communication taking place within the brain will eventually aid in crawling, standing, walking and later on, school related tasks such as handwriting and reading. When a child is playing on a computer or watching television, they are doing very little crossing the midline. Some may argue that many educational tablet apps encourage crossing the midline and that may be true, however moving your hand across a 6 inch screen is a very minimal movement. Larger, gross motor movements are much more beneficial to motor learning. I have a whole post on the importance of crossing the midline coming in the near future.

Do I need to avoid ALL media exposure with my infant?
Some may argue yes. In fact, there are mixed opinions in research regarding whether children under the age of 2 are even capable of learning from media. The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a 2011 policy statement that the educational benefits of media in children under the age of 2 have not been proven despite the fact that many infant based television shows or tablet applications claim they have such benefits. The same policy statement even states that research may indicate that background media could interfere with cognitive processing, memory and reading comprehension and they stress the importance of parents understanding the effects of having the television on in the background.

So how much is too much? Well, that's gotta be your call. For me personally, I try to avoid media exposure as much as possible with my baby. I have a husband who loves having the television on at all times so I try to keep it off during the day because I know it will be on in the background when he gets home at night. As far as the iPad, it comes out maybe once per week for about ten minutes and when we do use the iPad, we play together and interact with one another the entire time. My personal goal for my child is that she develop interests in non-media related activities that promote creativity, physical activity and problem solving prior to introducing much media exposure. I believe that when a child gets used to watching television or playing on an iPad too often, it stunts their development, they don't learn how to entertain themselves, and their communication skills, creativity and imagination lack. They don't explore their world and learn from it and therefore live in an imaginary two dimensional world. 

But that is my way. The right way for my family may not be the right way for your family and there is nothing wrong with that. I am just simply stating what I know from my experience as a therapist and what I have learned from personal research. I don't believe that media use in babies and children is ALL bad. It can actually be a great resource, especially as children develop the ability to learn from it. But that is all it should be for a child, a resource and not a way of life. All in moderation.

For more information on the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines in relation to media in children, see the links below.

AAP - Media Use by Children Younger than 2 Years

AAP - Policy Statement: Children, Adolescents, Obesity and the Media

AAP - Parents of Preschoolers: Expert Media Recommendations

AAP - Digital Childhood: Electronic Media and Technology Use Among Infants, Toddlers and Preschoolers

Sometimes you just gotta pick your battles

If there's one thing I've learned about parenting at this point it's that there's always something to work on. Whether it be moving on from the nipple shield, getting on a schedule, sleeping through the night, eating solids or sleeping flat, all of these challenges come with change. I don't know about your baby, but my baby HATES change. She likes what she knows and what she's used to so if I'm going to change it up, you can bet your butt she's gonna have a fuss over it.

So how do I deal with these changes and transitions? One at a time. Yes, in an ideal world I wouldn't promote one negative behavior when trying to fix another but this is not an ideal world and sometimes, I just need to pick my battles. Is it more important to get my baby sleeping safely in her crib or getting her to self-sooth herself to sleep? Obviously, safety is most important so that is the first battle I will face first. If I have to get up and rock her back to sleep ten times a night just to get her to sleep flat in her crib, then that's what I'm going to do. Once we master sleeping safely, we will move on to self soothing herself back to sleep but she can't sooth herself back to sleep if she doesn't know how to sleep in the position I put her in. 

I need to remember that she is a baby and her little brain can only take in so much information and change at once. Baby steps and patience are the keys for change in our home.

Operation Get Baby to Sleep Flat

"Back is Best." This is the one item from my list of "nevers" that I managed to stick to my guns on. Despite temptation, I have never put my baby to sleep on her tummy.

Do you have any Halo products? We have several of their swaddlers (they are my favorite swaddler out there!) and they are known for their slogan "Back is Best" which is embroidered into or printed right onto all of their products. In the past, babies were often put to sleep on their tummies. Recent research indicates that the safest way for a baby to sleep is on their back. Babies should never be placed on their tummies as it can contribute to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

So what if your baby won't sleep on their back? We tried having Joanna sleep on her back on and off for the first month or so and it was a no-go. She wouldn't even lay on her back to play, let alone to sleep. At the time we thought she may have acid reflex so we had her sleep in her bouncer seat so she was upright. It was not the most ideal and safest option but it did the trick.

Now, we are 4 1/2 months down the road and Little Miss Mobile was playing in her bouncer seat while I was cleaning up around her nursery and after a few minutes I look over and see her bent forward about to somersault out of the seat. And that was the end of sleeping in the bouncer.
I knew we needed to start working towards sleeping flat in the near future but I was hoping to ease into it with naps first. This put a damper on my plan. Mommyality hits again. We were going to have to 86 the bouncer (all she had ever known) immediately that night and just do it like a bandaid. Thus began Operation Get Baby to Sleep Flat.

I started off the night with no ideas in my mind of how this was going to work. I put her to sleep like I normally do with our regular bed time routine and then I just set her down in the crib and she immediately woke up screaming her lungs out. I sat there in her rocker listening to her painful wails for about a half hour when I finally decided to go back to the basics. We had just retired the swaddler for sleeping about a week ago but it was time to bring it back. Joanna needs to feel secure when she sleeps and with no support on either side, she panicked. So I grabbed a swaddler, wrapped her up nice and tight and l rocked her back to sleep.

I knew the swaddle would help but it wasn't going to be enough. If I just put her down like that I knew she would wake up screaming again, and this soft mama can't handle the heartbreaking screams. With no ideas on how to make this an easier transition for her, I sat there in her chair holding her so tight, desperately searching my brain to come up with an idea. Then I spotted my boppy in the corner of the room (actually we use the Mambo but for some reason I always refer to it as a boppy). I grabbed the boppy and put it down in the crib then carefully set Joanna right down in the center of it. I held my hands down on her with deep pressure as she squirmed for about 15 seconds and then she settled and was out cold!

Now I got her to sleep but this didn't solve the safety issue. She could easily squirm her way into a position where the pillow could suffocate her. It is recommended that nothing be in the crib with baby during sleep and that includes the boppy. So I waited about 10 minutes until I knew she was in a deep sleep and I lifted her head slightly, pulled out the boppy and put her head down in the crib. She didn't move an inch! I left her room thinking, "5 minutes, this is only going to last 5 minutes."

....6 hours later, Joanna started getting restless and it was time for a feeding! I changed her diaper, fed her and did the same thing as before and she went right back to sleep for another 5 hours! What started out looking like a long night of crying ahead ended up the best night of sleep she ever had!

Operation Get Baby to Sleep Flat was a success!

Never Too Young for an Art Project!

This year was my husband's first Father's Day and I wanted to make sure that he got a homemade gift from his daughter. I know that there's not much a 4 month old can make in terms of a gift but I knew if I got creative, I could come up with something that he could keep to remember his first Father's Day.

So we got out the paper and paint and got to work! I painted her hands and feet and after numerous attempts, I was able to get some prints that looked like real body parts! It was a great sensory activity for her as well. She loved the way the paint felt and was very curious about how different her hands looked purple! I cut out the successful prints and taped them in the card. Then I gave Joanna a pen and let her scribble on the front and to sign her name. Personally, I think this is way better than a store bought card! Here's the final product:

Pretty good homemade gift for a 4 month old!

Mommyality

Every mommy-to-be prepares differently for parenthood. Some moms spend endless hours researching techniques and methods for raising their children while others decide to just wing it. Regardless of which type of mom you are, one thing remains true, you will not be a perfect mommy. You just won't. You will make mistakes and things will go astray from "your plan." It's inevitable and its reality. It is just Mommyality.

But it's not about the mistakes you make. It's about putting forth your best effort and doing so with a positive attitude. When you approach an obstacle or make a mistake, do you curl up in a ball and hide from it or do you come up with possible solutions and just keep trying until it works? 

I have faced many Mommyality moments early on in my experiences as a parent and I expect to face many more in the future. Through trial and error I have come up with some great and some not-so-great solutions for these obstacles. I think it is important for us moms to stick together and lift each other up which is why I wanted to put this blog together. I want to share what has worked and what has not worked for me as well as provide encouraging words and messages in hopes of helping out others facing their own Mommyalities.