The New Dad Blog

Jude Takes Feeding a Step Further

Last week we talked about Jude starting to really want to feed himself, well this week he took it a step further. Last night we were feeding Jude dinner and he kept on gesturing at the bowl we were feeding him from. So we put the bowl down in front of him and he tried digging in his spoon and then reaching the spoon to his mouth. He had watched the way we do it and he wanted to give it a try. Today at lunch he had almost the whole meal this way. As you can see in the photo above, it was a lot messier than normal, particularly when it was time for yogurt. The whole meal also took a lot longer than usual, almost 45 minutes, but he fed himself most of it with only a little assistance from me.

Speaking of food, Jude's tastes are expanding. This week for the first time he had chili, Indian food (chicken bhuna and saag paneer), and chicken soup all from our plates because he wants to eat what we eat.

Jude is understanding more and more words. Marcy made the comment this week that she thinks he gets about 30 percent of what we say. He definitely knows the words for car, plant, walking, bath, wash clothes, Jude's room, gentle, and many others. I think most of the time he can get the general gist of what we are saying even if he doesn't know all the words yet.

About a month ago Jude started to get a little restless and feisty while we were changing his diaper. So we would have to say "I am not done yet" and force him back down. Now, he understands this concept but he is trying to push us a little bit. We will be halfway through changing his diaper and he will give a half smile and start to move. It is like he knows he shouldn't do it but he wants to test us. This is a new development in the past week or so, and we have seen it in other areas as well.

We have been teaching Jude sign language now for a few months and it is just this week that we have noticed him starting to sign back. When Charlotte, our regular baby sitter on Mondays and Thursdays was giving him dinner she said that he did the "more" sign to indicate he wanted more food. We have been doing this sign to him during every meal for the last three months or more and this is the first time he has done it back. We also noticed the "all done" sign today when he had finished his meal. So we are hoping that all the teaching (done mainly by Marcy) is starting to bear fruit.

Jude Starts Feeding Himself

For some time now we have realized that Jude really does prefer to feed himself. He likes it when we cut up his food into little pieces so he can pick it up and put it in his mouth himself. And he has been trying to feed himself with a spoon for several weeks now. When we are feeding Jude cereal or baby food he always tries to grab the spoon but he usually can't get that spoon to his mouth without spilling the contents, especially with runnier food. Well this week he has been taking the spoon to his mouth at pretty much every meal, and we tried to include lots of stickier foods so he could get them to his mouth. Marcy snapped this photo during lunch today of Jude successfully feeding himself with a spoon.

One other new development is that he now knows to go feet first off the bed and the couch, and down the stairs. When he decides he wants to go down, we just have to say "feet first" and he turns around and slides off easily. He can't yet climb up on to the bed or couch, we have to give him a lift but at least he can get down without any trouble now.

We keep thinking Jude is about to walk - he is very steady on his feet now and he can stand for a couple of minutes no problem. And he loves moving around with his walker. We shot this great video today of Jude using his walker as he walked almost the length of the house. He could walk on his own now any day, or it could be several more weeks. He doesn't seem that interested yet, he seems to be very satisfied just getting around with crawling.

Nine Months Old

Jude turned 9 months old on Thursday, another milestone in his continued development. The big changes this week were around food. We had been feeding him baby food sporadically for the last three months but he had never shown much interest in it. So we didn't take any baby food to California and Jude was consuming five 8oz bottles of formula a day. But the last week there has been a big change.

Jude is eating all kinds of things now, although without any teeth yet he is not interested in food with chunks. But as you can see in the above picture he has enjoyed a teething biscuit. He eats rice cereal, green beans, squash, spinach, sweet potatoes and even chicken (pureed). Marcy also bought these little cloth mesh things that we can put whole pieces of fruit and cooked vegetables in and he can suck on them. So far he has had bananas, nectarines, and avocados, but we will be expanding the selection here soon. With all this extra food he is down to just four or five bottles of formula a day of about 4oz each.

We had the pediatrician appointment on Friday and Jude is doing really well. He is almost 21 pounds and 28 inches now, and developing well. Jude is also back to his usual self regarding sleep at night, but he does seem to be transitioning from three naps a day to two naps - around 9am and 1pm typically. He still goes to bed around 6 or 6:30pm and we hear from him between 5:30 and 6am. It is a relief after the previous week of sleepless nights.

Jude is also more active than ever now. He doesn't even sit still for a bottle anymore - he wants to be exploring his world. There is no more relaxing when Jude is awake, he needs one of us to provide him with our complete attention. Today we were both in the kitchen getting breakfast and we didn't pay attention to Jude for 10 seconds and the next thing you know he was crawling into the dishwasher. Now we will remember to close the dishwasher door!

Jude's Palate is Expanding

This week we started expanding the menu of food for Jude. We gave Jude a try with avocado, peas, and pears - he wasn't a fan of the avocado or the peas, but pears show a bit of promise. We are still doing rice cereal and the standard 6oz of formula, but we will continue to expand his choices as time goes on.

We also introduced a new sleep schedule for Jude. We are getting him up between 6am and 7am, and then trying to put him down for naps around 9am and 1pm, and mostly a late afternoon nap as well. We've been following Jude's lead on naps in the hope that he would fall into a routine naturally, but after two weeks of mapping his naps there was no discernable schedule. So we are imposing one on him and so far it is working well. He had his longest sleep of his life last night - almost 12 hours non-stop. Hooray! He is really good at falling asleep on his own, and he has a pretty regular night time bedtime so we feel pretty lucky that we have not had too many battles as far as sleep is concerned.

Yesterday we came up to Keystone for the July 4 week and we had Marcy's family drive out from Des Moines to join us. Lily is a year older than Jude and they get along famously - and it is fun to see them interact. Lily is very good at sharing and often brings Jude lots of toys. Above is a photo taken tonight at the dinner table.

Jude at Six Months and Eating Solid Food

Many milestones this week as Jude celebrated his six month birthday on Wednesday. Thursday we had an appointment with the pediatrician and everything is going well - he is in great health and he clocked in at 17.8 lbs and 26.5".

The big highlight of the week, though, was the introduction of solid food into Jude's diet for the first time. The pediatrician encouraged us to do this not just for his diet but it helps in motor skills development. As you can see in the video above he enjoyed his first solid meal very much. We are now giving his just a couple of tablespoons of rice cereal mixed with formula twice a day.

The other news of the feeding front is that we weaned Jude off breastfeeding this week. We felt it was becoming more of a comfort habit than a form of nutrition and so we decided now would be a good time. It was hard for Marcy because she has really enjoyed the bonding time with Jude, and you can tell when he is tired he really does miss it. So now we have to soothe Jude in other ways when he wakes up in the middle of the night which unfortunately still happens pretty regularly.

As we have indicated in previous posts Jude is rolling over more than ever, but it has always been from his back onto his stomach. Well, just today he rolled the other way for the first time. He is still is not moving very far, but we have to start keeping more of an eye on him. We have also been helping Jude practice sitting up. We place him on the floor surrounded by the Boppy pillow with plenty of toys in easy reach. This gives him good practice with balance, although he sometimes finds himself flat on his face as he reaches too far for a toy.