The wonderful world of winging it weaning

As we enter 2017 Rose is now 5 months old and I am starting to feel marginally more confident as a mum in a myriad of ways, and Rosie has come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of weeks and we have had a lot of laughs over the Christmas break.

I've noticed that Rosie has reached an age where we are now expected to see some significant milestones...

Has she rolled over?
Have we started on food?
Will we be doing purees or baby led?
Is Rose starting to sit up unaided?

With all of these developmental milestones now expected I have felt a weight of responsibility that it is our job to make sure Rosie grows into a healthy, well balanced individual with the right level of safety, independence and happiness. Obviously I knew we would need to do all of this, but I hadn't expected to feel borderline stressed about it!

Liam's reaction is that obviously she will do all of these things eventually, and he is quite right, but as the person with Rosie all day I feel it is my responsibility to make sure we spend an appropriate amount of time doing tummy time, trying new things etc and I feel really guilty if we have a couple of days where we don't really 'do anything'. Inverted commas because with a baby you are never not doing anything, but you guys know what I mean. 

So I have all of these questions in the back of my mind, BUT, I have decided that winging it so far has been working and Rose is happy, smiley and thriving and so I am determined to not clock watch the milestones this year and instead embrace the small victories and enjoy my time with Rose as much as I possibly can. 

It is too easy to make comparisons when you become a mum, it's like an inbuilt guilt/worry sensor that there must be something wrong if your baby isn't doing something in the week it suggests in a book and I try and remind myself that we wouldn't ever try and pin down something specific time wise for anyone else we know and we need to have faith that our children will do things in their own time. 

Some days we see dramatic changes and sometimes there is just the hint of what may be on the horizon, sitting up for a millisecond longer than usually unaided or the coveted rollover! I have found babies love to show you they can do something once and then not repeat it for weeks, probably so they can internally giggle at you trying to repeat the exact circumstances over and over again in the hopes they will do it again - as if! 

Somehow my face has become hilarious and Rose now bursts into hysterics at random times just looking at my face, I think it's because she likes the sound of her own laugh - and who can blame her it sounds wonderful! I don't think I have ever heard such a wonderful sound as the belly chuckle that erupts when she finds something funny, I am grinning just thinking about it! 

So we have started on the food, we started with porridge and have then introduced various fruit and vegetables, so far blueberries and courgette have been a big hit, with carrot and sweet potato bringing the funniest faces when she tried them! 

We are not pureeing completely, instead leaving some texture and are going to start on finger foods this week, we have some avocado and mango ready to go as these are foods that are easy to chop into small hand sizes and will mush on impact. 

I am reading various books for ideas and advice and playing close attention to Rosie and how she is getting on at each mealtime, so far all is well and we will continue with what she and we feel comfortable with and see how things develop. 

I was a very fussy eater (my poor parents!) and so I want to encourage Rose to be as open to foods as I can and I am thrilled she is loving what she has tried so far, I took heed of advice not to introduce sweet fruits too early and am keen to introduce a very wide variety of vegetables, gently mixing flavours as time goes on.

We have used one Ella's Kitchen pouch so far as we had run out of other porridge / food and the combination of flavours displayed on Rose's face! Will definitely try some more as time goes on I am sure. I have heard about a few books that detail weaning recipes that are suitable for the whole family and so Liam is on research duty and I will let you know if we find one we would recommend. 

I am still breastfeeding and have seen a slight change in Rosie's feeding routine, with a much longer gap between feeds in the middle of the day. I have also noticed Rosie has a much longer nap in the morning and is sleeping for longer at night, which results in a very content baby, most of which I would attribute to the introduction of food, as well as being a little older and more aware of the lovely things in life!

I am always open to hearing what worked for others so if you have an advice / recipes / books you would recommend please let me know in the comments! 

  

via GIPHY