Food, food, glorious food!

On the last day of our trip to Holland, we reached a milestone: Johan was fed solid food. I had been wondering for some time if I should start feeding him, as I was questioning whether he seemed satisfied with the breast, and then all of a sudden Johan gave us some really clear signs he was ready: he started reaching for food when he was in our arms when we were at the table.

Johan's first meal was a small portion of mashed banana, which he devoured. He strained his neck forward and lunged toward the spoon, opening and closing his mouth frantically. He now also grabs our hands to make us put the spoon in his mouth more quickly.

Now that we are home, I am systematically introducing him to all the fruits and vegetables. He starts off the day with some rice or barley cereal, often mixed with a bit of fruit. Sometimes he has lunch -- again, fruit or cereal. And for dinner, he has some carrot and brocolli or zucchini. Next up: sweet potatoes and squash!

I am endeavouring to feed Johan only organic foods, and am preparing them myself. So far, it's been pretty straightforward: I steam the food, puree it and freeze it in little ice cube trays. He eats two of these portions per meal, and while he does seem to like some flavours more than others, he hasn't refused anything yet.

Oh, and there was one other sign that Johan is ready to eat real food: he has a tooth! His lower left front tooth broke through his gums after two pretty cranky days last week. It isn't all the way out yet, however.

Andrea :)

Growing pains

As wonderful as our holiday was, it took a toll on Johan. As we were staying with family and friends, I was very conscious of him crying at night and soothed him every time he woke up by feeding him. The result of this was that, once we got home, we discovered that Johan would not, could not fall asleep without the boob! While this may not seem to be a big deal, what was happening was that even if he woke up only 45 minutes after a full feeding, he would demand the boob again, and then shriek and wail with frustration when he wouldn't get enough milk to be soothed back to sleep. And this wasn't just a nighttime occurence -- this was for naptimes, too.

Although Sven was keen to let Johan just cry it out, I wasn't ready yet and bought a book called the "No Cry Sleep Solution" to help slowly wean the little man off his boob addiction. However, after about three nights of trying this "gently take the breast out of the babies mouth as their sucks slow down" approach, things seemed to be getting worse rather than better.

I reached my breaking point one night as I was trying to feed Johan and he was getting frustrated, and I was calling to Sven for him to help me. Sven couldn't hear me, so by the time he finally arrived in the bedroom, it wasn't Johan's wails and sobs he was resonding to, it was mine! I was exhausted and fed up. Sven tried to take Johan for walks around the house, I tried to rock him to sleep -- nothing worked. So in the middle of the night, I suddenly told Sven, "we can't do this anymore. We have to let him cry." So we put him down and waited. Sven and I clutched at each other and finally, after about two hours of on and off wailing, Johan fell asleep. (By that time it was almost 6:00 in the morning!).

So the next day, I read a different book that talked about the importance of teaching your child to fall asleep on his/her own, and we started a new plan!

We are now about 10 days in to the new regime, and Johan is falling asleep on his own. We have a new bedtime routine, which involves a bath and a bottle and an earlier bedtime (7:00 p.m.), and Johan also has regular naps after about 2 hours of awake time during the day.

I'm happy to say that Johan is now put in his crib awake, and is beginning to fall asleep on his own, some days with happy noises, and other times with a bit of wailing.

So far so good, right?

Well, not quite. I now feed him once a night, sometime between midnight and 2:00 a.m., and then he is fed again only when he wakes up in the morning, between 6:00 and 7:00.

Unfortunately, Johan seems to have an internal timer and he wakes up and wails for up to 45 minutes at 10:30 and at 4:15 in the morning.

I'm trying to remain patient and hope that he will grow out of these wake ups. ... The question is, when?!

A Beach on the North Sea

After returning to Utrecht at the beginning of August, Sven, Johan and I headed out to the island of Texel for a week with Opa and Oma Brouwer. We spent a week on the island, enjoying the wonderful weather and scenery during the day and retiring to our rented bungalow at night. As Johan was still in his sleepless mode, Oma took him for lots of walks when he decided to get up at 5:00 every morning.

We all rented bikes and pedalled around the island. Johan loved these trips. Perched in the Baby Bjorn, he must have felt like he was flying. Johan also enjoyed our many trips to the beach, although he definitely preferred dipping his feet in the foam as it lapped the shore to his full-body immersion with Sven!

Sven and I really enjoyed the water. We rode the waves on a boogy board, and Sven got his first chance to surf since New Zealand. (Unfortunately, the waves were pretty small, so he only had a chance to ride a couple on his rented board before his hour was up).

Another highlight: Sven and I went out to see a movie one night, and Oma took over the onerous task of getting Johan to fall asleep. She walked him in the stroller for about an hour after we left for the 9:00 movie, and when he finally fell asleep in his cosy nest, he amazingly slept until about 5:00 in the morning. (Silly Mummy rushed home from the movie at midnight, convinced that Johan would be wailing for the boob)! Alas, a night of sleep would prove elusive, as Johan continued to wake up every few hours for the rest of our stay on the island, and for the rest of our trip to Holland.