Peter Gwydion

We’ve taken some big steps into the wonderful world of solid foods!

As many of you know, we started out with thickened feeds when we came home due to issues with reflux.  Lots of premature babies have reflux (isn’t it funny that I automatically say “reflux” instead of “heartburn?”  It’s the same thing!).  Their tiny bellies aren’t big enough to hold in their food, and of course the food needs to stay in to help them grow.  One of the treatments for reflux in a preemie is to thicken their bottles with rice cereal, so that it’s got a better fighting chance of staying in there.  It also supplies some extra calories, which is a plus when baby weighs about three pounds!

Since December, though, Gwyn’s been nursing exclusively, which meant no more thickened bottles.  We had some issues with spitting up, but noticed strongly that his guts seemed to be working better!  Since then, we’ve learned a lot about solid foods, and that oftentimes grains can be difficult to digest (although rice is usually the best bet). Some theories are also that starting off on the easiest to digest foods and slowly working to more complex ones can lead to less allergies in later life. So, instead of re-starting him on rice cereal, we opted for fruit - specifically, an avocado-pear concoction that we made up.  Avocados are packed with great nutrients for Sweet Pea - tons of calories, yummy fats, iron, potassium, and, seriously, who WOULDN’T want to eat a blended avocado-pear-sauce?  I’m thinking of putting some on ice cream.

I’m also really proud that he has been exclusively breast fed (with formula boosting the caloric content for a while) until he was seven months adjusted and ten months calendar, when he began to give us signs he was ready for food.  Instead of watching a calendar, we realized he was able to sit on his own, that he was mouthing everything that he could, and that when we did let him try some food it got swallowed!  In a society where most women breast feed for a matter of weeks if not days, I feel like I deserve to pat myself on the back for continuing nursing and (among other benefits) helping to protect Gwyn against food allergies!  Breastmilk contains so many amazing properties, one of which is a special antibody that coats the intestines, helping them to not see food as a foreign body that needs to be attacked (can you tell I’ve been doing my La Leche League reading?).  As adults, we make our own supply of this antibody, called immunoglobulin A.  Infants, though, get a big supply of it from momma milk!  IgA’s important role in preventing or lessening the impact of food allergies is one of the many reasons that our motto is “food is for fun until he’s one.”  Even though he’s getting a few important calories and nutrients from what he eats, the lion’s share of his nutrients are still coming from nursie milk.

He needs lots of nutrients ’cause he’s a growing machine.  I’m hungry all the time.

Seriously, I ate three Bavarian cream donuts yesterday, and they were totally delicious.

But, since I’m sure everyone but the most die-hard lactivists (hi guys!) who read our blog are tired of nursing pictures, here’s a few of one of our recent forays into food:

Squeezing an update in while Gwyn is (finally) asleep!

The past few weeks have seen us busy, busy, busy doing the parenting equivalent of treading water.  Gwyn is doing so much learning and growing!  He can:

• Bounce and bounce and bounce.  He’ll try to bounce while being held in someone’s arms.  He loves the Jump-Jump (is it actually called a Jumparoo?) that we’re borrowing from Cousin Soren.
• Pull himself up while holding hands.  This is actually the optimal position for bouncing.  He has yet to pull himself up on any furniture, though.  Probably this is because we try to keep him in wide open spaces, because he can…
• Rock on hands and knees!  While he’s been doing this on and off for a little while now, he’s become quite proficient at it.  It’s led to a tendancy to…
• Lunge for objects that are close to within reach while rocking on hands and knees.  Typically, this particular action results in a bonk on the head.  We think a few bonks are a major part of childhood and figuring out Newton’s apple-inspired theories, but we want to make sure those bonks are happening on a softer surface than tile.  Our thick wool carpet in the living room has been perfect for it, but it means that someone needs to be within reach at all times - no more sitting him in the Boppy and making dinner!  Last time this was attempted, I looked over from the kitchen to see Gwyn trying desperately to…
• Love on the kitties.  Oh, does he love the kitties.  He hasn’t figured out gentle petting very well on his own yet, so we hold hands so that he can stroke the kitties in a way that both he and our feline companions find enjoyable.  Kinski tries to steer clear, but Mikka is so desperate for love these days - he really misses sleeping in our bed, which he can’t do since Gwyn is there - that he’ll try to get it from any source.  He actually will come and rub his head on Gwyn’s hand sometimes.
• Say “mamama,” and a few other sounds at varying volumes.  He’ll whisper while he’s nursing, and is doing more vocalizing at “normal” volumes than shrieks.  He’s still a fan of what I call the “groar” - something between a grunt and a roar.
• Actually play with toys - and by “actually play with,” I mostly mean “chew on.”  Since everything goes in his mouth, we did some research and found a few safe natural toys for him to “nom on.”  Teeth may make an appearance at some point, but premature babies sometimes teethe late, even for their adjusted age.  It’s not a problem as long as the teeth are there, which they are, but still under his gums.  Since food is still for fun and Gwyn is still pretty much exclusively breast fed, his gums can stay chomper-less for as long as they please.

His sleep patterns are also changing remarkably, with some gentle prodding on our end.  When we first brought him home, Gwyn slept easily, like any other newborn.  Now there’s playing to do, kitties to love on, and the nursies don’t send him to the Land of Nod so easily anymore. A book we really like points out that he does still need a good chunk of sleep (~ 3 hours, ideally in two 1.5 hour naps) during the day as well as 10 - 11 hours at night, which we realized he wasn’t getting.  Overtired babies, funnily enough, have an even harder time going to sleep…so we’re trying to fix that.  To make it easier on everyone, we’ve been trying to feel out his natural sleeping habits.  It seems like his biological alarm clock is set to go to sleep at 7 in the evening, and then wake up at 6 in the morning.  While this isn’t Kevin or my favorite time of day, it’s a perfectly reasonable time for normal human beings, and so more of what needs to be adjusted is our attitude than Gwyn’s sleep patterns.

Seriously, though.  Six in the freaking morning.   Most of my six a.m. parenting consists of saying, “Mmmhm!  Bay-bee!  Boy, you’re strong!” and letting him entertain himself while I watch.  While I watch sleepily.

Now.  Be honest.  Have you read any of that, or scrolled immediately down upon seeing that this post was tagged “video?”  Yeah, I thought so.  I forgive you, because I’m pretty excited too.  We’ve set up a YouTube account so we can upload and share the short videos that we’ve taken with our small camera.  Lights!  Cameras!  Fu-ture tech-no-lo-gy!

We went to the alpaca farm today with Emily and Scarlett.  There’s lots of gorgeous pictures to share, but I especially wanted to show these off:

He’s still pretty wobbly and is mostly a Baby Baryshnikov on his tiptoes, but Gwyn’s doing a lot of standing these days!  This was his first time pulling up on something that wasn’t Momma or Daddy’s hands.  Mostly, I wanted to see if he’d do it.  Turns out he can and will, and since he just turned seven months adjusted yesterday, that means he’s right on track developmentally.

Here’s a few more, some with Emily’s beautiful daughter, Scarlett:

We also weighed him on the alpaca scale - while we didn’t take any pictures, he clocked in at 16.7 pounds.  We probably should have taken a picture just so everyone would believe us.  It’s more than eight times his birthweight.  He’s huge!  Holding him draped across my chest with his head resting on my shoulder is a pretty far cry from the tiny two pound baby we cradled in our hands, and it feels surprisingly bittersweet.  I never thought there’d be things about the NICU that I’d miss, but remember his slender little hands?  They are now chubby and dimpled, like the rest of him.

Most of all, looking at how much he’s grown makes me feel so proud of Gwyn for the hard work he’s done, and I hope he’s enjoying all the playing and learning that his days are filled with.  He’s more than earned it.