How We Montessori Month 5 – Starting Baby Led Weaning

Hi Everyone,

It’s been a busy month! She’s sooooo much fun at Month 5, she’s so much more responsive and would squeal when you play with her. She’s just so much fun! Many asked if she had sleep regression at month 4. You can read the month 4 update here.

The 2-week regression:

The sleep regression did come… for 2 weeks. It was roughly when she turned 5 months the sleep regression hit. She wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t nap. Putting her down for a nap was a NIGHTMARE. Putting her down to sleep was EVEN WORSE. It took us almost 2 hours running up and down the stairs to get her down to go into her deep sleep. It was just non-stop crying all day and night. But once we did end up putting her to sleep she will sleep through the night. She still sleeps a good 12 hours. So I can’t really complain. I normally make my husband put her to sleep because I don’t have the patience to do it!

Ears Piercings

I wasn’t nervous at all getting her ears pierced. I waited until she was 5 months old to get her ears pierced. She was sooooo brave and didn’t cry at all with the ears piercings, but she did burst out in tears when I was holding her down for the ears piercings.

She’s such a brave little girl! I’m so in awe how brave she is for such a young soul. She surprises me every day. We decided to do ours at Carly Baker Visage at Markville Mall. I read on the forums that they are good. They would only do babies over 3 months and if the baby was fussy then they would have to do one hole at a time. Good thing Ariya was not fussy so they punched two holes at the same time to get it over with! They have two people to do the job and I was to hold her arms and head still. She didn’t like that at all and started to wail before they actually did the piercings. BUT as soon as they did the piercings she stopped crying almost instantly. What a brave child!

Overall, the girls were amazing it was done by Jessica and we even get an ear piercing certificate! Super cute!

Baby Books and Me

I’ve been taking her to Baby books and me by Cornell Community Center for the past month and I LOVE it! It gives me an excuse to get out and walk and for her to listen to music with other babies. It’s super cute watching them dance to the music!

Apple Picking

It’s been an eventful month and I try to do as much fun times with her as possible! September was perfect for apple picking even though she had no idea what was going on. But we got some cute photos though!

It was so warm that day! Rare for Toronto!

Introducing her to Baby Led Weaning

I was introduced to this from my friend, I saw how her child grew and be able to feed herself and it’s so amazing! I loved it so much I decided to try it with Ariya. I told many people about this method and most look at me like I’m crazy. For those who need a little background:

First coined by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett in their book Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods, Baby-led weaning is an approach to introducing solid food where a baby is allowed and encouraged to self-feed solid finger foods instead of receiving purées via spoon. It is important to know when your child is ready to make that step up from puree to things like toast, fruits, vegetables, and many more various different types of solid foods because you want to make sure that their bodies are able to handle this change. For those of us in the US, baby led feeding may be a better term as BLW is not about weaning babies off breastmilk or formula, but is weaning them onto solids. (Although, anytime we introduce food, we are in a sense starting the weaning process, as baby will naturally start to decline her breast milk consumption. But with BLW, the baby is in charge.) BLW babies:

• Are encouraged to join the family at mealtime and self-feed appropriate finger foods.
• Choose what, how much, and how quickly to eat.
• Are given the freedom to explore new tastes and textures without the pressure to eat a set amount or a specific food.
• Continue to nurse (or receive a bottle) just as often. Solids are to compliment milk, and baby is trusted to know when to increase solid feedings and decrease milk (usually later in the first year).Mamanatural

I was super scared so I didn’t start her solids until 5 and a half month. Even so, I started off with the free package of rice cereal. I only gave her a teaspoon. THEN a week later I gave her steamed carrots, very very mushy carrots. I don’t even think she ate that much maybe a lick here and there. But she seems to like it!

Ariya’s First Cereal

Ariya’s Frist Carrot

I steamed the carrot so it’s suppppppeerrrrr mushy by the time she puts it in her mouth

Over the next couple of months, I’m going to film her progress of baby led weaning! Hope you all can join me! Disclaimer, I am not in any way expert at this. I’m really just trying this out myself!

Self Care

I love being a mom. I didn’t think it was in me. But, some things came naturally, and some well there’s youtube. I youtube, ask and read a lot. It’s a never an ending learning experience. I seriously praise my mom for doing this without youtube or the internet. How did she figure everything out and not break down in tears! Simple things like “cutting a squash for my baby” I had to youtube or her poo is dark green, I would google “is that normal?” I don’t know how my mom did it and I miss her like crazy. There are some days I wish I can ask her HOW DID YOU DO IT?!

My husband and I don’t really have “date night” or “time off”. It’s been half a year and we’ve only gone out once for lunch just by ourselves. I know couples who would have “regular” date nights – makes me so jealous! Or some new moms were never really “alone” they would have help every day or couple times a week. But I am grateful that once a month or so, I do get fed by the mother in law or my friend’s mom who adopted me. I can’t say no to free food and no cooking!

But there are days where I wish I don’t have to cook or clean the house and would love the help or have schedule say once a week to go out with the husband and just have a breather.

I do try my best to be the best mom, but there are days where I just want to eat instant noodles morning, lunch and dinner. Then at 5pm, I realize I should cook or else my family won’t have anything to eat when they come home from work or packed lunch for tomorrow. So, I’ll haul my ass up and cook. I never knew how much I hated cooking until I had to cook Monday – Friday.

So days, when I can go out for dinner, I like to eat 3 cups of pasta.

My weight and size are pretty much back to pre-preggo size. My chest has decreased. I AM SO GLAD. But, my bras are still a bit tight. I actually weight less than I was pre-preggo. Just by a few pounds nothing crazy.

And to the husband who bath her every night and lets me go out to have my spa night once a month. What more can I ask?

Thanks so much for reading!