Now that Bodhi recently turned 7 months old (um what?!) I thought it’d be a good time to share a life update from the last 6 months — products we’ve been using (and loving), sleep training tactics, introducing solid foods, his favorite toys, and so on.
But first, I just have to say this again, because holy crap what in the what.. our boy is seven. months. old. I mean I look at that picture above from when he was 1 DAY OLD, and it just doesn’t seem possible. And I was going through other old pictures the other day when he was only a few days old, sleeping in my arms and ugh omg.. BRB gonna go cry now.
SLOW DOWN TIME PLEASE.
If you’re a parent, you know the feeling. Don’t blink.
But anyways.. just sharing insight on our journey in hopes of helping current + future moms/dads who may need it. Whether you’re having a rough time (we all have them) or moving along just fine, you aren’t alone — don’t forget that. We’re in this together. Us moms (parents) share a special bond.
0-3 months old
I’ve got to say, for the first few months you’re generally going to have to just go with the flow for e v e r y t h i n g . At least that’s how it was for us. We didn’t have a feed or sleep schedule for Bodhi. He nursed on-demand (meaning whenever he wanted) and slept majority of the day with numerous interruptions to eat. Some babies are great sleepers from the start — we weren’t that lucky. He wasn’t a horrible sleeper, but Greg + I definitely did not get a lot of quality sleep, especially during the cluster feeding phase (see this post for more details on breastfeeding).
We did start a small night time routine when Bodhi was around 1 month old. We wanted to begin this early and continue with it, which we still do to this day. Simply put, at the same time each night, we perform the 3 B’s: bath, bottle (or nursing), + bed. We give him a bath which he loves, get him ready for bed (lotion, clothes, wind-down), feed him and then put him down for the night. When he was this little, his bedtime was a lot later, probably around 9-10pm. Now, we start bath time at 6:30pm every single day. This may change again as he gets older, but again the routine will still be consistent if it does.
Products + MUST-HAVES:
SNUGGLE ME ORGANIC
This worked really well for us for about the first 2 months. Greg + I kept it in bed between the two of us. It was easy to get him in and out of it especially during the wee hours of the night when he was up to eat or if he needed a diaper change. It is also super snuggly and cozy as it holds and coddles him perfectly. Honestly I wish they had these for adults. After about 2 months, we moved him to a Moses basket bassinet (we loved this too) that sat right beside our bed on my side.
Sleep wedge
This was a game changer for us. Bo spit up quit a bit especially at night when we would lay him down to sleep. This is pretty common for babies as their digestive systems aren’t fully developed which makes it easy for food (milk) to come right back up. I would always try to keep him angled up-right after nursing to help aid digestion + prevent reflux, but it didn’t always help. We bought this sleep wedge from Amazon. It’s purpose is to keep babies at an incline, instead of them laying completely flat, which helps to keep milk from coming right back up the esophagus. Prior to this he would make A LOT of noises at night – grunting mainly – and this helped reduce that. He seemed to have a lot of reflux + some tummy troubles, making him grunt in discomfort, but the wedge again helped with this. We also began giving him probiotic drops (around 1.5 months old), and honestly they were the MVP. It was like night and day, especially with sleeping at night. No more grunting or discomfort, and the stretches of sleep increased.
Play Mat
This mat was perfect for tummy time. It has attachable mobiles/hanging toys to keep them entertained when laying on their backs. We still use this mat now (over 7 months later), so it has definitely gotten it’s moneys worth. It’s also machine washable making it easy to clean! There are a few different styles/colors to choose from.
Puj
4-5 months old
Right around 4 months old (probably more like 3.5 months old), we started sleep training Bodhi. We were not getting much sleep at night and it was sloooowly killing us. Okay, maybe pretty quickly killing us actually. Let’s just say it had definitely caught up to us at this point, and we were desperate for some Z’s. There are many ways you can go about sleep training, but we did it based on this book. It didn’t happen overnight, but we saw results within the first few days. This also helped us get him on a firm feeding schedule — he eats 4 times a day, every 4 hours, at the exact same times every day (e.g. 7a, 11a, 3p, 7p). The book literally lays everything out for you. Of course you may need to tweak and adjust it to your needs with certain scenarios, but ultimately it’s a nice ‘rough’ guide that helped us tremendously.
I didn’t include these in the must-haves below, as I didn’t want to overwhelm you with a super long list, but I do want to briefly touch on a few major things here that helped with sleep training Bodhi. We used a sound machine, black-out curtains, and something called the Vornadobaby in his room. We used the white noise track on his sound machine although it comes with many different noises. We use this for all naps and bedtime. It blocks out all noises outside of his room allowing him to sleep more soundly. The black-out curtains are huge in the sense that they keep Bodhi asleep longer, again for both naps and bedtime. We initially didn’t have black-out curtains in his room, and we saw an immediate difference when we ended up installing some. The Vornado is a basically a space heater, but also a fan that circulates the air in the nursery while adjusting the temperature as needed. We learned that a major component to preventing SIDS is room temperature — the ideal temperature for babies is between 68-72 degrees. The Vornado allows us to keep Bodhi’s room at the perfect temp.
products + must-haves
PacifierS
I wouldn’t classify this as a must-have, considering not all babies like pacifiers, but it is certainly a product that we use. Frankly, Bodhi didn’t take one for the first 3 months, but started to when we began sleep training. Initially, Greg and I were glad that he didn’t take a pacifier as it can sometimes be difficult to break them from it later on.. but when we started sleep training, it honestly made things a lot easier (in the beginning at least). There was a period when he was too attached to it, and he would wake up 10-20 times throughout the night whenever it would fall out of his mouth… this was horrible for Greg and I as we obviously weren’t getting much sleep with having to go to him so often. We quickly broke him from that, and he learned to fall back asleep without it. Now, he’s old enough to where he can put the pacifier back in himself and does so when he needs/wants it in the middle of the night. These Advent pacifiers were the ones he took to first (we tried a few different ones) and so we continued with them and haven’t tried any others. They have different sizes – 0-6 months and 6-18 months. Obviously choose accordingly to match your babies age.
crib mattress
I wanted to include this on here because we love the mattress that we got for Bodhi. Obviously, SIDS is a real and scary thing, especially for new parents, and this mattress helped ease our minds a little. I won’t go into crazy details, but I’ve linked it here if you want to read more about it. I will say, one of the main things we love about it though, is that it is breathable, and it’s also classified as “the safest crib mattress.” Bodhi loves to sleep on his stomach now, and he will literally put his face straight down (LOL) instead of to the side. This mattress allows him to easily breath without constricting airflow. It’s definitely a piece of mind for us, which is ultimately priceless.
6 months old
Around 5.5 months old, Bodhi went on a “nursing strike.” Basically meaning he was refusing to nurse, so I had to pump and bottle-feed him. I’m not sure what caused this.. it could have been a change in my milk supply, or a change in preference, but it can be fairly common and usually doesn’t last too long. Initially after this happened, it was frustrating. Any time I would try to feed him he would fuss/cry, kick his legs, pull on/off the nipple, etc. In my opinion, he was acting like he wasn’t getting any milk, or not getting it fast enough. So, again, I decided to stop nursing and start pumping and then bottle-feeding instead. Let me just say, this was SO much easier. It was tedious and annoying having to pump every 4 hours, but he took to the bottle right away, and it was soo much more enjoyable then fighting him on nursing every single time. Since then, I’ve tried a few times to solely nurse him again, and he really just wasn’t having it. So, we have come to an unofficial compromise (lol) that he happily nurses first thing in the morning and then bottle-feeds the rest of the day. I get that bonding time once a day which I’m happy with!
This is also around the time when Bodhi started trying solid foods. This is definitely a fun phase and new beginning that you get to start with your little one(s). We first introduced Bodhi to bone broth which is said to be awesome for gut health and overall nutrition. We then introduced purees (around the same time) — banana, carrot, peas, sweet potato, etc. Really, we followed his cues and let him lead with it. I typically try to make my own baby food for him, which is fairly easy to do, but honestly it’s sometimes just easier to buy a few jars at the store. If I do get store bought ones, I choose the organic brands (Beech Nut + Happy Baby Organics are the ones we like), and I check on the ingredients to make sure there is nothing added aside from the fruit/vegetable named. Now, let’s just say he’s turned into a little piggy and loves allll the food. He gets frustrated when he sees Greg or I eating and not sharing with him haha. Once he got purees down, we started finger foods + more ‘solid’ food – oatmeal, mango slices (to suck/teethe on), avocado, sliced banana, soft carrots, sweet potato, fish, etc. He also LOVES Happy Baby Organics puffs + teethers. He still doesn’t have any teeth, but he does really well with “chewing” his food.
PRODUCTS + MUST-HAVES:
Breast Pump
This is the electric breast pump that I use. I also have a manual one as well that I used A LOT in the early months after Bodhi was born. In the link provided I not only show the pump that I use but also how to go about applying for a breast pump as most insurances cover one! I did not know this prior to being pregnant but luckily found out during. Pumps can get very pricey, so this is an awesome benefit!
Bottles
Some articles that I read prior to having Bodhi stated that you may need to get a few different kinds/brands of bottles as your baby may not take to certain ones. (Similar to babies only liking certain pacifiers). However, we took a chance and only purchased these Dr. Brown bottles. We have the plastic ones, but I think with our next baby I will definitely get the glass ones (yes, they have glass bottles!!) We got a few in two different sizes – 4oz and 8oz. They have worked great for us thus far so we will definitely keep using them.
Drying Rack
Initially I wasn’t sure that we would really need/use this, but now that Bodhi is basically only bottle-feeding, we use this all the time! It’s perfect for all of the many bottle parts as well as my pumping bottles and parts. It comes in two different sizes – we went with the larger size. It also comes apart into two pieces for when you need to clean it.
High Chair
More…
Bodhi’s Favorite Toys
That’s all for now, folks! 😉 Hopefully this was helpful to one degree or another. If you have any new or follow-up questions, just let me know, and I’d be happy to answer them! I enjoy helping out in any way that I can especially since I know and remember how overwhelming it can be in the months prior to having a baby and of course, during the months after. But always remember, you’ve got this! You are a badass.
As always, thanks for reading! Your support is amazing and means so much to me.
Xx, Alyssa