Another photo dump! Skip it, if you’re not interested. This is mostly here for posterity.

Some 9-10 months photos

Seen in the photos:

Looking back to the early months of Alexis life, one of the hardest things for me ( and my husband even more) was thinking of age-appropriate activities to do with Alexis. I wanted to make sure her awake time counted, that it helped her develop, socially, physically, emotionally, as well as bond and spend as much time interacting with us as she needed at that age. And considering that unlike most newborns, Alexis barely slept during that time, we had A LOT OF awake time to contend with. As I was reading various books on baby development, I was making note of beneficial activities I could do with Alexis that would help her develop as well as create some quality fun time with her, aside from all the typical things you do with a baby.  So I’d like to share with you 5 different non-traditional developmentally beneficial and fun things you could do with your infant.

None of these are “filler” activities, they all help your baby develop an important part of their system. And from experience, babies tend to enjoy them very much.

Please exercise caution and common sense when using these tips.  I am not a physician, or an expert of any sort. These are just the activities I read about and are/were doing with Alexis that I wanted to share. Also keep your baby’s age in mind. It has to be appropriate for your baby’s level of development. I’ll explain how to do it, what it does for a baby’s development and how Alexis liked this particular exercise, but it’s always best to read from the source, because I can’t fit all the valuable information into a short post.

Also feel free to watch the video for examples.

1. Rocking on a beach ball

HOW: Get a beach ball or an exercise ball, deflate it slightly, place your baby on the ball TUMMY DOWN. While supporting him (you can hold his sides, legs or thighs depending on how well he/she can control her body), roll him back and forth and side to side. You can sing or talk at the same time.
WHY: Strengthens the neck, is good for head control, provides muscle tone development. You can do the same but on his back, this helps his balance reflexes to develop as he will slowly tense his tummy muscles to keep himself balanced.

{Alexis: She loved this one from the get go. She’d get her head up high and look around while being rocked. I could see how her core was working trying to stay balanced and how she was figuring out how to move her body in response to the ball. I wasn’t happy about using what appears to be a vinyl ball, but in all my search for non-toxic things, I haven’t found one that isn’t made of vinyl.}

2. KICKING a BALL

HOW: Use the same beach ball to let your little one kick and roll it with her feet. As she gets older she’ll be able to pass it up to her hands and back to her feet. They love the feel of something different on their toes and what baby doesn’t like kicking.
WHY: Babies will learn about their legs and feet and how to move them at will. In addition, these exercises stimulate muscle tone, especailly knee flexibility for later bobbing , climing and walking
{Alexis: at first she didn’t really get what she was supposed to do with the ball, but after she kicked it a few times accidentally, she started getting the idea. Eventually it progressed to her moving it to her hands. It’s definitely a fun acitivity.}

3. Oil leg rub

HOW: Put some olive or vegetable oil on your baby’s inner thighs and while holding her/him by the ankles, GENTLY rub her/his inner thighs together ( back and forth).
WHY: Excerpt from the book: It is “beneficial because it provides sensory input that is familiar to the baby from his experiences in the womb and helps organize his nervous system. It will also facilitate the baby to release [...] any tight hip muscles. Since this is a sensory experience that baby had in the womb, it can be started soon after birth. The main focus of this activity is for baby to relate to skin sensations. If you make eye contact with baby or do this in a high visually stimulating environment, such as under a mobile, the baby’s nervous system may pay more attention to the visual input than the skin input. [...] This activity only lasts a minute and afterwards smiles, praise and songs would be great.”
{Alexis: You could see the “newness” of the feeling in her eyes when we first started it. I haven’t done it as much as I should, but the few times that I did do it, it was kind of fun to watch her reaction.}

4. Tub/Pool Play

One way around the whole “no swimming till 6 months” issue (see why) was to get a kiddie pool and let her splash there. But believe it or not, it took me THIS LONG to find a kiddie pool that wasn’t made out of PVC or with Phthalates (I’ll be writing about why it’s important and listing items that I found that don’t contain either). At some point I gave up the search after calling and emailing numerous companies that sell/manufacture baby pools and striking out. And then finally, I FOUND IT! A pool made out of polyester and with a pop up shade, to boot! Ta-da! So today (7/17) we’ll be filling it up and having some fun time. Alexis loves splashing and playing in the water and I am sure spending more time doing it will foster her love for water activities. You can also do the same in a bathtub, but with a baby who does doesn’t reliably sit up yet, you’d have to get into it, as well, since it can be very slippery.

Alexis seems to really love touching running water. I assume that the sensation of strong pressure is new for her and is something she likes to explore, so I often get into a tub and let the water run for her to grab (see video). It’s especially useful after she has had some food (we are doing BLW), because she usually needs a bath at that point. She often accidentally splashes water into her eyes, at which point I laugh and make fun sounds to show her that it’s not scary. Though she still look to me for reassurance when it happens, she’s become quite adventurous with water.

5. Leg support crawl

HOW: This one is a bit of a no-brainer if you ask me, but it was and still is a very important part of our day. From about 2 months of age ( it might have been 3 months, I don’t exactly remember), Lexi would make swimming movements whenever she’d get put on her tummy. She wanted to move and crawl. We would naturally place our palms to her feet so that she had some support to push off of and she’d be happy to move forward. It’s still something that we do on daily basis, as she whines and whines until she feels some support and can scoot forward. Once she starts crawling this will no longer be needed, but for the time being it helps her feel like she is getting somewhere. {see video}

WHY: Repetitive movement on the floor, forward or backward, stimulates the neurons in the brain to interconnect.

6. Infant massage

HOW: Some literature suggests that doing infant massage or deep pressure massage three times a day is optimal, however most recommendations are at least once a day which I think is more manageable. According to some books, if your baby seems uncomfortable during the massage, you need to do it frequently and very slowly, stopping as soon as the baby fusses. The irritability,according to Building Babies Better, comes from lack of total understanding of the sensation from the prenatal experience. Obviously, do not do deep pressure on the abdomen, and biceps and calves seem to be sensitive ( or better yet read a book about Infant massage).
I showed a few simple techniques in the video below, but it’s really about you touching the baby and showing the love. Some books recommend concentrating on the massage and not interacting with your baby, I choose to talk to her and sing to her, because to me it’s as much about bonding as it is about the massage. Doing it after a bath is usually easiest, but it’s important not to rush through it. Also, try cheek massage, Alexis loves that part. Since they use those muscles to suck milk, they need an occasional massage.

WHY:  It is well known and researched what amazing benefits infant massage produces for babies. A few proven benefits that are worth mentioning are: higher IQ, healthier digestion, improved weight gain, improved immune system (in a study of babies whose mothers gave them back massages at 10 weeks, there was a lower incidence of colds and diarrhea four months later), better sleep, enhanced muscle tone and coordination, more developed sensory awareness, better ability to handle stress, better bonding, self soothing, self-esteem, etc. Massage is very effective to do before a floor activity. It helps them use their muscles more efficiently afterwards.

For very small babies:

7. Leg Twist

HOW: You take your Little One’s legs and swing them to the side. Pause, then swing them to the other side. Take care not to twist them too much or make it too abrupt or scary. Basically, follow your baby’s cues. Of course, it’s always important to talk or sing to them while doing that.

WHY: Rocking stimulates the organs of muscle tone and balance as well as strengthens them. Poor muscle tone frequently equals poor coordination, as the body parts cannot put movements together. Helps your infant learn about different types of movements. Vestibular activities like this one are “essential for the inhibition of the primitive reflexes and the development of balance. Vestibular sensations are vital for posture, movement, and a sense of position in space , motion, depth and self.”

Alexis still loves this activity and smiles/laughs every time I do it.

You can see the video for examples of these acitivies

{in the first 3 activities Alexis is 3 months old, the rest are recent}:

 

Sources:
Some of these activities, along with explanations and some quotes were taken from the following books: Active Baby Healthy Brain  and Building Babies Better. For a list of all the books I recommend, please visit the books section

Wow I thought blogging desire would slow down when I have Alexis but I have to say it has tripled. There’s so much to share and write about and so much to reflect on.
I’ll try to get a general “thoughts” post once a week- type up some thoughts on my iPhone while feeding Lexi.

So here’s what I’ve thought up in 2 weeks of having Alexis

• First of all, I gotta say this: despite the sleepless nights, the occasional frustration, lack of time for anything non-Lexi essential, this rocks!
  Not being a mom part (I was never crazy about becoming A MOM per se), but having a daughter, if that makes any sense to you. It’s really an amazing part of life! I don’t get why some women become bitter and competitive and guilt ridden once they have kids. All I feel is love for everyone. Just bliss and joy!
• I was told my heart will explode from love I’ve never felt before. But both me and my husband agree that for us it’s less of an explosion but more of an all encompassing complete and deep, calm love. There from the very beginning. It’s a “but of course” kind of feeling.
• Having a baby changes you and at the same time it doesn’t. What it changes is how you look at certain things and desires. I still can’t wait till we have a better handle on this newborn stage so that we could go places, both wear cute clothes, look fabulous, spend time at the beach, till I can work out and get my body into tip top shape, till I can hang with my friends again, till I can work, and we can take weekend trips to Disney and do all the things we used to do but now with Lexi. But at the same time, I look at my model friends’ Facebook photos of them flying to exotic locations, partying, having fun and for the first time since I quit that life, all I think is “wow I so would rather be here with Lexi right now!” which is a big departure from my previous thoughts of “Oh man, this is awesome looking- I could so be there right now if I wasn’t pregnant”
• You won’t believe this one (because I don’t!):
  Having spent the whole pregnancy not really digging the state and not getting why some women enjoy being pregnant and miss it, some of my first thoughts upon coming home with Alexis and looking at my last preggo photos were “Aaaawww I miss having her in my belly!”
  Now that I know the preciousness that comes out of the whole process, being pregnant doesn’t seem that miserable. :)
• Not knowing whether what you’re experiencing is normal or something is wrong is tough. The first week or two of Alexis feeding every 30 min 24/7 while the books AND online resources AND all people on message boards say 2-3 hours is average. Her not sleeping at all while everyone’s babies I read about sleep 2-3 or longer stretches at night… Second guessing yourself…
  I have to say it was VERY helpful to hear from all you breastfeeding mamas that for an exclusively breastfed baby THAT is normal. I can relax and not worry that my baby is in pain, doesn’t get enough milk or something along those lines- she just likes to eat and cuddle- Whew!
• Once we figured out what Lexi wants it has been wonderful. I’m trying hard not to feel pressure to be productive and just enjoy our every 30 minute feedings and snuggles and coos. Taking care of a newborn especially with the support system I have here isn’t that hard at all (minus the 2 days it took us to figure out why she wasn’t sleeping and what needed to be done).
• Lexi now sleeps and behaves exactly how you’d expect a newborn to be. She isn’t a great sleeper, she does get fussy, she gets bouts of crying where we’re not sure what’s wrong ( usually minor gas that relieves itself within minutes or her being overly tired and not able to go to sleep without a lot of shushing and rocking and swaddling), she loves to be held and snuggled, she loves to eat and is actively working on her Sumo Wrestler face. In other words, she’s our perfect angel who gives her parents a lot of joy along with a lot of work. She now sleeps about 2 hours stretches at night (8pm-5am), with occasional nights being worse than others. After 5 am, she switches to day time and starts feeding every 30 minutes to every hour depending on the day. Yesterday she was cluster feeding- I literally didn’t get out of my rocker all day- every 20 minutes, sometimes without breaks… Today she’s been eating every hour, and currently she’s going on her 2nd hour of nap time, which is allowing me to type up this update.
• Daddy has been in charge of all diaper changes and dressing, as well as making sure mommy is comfortable during nursing sessions and has what she needs. He does get jealous though, because he thinks Alexis responds to me better but I keep reminding him it will take time and that he needs to keep spending time with her.
  
• We’ve been getting a few coos from her and a TON of smiles. Some of them I can tell are gas smiles, others – not so sure. She almost laughs… And always in response to us talking to her. She loves her grandmas too. Gives them more smiles than she gives us. (either that or they make her gassy lol)
  
  {organic footie is by Finn&Emma} 
• Alexis is blossoming into a more coherent human being, with lots of alert time which is so much fun to watch.
• My heart goes out to mothers who have colicky and refluxy babies. Having had a tiny glimpse into what it’s like- its no fun. And I doubt many people understand or appreciate it.
• We’ve been doing tummy time and this girl has impressive head control. She doesn’t hate tummy time but does get tired after a while. It’s so much more interesting to lay down and look at the blue cover than it is holding your head up.
  
  Wimmer Ferguson Black and White Development Board can be bought here
• 
  
  
• First bath after her cord fell off on day 7 was a lot of crying, 2nd bath worked out much better mostly cuz mommy and daddy blasted the heater in the house to warm the room up.
  Post Bath Snuggles
• Alexis is so adorable when she sleeps I can’t handle it.
• I have tried to put her into my Moby wrap twice now and she isn’t digging it. I keep doing it when she’s about to ask for food or too tired but in the last few days that’s all she’s been- hungry or tired. I’m really itching to go for a walk with her.
• I’ve been using Baby Connect app on my phone to track her feedings and BM since day 1 and I really love it. The interface is awesome! And I love the statistics bar. Like for the past 5 days she’s had 19-21 feedings a day (most of which occur during the day), 9 BM diapers and 10 wet diapers- you go girl! :)
• It’s looking like for a while the only photos I’ll have are homey-looking ones. No make up, messed up hair and lounge clothes.  I really need to get Lexi to like Moby wrap so that we could start getting out. Though, I keep forgetting-she’s only 2 weeks old, so little and new but it seems like I’ve known her forever. We’ll have plenty  of time to get out.
• Oh and we started using cloth diapers this morning. I’m still getting used to them. We’ve been using cloth wipes since the beginning and do laundry daily, so diapers don’t really add any work. I just have to figure out fits and snaps, since I have all different brands.Alright, I’m out- Love and Peace to everyone!

.