Wednesday, June 8, 2011

32 weeks

Here is what is going on with Noah this week according to babycenter.com;

Your baby may be creeping (pushing himself around on his belly), crawling, or moving about by bottom shuffling — scooting around on his posterior using a hand behind him and a foot in front of him to propel himself.  Creeping is your baby's first method of getting around efficiently on his own. Usually, he'll first learn to pull himself with his hands and then get up on his hands and knees. Then he'll figure out how to move forward and backward by pushing off with his knees. (A "combat crawl" is a variation in which one leg is the pusher and the opposite arm the lead puller.)  All of these variations on crawling strengthen the muscles that will soon enable him to walk. Whichever mode of mobility your baby's using, it's fascinating to see how he solves the problem of getting around.

Your baby may be able to pull himself up to a standing position while holding on to furniture. In fact, if you stand your baby next to the sofa, he may be able to hold himself up, although he may be hanging on for dear life.  At this stage some parents put their children in baby walkers, but that's not a good idea. Walkers are unsafe: Your baby can use a walker as a stepladder to reach things he couldn't normally get to, such as a hot stove or bottle of bleach. What's more, they discourage floor play, which helps him learn to walk by giving him opportunities to crawl, pull up, and cruise while holding on to furniture — all activities that lead to walking.

Your baby's newfound mobility means that he's now entering the land of bumps and falls. These are an inevitable part of childhood, and although your heart may occasionally skip a beat or two, try to enjoy watching your baby explore his surroundings and discover his limits.  Restraining your innate desire to protect your baby allows him to grow and learn for himself. However, do make every effort to make your home baby-safe. A good way to do this is to get down to his level to find the possible danger zones. Secure fragile objects so they won't topple, for example, and keep rickety furniture in rooms that don't get much baby traffic.

Now's a good time to move drapery and blind cords out of reach, pad sharp coffee-table corners, install toilet-seat locks, relocate hazardous houseplants to higher ground, lock away poisonous cleaning supplies and medications, cover electric outlets, and secure safety gates at the top and bottom of each staircase.


Noah is such a fun kid!  He's so laid back and easy going, and usually in a good mood unless it's time for a nap.  After a few weeks of his sleep being off (getting up in the middle of the night, and fighting nap times) he now seems to be back to how he was before... sleeping from 8 pm until between 6 and 8 am and going down much more easily for naps twice a day.  His tooth continues to pop out more and more every few days, and now he's showing all the teething signs of constantly sticking his tongue out and rubbing his gums with it, and drooling a lot.  His hair is quicly getting longer and more full, it is fairly thin like mine and is starting to wave and curl with all of the New Orleans humidity.
 
He has now gone from 2 to 3 solid meals a day, and has gone down from 6 to 5 nursings.  He eats really well and rarely seems to turn down food that I give him (unless he's tired or cranky).  Ever since he started eating solid food he has been plumping up pretty aggressively each week.  Now he's in 9 month clothes.  This week we introduced white potatoes and summer squash which both went over well. 
 
He is also getting more and more mobile.  His crawling speed is increasing, and he is gaining distance as well.  Now if I leave him alone in a room he will usually crawl on his own and follow me into the next room.  He also continues to find any stable surface he can get his hands on to help him stand up.








1 comment:

Unknown said...

gaaahhh! I can hardly handle how cute he is! What a great little kiddo! His smile is so great. A summer play date is in order!