Diving!

I made my first post baby dive last weekend. It had been well over a year since I last dove, as I stopped before we started trying to conceive. I did a short dive with our friend Ben to "get my feet wet". Luckily, I didn't literally get my feet wet as my drysuit seals held!

Tim and Ben dove a real cave dive first while Nolan and I dodged mosquitoes. I did see one or two on him and swatted them but luckily no bites appeared on him. I'm positively thinking that he got his mosquito repellent nature from me instead of Tim's extreme allergy!

Here the two boys are together before Tim's dive.

My dive went okay but I stayed in the cavern area and got used to everything again before venturing inside the caves. I'm sure if my cave instructor was watching, it was horrendous (poor trim and bouyancy!), but Ben said it wasn't too bad! 

When we exited the cavern and popped up on the surface Tim saw us and walked down the stairs to the spring edge with Nolan. I was so busy thinking about everything I was doing diving I hadn't had time to think much about Nolan. Considering he is usually all I think about every day all day long, it was a really weird sensation when I saw him on the surface waiting for me and realized I hadn't been thinking about him.

I said his name and he looked around and started crying the most pathetic, sad cry. He heard his mommy but couldn't see her. He continued fussing while Tim held him until I was fully out of my gear and back in street clothes. So weird that he is fine with Tim in gear but couldn't handle his mommy not looking the same.

Solids

Before his birth, I researched breastfeeding and set a goal to exclusively breastfeed Nolan for the first 6 months. It isn't always easy to BF nor was it comfortable and pain free at first. In addition there are painful ailments such as thrush and blisters that we had to work through! Nolan spent the first two months eating about every 2 hours round the clock. Then he slowed to every 2-3 hours during the day and 5-6 at night. At  4 months of age he went back to 2 hours during the day and only 3-4 hours at night. It's a lot of work!

Now that we made it to 6 months, we plan to continue breastfeeding as the main source of nutrition for the first year. Nolan will be allowed to wean at his own pace (WHO recommends BF for 2 years minimum!). Solids for the first year are only for practice and not for nutrition and calorie count. There is lots of research out there on when is the right time to start solids but it seems like nowadays everyone is rushing to get going. I have to admit its fun to feed your baby for the first time but their little bellies just aren't made to have anything except breastmilk for quite some time.

Lots of agencies (WHO, AAP, etc.) all recommend that babies be fed only breastmilk (formula as a second) for the first 6 months of life. Recently pediatricians and parents have been turning that 6 months into 4-6 months without actual science to back it up. Our pediatrician recommends breastfeeding only for 6 months then slowly introducing solids for practice. I was pretty determined to ignore the pressure to feed him anything except breastmilk and we succeeded!

Nolan made it to 6 months and 2 weeks before we introduced solids. I grew a 14+lb baby all from me. I know it's been done since the beginning of time but I really find it amazing!!

Yesterday he got his first meal which was prunes. We did not do cereal of any sort due to the low amount of protein it contains. We chose prunes because he does not frequently poo and solids can cause constipation. They are first so that if he became constipated later due to another food item he would be able to have the prunes to help.  He'll have prunes for four days then we'll introduce his next vegetable if all goes well.

Mess and all, Nol did great!! He did keep trying to suck his thumb after every couple bites. I think if his thumb could feed him he'd be in heaven!

Nolan Meets the World!

This is a quick disjointed post to cover our whirlwind trip! Nolan made his first airplane flight last week. We flew alone on our flight to Indiana and then flew home with hubby. Nol was amazing on the flights there, not making a sound. On the flight home he fussed a little but was very well behaved.

Nolan had started becoming a little weary of strangers before our trip so I was worried that he might be upset meeting lots of new people. Apparently he completely forgot to be scared by strangers and was just great with lots of new people holding him!

In one week Nolan flew (two flights each with a connection), drove from central Indiana to central Illinois and back, attended a wedding at a vineyard, drove to northern Indiana, went to his first farm, and met and was held by LOTS of new people. That is a pretty monumental week for a six month old.

Nolan's favorite part of the wedding was once the music started and dancing began. He had a blast and was up way past his bedtime!!

Now we are back home trying to catch up on sleep and get back into our routine!