Six months ago we went from a family of two (plus pets) to a family of three (plus pets).
My how the time has flown.
In the past six months I have officially learned how to change a diaper. My total diaper changing count pre-Noah was “1”. Obviously, I have way surpassed that by this point. I’ve learned to read her cues: her many different cries, rubbing her eyes when she’s tired, and little coos of sweet contentment. And more than anything I’ve grown to love her more than I could ever imagine. Not that I didn’t think I would love her, but the love for her is deeper than I ever thought possible. She is such a joy and a blessing in our lives.
What has Noah been up to? She’s been growing and developing by leaps and bounds. We chose to follow the book On Becoming Baby Wise: Giving Your Infant the Gift of Nighttime Sleep which encourages creating healthy sleeping habits for your little one as well as placing the parent’s marriage as a priority over the child. Because of the great suggestions outlined in the book, Noah has been sleeping through the night since around eight or ten weeks old. Of course, we also think it has something to do with the BumGenius cloth diapers she has been wearing. The first night she slept through the night was the first night she wore her cloth diapers!
Like most babies she has learned to follow objects around the room, respond to sounds, recognize her name, and enjoy some quality giggle time. Last month, just before Easter she started sitting up on her own, and ever since then it has been her main goal to crawl. According to ML she is creeping (a G.I. Joe belly crawl) right now but is bound and determined to get the official crawl down pat. It’s so close every time she gets up on her hands and knees. Oh well. We just need to enjoy each stage as it happens.
The past few weeks we have started working on a little ASL (American Sign Language). She’s not signing back yet, but hopefully, it’s starting to sink in a little. Or either I just provide great entertainment for her as I pant like a dog (that’s the sign for dog)!
I’m not sure what the next six months holds for us, but we sure are enjoying the ride! Has anyone had success with teaching their infant ASL? If so, what advice do you have for it?
Both the BumGenius cloth diapers and On Becoming Baby Wise are available on the the sidebar through the Products I Love!: Amazon Affiliates link.
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She is adorable! I love that skirt 🙂
My friend recommended that book and I bought it the other day; glad to hear another great review out it! Can’t wait to get reading. And we are going to do cloth diapers also. Most people I tell think its so strange, but I’m excited about that too. Do you only do them at night? We are going to shoot for full time…but like you I have NEVER changed a diaper before! lol.
oops…review about it (not out it)
Thank you! She received the little tutu from some friends where my husband works.
I think you will love On Becoming Baby Wise. It was incredibly helpful for me because I didn’t know how often to feed a baby or about how many naps she should be taking a day. The book was right on target for when she would need fewer naps or want to eat fewer times a day.
We use cloth diapers full time. Noah didn’t start wearing them until she was around 8lbs. That’s when they began to fit her good… I didn’t want to invest in newborn cloth diapers. Disposables at the beginning was great though because they come with the little indicator strip that lets you know when it needs to be changed. She has twenty cloth diapers which last me about three days between washings. Plenty of people think we are strange for using them but I love them and they aren’t really any more difficult than disposable. Besides who can resist how cute they are!
Aww she’s precious! Thanks for this…we aren’t prego yet but hopefully some time soon. I’m trying to gain as much insight as I can because I’m pretty clueless too!
What a cutie! We used the Babywise books too – what a great resource. We also taught our kids a few signs and they worked great. I remember being so surprised how quickly they caught on. It was so helpful when we dealt with delayed speech – being able to communicate was such a game changer. 🙂
I glad the sign language worked for you. I hope she is able to grasp it fairly quickly. The hard part for me is remembering to do the signs for her so she will learn.
we used signs for please, sorry, thank you, and more. it was all he really needed until he started talking. they worked wonders and i will use them again on baby two.
So good to hear! I really look forward to her being able to communicate with us.
She’s absolutely adorable! Such a beautiful family. Love the little skirt. 🙂
We so enjoyed our visit this week-end and meeting Noah! She’s so cute!! I love the pictures!
We have attempted sign language. At this point, all he does consistently is all done. Occasionally he will throw in a hasty please just to get what he wants. But he’s saying please verbally pretty clearly now, so I guess it doesn’t matter! 🙂
We had lots of fun too! Thomas is adorable. It’s hard to believe Noah will be at that stage in less than a year. Hopefully, we can get together again when y’all come to B’ham this summer.
Noah is gorgeous! That tutu is precious!
Sleeping thru the night at 2 months old – ok, I am awarding you mom of the year!
Kelly
Thank you! We are still continually amazed at how well she sleeps. Baby Wise has been a huge help for us.
Don’t you think it gets more fun every month? We’re huge babywise fans…we’ve used the first 3 books in the series. We did some signs with both girls – we did “more,” “please,” “drink,” and “all done.” It was REALLY helpful…more so for Adlee than Matea as Matea started talking at 11 months, and Adlee is going on 15 and still not talking. At any rate, we just focused on the ones that eliminated the most whining. 🙂 Feel free to email me if you want.
It definitely gets more fun every month. I have read through the second Baby Wise book and have started implementing some of the stuff, but I need to go back and read it again. It is so encouraging to hear other moms talk about how much Baby Wise helped them out.
Krystle,
We used Babywise with Jenna also and loved it! We did make a couple of minor modifications because I didn’t agree with some of the timelines of when to cut back on feeds based on AAP recommendations. The main adjustment we made was giving her one nighttime feeding from 2 to 3 months (which I always had to wake her up for) and then I let her sleep through the night after that. I believe she, too, would have done it sooner had I let her. I think Babywise was one of the best things we did for her! She is such a content child which I credit to our implementing the schedule outlined by Babywise. Glad to hear its methods worked for you as well… I have now been recommending it to lots of new moms I meet!
I’m so glad y’all have had success with it too Misty. I know what you mean about having a content baby. So many people tell us she is the happiest baby and doesn’t hardly cry. We believe it’s because she is so well rested and because we know when she gets sleepy and hungry. If y’all come through Birmingham this Summer give us a call. We would love to get to meet Ms.Jenna!
What a great mom…Baby Wise AND cloth diapers. Your BEAUTIFUL baby girl is blessed!!!
Thank you! I cannot begin to tell you how much we love cloth diapers. Not only are they adorable but really aren’t that hard to deal with. Plus the money I have saved using them is such a blessing.
How fun to see snapshots of your daughter’s growth. We had great success with sign language for both of our daughters. Using just a core list of signs will help reduce communication frustration for the whole family – more, milk, eat, all done, change (diaper). My girls signed back around 9 or 10 months old but we began early (when they were 3 months old – mostly so we could get into the habit ourselves well before they were old enough to respond). Both of our children were early talkers, too, although I don’t know how much of that we can attribute to the signing. Have fun with it! Visiting today from Imparting Grace!
Becky, Thanks for stopping by. I know what you mean by getting in the habit of signing. I feel like that is hardest part, remembering to sign. I look forward to the day when she is able to communicate back to me through sign though. It is encouraging to hear from so many people that they have had such success with it.
Wow, I feel like we’re kindred spirits! My husband and I also went through using Babywise techniques, use BG (among other) cloth diapers, have a 7 month-old girly, and praise God have been able to learn those sleepy baby cues with time. So glad I found your blog today. Would love you to share this at my blog party (Monday Mom Musings) next Monday. Cheers!
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The tutu is ADORABLE!!! So so sweet!
She is so very beautiful, and you are blessed beyond measure. Obviously you know that! 🙂
I have young friends who have had great luck with ASL with their little ones. My younger sister has a child with Down’s Syndrome. He still doesn’t have many words, and some ASL signs have been a huge help to them.
Glad you’re taking lots of photos of your precious Noah!!
Thanks, Richella. I am afraid I have way to many pictures of her… Well I guess you can never have to many. It’s just so easy to take them when I always have my cell phone right by me.
Aww, she is adorable!!
I forget when exactly my daughter started signing back but it’s amazing when they do. They can understand language a lot faster than they can verbalize so signing is really helpful!! We only did simple things like dog and milk, I’d love to do it more with our second baby.
We have been steadily working on the signing. She hasn’t signed anything back yet but she definitely understands drink and has learned how to wave and clap. It’s so much fun seeing her try to communicate with us!
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