I’m just a first time mom. I’m sure some of the rest of you “pros” could help. Please, share your insights!
Sleeping
- At eight months old, how long can my baby go at night without eating (i.e., how long can he sleep)? Is it okay to expect him to sleep 10-12 hours?
- What’s a reasonable bedtime for an eight-month-old? (Right now, he’s asking for 5:30-6. OR ELSE.)
Baby Signs
My wonderful sister gave me a baby signing book for Christmas and I’ve been signing to him, pretty much just some basic signs: FOOD/EAT, MOMMY, DADDY, BATH, MORE.
I haven’t gotten any indication from Paul that he understands these signs, but he did start communicating via his own sign.
Smacking his lips together/opening his mouth and closing it = I WANT TO EAT NOW
It’s quite cute to realize I can understand what he wants!
- If you signed to your baby, how long before they actually started to respond? Did they make up their own signs?
Eating
- Canned baby food tastes like dog food here; not really an option. What did you feed your no-longer-pureed-food-but-still-not-quite-adult-food baby?
Sleeping: Your baby can sleep as long as he wants. There is no time that is too long. I remember my pediatricain saying to me with my first “She’s not going to let herself starve to death while she sleeps. If she’s really hungry she’ll wake up and let you know she’s hungry.”Â
As for bedtime: If he wants to go to bed at 5:30 and you’re OK with that, then let him. I, personally, would not be OK with that. But that’s because if he’s going to sleep 10 to 12 hours I’d like those hours to be the same 10 to 12 hours that I am asleep. So I’d see if I could get that 5:30 time to be a little nap (since he’s clearly tired at that time), get him up and feed him a little before you’re ready to go to sleep, then put him back to bed when you go to bed. That way maybe you have a shot at a good night’s sleep.
Signing: I didn’t sign with any of my babies, but I do remember that glorious phase when you start to feel like you kind of understand him better. Congrats on getting there.
Eating: Boiled carrots is a good one (cut into triangles, of course since anything round is a choking hazard), small cubes of cheese (this is slightly controversial since technically that’s dairy and he’s under 1 but my Ped. said it was fine since there’s no history of any reaction to dairy in my fam), small pieces of pasta, rice, pancakes and waffles are always a favorite of my kids, oatmeal. I find that canned fruit is softer than fresh so I often get that for my kids and chop it up small (I get the light syrup kind and rinse it well). Do you know the trick for getting bananas to be just right for babies? If you peel a banana, break it in half, and then stick your finger right down into the middle of it, it will divide into three little “sticks” that you can then give to your baby. Since they’re not round it’s not a choking hazard and it’s easy for them to hold in their little fists.Â
There’s my two cents (that actually might have been more like four cents…).Â
Disclaimer: All of that is just my opinion. It’s what I would do – but there are lots of different and equally good parenting technicques.Â
I have all sorts of ideas and opinions on this stuff…
sleeping: by 8 months he should be able to sleep 12 hours. Maybe from 7-7. If he gets tired too early, I would try to move his afternoon naps up a little later. (I assume he still takes 2 naps.)
Signs: I did signs with Ginger and it was great. Babies aren’t expected to respond until they’re about a year old, but they’ll understand the signs that you do. It’s very important to keep doing them, even though it might seem like you are wasting time. By the time they get to be a year, they want to communicate, and if they don’t know signs they can’t, and will throw fits. What’s more frustrating than trying to tell someone something, and them not understanding? So be patient. He will develop his own signs (like you said) and that’s ok. As long as you understand each other.
Eating: try buying one of those tiny food processors (holds about 1-2 cups) You just throw food in there and it purees it to the same consistency as jar food. This works great with things like peas, cooked carrots, sweet potatoes etc. Pretty much all the foods they sell in jars at the store. Doing it this way is much healthier for the baby anyways.
Good luck
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I fed my later babies whatever the family ate-just pulverized in a little hand grainder at he table. Of course, we were poor and ate a lot of chicken rice casserole, beef and noodle casserole, mashed potatoes and cheese, hard boiled eggs and cornbread, etc. I just threw in the vegetable too–broccoli, peas, carrots, etc.  I did avoid salting the food as I cooked it to keep down baby salt intake.Â
As far as sleep is concerned, when the baby starts sleeping shorter hours, it’s time for cereal at bedtime. As far as sleep and wake up time, what better time than now to tell him who is in charge. If you can’t be in charge now, what will you do when he’s a teenager! I say, keep him awake and train him to sleep the hours tht work for you.
I just read about the leg stuck between the bars. When she was a year old, my sister Sue broke her arm that way. The doctor is always a bit suspicious when you claim you put your baby to bed just fine and he woke up with a broken leg.
I’d definatly try shifting the whole sleep schedule to a few hours later in the day, even if its 30 minutes later each day until you get where you are both comfortable.
We have a mini food processor like the one described and its how we fed our child from 6 months-18 months. We just mashed up whatever we were eating for dinner and gave it to her. I’m sure you already know this, but make sure to steer clear of honey until he’s two. Also, if you’re going to do this, it’s better to add salt at the table instead of during cooking, that way its not in his food.
Signing: it was at 12 months that Leah really started signing and she soaked up the signs like a sponge. If she wanted to know what something was called, she’d look at me with a “what’s this called?” kind of look, and would never forget after that. She still signs and I’m excited to have her help me teach Samuel signs. I was surprised that she understood the sign for “help” because I thought it was too complicated of a concept for a 15 month old, but she learned it through signing time and used it properly…I was very impressed. So what I’m saying is, if you like it and when he becomes interested in signing, don’t hold back on what you teach him–show him every sign you know and he’ll learn them! I think it is so amazing a fun to sign with babies, and it helps the two of you both be less frustrated.
So now here’s my question for you: I can’t remember how to introduce solid foods. My baby is looking to be a porker (he’s already almost 17 pounds, what Leah weighed at 11 months), and he’s making me feed him every hour and a half again, so I’m trying to supplement with solids so I don’t feel like a cow all day long. I’ve just tried to give him really watery rice cereal made with breastmilk, and he won’t have anything to do with it, but this kid is hungry! As someone who did this more recently, what is the trick?
Sleeping: Every child is different. At eight months he can totally go without eating through the night but if he wakes up and he’s used to eating, then he’ll learn that he can’t fall asleep without it. My first one slept through the night starting at 4 months, my second not until 10 months. It all depends upon the child.
Signing: Yay!!! I can totally get on my soapbox about signing because I LOVE signing with my kids! My 13 month old can sign milk and more. My 2 year old has stopped signing as he now speaks better (he still won’t give up cry, hurt, milk, and more though) but during his prime signing period he knew about 40 words. Signing is one of the best things I ever decided to do because he signed A LOT and it was SO NICE to know what he wanted and we avoided so many tantrums! If you haven’t checked out the Signing Time DVD’s, you should. They’re my favorite! We went to storytime at the library and it ended up that one of the mothers was deaf. She had an interpreter come, but on two occasions the interpreter was a no show. I knew enough of the basic signs that I was able to help her get through storytime. I’d love to become fluent one day. In the meantime, my entire vocabulary comes from the Signing Time videos.
Food: With my first we purred all of his food, and froze it in ice cube trays. It was nice to just pull one out. With my second, I guess I got to busy and too tired to do that. I do tend to take a small blender and blend up some our normal dinner food so it’s bite size for him. Or just cut up normal dinner food into bite size pieces. Pasta is great!
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Nancy and Jessica: Yes, he’s been tired by 5:30 pm ever since Day Light Savings in April (we went the other direction than you, so it was an hour earlier). I couldn’t bring myself to waking him once he’s asleep, because he’s so obviously ready for the night! But that may be the only way to get him to sleep later–although, if I keep him UP until 7, he’ll still wake at 5 or 6. Maybe I’ll try calling it a third nap or a later nap, Jessica. He’s taking his morning 8-10 and his afternoon 12:30-2 or so. Yes, a bit early! ACK! He’s my only one–I think I’d die of exhaustion if I had more than one to care for from 5 am onwards.
And I asked how long he could sleep because for a while he was sleeping only til 4. I didn’t feel I could ask him to sleep later because that was already 10 hours…but you’re right, he won’t starve himself if he goes longer! Even when he was newborn he sometimes slept for four or five hours. Then nurse said I should wake him, but, well, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. He was fine.
I’ve been giving him dairy and cheese. I didn’t realize they technically said not too. Oops. I can blame it on the nurse (free community nurse paid for by the city)—she gave me a cooking booklet and it had a cheesy thing in it. It’s an ok booklet, but I just didn’t like the idea of cooking all separate food for my baby. I like your ideas and Jessica, I’ve got to try a little food processer. We have a huge food mill for bulk quantities, but I hate to use it for little amounts because it’s such a pain to clean!
Thanks for the encouragement on the signs, Jessica. Didn’t realize I still will have a few months of no repletion of them. It was fun to realize his little sign for “I want to eat.†It was like he’s copying us when we’re eating!
As for your disclaimer, Nancy, that’s why I asked you instead of reading a book!
Thanks for your thoughts!
Mom and Jen, I can’t stand the thought of eating food without salt cooked in to it: that’s when I’ve finally started to love eating when I realize how good food is with salt. But, at the same time, I’m getting really tired of cooking a completely separate dinner for the baby…That’s the problem with the booklet the nurse gave me: each item is a “baby” meal and it takes an hour to prepare….
Paul’s currently eating dinner an hour before bedtime (4:30) so I don’t know if cereal would be the answer to sleeping longer. I just need him to go to sleep LATER.
Today he woke up at 6:25! Hallelujah, it felt great. Everything has been an hour behind (i.e., morning nap at 9 not 8, afternoon name 1:45 not 12:30) so maybe we’ll go to bed later tonight and start making this a habit.
I wasn’t going to worry about schedules since I thought we were coming home, but it looks like it will be a few more weeks (ARG!) so I’m going to do something about it…
Natasha, I was going to get Signing time when I got back to the US. My sister has it and loves it! I saw it when I visited her and it was great fun. (I took ASL for 1 year in college and I have a friend who married a deaf man, so I know a number of signs. It is fun.)
I didn’t realize, Jen, that it was 12 months. For some reason, he hit 8 months and I’ve been waiting for him to start responding…
Jen, about the solids. I’m probably the last one to ask. Ryan wanted me to wait *as long as possible* because he was worried about allergies. We finally started when Paul was 6 mos 1 week. Paul was completely ready, took to rice cereal right away, and two weeks later was ready for three meals a day. (And as soon as I started 3 meals a day he stopped spitting up 50 times a day.) If Samuel isn’t acting ready to eat the solids, I’m not sure what to tell you. I do think he should start having them if he’s asking for a bf every 1.5 hours. That must be driving you nuts!
Maybe he’s just having a hard time getting his tongue out of the way. How long have you been doing the watery rice cereal?