I am always making baby food

I think I may have made a terrible mistake. I started my child on homemade baby food and now he won't eat the jarred stuff. I mean, you can't blame him. That stuff looks nasty, smells nasty and I am sure tastes pretty nasty. I will just take his word for it on the taste.

Now, I was all well intentioned with making baby food. How fun it would be to cook for my kiddo, right? Well, sometimes life gets busy and the last thing I need to fit into my schedule is shopping, buying, peeling, chopping, steaming, puree-ing, portioning, and storing a variety of local, organic, nutritious fruits and vegetables for my boy. Could the kid give me a break and like ONE of the jarred foods? Nope.

So, I find myself ALWAYS making baby food. Every spare minute I have. In between work emails, folding laundry, playing with baby on my work from home days and weekends, I run to Trader Joe's or the Olympia Farmers Market and peel, chop, steam and puree. Wash and repeat. Repeat, repeat.

It's hard to keep up. He loves eating. And, okay, I feel pretty accomplished that I can say my baby is eating whole, unprocessed, organic first foods. And a smashed avocado or banana is just as easy as opening a jar. Right? Okay, right. I remember why I decided to do it in the first place...

There is a point to my post (other than complaining and giving myself a pat on the back) and that is to give my tips for baby food making and how I went about introducing solids to my handsome boy. This is again something I researched tirelessly because we aren't magically born knowing how to transition our kids to solids. I had lots of questions before I started: What is best to feed him first? When do I start? How exactly do you make baby food? How often? How much? What times? And after I started: What do I do about constipation? How much variety? Orange spit up?

So let me give you the answers here:

What is the best first food? When do I start?
After starting Nathan on rice and oatmeal cereal after 5 months, we started him on vegetables at 6 months. The first vegetable we gave him was sweet potatoes. He loved it. The following are the "rules" I have used to introduce new foods:

• Offer new food in the morning this ensures that if he has a reaction, it is during the day and not at night. 
• Offer new food when he is in a good mood, not overly hungry or tired. 
• Don't force it, if he doesn't like it, I try again another day. 
• Wait 3 days or more between new foods. Look for signs of allergy (rash, vomiting, diarrhea)
• Choose foods that are easy for baby to digest at first. Sweet potatoes, avocados, apples, peas, bananas, squashes.
• There are certain foods that should not be homemade because of the nitrates that are released when pureed. These can be offered in jarred form because the manufacturers have taken out any harmful bi-product. Beets, carrots, green beans, and spinach should be avoided. 

How exactly do I make baby food?

It is the most simple thing in the world.

1. Wash
2. Peel - when appropriate 
3. Chop - the smaller the chop, the smoother the puree
4. Steam - until very tender and save water for the pureeing 
5. Puree - add water to make it the right consistency
6. Freeze - 

Bananas and avocados can just be mashed with a fork, no need to cook!

I also recommend the Beaba Babycook Baby Food Maker which I got as a gift from my mom. The thing is amazing. It steams and purees all in one container. Makes baby food making a breeze. I also use individual portion plastic cubes to store and freeze my baby food. Perfect portions, I just pull the needed food out of the freezer the night before I need it. 

How often? How much? What times?
There is no consensus in baby "guru" literature on this. I started out with 1-2 tablespoons of cereal once a day and increased to two times a day once he had it all down. Now we feed Nathan solids three times a day. This is what it looks like:

Morning: Cereal and Fruit (mixed or separate, depends on my mood)
Afternoon: Vegetable
Evening: Cereal and Vegetable

Constipation
From talking with other moms, constipation happens to most babies when they start eating solids. When we introduced solids, Nathan started pooping less and his movements became more solid. This has now  evened out with the introduction of fruits and vegetables. I have had to intervene - ie: glycerin suppository - when Nathan didn't poop for 5 days!!! The general word from Pediatricians is: if it isn't bothering them, don't worry until it has been more than TWO WEEKS. Well, if I didn't poo for 5 days, I would want someone to do something about it, so I did for Nathan and he was a much happier boy. But I have only had to one time. Some other tips I have gathered for getting babies regular again are:

• Offer sips of water from a big kid cup! Nathan loves using his tippy cup. Once babies start solids, they need water to help digestion. 
• Apple, squash, and prunes help the process. Bananas and avocados back it up. 
• Add an ounce of apple or prune juice to babies water. 

How much variety?

Babies should be offered a variety of fruits and vegetables! But, remember to start slow and allow adequate amount of time to make sure baby doesn't have a reaction to the new food. Nathan is 6.5 months old and his menu choices are: apple, banana, sweet potato, peas, avocado, and prunes. In the freezer to be introduced soon: butternut squash, acorn squash, pear, and carrot. You can also mix them for more variety.

Rainbow spit up is normal (I checked with the pediatrician) and it smells gross too. 


There you have it. My literature review on homemade baby food. I hope this helps someone make their decisions on baby food making. It is easy and fun (sometimes). My main reasons for doing it is to instill good eating habits for Nathan. I want him to be an adventurous eater and to truly LIKE a variety of vegetables and fruits.

My information is by no means the expert advice! This is simply a compilation of others information and what I have found most helpful. Every family is unique. Thats why there is so much damn information out there.

Happy eating! Happy feeding!

Come on baby light my fire

Today I came home to a WONDERFUL addition to our backyard. A beautiful fire pit that is almost finished! Just in time for the baptism open house this Sunday. Hurray. The fire pit is Jason's first Father's Day gift. He has been talking about having one built or building one (which I would never let happen) since we first bought the house. I thought having one built would be the perfect gift for my amazing husband. And it is!

Check it out:

I have to give a shout out to Dreamscape Landscape and Design. Jacob did an estimate the week before last, worked within my budget and is finishing in less time than I could have ever imagined.

Homeowner success. Coolest wife ever award. Awesomest back yard high five!

Schedules

I am a believer in schedules. I like predictability. And so does my child. I actually learned that my child needed a schedule the hard way, but I am glad that he wanted one. Because it truly makes my life easier. Let me tell you our baby schedule story. This was our first REAL parenting decision.

Around 5 months, Nathan became hard to handle. Stopped sleeping through the night, wouldn't nap, was over tired, we couldn't figure out what he wanted, he had melt downs and was generally unpredictable. We were at a loss. I felt like a total failure and we were all exhausted. He just wasn't sleeping and I couldn't figure out why. Swaddling was a problem now because he could flip himself over to his tummy and then he was pinned with his face down, we tried to let him cry, which only led to me and him throwing up!

As always, when faced with a challenge, I started researching. I read blogs, books, talked to other moms, subscribed to sleep websites, went to counselling, and argued with my husband. After a week of totally immersing myself in all the different "SLEEP SOLUTIONS", I came to some conclusions: 1. We were not the only ones who's child stopped sleeping through the night and fought naps. 2. We have to do what works for OUR family. 3. We have to stick to a plan. 4. It is a process. There is no one way to get your kid to sleep. AND MOST IMPORTANT 5. My kid was not getting enough sleep!!!

So, we chose and stuck to a 4-hour schedule. We had to get EVERYONE on board: Mommy, daddy, Havilah (the nanny), and Grandma Janna. Our pediatrician said that if we stuck to it, in two weeks, Nathan would be sleeping through the night, taking naps and generally in a better mood.

We started the process over a weekend when Jason and I could support each other. I documented EVERYTHING about it. Nathan's moods, when he got tired, how long he napped, how much he ate, etc. This really helped. It helped keep me sane, keep me on plan, and document progress we were making.

A couple things that I learned in the process: 1. Nathan doesn't have to eat all the time - this was our "go to" when he was cranky and what we found was when he was cranky, he was tired. 2. Thirty minutes is not a nap. 3. Nathan's awake time is 1.5-2 hours at a time. 4. If Nathan does not get enough sleep during the day, he does not sleep well at night. AND MOST IMPORTANT 5. Putting a baby down drowsy, but AWAKE is truly everyone's key to happiness.

Although this was all VERY hard to do, once I made a decision and stuck to it, everyone was happier. Me, Jason, Nathan, our nanny. Everyone. It was like Nathan said: "Finally, someone took control!" It was like he was begging for a schedule. He didn't want to be held during his naps! There was so much change for us all in a week, but it was all needed change. Nathan was put on a 4-hour schedule where eating, napping, and bedtime all happened AROUND the same time each day. Nathan was no longer nursed to sleep. He was put down awake. Napping happened in his crib and not in the swing. Mommy took control and directed everyone on the new plan and in TWO weeks, in general, Nathan sleeps through the night and takes 2 naps 1.5-2 hours long and sometimes a third that is about 30-45 minutes. AMAZING!

Here is what his schedule looks like:

7:00am – Wake and Bottle
Solids
Playtime
8:30 or 9:00 – Nap (1.5-2hr)
11am – Bottle
Playtime
Solids
12:30 or 1:00 – Nap (1.5-2hr)
3pm – Bottle
Playtime
4:30 or 5:00 – Cat Nap (30-45 min)
Solids
Books
Bath
Jammies
7:00 – Bottle
7:15-7:30pm – Night Night

Of course there is flexibility in our schedule. There has to be because life happens and Nathan is a baby! But, in general, this is how his day goes. We work around it and it works. No, it will not work for everyone, but I think it could help a lot of moms when they can't figure out what to do!

Now a couple things we did in conjunction with the schedule:

-Putting Nathan down awake: It was hard, there was some crying, but not the terrible "CRY IT OUT" method that so many swear by. When Nathan cries we pick him up. Always. When he fusses or complains, we don't. We made a distinction and we will always pick him up when he cries. At noon or at 3am. Complaining on the other hand, we let him. So, what we do is if Nathan is put down awake and starts crying, I mean gut wrenching crying, or "Scream crying" is my term, I go in, pick him up and say "momma's here" and hold him and soothe him until he is calm, then I put him back down. As soon as he is calm, not asleep. In the beginning this took up to 30 minutes 40 minutes at the most. Now, if he cries, it either takes max 10 minutes OR he is truly hungry.

- Making naps last longer: When he woke up during naps, I did the above method "Pick up/Put down" until we hit the 1.5 hour mark. It took a couple days, but now, for almost EVERY nap he sleeps 1.5-2 hours.

-Unswaddling: Nathan told us he didn't want to be swaddled any more by waking himself up every time he flipped to his tummy. We just put him to bed without it and it didn't faze him one bit.

There you go. I hope this helps someone out there. Please ask me questions and I will tell you what we did. I am not an expert, but I can tell you what worked for us. Every kid is different, every family is different.

My kid flourishes on a schedule, our house thrives on it.

I did it, I started a blog

I did it. I started a blog. Yes, we had a mac.com account, but it proved to be a little too much to keep up now that we have little man. That blog takes total design and has multiple pages....blah. This allows me to just post what I want without worrying about the rest.
I read a lot of blogs. That is what finally pushed me to start my own. I read blogs about parenting, baby food making, crafting, reading, my friends' blogs, strangers' blogs, gossip blogs, work blogs, city blogs, neighborhood blogs..... I finally thought: "What about MY blog?". So here it is!!!! MY BLOG. Hopefully it isn't boring.
So, follow my life, OUR life. We are passionate and busy. We have fun and we love. Thanks for stopping by. Stay tuned. I shall be busily blogging soon.

LOVE!