Solid Food Success

Posted on February 24, 2015 by playinghousewi

We have had our first streak of positive solid food experiences since we initially started. The streak has only been a couple of days, but Charlotte is doing so well.

Yesterday I let her try my wheat- and dairy-free, rice and millet cinnamon raisin toast. She LOVED it and ate almost an entire slice.

She’s also continued loving apples. Her favorite seems to be when we give her the core to chew on. And before you go crazy about the seeds, we leave about a half inch of Apple meat on all sides and watch her the entire time.

She also enjoys the cooked apples I made for her. All I did was cut the meat off of the apple core and steam it for a good 10 or 20 minutes until it was nice and tender. Then, I scooped the apple meat out of the skin. I saved some apple wedges and made applesauce with the rest.

For the applesauce, I just blended apples with some of the water I used to steam the apples. I’ve been putting the applesauce in a Squooshi (a refillable pouch). It’s working pretty well, although she usually will only eat about a tbsp to two from this.

This morning, Charlotte ate one steamed mini carrot, a quarter of an apple slice and half a piece of toast! Yay!

Not to mention the fact that she had a GREAT poop today! Yeah, I said it. I’m excited about her pastey textured poo that looked a normal color with no mucous or blood!

My mom brought us chicken from her homemade chicken soup today. Maybe we’ll give it a whirl!

Food is fun today.

The Poop Saga Continues

Posted on February 6, 2015 by playinghousewi

As I mentioned, when Charlotte turned 6 months, we started her on solids. And boy did she LOVE eating… Until all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, she stopped loving it.

Her mushy baby food just was not cutting it. I had started with sweet potatoes, and then avocado next. She seemed to really love the avocado, but broke out in a crazy rash all over her tummy, arms and back, so we said goodbye to avocado.

We then went back to sweet potatoes. It went really well at first, and then with the wind, she refused to eat more than a bite. Next, we tried peas. Same story. She’d take a few forced bites and that was it.

Urgh!

So, I decided to give “baby led weaning” a try. The gist is that you give your babe big pieces of food for them to feed themselves.

The whole concept gave (and still gives) me severe anxiety. Hello, choking hazard.

The first day, I gave Charlotte a few green beans from my homemade (minimal salt) vegetable soup. She loved it!

We also gave her some small pieces of carrot. It was all great until the dang thing made her gag and she barfed all over. Mmmm.

Anyway, the next day, I gave her more green beans and a slice of apple. For the apple, I warmed it in the microwave and mushed it a bit. She loved it!

Now, the bad part… While Charlie’s taste buds seem to be loving the new foods, her tummy seems less than amused.

I should preface this by saying that when we were in Philadelphia for Mark’s grandfather’s funeral, I VERY STUPIDLY ate a bunch of crap I shouldn’t have. What the heck was I thinking? The GI made it seem like it wasn’t the biggest deal and I was feeling weak. Ugh. Whatever the excuse, I messed up and am currently in a world of regret.

Which takes me back to my sweet girl. This poor baby has had blood in her stool almost every day… Sometimes all the poops for the day, sometimes only one or two. She also is literally pooping FULL green beans. Like, when I opened her dirty diaper to change her, there was a literal green bean stuck on her butt.

Needless to say, I have put a pause on all solid food. I’m not sure if the blood is still a reaction to my indiscretions or is a reaction to the solids or some combo. So, it’s a pause on solids and back to very strict eating for me.

I feel so frustrated. Frustrated in myself… I mean, what was I thinking? I’ve been eating perfectly for over 2 months. Ugh.

I’m frustrated with her allergies… She loves to eat, but her poor tummy. I want her to be able to enjoy food without hurting her poor tummy.

And just frustrated that I have no idea what she’s allergic to.

Excuse me while I go bang my head against the wall…

FYI, info on baby led weaning.

Introducing Solids to Our Big 6 Month Old

Posted on January 19, 2015 by playinghousewi

Everything I’ve heard from doctors and lactation consultants – confirmed by everything I was reading online – led me to wait until Charlie’s 6-month birthday to introduce solids.

So, with Friday being the big day, I figured when better than on a Saturday at home with the hubs?

I didn’t want to start with rice cereal because from what I’ve heard, it’s not really necessary. Being that I’ve spent the past month or so chowing down sweet potatoes, I figured that would be a great first food for my girl. So, I looked in a baby cookbook and scoured the Internet for a sweet potato babyfood recipe… What I found was pretty dang basic…

Sweet Potato Babyfood

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

2) Pierce sweet potato with a fork (all over the potato)

3) Wrap potato in tin foil and bake for 45-60 minutes (it took my oven about 55 minutes)

4) Peel the skin off of the sweet potato (you might want to let it cool a bit because that puppy’s HOT)

5) Once cooled, chop up the peeled sweet potato and put in the food processor (we use our Ninja Kitchen System)

6) Before you blend, add breastmilk or formula. I used a pretty big potato (see photo below) and needed nearly 15 ounces of breastmilk to get it nice and liquidy.

10 ounces!

7) Blend and then disperse into the freezer tray of your choice. I used this one from Mumi & Bubi.

Blending everything up!

This recipe filled up the entire tray (27 (1) ounce cubes) plus two additional feedings. Charlotte is currently only eating a Tablespoon of food per feeding per day, meaning this one recipe will yield 56 (1) TBSP feedings.

So, how’d she like it? Well, you can see for yourself…

OR just trust me when I say that she loves to eat. She reaches for the spoon, opens wide and eats her full TBSP. She’s also drinking water out of her sippy cup. They say babes should only have a couple ounces per day, so we just give it to her with her meal. We’ve only fed her twice, but so far so good! She seems to really enjoy it and loves being in her high chair. All in all, so successful and really cute. Another special thing to share with our girl.

“I want food! I want food!” Waiting patiently for her first bite EVER.

Yummmm

More, more, more!!

Here comes the train!

Mmmm

All cleaned up. That was a successful first (solid) meal!

Feeling good!

Happy after meal two!

Such a Big Girl – 26 Weeks

Posted on January 16, 2015 by playinghousewi

I know, I know… I say this every week, but how is my baby already 26 weeks old? That seems absolutely insane. Time is flying by way too quickly.

There hasn’t been anything too groundbreaking this week. The bunny hasn’t been taking her epic naps this week. She’s still only taking two naps, but one is about an hour (she goes down between 845 and 10) and the other is about 2.5 hours (goes down around 1ish.

She has been drooling like crazy and shoves just about anything and everything in her tiny little mouth. As of now, she doesn’t have anymore teeth, but I have to imagine more are coming.

We decided to start Charlie on solids this coming Saturday. So, in the spirit of that, I let her taste my apple yesterday. Charlotte was sitting on my lap while I was eating an apple (I was nursing her… A dual snack time if you will) and she just would not stop reaching for the apple. Finally, I gave in and let her guide my hand (with said apple) into her mouth. She just sucked on the dang thing until finally I pulled it away. She didn’t make a weird face, nothing. In fact, her only reaction was to whine and reach for it once I pulled it away.

I’m not even a little surprised that she’s going to be a good lover. Hubs and I both LOVE to eat.

What else… We got Charlotte a walker and a jumperoo this week ($30 total for both on Craigslist). She loves the jumperoo… We say “jump and jump and jump and jump…” And she bounces. It’s adorable! As for the walker, she likes hanging out in it (or eating books in it), but no walking quite yet.

We also started to give Charlie a soppy cup! She likes to chew on it and is becoming more interested, but not convinced quite yet. The first time I gave it to her, I put breast milk in it and she was angry. I think she may have accused the cup of stealing her mommy’s milk and banished it from her presence. We waited a few days before introducing it again, this time with water.

Charlie also attended her cousin Judah’s birthday party this weekend. We had been at a Packer (football) party beforehand, where she boycotted her nap, so she decided to shock us and nap for the first 40 minutes of the party… In a gym, with 25 five year olds. We were impressed!