After significant progress in the sleep department with Henry, we've seen an average of two wakings a night (thank you Dr. Ferber!) Last night, however, the boy decided to throw me under the bus and was up from 10:30pm to 2am, then waking for the day at 6am. Was the reason for this regression:
a) his long, late afternoon nap (from 2:30 to 5pm)
b) the fact that we started sweet potatoes yesterday, his first non-cereal food
c) he is teething- at his last pediatrician's visit the nurse practitioner felt "bumps" - but we all know that could be the state of things for weeks.
d) he is killing me slowly
e) all of the above
It almost seems silly to try and guess, because quite honestly it could have been the freaking phases of the moon keeping him up, but part of me can't stop myself for hypothesizing.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Gerber, I ain't
Go ahead call me a hippie, earth mother. I've been called worse. That's right I'm making my own baby food.
Now here is the deal: I like to cook and quite honestly the idea of making my own baby food actually sounded like fun. I have friends who have done it and claim its not all that much work, if you make bigger batches and freeze it so I thought I'd take a stab at it.
Today was our first attempt: sweet potatoes.
Because it seems to be my approach to all things parenting I went to the library and got out every book on the subject that I could find. After sifting through the stack I ultimately bought this book and this book. Mostly I liked the nutritional information in the Yaron book (the purple cover) and I liked the menus in the Young book. Everything that I did today was a result of something I read in one of those two books.
I started the experiment out with a trip to the supermarket - boy in tow. We bought two sweet potatoes (he picked them out), two ice cube trays, some freezer bags, and a frozen bag of organic sweet peas for our next meal in a few days (sweet peas were surprisingly hard to find without salt added.)
I got home washed my hands, washed the counter surfaces, the ice cube trays and tried to be as clean as possible in general. I peeled the sweet potatoes and decided that if I'm going to keep this up I DEFINITELY need a better vegetable peeler- because honestly, is there anything worse?
I boiled the potatoes until they were tender - about 15 minutes, and then spooned the cooked veggies into my (WICKED AWESOME) Cuisinart Food Processor. I can't find a link for the exact model I have, but I swear this thing could drive you to work its so powerful. If I could only remember what wonderful person(s) picked it off our wedding registry a million years ago I would make them something incredible using it.
Anyways, back to the task at hand: I pureed the crap out the veggies until it looked well, like baby food. I was surprised at how easy this was to achieve. My potatoes were velvety smooth and tasted pretty damn good (yes, I tasted them!) I spooned my orange puree into my ice cube trays and before it cooled I wrapped it in tin foil to freeze. (I think the reason for this is it reduces the possibility of bad bacteria infiltrating my orange colored goodness.)
I didn't freeze all of it though, I left one serving out and let that cool down to slightly warmer than room temperature. Tentatively I approached the boy with baby spoon and orange goo in hand fearing the worst.
Dear God, he likes it! AND, he didn't get sick! Amazing!
Once I scrounge up the receipt from today's venture to the market I can tell you exactly how much I spent per serving. I'm expecting it to be pretty freaking affordable because those two potatoes are going to yield us 14 quarter cup servings. Heck, I might start feeding the whole family this way.
Edited to add:
I found the receipt! I'm including the price of the sweet potatoes as well as our recent adventures.
This is of course using my supermarket and adding a touch of water to get the right consistency for a baby just starting on solids.
Each serving is 1/4 cup, or 4 tablespoons, or 2 ounces
Sweet potatoes: $.11
Peas: $.13
Pears: $.29
Now here is the deal: I like to cook and quite honestly the idea of making my own baby food actually sounded like fun. I have friends who have done it and claim its not all that much work, if you make bigger batches and freeze it so I thought I'd take a stab at it.
Today was our first attempt: sweet potatoes.
Because it seems to be my approach to all things parenting I went to the library and got out every book on the subject that I could find. After sifting through the stack I ultimately bought this book and this book. Mostly I liked the nutritional information in the Yaron book (the purple cover) and I liked the menus in the Young book. Everything that I did today was a result of something I read in one of those two books.
I started the experiment out with a trip to the supermarket - boy in tow. We bought two sweet potatoes (he picked them out), two ice cube trays, some freezer bags, and a frozen bag of organic sweet peas for our next meal in a few days (sweet peas were surprisingly hard to find without salt added.)
I got home washed my hands, washed the counter surfaces, the ice cube trays and tried to be as clean as possible in general. I peeled the sweet potatoes and decided that if I'm going to keep this up I DEFINITELY need a better vegetable peeler- because honestly, is there anything worse?
I boiled the potatoes until they were tender - about 15 minutes, and then spooned the cooked veggies into my (WICKED AWESOME) Cuisinart Food Processor. I can't find a link for the exact model I have, but I swear this thing could drive you to work its so powerful. If I could only remember what wonderful person(s) picked it off our wedding registry a million years ago I would make them something incredible using it.
Anyways, back to the task at hand: I pureed the crap out the veggies until it looked well, like baby food. I was surprised at how easy this was to achieve. My potatoes were velvety smooth and tasted pretty damn good (yes, I tasted them!) I spooned my orange puree into my ice cube trays and before it cooled I wrapped it in tin foil to freeze. (I think the reason for this is it reduces the possibility of bad bacteria infiltrating my orange colored goodness.)
I didn't freeze all of it though, I left one serving out and let that cool down to slightly warmer than room temperature. Tentatively I approached the boy with baby spoon and orange goo in hand fearing the worst.
Dear God, he likes it! AND, he didn't get sick! Amazing!
Once I scrounge up the receipt from today's venture to the market I can tell you exactly how much I spent per serving. I'm expecting it to be pretty freaking affordable because those two potatoes are going to yield us 14 quarter cup servings. Heck, I might start feeding the whole family this way.
Edited to add:
I found the receipt! I'm including the price of the sweet potatoes as well as our recent adventures.
This is of course using my supermarket and adding a touch of water to get the right consistency for a baby just starting on solids.
Each serving is 1/4 cup, or 4 tablespoons, or 2 ounces
Sweet potatoes: $.11
Peas: $.13
Pears: $.29
April Fools comes early
This is a great trick to play on your husbands/boyfriends. At the time I had no idea, but I just might have to do it every April 1st from now on...
Last night when Jim came home I had our digital thermometer in my hand. Apparently it looks JUST like a pregnancy test. He looked at me and demanded, "What is THAT?"
I think its the closest he's ever come to crapping his pants, which he of course denies, but I saw the terror in his eyes.
"Sweetness, I'm .......98.6 degrees!"
Last night when Jim came home I had our digital thermometer in my hand. Apparently it looks JUST like a pregnancy test. He looked at me and demanded, "What is THAT?"
I think its the closest he's ever come to crapping his pants, which he of course denies, but I saw the terror in his eyes.
"Sweetness, I'm .......98.6 degrees!"
Just one day
Don't even get me started on what was required when Henry and I went to Florida for five days, but this past weekend I was marveling at the sheer volume of stuff that is required for a simple day trip, no overnight.
The crappage includes:
I laugh remembering the days when all I needed to get out the door was my purse.
The crappage includes:
- Many spare diapers
- Wipes
- More than one receiving blanket
- Henry's top three toys
- Spare outfit (in case of blow out)
- Sleeping outfit (for the ride home, in the futile hope that he'll just stay asleep when we get home)
- Bottle
- Cereal
- Baby spoon
- Activity Mat (?!!! - in order to put him down somewhere when we eat dinner at my in-laws.)
- Car seat
- Blanket for the car
- Camera to photograph baby with all above crappage.
I laugh remembering the days when all I needed to get out the door was my purse.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Pacifier = sign of the devil
A while back I wrote about our pacifier addiction and I have to believe that even back then I had an inkling of an idea of what I was setting myself up for. Well I have to say if I knew then what I know now I would have taken all 1 million of our pacifiers and torched them into a pile of hot, runny plastic latex on our driveway.
Pacifier withdrawal is no joke people.
In chatting with friends and reading ever more books I one day had this epiphany that the root of all our sleeping issues just might have been the blasted Nuk. I don't want to make any sweeping statements just yet since we're only a few weeks without it but I have a feeling dropping the cursed accessory is doing far more good than harm.
However, it all came at a steep price. Over the course of a few days I tried to take it away from him for naps and when he was fussing during the day. Then the true test came - the first night without. I will shamefully admit I didn't even last half the night until I gave it back to him because he was crying so specifically for it. I gave it to him, and like the little addict he was he aggressively sucked on it for maybe 20 seconds and passed out. Poor little man.
What I should I have known was it was more like, poor little mumma. After giving him the pacifier he proceeded to get up on the hour for the rest of the night, desperately needing his fix without the motor skills to help himself. Dawn broke and my resolve was back. We've been pacifier free ever since.
The following night was treacherous. He cried so intensely and for such a duration that I swear he and I both showed signs of insanity. He thrashed for it and managed to scratch the bejesus out of his face in the process. I wanted to put my head through a glass window.
The night after that was slightly better, and then finally what do you know - he's forgotten all about the silly thing. I have also had to hide them on myself for I realized what an enabler I was, how easily and quickly I would give into him, and how I was the sole reason for his addiction.
Let this be the first of many apologies, Henry, for any emotional damage I might have caused. I sincerely hope this to be the last of any ill addiction you form on my watch.
Pacifier withdrawal is no joke people.
In chatting with friends and reading ever more books I one day had this epiphany that the root of all our sleeping issues just might have been the blasted Nuk. I don't want to make any sweeping statements just yet since we're only a few weeks without it but I have a feeling dropping the cursed accessory is doing far more good than harm.
However, it all came at a steep price. Over the course of a few days I tried to take it away from him for naps and when he was fussing during the day. Then the true test came - the first night without. I will shamefully admit I didn't even last half the night until I gave it back to him because he was crying so specifically for it. I gave it to him, and like the little addict he was he aggressively sucked on it for maybe 20 seconds and passed out. Poor little man.
What I should I have known was it was more like, poor little mumma. After giving him the pacifier he proceeded to get up on the hour for the rest of the night, desperately needing his fix without the motor skills to help himself. Dawn broke and my resolve was back. We've been pacifier free ever since.
The following night was treacherous. He cried so intensely and for such a duration that I swear he and I both showed signs of insanity. He thrashed for it and managed to scratch the bejesus out of his face in the process. I wanted to put my head through a glass window.
The night after that was slightly better, and then finally what do you know - he's forgotten all about the silly thing. I have also had to hide them on myself for I realized what an enabler I was, how easily and quickly I would give into him, and how I was the sole reason for his addiction.
Let this be the first of many apologies, Henry, for any emotional damage I might have caused. I sincerely hope this to be the last of any ill addiction you form on my watch.
Oh neglected blog...
I honestly hate when I let my writing fall by the wayside like this. To make it worse, when sufficient time passes breaking the lull becomes a way bigger deal than it actually is. I keep putting it off, and putting it off essentially making the problem worse. Well tonight, no more. I am back and hopefully with some renewed regularity.
Things here with us have been all over the map. I'm going to try and hit some of the highlights and lowlights in separate entries because I feel we've made some pretty interesting discoveries.To my loyal readers (all two of you) I apologize for the break in programming. I know you were disappointed.
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