Tommy isn't crawling yet but I decided to let him try puffs. I think they taste great, Tommy thinks they're weird. He just kinda smacks his mouth if I give him one but won't put one in his own mouth. He does, however, LOVE pop cakes!
I bought a bag to try for myself since the grocery store where we shop was sampling them. They are very bland but I noticed that they pretty much just dissolve in your mouth so I thought I'd let Tommy try a piece. He went nuts over it!Now I give him a piece every morning to munch on while I get my lunch made and his bottles put together for daycare.
Last night my mom, sister, and Granma went to dinner at Red Lobster and we brought Tommy along. Bill HATES all seafood and can't even stand to be in Red Lobster because of the smell. Even though he hates seafood, he made it clear to me that he wants me to make sure to feed Tommy, and any subsequent children, seafood in hopes that they'll like it. I ordered fresh Haddock and after double checking Wholesome Baby Food that it was ok to give him fish at this age, I broke off the tiniest of pieces of fish and fed it to Tommy. He chewed and made some funny faces before swallowing. It was hard to tell if he liked it or not so after a few minutes I gave him a tiny little piece again. After this piece, she started diving toward my fingers for more and yelled when I stopped. I think it's safe to say that, for now, he loves fish!I wasn't really into the idea of Baby Led Weaning as a way to introduce solids but I think a few bites of whatever we're eating here and there along with purees might be the way that works best for us.
Last Saturday, Tommy really ate terribly, like only a couple ounces of formula in each bottle then only nursing for a short amount of time. He was super fussy and was chewing so hard on his hands, toys, toes, and anything else he could get in his mouth. He was eating his solids normally so I just assumed it was his teeth bothering him, that sucking on the bottles (or boobs) was hurting his teeth. He ate terribly on Monday and Tuesday so on Wednesday, I called the nurses line at the pediatrician's office to see when I should start to be concerned. He was having plenty of wet diapers but I was worried about him getting the nutrients and calories he needs. The nurse suggested bring him in to have his ears checked. The doctor mentioned that if he ran a fever at the end of the cold he had a couple of weeks ago, to bring him in to have his ears checked. He never ran a fever and wasn't pulling on his ears or anything so I didn't really think it would be his ears. Bill was off of work so he brought him in. Turns out he has an ear infection in his left ear and was wheezing again. He's on antibiotics (which he LOVES) and is now on oral steroids twice a day and the albuterol, both through the nebulizer. They said that they are pretty sure he has asthma now that he's had issues with wheezing so many times already. I know it's not a severe case of asthma and it should be pretty manageable, but it makes me sad that he has to deal with this.At least we know how to help him and hopefully it's not a big part of his life.
The day when I would become envious of my daycare provider. Tommy gives kisses and they are so cute! At first he would give me one if I made kissy noises at him and asked for one. Now he gives them out from time to time. He'll grab my face and attack me! I love it :) Well today I dropped him at daycare and kissed him goodbye. I handed him over to Rosa, the lead teacher, and he immediately started kissing her over and over. It took all I had not to cry right then and there. I love our daycare and I love that he loves his teachers. I just don't want him to love them more than me. I know I sound childish and ridiculous, of course he loves me, I'm his Mommy. But there is part of me that feels guilty about working. I feel guilty that given a choice, I'd probably still work. I love my job and I love going to work. I love being a mom, but I really don't think I could stay home full-time and feel fulfilled (please know that I don't judge stay-at-home moms, I truly give them so much credit, it's easier for me to work than be home all day). I'm rambling now. Basically, I want Tommy to love me and this morning I felt replaced...
Who would have thought that I'd keep breastfeeding at 7 months? I had planned on breastfeeding but had no idea how it would go. After a few weeks, I hated it. After 2 months, I had to give up dairy and went back to work. Well now, at 7 months, I've decided to night-nurse. I gave up my mid-day pumping session and I feel so much more free at work! I nurse Tommy when he wakes up in the morning, he drinks 3 bottles at daycare, then I nurse him around 6pm and again before bed. If he wants to eat overnight I nurse then as well. So far, it's going really well. I was really sore the first few days of not pumping but my body seems to have adjusted. It means that Tommy is getting full formula bottles while at daycare and during the day at home but it doesn't seem to bother him. It's expensive since we us Enfamil Nutramigen but this is way to keep breastfeeding at least some without being tied to my pump. I was starting to get really frustrated at work. I was losing my whole planning period to pump which meant staying later at work and getting less time with Tommy in the evening. I hope to continue with this arrangement for as long as we can!
Tommy was 7 months old on March 7! I can't believe how fast the last month went! I know February is a short month but since it was a leap year, it really was only 1 or 2 days shorter. - Tommy is now wearing size 3 diapers during the day but size 4, overnight diapers at night.
- He has outgrown most of his 6 month size clothes and is wearing some 6-9 months and a bunch of 9 month clothes.
- He still isn't rolling from back to front and rarely rolls from belly to back. He's typically content however we lay him.
- He sits up unassisted but we have to put him that way.
- He will stand and hold on to things for about 30 seconds on his own before he loses his balance.
- He has 2 teeth!
- His belly has decided to accept oatmeal and Tommy loves it!
- He's still drinking his milk and eating 2 solid meals each day.
- He laughs and gives big sloppy kisses!
- When he's not sick, he rarely eats overnight though he typically wakes up at least once for his binky.
I love him so much!
If you have been following me for even a short amount of time, you know that Tommy has a sensitive stomach. He has a dairy sensitivity and we had no luck with rice cereal or oatmeal at 4 months, 5 months, or 5.5 months. Our pediatrician wanted us to feed him cereal of some sort for the iron content which he would need after 6 months but we really didn't want to put him through the awful stomach pains he seemed to experience after eating rice or oatmeal. I started making spinach for him and luckily, he loves it. Last week was February break for me and since I had a couple of days where I had no where I needed to go, I decided to give oatmeal another try. The first day I fed it to him (Thursday), I mixed it with peaches and fed him in the morning. I followed it with a couple of spoonfuls of prunes. That night he did great! I braved it again the following morning and again, no stomach pains! Since then I've given it to him once a day either in the morning or in the evening for 6 days straight and ::knock on wood:: we haven't had any problems! Wooohoo!!!
On Wednesday, Tommy couldn't sit on his own. We have been practicing for a couple of weeks now but he would just tip one way or the other. On Thursday, he sat for a few seconds at a time as long as he didn't try to turn one way or the other. By Friday he could steady himself and hold himself up for a minute or two at a time. Today, he sat for about 15 minutes on his own. It's amazing how quickly they change!Last night, Bill was playing with him and he stood, holding his jumperoo, by himself, for almost a full minute. He's such a big boy!
This week is Winter Break for my school district which means I get to be home with my little buddy all week! I give stay at home moms a lot of credit, it's exhausting! Tommy's at a stage where he wants everything in his eye sight: remote, my phone, computer, my soda bottle, his toys, the boppy, his jumperoo, his bouncy chair, the rug, the dog, the cat, the mail, etc. He wants them all RIGHT NOW but don't you dare just hand them to him, he wants to get them himself. But he can't crawl yet. He can only spin around in circles on his belly. If he can't quite reach whatever it is that he wants, he gets very frustrated. It becomes a constant game of redirection. Hey Tommy! Look at this! Ok, you're bored with that? Look at this! Reach for this! Don't hit it out of your reach! On, and on, and on. He has also decided that naps are for suckers. I have a hard time getting him to lay down and end up nursing him to sleep, something that I know daycare never has to do! Then he stays asleep for about 20 minutes and is up and ready to go again!I know part of this is his teeth. One has pushed its way through but there is at least one more close to breaking through, if not 3 more. His first to break through is his bottom right tooth. The bottom left tooth is right there and the top two look dangerously close too! Poor guy. He's also not sleeping great at night. He had been sleeping straight through from 7:30-4:30 then some days going back down somethings being up at that time. Not fun but at least no getting up several times. The last few nights we're back to getting up 3 times a night BUT he's been sleeping until 6:30 or 7. Who knows. I've stopped trying to figure him out. He'll straighten out eventually!Ok, Little Dude has had enough of the Jumperoo. I better go get him and start playing!
It's been 2 weeks since my last blog post. Wow, time got away from me! My baby boy is 6 months old already! He is wearing some 6 month sized clothes, some 9 month, and some 6-9 month sized clothes. He's in size 3 diapers and weighed in at 17lbs 12oz at his 6 month appointment which is the 54th percentile for his age. He was 26in long (33rd percentile, although I think he has stretched out since that appointment) and his head circumference was 17.5in (71st percentile, yikes!).
The pediatrician suggested trying barley cereal since we're still having trouble with rice and oatmeal but I'm holding off for now and feeding him spinach to give him the iron that he needs. She also said that if I wanted, I could try and introduce dairy when he's 8 months old. I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be breastfeeding for though. Things are still going alright so I'm going to keep going but we are up to 12oz of formula a day.
Two days ago we had a tooth break through! It's just one little needle-sized piece but Tommy's been teething non-stop since then! Luckily, he hasn't been too fussy or anything, just drooling and chewing everything. Yesterday, he was laying on his belly playing with some toys and he pivoted around and started nomming on the leg of his bouncy chair!Tommy isn't crawling but he is trying! He tries to pull himself forward by his arms and he tries to get up on his knees but when he is able to, he face-plants! I don't think he's super close to being able to crawl but he is starting to get very interested in what's around him and trying to get to everything!He is also starting to get weary of people he doesn't recognize. He will let them hold him but he looks around for Bill or I to make sure we're near. I'm so in love with my baby boy!
I mentioned last post that I was planning on getting some teething tabs to try and soothe Tommy rather than using Tylenol. I went out last Sunday to Target and picked up a bottle. Luckily, we didn't have any episodes of teething pain for a few days after we bought the bottle so I wasn't able to update on whether they worked or not.However, the last 2 days have been pretty rough. Tommy is chewing on everything. He's fussy and drooling. And the teething tabs have done nothing.Boo.
Ugh. Tommy has been sick again. On Thursday morning he woke up just in time for me to change his diaper, get him dressed, and take him to daycare. I did so, then out the door we went. I had taken the morning off of work to go to the dentist to get a crown for my root canal. On our way to daycare, Tommy pooped (which he never does) and needed to be changed. I took him out of his carseat and laid him on the changing table in his room. The lead teacher came over and insisted that she do it (bless her) so I finished putting his bottles in the refrigerator and signing him in. I went over to kiss him goodbye as the teacher pulled up his onsie to reveal a nasty rash all over his torso. The director of the daycare came in and suggested that I get it checked out so I cancelled my dentist appointment (they were not happy with me but oh well, they'll get over it) and was lucky enough to get a 9:00 appointment at the pediatrician's office. I got in to see Tommy's specific pediatrician and she diagnosed him with roseola due to his lack of any other symptoms. At the last minuted, she decided to do a quick strep test to be sure she wasn't missing anything and was shocked when it came back positive. The diagnosis was changed to Scarlet Fever. So I called work and took off the rest of the day and picked up Tommy's prescription for Amoxicillan and we snuggled for the rest of the day on the couch. The daycare policy is 24 hours of antibiotics but since we had our first dose at 9:45am, they let me bring him on Friday at 7:30am. He was in good spirits and napped well. His first two bottles went well but he flat out refused his third bottle. No big deal, I figured I could just give it to him when we got home. He drank about a half ounce before he spit out the nipple and cried. I laid back on the couch and he laid his head on my chest and we cuddled.And then it happened. Tommy picked up his head and projectile vomited all over my chest. I mean, this child is 17lbs and the amount of vomit would have rivaled the amount I had seen adults lose. It seeped through my shirt, my tank, and my bra. It was all down the front of me, in my jeans and even my underwear. The couch under me was coated in vomit. I yelled for Bill to come help me (he was conveniently in the bathroom when this all occurred) and he rushed in with a towel which he used to wrap up Tommy and proceeded to get him cleaned and changed while I showered. Tommy pretty much slept on and off all of last night. He just could not seem to get comfortable. He didn't want to eat. He didn't want me to hold him. He didn't want me to put him down. He was just miserable. This morning I tried to feed him several times and every time he would nurse for about a minute or two then refuse. Bill tried to give him a bottle and he drank less than an ounce. This really started to worry me so I called the doctor and they got him in at 10:45.At 10:00 I tried to feed Tommy again and this time he ate hungrily for about 5 minutes before falling asleep.The doctor checked him all out and noticed that one of his bottom front teeth seems to be trying to poke through. She determined that this was the reason he wasn't eating. She told us to give him Tylenol and to feed him whenever he seems hungry. We gave him some Tylenol when we got home and for the next 4 hours he cluster fed. He was probably so hungry! Then he took a long nap and woke up almost a new baby. He was a little fussy this evening but is now sleeping. It's so hard knowing something isn't right with your baby but not knowing just what it is. The worst part for me is seeing him uncomfortable or even in pain and not knowing what to do. I gave him some Tylenol before bed in hopes that he'll get a good amount of sleep tonight. I'm planning on going to get some teething tabs tomorrow. I've heard good things about them and I'll update on their effects on Tommy.
For now, I'm going to see if I can catch up on some much needed sleep, myself!
Jen over at Stay At Home {Mom}ents challenged the Bump mommies to a Day in the Life blog post. I thought, why not? Let's give it a try! So here goes. (By the way, all pics are from my iPhone and not amazing)5:45am My alarm goes off. I was already awake because Tommy woke up at 5:30 looking for his pacifier.6:00am I drag myself out of bed and begin to pump and do a little lesson planning. 6:30am Tommy wakes up for the day. I get him dressed and ready for the day. Tommy had some morning Jumperoo time while I finish getting ready for work. 7:15am All of our bags are packed and ready to go, my pump, my work bag, my lunch, and Tommy's bottles and food for daycare. I pack and start the car, because it's a balmy 14 degrees outside with a windchill of 3. Brrr 7:20am We're all bundled up and ready to brave the cold. 7:25am We arrive at daycare which is located in a wing of another elementary school in my district. It's for kids of employees only and I love it! 7:35am I'm off to work. I have a very typical morning, prep for the day, meeting with my grade level team, greet my class as they enter, and a small group reading lesson. 10:00am The kids are at their special (gym day) which means time for me to pump. I pump in a small closet in the school. It's not cozy but it locks and has an outlet! 10:40am Back to teaching! 12:05pm Lunch which means it's time to pump again. 4:45pm My work day is finally over. I return home to my sister playing with Tommy! (Bill was able to pick Tommy up from daycare) 5:45pm I nurse Tommy then he takes a short nap while we snuggle. I missed him all day! 6:15pm Tommy wakes up and Auntie JoJo feeds him some pears. Mmm Then we play for a while. 7:30pm PJ time then nursing again before bed. 8:00pm Tommy is asleep. I make up bottles for tomorrow. 8:15pm I make a bagel with E arth Balance for dinner since I' m not super hungry. 8:20pm A little bit of American Idol then bed. So there it is! A day in the life on Longmeadow! Nothing glamorous but I love it!
While pregnant I just assumed I would breastfeed my baby. I didn't have any clue how it would go and even though I went to a class, I had really no idea what I was getting myself into. One week in, things were going ok but I was crazy emotional. When Tommy was 2 weeks old, I told Bill I would only nurse until he was 3 weeks old, then I was done. I hated it. At 3 weeks, I decided to stick it out 1 more week because I was afraid that if I stopped, Tommy would get his days and nights confused again (I read somewhere that BFing actually helps to get babies on the right schedule). When Tommy was 4 weeks old, I took him to the doctor for a clogged tear duct and mentioned to the nurse practitioner that I was thinking about stopping. She was very supportive. She said that if I wanted to stop, then I could, that I had given Tommy 4 solid weeks and it wasn't for everyone. She gave me a sample of formula and wished me luck.I started giving Tommy 1 bottle of formula a day but it wasn't going well (wrote about it here, here, here, here, and here). Once I cut dairy out of my diet and realized what a difference it made in Tommy, I was determined to make it to 6 months. So here we are now, 3 weeks from my goal and I can't decide if I want to continue or stop in February. I decided I need to make a pros and cons list and see if that helps. Pros:* Perfect food* Contains antibodies that will (hopefully) keep Tommy healthier* Is easy at home, just whip it out and feed* Easy in the middle of the night when Tommy's hungry* Is comforting for Tommy, especially in the middle of the night* FreeCons:* Pumping in the morning means I have to get up 30 minutes early* Pumping at work means giving up my planning period and not feeling fully prepared* Not eating dairy is HARD* Others can't feed him without me needing to pump* Not convenient when we're out of the house, either have to find a place to nurse or make sure to be home in time.* No sex drive, may be related to BFingHmmmmmmmm 6 points for each side. I don't know what to do. There are some moments where I'm so not ready to stop. Then there are others where I don't know if I can continue, I'm so done with it. Crap. I was hoping for a clear-cut winner...
Poor Tommy, I feel like he's been sick all winter. Last Monday he woke up with a small rash on his forehead that I thought was just because he woke up in a puddle of drool. I took him to daycare and by the time we arrived, it had spread all over his body. I packed him back up and took him to the doctor. They told me it was viral and we would just have to let it run its course.On Thursday, he had some yellow tinted goop in his eyes but when I took him to the doctor for it back in September, they told me it was just a clogged tear duct so I cleaned his eyes and away we went.Friday daycare called me and said that the goop in Tommy's eyes was really flowing and had turned green so someone needed to pick him up. Luckily for me, my mom had cataract surgery on Wednesday and was home all week. She was doing really well from the surgery and was able to pick Tommy up and take him to the doctor. It turns out that the eye goop was an infection so they prescribed eye drops to be given 3 times a day for 5-7 days. These eye drops were no joke. Without insurance they would have been $130! We're lucky to have really great insurance so they only cost us $23 out of pocket. They cleared him up quickly though! We haven't seen any goop since Saturday morning. The doctor said that what probably happened was Tommy most likely rubbed his nose then rubbed his eyes and the infection came from that. All I know is that Tommy is only 5 months old and has been sick A LOT. I'm sure it has a lot to do with daycare. They really do their best to keep things clean there but there are bound to be lots of germs with lots of kids running around.Sunday morning was probably the worst day of the cold, he slept terribly Friday night and woke up completely stuffed. He had tears, drool, and snot coming out of every hole in his face. He just whined all morning long. I felt terrible for him. He cat napped on and off until finally at 2:30 I laid him down in bed next to me and nursed him to sleep where he stayed for 3 solid hours. He woke up feeling much better. Yesterday the cold moved down into his chest some so now he has a cough. I'm just praying that it doesn't get too bad. I don't want to have to use the nebulizer on him again. Poor guy!
So I mentioned before that I am making Tommy's baby food. We had a few gift cards left for Babies R Us and I decided to buy the Baby Brezza baby food maker. I knew that, although it is a one use appliance, I wouldn't make baby food if it was too much of a process.So here is my experience with the Baby Brezza. Yesterday I decided to make some more sweet potatoes. I bought one large potato for $1.22.
I pealed and chopped it up in to smallish sized pieces, the manual recommends 1/4-1/2 inch thick:
Then I filled up the blender (I didn't take a picture of this but I also put the water into the reservoir as instructed by the manual):
The next step is to put on the top and press the "steam and blend" button until the light under 25 is lit since it takes 25 minutes to steam a sweet potato (also in the manual):
Then you just let it go! I was doing this while the SU basketball game was going on. I missed a few minutes in the beginning of the game to peal, chop, and load the basket of the blender but then I got 25 minutes to just let the machine do it's job. After it was done I found this:
I poured it into an ice cube tray to freeze and got 11 cubes worth:
When I feed Tommy, I thaw 2 cubes and mix with 1oz of breastmilk and he gobbles it all up!Now for a bit of a downside. The blender really doesn't hold all that much. I did buy a pretty large sweet potato but I had to do two batches to steam and blend the whole thing. One whole (large) sweet potato got me 21 ice cubes worth of food.
That's really the only drawback I can think of and I'm pretty sure it has to do with making sure the whole batch is steamed thoroughly. It's really so little work that I don't mind doing a couple of batches. The convenience of being able to steam and blend in the same appliance really out-weighs the negative here. For $1.22 I got 10.5 servings of sweet potatoes making the cost about $0.12 per serving. A jar of Gerber sweet potatoes at my grocery store costs $0.53 which gives me a savings of $0.41. However, if I was not making my own baby food I would have bought Earth's Best brand which is $0.85 per jar giving me a savings of $0.73 per serving! Beyond the financial savings, I really feel like Tommy is getting good, nutritious food and I know exactly what is in it. The parts of the Baby Brezza are nice and easy to clean, the machine is easily wiped clean and almost all of the parts can go in the dishwasher. Overall, I'm very happy with it so far. I've made sweet potatoes, carrots, peas, pears, and apples. All have been very easy but the peas didn't come out as smooth as I would have liked even though I manually blended them for longer. I'll have to look into how to make them smoother. Any questions about the Baby Brezza or suggestions? Let me know!
I'm so happy that Tommy has responded well to the sweet potatoes. He gobbles them up! After we finished the first jar of sweet potatoes I gave him some homemade ones thinned with breastmilk and he really loved them! He has been getting 1 ice cube sized serving mixed with half an ounce of breastmilk every morning at daycare. Today I am packing 2 cubes with 1 ounce of breastmilk to see how that goes over. I have also given him pears twice now in the evening. The first time he really liked them. The second time he gave me a face like, "um, this is not a sweet potato, what are you feeding me?" but then gobbled the rest up!
This weekend I'm going to give him carrots and see how those go over.
I cannot tell you how relieved I am that he is able to eat some solids. I was really worried when he didn't tolerate rice cereal. Now I'm going to give him another week of just veggies and fruit and then try to mix in a tiny bit of cereal and see if his tummy can handle it. If not, then I'm going to give him some spinach for the iron content.
Big sigh of relief over here!
Tommy had a decent night last night! He doesn't seem to have any negative side effects from the sweet potatoes! 4 more spoonfuls today. Fingers crossed!
My poor baby has a sensitive tummy. We found out at 8 weeks that he has a dairy sensitivity so I cut all dairy out of my diet. Then, right before he turned 4 months old, our pediatrician asked us to try rice cereal so we would know how he reacted before his 4 month appointment. After a few attempts, he liked it but it really upset his stomach. We decided that we were in no rush so we waited a month before trying again.A month later, right after Christmas, we tried again and again, he had stomach pains. He was up at night crying in pain. I tried oatmeal after 2 nights of pain and it was even worse. He cried all day and then woke up at 10:30 screaming louder and with more force than I've ever heard from him. It was 15 minutes of inconsolable screaming. I was about to call the doctor when he just stopped. I kept him in the PNP next to my side of the bed because I was so freaked up.Luckily, we had an appointment scheduled for the next day to re-check his breathing (back to normal!) after his chest cold so I knew I could discuss it with her then.I told the pedi all about what happened and she was perplexed. She said that she wasn't thrilled that he reacted that way but it didn't seem like an allergy, just a sensitive belly. She suggested that we skip cereal for now and move on to veggies. As long as he tolerates veggies for a bit, we can try and mix in a tiny bit of cereal and see how he responds. She does want him on cereal for the iron content but isn't too worried about it until he's 6 months old.So we skipped all solids yesterday and HE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! Woohoo!!! I needed that after 3 straight nights of little sleep. Today, I fed him 4 little spoonfuls of sweet potatoes. I figure that if his tummy is sensitive, it's best to do a little at a time. He LOVED sweet potatoes! No tummy trouble so far. We'll see how he does tonight. If all goes well, I'll give him some more tomorrow. Fingers crossed that this goes over well.Optimistically, I started making baby food today. I had no desire to make my own until I started looking at the pre-packaged stuff. Some brands have all kinds of other ingredients in them. Not something I want being put into my son, especially with his tummy. Then the organic kind is SO EXPENSIVE! We had some Babies R Us gift cards so I bought a Baby Brezza baby food maker and tried it out this morning. I'm in love! It makes it all so easy! I bought a package of carrots for $1.25 and made up 2 batches in less than an hour! I put the puree in the BPA-free ice cube trays I have here and froze them and popped them into a freezer-safe ziplock bag. The most work for me was peeling and chopping. The Baby Brezza is awesome because you just put the food in, turn on the steam and blend and let it go. Tommy started crying and needed a nap while I was doing the second batch so I took him out of his highchair where he was playing and put him down for a nap. By the time I came back, it had finished steaming and blending and was just sitting there waiting for me!I realized that I can probably use frozen veggies and prep time would be practically nothing! A bag of frozen carrots is $0.99 at my grocery store without any sales or coupons. Tons of baby food for $0.99 with no additives. Sounds good to me! Once spring rolls around, I can buy fresh, local produce at the farmers market! I'm excited to try other veggies and fruits. Hopefully Tommy's tummy will hold up!
