Baby Food

I know it has been awhile but with two little ones it's a little difficult to find the time to update blogs. Especially since they were tag teaming me for awhile there. I would get maybe 15 mins to myself at the most. I would get one to sleep and the other would give me a hard time getting them to sleep and when I finally did the other woke. It was so frustrating! I finally have them sleeping at the same time most days! Although I am up for the day by 8 am and for those of you that know me well that is not always easy for me I am NOT a morning person!!


On to today's subject....
Baby food...With the girl I was happily using Beechnut baby jars. I felt pretty confidante in the product and I still do but I wish I had made my own purees. Think about it that's really all baby food is. I did try to make my own baby cereal and that was a disaster and turned me off to making my own. I wish I had stuck it out a bit! Because with the boy I have found out how EASY it is! Especially if you have the right equipment! I have many friends that make their own. Just stay away from making your own baby cereal! With the girl I started giving her solids at about 4 months old. But with the boy I had to wait until he was 6 months old. Why you ask? Because we found out when he was 4 months old that he had a milk allergy just like his father. He had these awful bumps on his beautiful chubby checks. I noticed it about two week into his life. I was nursing and bottle feeding him. I stopped when he was two weeks old because he bit me twice and it HURT! I wish now I had stuck it out for his sake. We kept taking him in and for some reason or another we couldn't see our regular pediatrician. So we were lead down many different paths. Until one of the professionals finally referred us to a specialist, the allergist. He did some tests and he came back with a milk protein allergy. So we had to wait a month to see how he was doing on the new formula. And I am happy to say he is thriving and he no longer has anything on his beautiful face.

We do have to take things slow with him like introduce foods one at a time (and every baby should be introduced to foods one at a time) so that we could make sure to illuminate any foods he reacted to but instead of waiting the normal four days between new food we have to wait two weeks. I decided to give making my own purees another chance because I wanted to better control what went to my precious child and because he was already sensitive to some foods, why expose him to unnecessary preservatives.

I didn't start him on cereal, I decided to skip the frustration! And move right into veggies. I have a friend that makes her own baby food with the Beaba Baby cooker and I have seen it! It is an awesome little kitchen appliance that steams and purees anything in the same bowl but I didn't have the $150 to shell out to get it. I already had a food processor and I had a Pampered Chef Rice Cooker and Steamer. So I made pureed carrots. I steamed the carrots in the Steamer and then purred them in my food processor. It was not easy. I could not get the carrots completely smooth! I had to strain it. The second time I did it, I steamed the carrots a little longer and added water (the water used to steam them in which I later found out was not a good idea because of nitrates, so use fresh water) It came out PERFECT! And it was easier! But the third time I did it, it was not smooth and I had to run it through a srainer. I was getting discouraged! I was really considering getting that babycooker! I did research and decided to get a Food Steamer which I paid $15 at Target and a Hand Blender that I paid $2o also at Target. So for $35 I got the best appliances in my opinion!! Because it work so well!!! I steamed the carrots for 30 mins and then used the hand blender to puree it and I could NOT believe how EASY it was!!!! I got the perfect puree! When I purchased these appliances it was time to introduce another veggie and I decided on green beans. I used frozen green beans and steamed them for 20 mins. and then purred them. It was so incredibly easy and clean up was quick!

I purchased ice cube trays at the dollar store and froze some of it. I recommend putting the ice trays in a freezer bag so it doesn't pick up any other flavors. The next morning I popped them out and placed them in the freezer bag I had the ice tray in. Now about an hour before it's time to eat I pull out two. In the future I will be combining them for different flavor combos. But at least this way I will begin to have a variety of purees in my freezer for my little guy!

An awesome website is Homemade Baby Food Recipes There are many great ones out there but this one has been the most helpful to me. If you have another website you like please let me know in the comment section!

Feeding

Last night I put the baby boy to sleep. And went to bed myself well an hour later. Anyway he wakes me up at 3am which is to be expected. I change him, feed him burp him and put him to sleep. He is strange little one. He grunts and groans and cries in his sleep. I have now gotten use to it that I don't bother getting back up because I know he's asleep. I do know that if it's constant then I do need to check on him. But he does this off and on for at least 5 minutes. Why? I don't know. Did the girl do it? No. I think I'd prefer snoring over the grunting. I fear that he will wake his sister up. In fact he has! He has some strange little habits. It cracks me up.

Tip #3
When feeding your baby/toddler food and they are feeding themselves use a a dish towel or a cloth diaper (not prefolded) as a bib. It's long enough to put their plate on it and it catches all the food that doesn't make it into their mouth. Clean up is so much faster this way. Once the girl is finished I untie it and clean her face and hands and off she goes to make a mess elsewhere.
Also the cloth diapers make a great burp rag!! It's big enough to go over your shoulder and still have a nice barrier between your clothes and baby. Especially if baby has sensitive skin and the detergent or fabic softner on your clothes can irritate their skin.

Sleeping

I have so many friends that are going to be or are new moms and they ask me about any tips I have or advice on products. I wanted to organize it all and send them here. I started this when I was pregnant with my son and I never got around to it. Now he's a little over a month and I'm asked by friends how it is with two and if I have any advice. LOL!! So I thought I'd just jump right in and write about helpful tips as they come to me and the availablity I have.

Tip #1
When I was in labor both times I had hubby with me the whole time I was in the hospital. After the second one here's what I wish I'd had done. I would have had him while I was in labor. But once I had the baby and we were settled for the night I'd send him home to sleep and get well rested and here's why...
You get inturpted by nurses all night long and not to mention that you have a newborn that will also inturpt your sleep! (See following tip about baby) Then you are realeased. If both of you are sleep deprived someone is going to feel resentment for the other if they get some shut eye. If you send hubby home to sleep, then at least you can get some well deserved rest when you get home. If you are nursing, hubby can bring baby in to nurse then put baby to sleep and change diapers. If not he can feed, change and put baby to sleep. Then you can trade off with hubby so he can get some rest too. That way at least one of you is well rested to take care of baby. You will get the rest you need and the time to recover especially if baby is bottle feed. Don't get me wrong I am for nursing and I nursed both my babies at least the first weeks of life. But if that's not your cup of tea there is nothing wrong with bottles and you'll get uninterrupted sleep.

Tip #2
Also what I did with baby number two...I nursed him and sent him to the nursery at night. I kept number one with me the whole time and was upset if they took her from me and didn't bring her back right away. I felt a little guilty for sending number two to the nursery but I got more rest (not much) than I would have otherwise. They brought him back so I could nurse him and then he was on his way again. There isn't anything wrong with that. He was well taken care of and his needs were met except the feeding. And I got a little extra sleep. You won't get that at home unless you follow tip number one! So take advantage while you can!!