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Category Archives: Food & Feeding

Pureed carrots! Sippy cup!

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I made some pureed carrots awhile back and he wanted nothing (NOTHING!) to do with them—and we even tried two separate nights. |-| So I froze them.

Tonight we tried again. And he ate them! YAY! Well, most of them anyway. Then we tried a banana—even less mashed than normal—and he ate some of that. Then since he really hadn’t eaten THAT much (like he normally does) I broke out the dried yogurt that he likes to finish him off. 🙂

He’s so cute. When he doesn’t want something anymore, he purses his lips and you can’t get ANYTHING in there. He also sometimes just shakes/rolls his head back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I swear the first time he did it I thought he was having a seizure. :))

Oh, he also drinks (well, kinda drinks) from a sippy cup! We started it a few days ago and he barely wanted anything to do with it…so in just a few short days, he’s already getting better! He can’t hold it and drink by himself yet, but he can pick it up and stick the handles in his mouth! If you hold it for him, he will drink a little bit. And now he even stops eating to make a fuss and reach for the cup telling you he wants a drink! Of course, some of it dribbles down his face, but for the most part he IS drinking. To make sure, I keep track of how much I put in and how much is gone. It might only be an ounce or so, but it’s a start! YAY OWEN!

More food firsts!

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Today was Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal (Stage 2), Strawberry Banana YoBaby yogurt, “homemade” pureed sweet potatoes, and Sweet Potato Puffs!!! 88|

I know that’s a lot of new things for one day (since you’re only supposed to do one new food every 3-4 days, so you can rule foods out in case there are allergies or rashes, etc.) but he hasn’t had ANY food issues so far, so I chanced it. (Hopefully it won’t come back to bite me in the butt.)

I was really excited that he ate the sweet potatoes—because I made a HUGE batch probably two weeks ago because he looooooves the jarred version…and then he didn’t want anything to do with the ones I made. :crazy: So this time I only prepared one potato and he loved it. YAY! Now it’s back to Kroger to get more! 🙂

The puffs are interesting. Although they are meant to melt in your mouth almost instantly, he will gag if you give him a whole one. But if you break it up into pieces, he will eat them! You might have to push the piece back in his mouth, but he eats it and opens his mouth for more! That said, he’s NOT quite ready for them yet—they are supposed to be using their pincer grasp (thumb and forefinger) and he’s almost there, but not quite.

Real food? Meh.

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And by real food, I mean stuff like REAL sweet potatoes and REAL baby carrots and REAL bananas. Steamed and blended or just mashed.

The verdict? Not so much on anything except the bananas.

He can eat a whole banana in one sitting (plus oatmeal) but he hasn’t been too keen on the carrots or the sweet potato, which is ironic because he LOVES sweet potatoes out of the jar.

We’ve tried different consistencies and he will eat maybe the equivalent of half a jar and then that’s it—he wants something else (he loves the grain/yogurt mixture). We’ve tried the veggies when he’s starving and when he’s just hungry and he just. isn’t. thrilled. So we end up reverting back to the jarred food and Maggie gets a fresh veggie treat (so she’s happy).

It’s frustrating because I really wanted to make his own food (definitely cheaper) but he’s just not having it. So we’ll just keep trying.

For research purposes, we did try the teeny tiniest sliver of banana, which he promptly put in his mouth…then started gagging…so he’s not quite ready for pieces (although he does eat it pretty roughly mashed now, as opposed to the pseudo-soup he required before).

Somewhat Cranky Day

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The problem with having a really good [natured] baby is that when crankiness sets in for undetermined reasons, it gets frustrating REALLY fast. 🙁

The morning went well, and Owen took an nap from about 8:30-9:30. Then he ate a bit and we went on a few errands. He was cranky when we got home, and I just assumed he was hungry (it WAS lunch time). Halfway through the peas, he got really cranky and was pushing the spoon away and crying. I mean CRYING. Hmmm, okay. He obviously didn’t want that.

Turns out he was tired! Who knew? Especially since he had already had a nap that morning (and he’s been taking fewer and shorter naps). So he slept for about an hour. When he got up I tried food again.

Ha.

This time we finished the peas and barely started the peaches when he was instantly cranky again…and after some trial and error, it turned out he wanted milk. Hoo boy. 🙁

He didn’t eat much so we tried his favorite bouncy chair. Nope. Still cranky. Another nap? Oh no, screaming. Sitting and playing? Nothing doing. So we sat on the couch and watched Sesame Street and he was calm and quiet (well, sucking on his burp cloth and thumb) for quite some time. Then he “agreed” to sit and play for a bit…and now he’s getting cranky, but I think it’s tired…so nap time is coming soon.

What a day. He’s so good overall that I really just have to take a breath when we have these cranky times…because they are so very few and far between.

Food, food, and more food!

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We were just feeding him real food at dinnertime, but I have started on a 3x a day plan!

When he gets up, he gets oatmeal and bananas (a mixture of Oatmeal & Banana dry mix, prepared + jarred bananas) or a Stage 2 jar of something like Oatmeal, Bananas & Peaches. For lunch he will usually eat one or two containers of Stage 1 veggies (he likes them all now!) or an equivalent amount of veggies + oatmeal or yogurt (mixed from a dried powder) or possibly just one jar of Stage 2 something-or-other. Dinner is about the same. He can plow through the Stage 1 (really runny stuff) in nothing flat, so we started him on some Stage 2 stuff—but that is thicker and he doesn’t seem to eat as much of it (but then, he also doesn’t eat it as eagerly).

Of course, in the middle of all those is some formula…but he actually seems to like the food better at some times. Like today I knew he was hungry and tried to feed him a bottle and he didn’t want any. But I sat him in the high chair and fed him real food? And he ate a huge amount! I always just start with one container/jar of something, I guess “just in case” he doesn’t eat that much…but he always does. So then I run and get a second jar. And then when he finishes that, I make some oatmeal or yogurt.

I really enjoy feeding him because he is soooo eager! It’s so cute to see him just open his mouth like “I’m ready—where’s the food? C’mon, people!” He’s like a little bird! Sometimes, he can eat it faster than I can spoon it in! And such huge bites! Just amazing!

Was today the day he decided he liked real food?

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So as we do most every night, we sat down to (try and) feed Owen. He’s been liking the mashed bananas, and we’ve been mixing it with Oatmeal & Banana cereal…but he’s still not been thrilled with eating it. Meaning, he will eat some, but he’s not really that into it and it’s somewhat of a challenge to get him to eat. We’ve just been assuming all along that he’s just not quite ready for “real” food. I mean, we’ve been trying for 2+ months now—everything from cereal to veggies—and he hasn’t been thrilled with anything.

So tonight we sat down with his normal small portion of cereal and banana (completely guesstimating at around 2-3 Tbs.), and Tom was feeding him while I was prepping dinner. It seemed to be going well (from all the “Good boys” I was hearing), so I poked my head in and saw that Owen was HUNGRILY eating. Opening his mouth eagerly and practically slurping down the food! He was also enjoying looking at and playing with dad’s watch while he was eating—so we thought maybe we found the trick to get him to eat.

But his eating was unlike anything we’ve yet experienced. He quickly finished off what little we had prepared, so I quickly got out some sweet potatoes (something he certainly hasn’t loved previously) and he ate the entire jar!!! 88| No prodding, no tricking him into opening his mouth, nothing. Just one spoonful after another, pretty much as fast as I could shovel it in.

WHAT?!

After finishing the jar, he STILL seemed to be hungry, so Tom made some more cereal (a smaller batch, but still). He snarfed that. I made ANOTHER bit of cereal. Gone.

WHAT?!?!?! 88|

He still seemed hungry, but by this time we were actually getting a little worried. Was all this going to come right back up? He had never eaten that much in one sitting before. Hell, it was probably the amount he normally ate over 3-4 feedings! Why was he suddenly so ravenous? Did he just suddenly start liking/wanting food today? Or was it a total fluke?

I got out a container of carrots. He seemed to be getting fussy, but we knew he was getting tired…but his cry sounded like his hungry cry! But we were sure he HAD to be full—so we thought maybe his cry was an “I’m too full” cry—but we all know if he doesn’t want to eat, he will make it impossible to feed him. So I fed him more carrots. It was becoming a bit harder to feed him (because he was crying/cranky) but every time I got some in his mouth he calmed down—and the carrots didn’t come back up.

Egads.

We just decided to stop and gave him a bath and got him ready for bed. We wondered how much of his bedtime bottle he would eat—after having eaten all that food…and he ate 6oz!!! Just about what he would eat on a normal night. Holy wah.

We can’t wait to see if we now have a good eater on our hands, or if this was a one-time thing.

Stay tuned.

Banana!

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We’ve been avoiding giving Owen fruit, because he hasn’t been eating his vegetables—and it’s common practice to always give veggies first, because once they taste the sweet fruit, it’s much harder to get them to eat their veggies. But we’ve wanted to give him fruit! (I even wanted to let him taste a dill pickle, but Tom said no!)

So Gramma Jean had some banana in her cereal that she didn’t want, and of course Owen was eyeing it (which he does with most food we eat) so she mashed up two tiny cubes and gave it to him (with my okay, of course!) and…he LOVED it! We ended up giving him maybe two small slices in total. And kept our fingers crossed that it didn’t ruin him for veggies!

Green beans!

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So for breakfast today we let Owen try green beans. At first, he had the same reaction he always does—you know the face—but then most of them stayed down. He actually ended up eating about half the small jar! We were excited! Maybe we had finally found the food that would get him to eat.

Alas, it was short-lived.

We tried more beans for lunch…and he didn’t want anything to do with them. So now we get to figure out if it’s the food or if he just doesn’t like two meals of real food or if it’s something else entirely.

Hoo boy.

High chair!

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Tonight we decided to try having Owen sit in the high chair (for the first time!) while we ate dinner—then figured as long as he was there, we’d try some real food again, letting him play in it if he wanted. He had carrots (again) and broccoli (new). He definitely didn’t like the broccoli:

—and (again) wasn’t thrilled with the carrots. He didn’t really even want to play in the food much—go figure, he puts everything in his mouth except for the things we WANT him to put in his mouth! But, he still opens his mouth when he sees the spoon coming, so he wants to eat…we just have to find something he likes! He was cute playing with the spoon, though:

Of course, bath time immediately followed dinner!

A Busy Day

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First we had mom’s group from 10-noon and then we had physical therapy from 3-4. I never specifically woke the boy up, but he still didn’t nap as well as he normally does…so at the moment, I’m waiting for him to fall asleep (he was out within two minutes of leaving PT, but since I moved him to the pack-and-play when we got home, he woke up).

The mom’s group topic was sleep, and surprisingly, I didn’t have much to say or ask about…since Owen really is doing pretty well. The guest’s basic philosophy on everything was “If you like it and/or it works for you, go ahead and do it” — whether that means having them sleep in a car seat or having to take them on a car ride to get them to nap. While I agree with that to a certain extent, I draw a line at using anything really odd to get him to sleep. That said, he is apparently an easy baby since he goes down without a fight (most of the time).

It makes me feed bad (and good!) to hear what some of the other moms are going through sleep-wise…babies that can’t self-soothe at all or who have to be rocked to sleep before being put in the crib. Or babies who scream for an hour first or have to be walked around to calm down. Egads. I guess we have it easy. Most of them are still getting up at night, too, for at least one feeding—so I’m not alone. Of course, there is also a mom or two with a baby that sleeps from 7-7 or 10-8.

The hardest part of the group for me is seeing all the other babies rolling over or stretching themselves up on their arms or sitting up well on their own…since Owen is not quite there yet. Yeah yeah yeah I know all babies are different but it still stinks to see most of them ahead of him. A lot of the babies are also eating a lot of real food—like an entire baby jar at a time! They were surprised when I told them that Owen doesn’t really want anything to do with food—or that we just haven’t found the right food yet. He seems to want to eat (he opens his mouth when he sees the spoon) but he hasn’t liked any of his options yet. I happened to mention it to the physical therapist and she said by six months (which is next week!) he really should be eating some amount of solid foods…and said if he doesn’t start soon, she might recommend I talk to a specialist! Egads. Of course, I need to ask the pediatrician about it next week at his six-month appointment.

So, the physical therapy. She said he’s doing better. He rolls to one side much better than the other, so we have to keep working on that (he still doesn’t roll over on his own, except for a happy accident now and again). He has good neck and leg strength and his arm strength is getting better. We had thought today might be the last appointment for awhile, but after seeing him today, she said still wants to continue to see him. At least we have moved the appointment time to 3pm instead of 7am (although, honestly, I might like the 7am better because it’s MUCH quieter and cooler in there).

I was excited…

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I was pretty exited last night when Owen ate an entire 8oz bottle before going to bed. He hasn’t done that in AGES, so I was sure he would have a good night’s sleep (read: he would sleep THROUGH the night—skipping his 2am feeding—and I would get a good night’s sleep for once).

Ha.

HA HA.

He was up at—are you ready?—MIDNIGHT. Mid-freaking-night.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 88|

Every night I tell myself if this happens I will just LET him be noisy for as long as it takes to see if he will just put himself back to sleep…and every night I just end up getting up to feed him because the noise will be over quicker and I can get back to sleep quicker. Besides, I was sure he couldn’t be hungry, so I gave him his pacifier and turned on his mobile and went back to my room.

So, you guessed it. I was up within 20 minutes because he wasn’t quieting down—and was actually getting louder.

Then he was out and slept soundly until 6am when he started to stir—and I had to wake him up to feed him so we could get to his 7am PT appointment (who knows how long he might have slept/laid there quietly had I not had to get him up). Of course, I was up WAY before my 5:30 alarm. XX(

Prune juice!

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Well, Owen just got his first prune juice.

We’re not entirely sure he needed it, but we just experienced something new with him…so we figured it was worth a shot. He’d been sleeping for almost an hour when he woke up and started crying and screaming. He didn’t stop, so each of us took turns trying to comfort him and he was okay while we were holding him, but he DID NOT WANT to be put down.

He hasn’t pooped in two days—which is not out of the norm—but we figured we might as well try prune juice (since we had some). We’ve heard horror stories of post-prune juice poops, so I’m not looking forward to tonight if it works like I’ve heard. 88|

That said, he wasn’t too sure about the water/juice mix at first (his first juice ever!), but he sucked down 2oz in no time flat! We tried more, but he was done.

We could tell he was tired (lots of yawns and eye-rubbing) so maybe all this will lead to a full night’s sleep (vs. the last two nights where I’ve been up TWICE with him, instead of just once).

Stay tuned.

— Time lapse. —

So about 10 minutes after I finished writing, Owen’s eyelids drooped so Tom took him back up to bed. And AS SOON AS Tom laid him down, the crying started again.

Hoo boy.

Poor boy.

Poor us if he doesn’t go back to sleep. 🙁

Different hours, please.

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The hours Owen keeps are driving me insane.

Sure, he sleeps anywhere from 6-8 hours at a time on most nights—but the problem is that they start early and end early and still require me to get up to feed him once around 2am-4am.

Last night he napped much later than usual (from about 6-8:30) so he didn’t get his last bottle until about 9 and then didn’t go to bed (fall asleep) until about 9:30. So, we thought, maybe—JUST MAYBE—he will sleep later…or skip his early-morning feeding.

Ha.

HAHA.

Yeah, he was up at 4. He was back down by 4:20, but was up squawking and talking and cooing COMPLETELY WIDE AWAKE.

Of course, this is the time of day when I hate Tom the most, LOL (and I told him that, so it’s not a secret). His alarm goes of about 4:30, and he usually takes care of the boy in the morning so I can get a little more sleep. But does he get up when his alarm goes off? Noooooooo. Because at that moment, the boy is quiet, so Tom falls back asleep. But 15 seconds later Owen is noisy again, so of course I hear him and it keeps me up…and Tom is snoring away. 😐

After listening to Owen for about 30 minutes, hoping he will fall asleep again (so I can, too!) and realizing he’s NOT going to (so I can’t), I finally roll out of bed again and suddenly Tom pops up and says “Don’t worry, I’ll get him.”

Sorry, babe—too late. Where were you 30-45 minutes ago? |-|

So, going to better later does NOTHING to help the schedule. It’s almost better when he goes to bed WAY earlier—he seems to sleep a little longer (even though I am up at 2:30 or so to feed him) but then he falls back asleep for another hour or two—which means I get more sleep as well.

I can’t wait for this sleep thing to get better. Sure, I’m not up every hour or two all night anymore, but it still wears on me. And since I am not quite as exhausted in the middle of the night, it means I can’t fall back to sleep as quickly as I once could…which means I am usually up for at least an hour or more when I DO get up with him.

Sigh.

Happy Father’s Day!

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We started the day by trying out the Bumbo seat—and he barely fits in it! (Well, he fits fine—I’m sure it’s supposed to be a little form-fitting. But his little chunky legs are somewhat wedged in there.)

Anyway, we should have been using it WAAAAY before now, but we were waiting because we thought he was supposed to be able to hold his head up on his own (when sitting upright) before using it—but he did just fine.

We also tried more oatmeal (cereal) while he was in the chair…and he actually ate it! We probably got about a teaspoon total before he got cranky! He didn’t really like it going in (we got the screwed up WHAT DID YOU JUST PUT IN MY MOUTH? face, but it stayed in and he let us do tiny spoonful after tiny spoonful!). YAY! :>>

And then it was time for a cute new outfit. And guess what size it is? JUST GUESS. No, it’s a 9-month size! NINE MONTHS! And it’s just about too small!! He’s not even five months old yet!!

Then we had some mommy time:

And finally some daddy time!!

Not yet…

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He hasn’t slept through the night again…yet. |-| But he does seem to be sleeping well enough…the first night after his 10-hour stretch I only got up once. And then last night he went to bed at about 7:30 without a last bottle—and slept until 3:30. ❗ And after his middle-of-the-night bottle, he seems to be sleeping better (i.e. longer).

We’re keeping our fingers crossed. 🙂

Zo-Li On-The-Go Travel Formula & Snack Dispenser

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I had been debating between the Zo-Li On-The-Go Travel Formula & Snack Dispenser and the Innobaby Packin’ SMART Formula Dispenser and Snack Case, and ended up getting the Zo-Li because it was the first one to be available (at the time) with Amazon Prime.

To be honest, I loved the idea and was so jazzed with the item that I paid NO attention to the size of the container. I just assumed (wrongly, it turns out) that it was a tall and skinny container. I know the containers I currently use for formula (the smaller of the Powdered Formula Dispenser Combo Pack) and was expecting it to be about that size (well, except taller!). So you can imagine my surprise when I opened the box and saw just how big the Zo-Li was!! It’s HUGE—3″ wide and 8″ tall!! See for yourself!

I don’t remember seeing the dimensions listed in the product information section…but honestly, even if they were, I didn’t pay attention because I was just so enamored with this container! As far as it taking up less room than say, the more common Philips Avent Formula Dispenser/Snack Cup…well, overall it doesn’t because it’s a bigger container, LOL, but it’s a more consistent shape which makes it seem like it takes up less space. But it’s not NEARLY the space savings I had anticipated. It’s smaller in diameter but about 2.5 times the height!

That said, even with the size, this thing is great. It says it can hold formula for an 8oz bottle, but you could probably squeak 10oz in there if you had to. The actual formula dispenser piece just fits on the top-most container (so, if you had formula in other layers, you would just need to rotate layers so the formula was on the top). It would also make a great toy (once empty) since the layers can be mixed and matched in any order.

As far as construction…the pieces unscrew VERY easily (it’s only about 1/8 of a turn, which worried me—but I tried to pull them apart and they stayed tightly together) and they screw together fairly easily (to be honest, about half the time, I have to unscrew a layer to try and re-thread it correctly). The plastic is very heavy-duty in both appearance and feel. The formula dispenser portion works nicely, but as with any other dispenser, you do have to tap it a few times to get everything out (but since it is angled, everything easily does come out).

I do wish it came in a choice of colors (or all clear)–which is one thing I liked about the Innobaby.

Overall, I would highly recommend this item!

Another sleep-deprived night.

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This is getting old—fast. It’s amazing how quickly you get used to something…and let me tell you, I was VERY used to him sleeping 6-7 hours at a stretch. 😐

We tried the earlier-to-bed thing again last night…but again, it was only maybe 30 minutes earlier than normal. And he only slept until 12:30 (so maybe three hours for me), at which time he snarfed 6oz of formula. Then he was up at 5am, but he didn’t really want to eat (maybe 2oz) so I just put him back in the crib and put the mobile on…then listened to his jibber jabber for an hour or so. One or both of us must have fallen asleep for a bit, because I woke up at about 6:45 to him jabbering again.

I am thinking now, when he’s kinda sick, was not the best time to try the earlier-to-bed routine. Because we don’t know if his schedule disruption is due to a) being sick or b) the new routine. So I think we’ll go back to normal tonight and try again after he’s healthy.