my-speck

i'm pregnant and it's going to be a rollercoaster

And she has started eating…. We are going baby-lead-feeding.. December 20, 2011

Filed under: baby stuff,cooking,development stages,eating,family,healthcare,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 1:00 pm
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In other developments around our house, the littlest member of the family has started on her food adventure. I don’t know if I managed to get a photo of her first food (cucumber), but since then we’ve introduced a range of vegetables, a little fruit, and a bit of meat (cooked by her daddy), bread and crackers. Did I mention that you got your first tooth about 2 months ago at 3 months old?? Well, regardless of teeth, you are into food.

I remember when little O first had food like it was yesterday. Avocado. You haven’t tried that yet. Will have to add it in.

Dear Little L:
So far, your favourites have been: steamed / fresh snow peas (preferably from the garden) and turkey. Yes, your Dad cooked a Christmas turkey on the weekend and you are very much into it. We are giving you only whole food: the baby-led feeding approach (read this brochure if you want a quick summary on it). So your sit in your bumbo or on our laps, and get whole bits of veges and other stuff to play with and eat as much as you can of. And since starting, your hand-eye co-ordination has improved out of sight and you have no trouble getting the food from your plate to your mouth. And there is definitely some going down, as is evidenced by the seeds and other bits and pieces I can see in your poo. mmmmm… All good fun. We spoon-fed your brother a bit at the beginning but he really wasn’t into it at all so soon changed to the baby-lead feeding approach. For him it didn’t make much difference – he is just a little skinny thing. You seem a lot more into food so far in general. Thankfully. It is nice to have a little robust baby after the skinny minny your brother turned into at around six months (and still remains).

love mum

So around here mealtimes are a family affair.  It’s fun to see:

munching on some cheese: baby-led feeding

a family meal

Love and kisses 🙂

mum

 

Bad parent of the day award. And the winner is… February 19, 2010

Filed under: baby stuff,bad parent of the day award,family,Raising a Child — rakster @ 4:41 pm
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We have an award in our house: it’s the “Bad Parent of the Day”.

It started as a joke. Your dad had a quiet chat with me a few days after we came home from the hospital and he went to work which went along the lines that as I’m at home with ‘the baby’ all day every day then I’m the one who is most likely to be the responsible parent when ‘the baby’ does get injured. Accidental maybe, but we both knew it was going to be heartwrenching, and that was your dad’s way of telling me that he wasn’t going to be angry or upset or judgemental, just supportive. Because the odds were against me.

To be honest, I don’t even remember now what your first big mishap was. I should have blogged about it, because I know it was very real and scarey at the time, but now it has just melded into a conglomerate memory of the past few months, where some days you injure yourself, or I injure you (unintentionally and generally pretty minor so far, cross fingers) and some days nothing happens but you’re still grumpy and scream at times and I’m still lacking sleep so really ask me the next day what happened the day before and I’d be hard pressed. (Oh, and I still don’t come up for air when talking. Some things don’t change.)

So as the days meld into one another, we commemorate each mishap of bad parenting with our “Bad Parent of the Day” Award. I guess I do probably win it more than your dad, but considering I’m on more parenting duty, I think the balance on weighted means would be in his favour. Or disfavour depending on how you view it.

Today’s winner? Well, I can’t think of it. Maybe it hasn’t happened yet. Or, if you count letting your baby eat of the floor as a bad thing I probably shouldn’t have fed you the cucumber you dropped on the footpath in the Valley this morning, then Me. The footpaths there are not your average cleanliness, somewhat below… In the scheme of things, minor.

Three days ago? Me. You know about the whole carrot intolerancething? Well, I went to cook more food for you and found the freezer cubes we use to freeze your food in full: of chicken stew. So I dutifully emptied them all into the sink and then flushed them down the loo. Thinking all the while, “Gee, what a waste. It’s not the food that bothers me so much as the love and time your dad put into cooking it”. And it’s not like I’m ever going to cook you chicken stew (pescetarian avoiding meat cooking at all costs). So it was a bit special.

Dumb di dumb di dumb. Well, it turned out your Dad had already lovingly thrown out all the offensive carrot-containing stew, and cooked you a whole new batch. Which was exactly what I threw out. Mmm. Bad parent of the day award: Mum.

Love you boopie baby
mum

 

Baby Food – you’re onto Indian. Our little curry muncher. While your tastebuds are still developing anyhow. January 30, 2010

Filed under: baby stuff,eating,Parenting,Raising a Child,vegetarian — rakster @ 5:49 pm
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Hello!

So.  You tried my favourite food today: Indian Palak Paneer (or spinach and cheese curry).  I’m not sure you ‘loved’ it as much as I do, but you sure did eat some. Palak Paneer is the top of my food list. Don’t know why – just love the stuff. Actually I do know why. Spinach and cheese and curry. All rolled into one. For a vegetarian. Delightful. We make it with fresh ricotta as a substitute for real paneer, and it works out great.

Palak Paneer on the way ...

It’s coming close but you don’t seem sure

We cooked it last night for dinner, same as usual, just with no salt.  We’re getting closer to just feeding you what we eat with some slight modifications.  Anyway, I have been feeling a little lacking in iron, and was having a spinach craving, so your dad cooked it up.

Baby Food - indian palak paneer (spinach cheese curry)

Palak Paneer (Spinach Cheese Curry) for you..

And so you got it for dinner tonight as we’re running low on other home-cooked baby meals.

Eating the curry

yum?

You still prefer apples though – it’s apparent from your facial expressions.  It’s fun to watch your face when new tastes are introduced.  We’ll keep at it.

baby eating the curry

Mmmmm. Tasty?

I’ve read and heard that children’s tastebuds develop over time and it’s likely you’ll reject things you once ate happily when you get a bit older. So, for now, we’ll just let you eat a wide range and hope that somehow even if in the shorter term you start to refuse to eat a bunch of them, that the tastes sink into your subconscious and as you grow older you’ll grow back into them.

Love you
mum

 

Ok. People warned me about smelly poos when you moved onto solids. They should have been more specific. Yoghurt is the worst. November 25, 2009

Filed under: baby's feelings,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 4:38 pm
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Oh my goodness. You smell like a gross thing. Here I was, thinking I was coping with the newly changed poo-situation quite well. Until this morning.

Another poo on the mat, floor, all over you episode. But this time with me trying not to gag as I wiped you down and washed everything, including you.

poo on the mat

lovely. Stinky poo to roll in.

Yerk. It was definitely the yoghurt. I mentioned it to someone else today, and they said, “oh yeah, yoghurt was the worst”. I wish I’d been warned. I would have added it to your diet a little later.

Gross.

rolling in the muck

happy as a pig in mud. No, as a baby in poo. Muck. Yuck.

Yet you still looked so happy, rolling around in it when I got out from the shower. Needless to say, the clean-up took a while, but not as bad as last time. And, due to the requests last time, I did stop to take a photo. What the heck, you already had it all over you.

love you stinky poo pants
mum

 

More food attempts. November 4, 2009

Filed under: healthcare,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 9:56 am
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Hi Poogie,

so, it was very apparent from your facial expressions yesterday evening that Farex (rice cereal for babies) mixed with breastmilk is NOT as appetising as avocado.  In fact, I think your Aunt and I can quite confidently say that you thought it tasted disgusting and weren’t at all sure why the hell we even tried to feed it to you.  Screwed up your face and pushed it out with your tongue and gave me a “what the hell do you think you are doing to me, Mum?” look.

Righto.  So I adjusted.  And mixed some avocado in with the disgusting-smelling mixture.  There was no way I was going to taste it myself (which doesn’t vouch for me feeding it to you does it? Maybe I should have a rule that if I wouldn’t eat it then I won’t feed it to you? Sounds fair – though at some point I will feed you meat that your dad has made, but I won’t eat).  Anyway, you did decide to eat the mixture of rice cereal, breastmilk and avocado.  Not as voraciously as you attacked the plain avocado.   But you got a substantial amount down.  In fact, at least a quarter of an avocado and maybe two tablespoons of rice cereal and boobie milk mixture.

oscar eating

you’re not as keen on this foul mixture. not surprisingly!

 

We’ve also been experimenting with sippy cups.   C told me that you are supposed to try to drink 30ml of water with each ‘solid’ foods meal.  First cup was insulated and you have to suck on it pretty hard to get the water to flow out.  It will be fantastic when you’re a bit older and used to a sippy cup, but for now it was a bit too big of a learning curve.  Next cup was just a tip and the water flows out the three little holes without having to suck at all.   Your bumbo ended up with a pool of water in the bottom of it.  Good thing you were naked.   Third cup was a winner – a soft rubbery part for your mouth, that you have to suck on a little to get the water to flow out, but not too much.  Still a lot of water spillage, but less choking-action (cup two) and more drinking-attempt-action.   So you managed to get some water down too.  You preferred it when the water was warm.

eating with mum

getting food with mum

Otherwise?  Well, I haven’t been to mum’s group for weeks due to the lack of ability to walk/drive, but have kept up with the emails.  It seems a few of the four-month-old babies are going through a whingey, unsettled phase.   You are a little.  Trying to get you to sleep at night has become a battle where you scream for a good half to full hour each night.  So two nights ago your Dad and I instigated renewed effort to settle you into a night-time get-ready-for-bed routine.   I’m not the best at routines, so it’s not 100% the same each day, but better than before.  New tip, back to swaddling you and having lots of quiet, ‘chill-out’ time in the hour leading up to 7pm.  So far, SUCCESS!  A little grizling but not the screaming tantrums of the past week.  I think we were just letting you get too tired before putting you down.

 

righto. Must run. you have awoken and need to eat some food.

 

love mum

 

Your first food: Avocado November 1, 2009

Filed under: baby stuff,baby's feelings,development stages,Parenting,Raising a Child — rakster @ 8:27 pm
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Hello Poogie,

Well, look out whomever gets the next nappy ’cause you had your first non-breastmilk meal ever today!  Your dad did it on the sly, you just shared some of our lunch with us.  Your dad had made a nice platter of things to snack on for lunch:

the first supper - our lunch platter ...

the first supper – our lunch platter …

and decided that your first food would be avocado from our lunch platter.  So a bit of avocado mashed up on his finger served as your first taste of non-breastmilk food.  And you were stunned.  You turned your head up and looked up at him with your mouth open for a good two minutes or more.   As if to say,

“what are you doing to me? It’s not bad, I don’t think.  I’m just very confused.  Not at all sure what to do.  I’ll just stare at you, maybe you’ll give me a clue?”.

Your dad made munching or eating noises and movements with his mouth, and eventually, you tried to close your mouth and follow suit.

avocado eating from dad's finger

avocado eating from dad’s finger

And after the first bit, which stayed in your mouth for quite some time, you started to swallow.  And seemed to enjoy it.  You then actually started seeking-out avocado-laden fingers and pulling them into your mouth.

avocado eating - more

searching for the avocado with your mouth

I don’t know how much you actually ate, but you definitely swallowed some, and looked very contented afterwards.  And were very tired.  So then you had a big sleep.

20091101_eating0420091101_eating05

20091101_eating06

Next time you’re getting Farex though.  Farex (rice meal) with boobie juice mixed in.  I suspect you won’t like it as much as avocado.

Happy Eating.  Welcome to my favourite pasttime!

love mum