After many months of waiting, my late teether is finally getting a tooth. It’s coming in on the bottom front left side.
I just noticed it yesterday and I’m so excited! I thought he would be walking before he got a tooth in! Sadly, I haven’t been able to get any pictures.
Bumblebee has discovered the temper tantrum.
Right now it’s a little funny because he only throws one when I pull him away from something dangerous, like a pile of small rocks he desperately wants to taste (Thanks, ABQ, for being a choking hazard) or something similar (usually rocks though). He arches his back and lets loose a mighty whine (not really a scream at all), and then in about two seconds he’s totally moved on to something else, like his dad’s cigar or our shiny silver shoehorn.
Yesterday he actually threw one for something other than rocks, and for a little longer than two seconds (though not much longer). It was frozen yogurt. My husband and I took the baby to the mall so that my hubby could get a massage and I could get some birthday present shopping done for him (no luck in that department). When we met up again about twenty minutes later we decided to get a frozen yogurt to share. We got the plain one with strawberries and raspberries on top. My husband decided to give Bumblebee a bite of frozen yogurt and we were charmed by his reaction. He held it in his mouth for a moment, puzzled, and then started smiling and laughing and reaching for the spoon. He’s had yogurt before, bites of regular yogurt he liked, gerber yogurt melts he seemed indifferent to, and yogurt covered cheerios which he doesn’t seem able to tell apart from the regular kind. But freeze the stuff and, apparently, my son can’t get enough. When we finished the yogurt, he waited somewhat impatiently for the next bite. I told him it was all gone and we were all done, which is what I say at the end of every meal. He seemed apprehensive. I stood up to throw the garbage away and told my husband, “He might start to cry when I walk away.”
A few seconds I came back and Bumblebee was screaming bloody murder. His cries were heart wrenching. He would never be happy again, that much was obvious. His dad strapped him into the stroller and a few seconds later the crying ceased. We went home and he cried the last minute or so of the trip, which is rare for him unless we’re on a long road trip. When we got inside, he ate a bunch of finger foods and crashed for about an hour before waking up as cheerful as ever.
Despite the discovery of the temper tantrum, my son has actually been crying less. He can clearly communicate what he wants by reaching and grabbing at things now, so that cuts back on some of it. I’ve learned to anticipate his needs (especially sleep and food) a long time ago and that helps even more. He’s been sleeping through the night ever since we took him out of the bedroom of our one room apartment and set up his own room in the living room (apparently I was waking him up in the middle of the night. My husband says he would lie awake listening to me and the baby respond to each other’s breathing and movements until everyone in the family was wide awake and cranky. Put him on the other side of the wall with the door open a crack and the problem is solved). Sometimes he would wake in the middle of the night crying but not often.
Last night was weird. I woke up because I’m due for another baby in about two months and I had to use the bathroom. I also thought I heard Bumblebee making soft, happy noises. As I left our room I glance at his bed and sure enough, he was standing up in the corner and gently whispering, “Hadada… hadadadada…” He grinned when he saw me. I wasn’t entirely sure what to do. first I went to the bathroom. No change in Bumblebee. I had no idea what time it is thanks to our complete lack of clocks in the house, and I wasn’t about to start up a computer just to see the time. So I just made him a fresh bottle, laid him down with it, told him it was still night-night time and went back to bed. I waited a few minutes before checking on him again, he was still lying down (bottle untouched) and it seemed like he was going to go back to sleep soon, so I went to bed and slept the rest of the night without hearing any crying or happy noises. Hopefully any future night wakings will be just as easy to deal with!
Following is the story of how I found out I’m pregnant. If you can’t stomach some talk of breasts, menstrual cycles, and overly fertile people, you might want to get out now.
In the middle of January, Bumblebee self-weaned. He simply would not take the breast anymore and would only drink out of a bottle. I tried pumping, but could never get more than a few drops with my hand pump (which I had previously used mainly to relieve engorgement when my milk came in). I decided that it must have been all those bottle over Christmas while driving and visiting in-laws, and so I just switched to the bottle with a small amount of guilt which I got over quickly enough.
Bumblebee was almost three months old then, and I waited or my period to return. I wasn’t particularly concerned at first because I had read in a book that you shouldn’t get your period back for about three months after starting breastfeeding at least. But when it didn’t come a month after weaning completely, I was a little concerned until some research let me know that it could take 2-3 months after weaning to return.
And so time passed rather stressfully. I wasn’t worried at all until almost three months had gone by with no sign of bleeding. That’s when I called my mother and asked her what she thought. She told me to take a pregnancy test as soon as I could. Although I was worried, we didn’t exactly have an extra $20 lying around, so I had to wait a couple of weeks (things are very tight around here). It was after I talked to my mother that I began to be aware of pregnancy symptoms in the way that every woman who thinks she might possibly be pregnant is. Was that round ligament pain I felt as I twisted around to play with Bumblebee, or had I just moved in the wrong way and stretched a muscle? Were my breasts really that tender, or was it because Bumblebee had started pinching my breasts (and any other readily available body part) when I held him? And my god, was that a bit of a baby bump, or just because I pigged out all day, and why was I so hungry lately anyway?
I nearly had a nervous breakdown when the test cam back positive, although honestly I don’t know what I thought was going on. And so I began obsessing with how far along I was. I was pretty sure I got pregnant before Bumblebee stopped weaning, but there were no opportunities before Christmas. I guessed around 20 weeks. Because I washed my phone and haven’t been able to get a new one yet, I had my husband set up an appointment for me about a week after the positive test. The clinic didn’t have any openings for a month and so I went to the doctor on May 30. I measured at 24-26 weeks and we scheduled an ultrasound for the following Wednesday.
The ultrasound revealed that I was 23 weeks and 5 days pregnant with a healthy baby girl. I’m now at 26 weeks and 3 days. We’re calling her Butterfly for now.
Since we had a family reunion on my husband’s side on Saturday, June 14, as well as his sister’s wedding on June 11, we decided to surprise them with the news. We basically just showed up with my now huge belly and of course everyone noticed right away. That’s why I haven’t posted about anything in so long. The temptation to talk about the pregnancy was just too much! But now I’ll be around more regularly (hopefully). I’ll post about our trip in a different post, too.
So the major reason I haven’t posted much is that Bumblebee has been sick, for real this time. It wasn’t anything major, just a little stomach bug. Mostly he was just having lots of diarrhea, but on Sunday evening we went to a friend’s house to watch a movie. Bumblebee was happily playing on the floor. Near the end of the movie, he started getting fussy. I thought he must be getting tired (we had also attended a baby shower that afternoon) so I picked him up. About two seconds later he threw up all over me. He hadn’t had anything but formula all day so that’s all that came up, but it wasn’t just spit up. He probably threw up about three ounces all over me and the floor, and it all came up at once. Fortunately our friend was understanding and even helped clean up and let me borrow a new shirt, but poor Bumblebee had to ride home naked that night because it was the one time I didn’t pack a spare outfit for him. He did have a blanket though.
So on Monday my husband stayed home, and Bumblebee slept pretty much all day. He had threw up again Monday morning, so we limited him to 4 ounce bottles every two hours instead of 8 every four hours. It seemed to work and he didn’t mind too much. He didn’t throw up again.
On Tuesday he slept a lot, and on Wednesday he didn’t seem nearly as tired but he still had diarrhea until Wednesday night, when he had a solid stool. this morning was the first since Sunday night that he didn’t wake up with a poopy diaper. So I’m pretty sure he’s kicked it. Throughout the whole thing he had no fevers and was just as smiley and cheerful as usual. He did have some trouble sleeping at night though, and when we were giving him only 4 ounces on Monday he woke up for a nighttime feeding for the first time in months. Given the circumstances we let him have it. And last night when he was tired I took him to bed, and he went to sleep right away and didn’t wake up all night.
I think I have the best baby in the whole world.
I have a six month old son. In case you are not aware of it, most babies begin eating solid foods around six months old. There are two camps on feeding babies solids. The first thing most people think of is feeding your baby pureed foods from a jar. The second option is to feed your baby pureed foods that you make yourself at home using a blender. I have done extensive research on the second option, and after hearing the reasons for it, I have decided to feed my baby pureed foods from a jar. Here are some of the reasons that people want you to feed your baby home made foods right from the get go, and why you shouldn’t buy into it.
Myth 1. Jarred baby foods are made to last on the shelf for up to two years, which means they are filled with preservatives and other icky stuff that you don’t want to feed your baby.
Whoever started this rumor probably has no idea of the wonderful science behind canning and jarring. There are no preservatives in jarred baby foods. This is because canning and jarring foods is an all natural preservation process that mankind has been using for nearly 200 years, well before we began tampering with our foods through preservatives and additives. Another example of a natural way of preserving foods naturally is freezing, which is the one you will probably utilize if you decide to make homemade baby foods (more n that later). Here is some more info on the jarring process, taken from Wikipedia.
“Canning is a method of preserving food by first sealing it in air-tight jars, cans or pouches, and then heating it to a temperature that destroys contaminating microorganisms that can either be of health or spoilage concern…”
“ In 1809, the French confectioner Nicolas François Appert observed that food cooked inside a jar did not spoil unless the seals leak, thus developed a method of sealing food inside glass jars. The reason why food did not spoil was unknown at the time, since it would be another 50 years before Louis Pasteur demonstrated the role of microbes in food spoilage.”
For more information on canning you can go to the Wiki article, or even do a bit of research yourself, either online or at your library. The process and science behind it is not a secret, and it’s not even hard to understand. You can even do it yourself at home.
I think that most people assume that long names they don’t recognize in lists of ingredients are preservatives or sweeteners. I know my husband did on a jar of baby food, which I quickly pointed out was added DHA, which is naturally present in breastmilk and has been shown to improve the development of the human eyes! Another one I see on these is ascorbic acid, which is plainly explained to be Vitamin C. It takes about two seconds to read the ingredients, and I have yet to find a baby food jar that does not explain what everything is.
For example, on my jar of Beech Nut tender sweet carrots the ingredients read, “Carrots and water necessary for preparation.” The Beech Nut jar of Apples, Mango, and Kiwi reads, “”Apples, mango, kiwi juice from concentrate (water and kiwi juice) and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).”
I have noticed that Gerber sells stage two foods in plastic tubs. I have never bought these because Beech Nut is cheaper by 5-10 cents. I don’t know if these plastic tubs contain preservatives or not because I don’t know the process behind packaging them.
Two more points before moving on: The reason the safety seal on jars works is because of the canning process. When the jars of food are cooling after being boiled, the lids seal with an audible ping. When opening the jar (breaking the seal), the button then pops up. If it doesn’t make an audible popping noise when opened, then the jar did not seal correctly and the entire thing should be thrown out. The last point is that on the labels of these jars it clearly states that any unused portion can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Surely if there were preservatives in the food, it would last a week or more when refrigerated.
Myth 2. If you make a special meal out of feeding your baby by preparing something different than what you are eating, you will raise a picky eater.
There are many reasons why this doesn’t make sense when talking about a baby. First of all, and most importantly, you should wait at least three days before introducing your baby to new foods. This way if the baby has an allergic reaction to something, you will know what exactly is causing it and you will be able to eliminate that specific food from his or her diet. I don’t know of a single family who eats the exact same meals three days in a row.
The second reason this doesn’t make sense is that when you make homemade baby foods, you are instructed to freeze them and pull out one serving at a time. This is essentially the same as opening a jar, except that if the food is frozen you must warm it up first. Warming is not essential for jar foods because babies haven’t developed a taste for hot foods yet. Warming up a frozen serving of baby food is a lot more like cooking them a separate meal than opening a jar. You will also have to spoon feed your baby at first, ether the food is homemade or store bought, so it’s likely that you won’t be having a meal with him.
A third reason is that babies under the age of ten months have no long term memory. This is why it isn’t recommended that you start disciplining your children until they are at least ten months old. Your child isn’t likely to demand a special separate meal because you gave him some between the ages of six and nine months. It is much more likely that he will demand his own special meal because he had one yesterday, or last week, or the last time you made meatloaf.
Finally I will relate a more personal reason I have to not believe that feeding your baby jar foods will cause picky eating. My parents had a total of five children. At one point or another, we were all picky eaters. Some were more than others. We outgrew it with encouragement to try new things and positive reinforcement when we did. So the odds are that your child will snub certain foods at one point in life, whether you feed them jar baby food or not. Most of the time it is just a phase (though one that can last years).
Myth 3. Baby food is expensive to buy. It might not seem like it, but those jars really add up over time.
While this isn’t exactly a myth, it does seem a little silly. Your baby will only be on pureed foods for a few months at most. Yes, it can get expensive, but here on out it will only get more expensive. I’m sure that the $.60 or so per jar is comparable to buying a little extra meat and veggies to puree at home. You can often get coupons in the mail for these jars, and you only need to buy about ten at a time. No one has a baby expecting it to be free, or cheap. I can assure you that when you have a teenager, you will wish that you could spend less than a dollar on each meal they eat!
Anyway, that’s just my point of view on the homemade baby food. It seems unnecessary to me when I am already so busy just trying to keep up with the house and baby without collapsing. It’s not like I am getting a full night’s sleep yet. Once Bumblebee graduates to finger foods, I will probably start giving him more of what I eat. In the meantime, I’m enjoying finishing off his half eaten jars of rice cereal and apples with cinnamon! Yummy!
So on Thursday my husband and I came up with an idea. Well, I actually came up with it first. I suggested that in order to save money on all the convenience foods we like to buy (like frozen pizzas and granola bars and candies), we should just learn to make our own in order to save some money. So on Friday we bought all the necessary ingredients to make bread, pizza, granola bars and a type of candy made partly from potatoes. Today we got cooking!
First we did a bunch of cleaning because our kitchen counters have sort of become shelves instead of counters. I guess that’s what happens when you live in a house with no shelves or table! That and you eat on the floor in front of the internet.
DH made bread first and while that was rising I tried my hand at potato candy. I used two potatoes because they seemed really small. I forget what kind of potatoes they were, but they were about 4 inches in length. I should have used one because I ended up needing the entire two pound bag of powdered sugar to turn them into dough. Also I didn’t let them cook quite all the way through, so there were some small hard potato chunks in the dough stuff. Then when I went to roll it out so I could spread peanut butter on top and roll it all up together, all the moisture sank to the bottom and it got stuck. So I put them in the fridge on paper towels to set, hoping the paper towels would soak up some of that moisture. It worked, but I don’t know if I’ll make that candy again. It’s super rich. Two pounds of powdered sugar rich.
DH’s bread came out perfect. I had him make two batches of dough so I could make one batch into pizzas. He rolled the dough out and put sauce on, I oiled the baking pans and put on the cheese. We decided to skip extra toppings for now. Then I covered them in tin foil and put them in the freezer (in the pans unbaked) for later. We had enough for four pizzas but we only have three pans so DH decided to make one double decker pizza. Also, we cooked one of the others. I will have to remember to mention how well the pizzas freeze and how the double decker turns out in a later post.
We had a tiny bit of dough left and DH told me I could do whatever I wanted with it. So I made it into a bunny bun and cooked it. I didn’t take a picture before I ate it though. It didn’t cook into the bunny shape very well anyway.
Now it is 9:00 and were done for the night I’m going to try and make the granola bars tomorrow morning before we have a baby shower to attend. I’ll have to post about those later, too. Here are links to the recipes we used, except for the pizza which we improvised on.
I think Bumblebee is either sick, or having some sort of reaction to the pears I fed him yesterday afternoon. He doesn’t have a fever or anything like that, but he’s been awful whiney since las night, he hasn’t been eating nearly as much as normal, and this morning he had poop that was almost completely pure liquid and yellow. He hasn’t had a poop so runny and yellow since he decided to stop nursing at about 2 1/2 months old.
He seems a lot better now, but I’m still pretty worried about him. At least it’s Friday and my husband will be home over the weekend. He thinks Bumblebee’s just teething. I’m not sure about it. Since my husband works with orthodontists and has taken a very basic dental course courtesy of the company he works for, I guess he’s more of an expert when it comes to teeth. So I told him to feel in the baby’s mouth for teeth, because I can’t tell what night be a tooth coming up and what are normal bumps.
I guess he doesn’t actually know more about teething than I do because he said he felt sharper bumps in the back, on the top of the gums. I informed him that babies usually sprout the bottom front teeth first, and very occasionally the top front teeth. He still thinks Bumblebee’s just teething.
Why does my baby who has been acting sick all day always suddenly and mysteriously get all better as soon as his Pops gets home? This is the second time it’s happened! I’m glad he’s not sick but it makes me look like a paranoid worry wart mom.
… when you’re a sleepy baby. Here’s a picture of the Bumblebee an hour after waking up from his last nap, which lasted about 3 hours!
He had a good sleep last night, too. He slept right through the night without waking until after his dad went to work. I credit the solid foods he’s been eating, since he used to wake up mainly because he was hungry! He would have a bottle and go right back to sleep. Now he usually wakes up for a diaper change. So once he is toilet trained, maybe he’ll start sleeping even longer! Of course, that’ll probably be in a couple of years…
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