Adventures in Food

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Posted by Mandy | Posted in baby boy, baby meals, life as mommy | Posted on 25-06-2012

Since Logan has been developing a pretty good pincer grasp, we’re finally moving away from purees. Yay! I still feed him yogurt, and when he has grains (oats, cream of wheat, barley, etc) I usually mash it up with a puree, but other than that, he now feeds himself.

Loves: Cheerios, Plum Organics Little Cremes, cheese (except sharp cheddar), tomatoes, yogurt, purees, broccoli, carrots, grapes, watermelon, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, rice, bread
Dislikes: Eggs, meats (except bacon), cream of wheat, beans

This boy is not yet fond of the protein. But we’re getting there. He still eats a little, but yogurt is definitely his favorite protein source so far.

I’m making more of an effort to provide whole meals now that he’s approaching 8 months, and we’re up to 2 meals and a snack per day. I’ll be introducing him to fish and pasta and peas sometime this week.

Falling into place

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Posted by Mandy | Posted in baby boy, challenges, life as mommy | Posted on 13-06-2012

Logan has been sleeping elevated since he was a newborn. Back then, he seemed to sleep the best (and longest) in his rock’n'play sleeper, so we just kind of.. stuck with it. We’ve made several attempts to get him into his crib since, but they always failed. I think several factors played into that. For one, the crib was in his own bedroom, but he wasn’t really used to his bedroom. We’d go in there when he was already asleep or close to asleep, and he never got a chance to get comfy with it. Obviously, the elevation change takes a lot of getting used to as well. So, previous attempts to get him into his crib ultimately ended in hours and hours of crying sessions. We got a 40-minute stretch of sleep out of him, once.

So, through a combination of laziness and busy life, Logan’s been sleeping in his rock’n'play that he has long outgrown. I’ve been thinking that some of his sleep issues have to do with him no longer liking to sleep in it. Two nights ago, little man started wailing loudly out of the blue at about 8pm. I went upstairs just to find him on his tummy. In the rock’n'play. Not good. Not comfy for him, either. Or safe, for that matter.

That was the last straw. We set up the crib the day after, and last night was Logan’s first night in his crib. I want to say it went.. better than expected. I put two blankets under his mattress to help with the elevation change. At 7:40pm, after giving him his bottle, he pulled his lovie over his face and just kind of passed out without further complaint.

At 9pm, he woke up. Not unhappily at first, but eventually disoriented and unhappy about his change in circumstances. I was there to help him, giving him a little more milk, rubbing his tummy, but to no avail. Then, out of the blue, he figured out he can roll on his tummy. Cue instant sleep.

Dumbfounded, I went back downstairs. He slept until 12:30am (!), which is much longer than usual. However, at about 12:30am we hit a rough stretch where Logan was pretty convinced that it was in fact play time and not sleep time. He fell asleep once but woke back up quickly, and we did the whole spiel again. The whole thing lasted til about 3:30am. But, what baffles me is that he was not actually upset, he was just exploring.

He then continued to sleep til 5:20am.

On the whole, I was expecting much worse. I obviously was not happy about the 3-hour awake stretch, but I’m sure that once he really gets used to the crib, that won’t be an issue anymore. I am happy we finally took the plunge, since it’s been something I’ve put off for too long.

On an unrelated note, we also have… teeth! The two bottom front teeth came in, and little guy now has an actual chomp. He’s pretty fascinated by his new acquisitions, while I’m kind of scared of putting my fingers anywhere near his mouth now. Terrible picture – he doesn’t exactly let me get too close to them – but here you have ‘em.

Daytime is becoming really, really fun. Little guy has a blast exploring and playing and I only wish we had more nice summer days so we could go outside more. On the few occasions that it doesn’t rain, we’ve been making good use of the sun.

7 months postpartum

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Posted by Mandy | Posted in baby boy, challenges, life as mommy, postpartum | Posted on 02-06-2012

and feelin’ good! The move really took a lot of energy out of me this month, but I’m happy it’s over. I’m still working on feeling “normal”, but it’s a little better every month. Once I get those last pesky pounds off, I think I’ll be much happier. I know I’m not defined by my weight, but I just don’t feel quite right in my skin when I’m not at a certain weight, if that makes any sense.

Weight loss has been slow this month. I weighed in at 133.7, which means I only lost one pound in May. Still, I DID lose weight and my size 6 pants are getting more loose, so I’ll take it.

I’ve had little appetite lately and some nausea after dinner, so I’ve automatically been eating less. My sweet tooth has been pretty kind and less prominent too, which helps. My exercise still primarily consists of lugging Logan around, lugging Logan up the stairs, lugging Logan down the stairs, taking walks with Logan and running errands with Logan. Oh, and then there’s situps and pushups. Pretty bland, but as busy as life has been lately, I don’t feel at all bad about lounging on the couch with my family instead of running in the rain.

In June, I’m aiming to get at least one or two good hikes in. Seeing as this is my bedroom window view, it shouldn’t be too hard…

Little bugger is still doing great, and I can’t believe how big he’s getting!

I do think getting more sleep would help a lot with my physical well-being, but I know that eventually things will get much better. For now, I just try my best not to fall asleep on the nursery floor for our 2am playdates. :D