Let's Eat: 12 Months

Utensils are still a work in progress. He's so close to stabbing things with forks, but not quite there still. truly we don't work on this every dinner, and I don't really force the issue. I probably should soon, but for now, eat on kiddo. He was able to eat yogurt with a spoon mostly on his own. It was messy and his OCD Daddy about had a heart attack.


Schedule:

7/8am: Wake, 4ounce bottle,

*banana/Plum mish mosh breakfast pouch, get ready for school

I still don't give solids every morning

9:00 am: Snack (puffs, fruit, or wafer cookie) & 4 ounce bottle

11:00 am: Lunch (meat, vegetable & fruit) & 4 ounce bottle

3:00 pm: Snack (puffs, fruit or wafer cookie) & 4 ounce bottle

6:00pm/6:30 pm: Dinner (meat/eggs/fruit/vegetable/yogurt)

6:45 pm/7:15 pm: 1-4 ounces of bottle

Our schedule hasn't changed much over the last month, except for this sleepyhead likes to snooze much later in the morning. Hey, no one is complaining over here... until we need to get to work early, then its a slight problem.

This month was mostly formula. I think we got a good week or so out of the last of my breast milk (so hard to see it all go) but he transitioned to formula without a flinch. We used Plum Organics formula, for no other reason than we use a lot of their products (snacks, pouches for on the go, meatballs, etc.) If we had to do long term formula I am sure we would have found a more cost effective product since he didn't have any tummy issues or anything with the switch. We are now in the process of introducing whole milk. I made the switch with two of his bottles at first and he didn't seem to know the difference even though I served it cold. I sent his lunch bottle in a sippy cup today, so we will see how that went... empty bottle in his backpack in case they entered meltdown city. At G's wellness check Dr Pass said that we had until 15 months to get him off of the bottle, but I hope to do it much sooner than that. I don't think it will be an issue except that he sees all of the babes at school with them. Until he starts walking he will stay in the infant room at school. So this could hinder the process a bit.

This month G was picky and not picky, depended on the day. I cannot put fruit out at all or else mealtime is over until he gets those berries. School told me that they cant give any of the kids fruit until its time for G to get his... ::hanging my head in shame:: I mean, at least its healthy?! Funniest part is I craved fruit like a crazy person when I was pregnant with him!

I didn't document as well this month as I did previously, but we tried a lot of new things and are continuing to do so while mixing in some goodies and favorites:

Crock Pot Beef & Broccoli with Steamed Rice and Blueberries

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia, Spanish Rice, Mushrooms & Peas

Chicken Wild Rice Casserole, Broccoli & Strawberries

Slower Cooker BBQ Chicken, Mushrooms, Potato Salad, Green Beans & Strawberries

Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti, Apricot & Mushrooms

Torilla Mini Pizzas, Sautéed Zucchini and Raspberries

Other things we tried, but aren't pictured:

Sausage Jambalaya

Spaghetti Squash

Baked Tofu Nuggets

Cottage Cheese

Crockpot Chicken Burrito Bowl

Garlic Parm Butternut Squash

I had also been sending homemade pouches to school for G that were simple snacks. Fruits or veggies combines with yogurt or oatmeal. Then this month I decided to get weird on him and do crazy combos. Most of which were flops... but you never know what your babe will like until you have them try it!

Sweet Potato, Carrot & Pear

Blueberry, Apple & Spinach

Blackberry, Apple & Kale

Blueberry, Banana & Oatmeal

Strawberry, Banana & Yogurt

Butternut Squash & Peach

Cauliflower, Peas & Sweet Potato

Avocado, Banana, & Kiwi

Don't let me fool you, most of them weren't a success and now I have some stashed in the freezer that he likely wont eat. Meh - you win some, you lose some.

Now that we have officially turned one, I got the green light on all nut spreads and pretty much anything else we want to feed him. Dr Pass only said she would still stay away from shellfish; which isn't a problem, as we don't make too much shrimp around our house anyway.

Let's Eat: 11 Months

We have started to work with utensils. I usually pull out two, one for me and one for him. I let him hold one and I will "stab" the food for him, but he is capable of brining the fork to his mouth (and making it!) no problem. When he tries to stab the food, he more like moves it around the tray. We are a work in progress.


Schedule:

6:30 am/7:30 am: Wake, 4ounce bottle,

*banana/Plum mish mosh breakfast pouch, get ready for school

I don't always give him solids/pouch in the morning. Actually its probably more likely that he doesn't get food in the morning. I am thinking that I should start doing it more often as we know weaning off of milk is coming.

9:00 am: Snack (puffs, fruit, or wafer cookie) & 4 ounce bottle

11:00 am: Lunch (meat, vegetable & fruit) & 4 ounce bottle

3:00 pm: Snack (puffs, fruit or wafer cookie) & 4 ounce bottle

6:00pm/6:30 pm: Dinner (meat/eggs/fruit/vegetable/yogurt)

6:45 pm/7:15 pm: 1-4 ounces of bottle

I decided mid-month to take down all of his bottles to 4 ounces. I noticed that on the weekends it was a real struggle to get him to drink the whole thing. And as any breastfeeding mother knows, watching your hard earned milk go down the drain is painful. And to be honest, I am down to my last 100-150 ounces I have in the freezer, so wasting it was literally killing me. I asked school what their thoughts were and they were all in, since they had been having to take several tries to get him to drink all of it as well. I haven't passed this by Dr Pass, but in a month he will need to wean anyway, right? For now this is my plan, unless he seems hungry again, then I will reassess.


I am continuing to watch what I put on his plate, as he will house the fruit and skip the veggies if the choice is there. I am still putting new items or items that are not his favorite first and then working towards the fruit to be dessert.


I have been trying to feed him new things so he doesn't tire of chicken. Keep in mind these plates are FULL. Some nights he eats almost all of it. Other nights Layla gets a bigger helping. Once he starts dropping everything on the floor, I know dinnertime is over.

Within the next day or two we will have burned through our entire deep freezer stash of breast milk. I thought I would only make it through May, so G's schedule change of less milk helped get us until now. I know I should be excited, happy and proud to have made it this far, but for some reason coming so close to a year but not making it makes me sad. I just had a discussion today with friends about how funny things are. Things I thought I would care/not care about vs the reality of those things now while living it. Even when I was pregnant I knew that I wanted to breastfeed, but also knew that if it didn't work out for me, that was ok. Formula works too. But once I was on a roll with it, it became super important to me to keep up my supply, and to save, save SAVE. I know that last breast milk bottle will be a sad one for me to see go. But we are growing up and soon bottles all together will be a thing of the past.



Left: Tacos, Spanish Rice, Grapes, Guacamole
Right: Beans, Cilantro Lime Rice, Crockpot Chicken Fajitas, Guacamole & Blackberries



Clockwise:
Pasta Milano, Broccoli, Grapes
Southwest Quinoa with Beef, Spinach Cakes, Strawberries
Turkey Sausage, Rosemary Garlic Sweet Potatoes, Scrambled Eggs, Blackberries
Pasta with Sauce, Chicken Parmesan, Peas
Crockpot Ribs, Mandarin Oranges, Corn, and Cinnamon Roasted Butternut Squash
Chicken Pot Pie, Blackberries and Strawberries



Clockwise:
Pulled Pork, Rosemary Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans, Strawberries
Meatballs, Cheese Ravioli, Garlic Bread, Mushrooms, Grapes
Chicken Stir Fry, Blackberries
Oven Baked Chicken, Green Beans, Fruit Medley, DeeDee's Pasta
Hard Boiled Egg, Broccoli, Grapes, Sweet Potatoes, Mushrooms
Sloppy Joe's, Spinach Cake, Pureed Butternut Squash, Banana, Strawberries
Cucumber and Hummus, Garlic Roasted Red Potatoes, Lemon Pepper Broccoli, Chicken, Strawberries
Pork Potstickers, Broccoli, Parmesan Sweet Potatoes, Raspberries
Meatballs, Sweet Potatoes, Blackberries, Mushrooms and Pasta with Italian Dressing and Carrots

Lots of sweet potatoes and chicken, but we are expanding our horizons. Its fun to meal plan for all of us and seeing G grow up in the kitchen.



Let's Eat: 10 Months

2 months until I officially say my baby isn't a baby anymore. Insane.


Grayson is so much fun in general and I will say the stage we are in right now is by far my favorite so far. He's so with it, curious and happy. I have really enjoyed his love for food and willingness to try anything. I briefly touched on his preferences for foods in his 10 month update, but he definitely is starting to decide what he likes, or what he likes more than other things. I used to put everything I had fixed on his tray at one time, but now I place things that I know he likes, but maybe wouldn't be his favorite item in the meal on his tray first and then add the more "likeable" items as we go. And don't even think about pulling the yogurt out before he's had a chance to eat everything else, because it will be game over until that yogurt is all.gone.

Schedule:

6:30 am/7:30 am: Wake, 4ounce bottle,

banana/Plum mish mosh breakfast pouch, get ready for school

9:00 am: Snack (puffs, fruit, or wafer cookie) & 6 ounce bottle

11:00 am: Lunch (meat, vegetable & fruit) & 6 ounce bottle

3:00 pm: Snack (puffs, fruit or wafer cookie) & 6 ounce bottle

6:00pm/6:30 pm: Dinner (meat/eggs/fruit/vegetable/yogurt)

6:45 pm/7:15 pm: 1-4 ounces of bottle

The schedule hasn't changed much. We have taken the morning and evening bottles down to 4 ounces each. On the weekends he seems to not eat all (3) 6ounce bottles, so I may defrost less than that over the weekends to continue to stretch out my supply. This past weekend we did utilize formula for the first time. Since the frozen breastmilk is only good for 24 hours, we were unable to bring enough for the weekend. I purchased Plum Organics formula and he took it without any issues and once we got home gave him the breastmilk and he went right back to it without a problem. He makes life easy, yall.

Every Sunday I grocery shop and spend part of the day preparing G's food for the week. Although we give him a lot of whatever we are eating, especially when we go out to eat, I still make certain things specially for him. It makes it easier to do so since I have to send food to school for lunches as well, but I do try to give him new foods as well as oldies that we know he likes. Generally I cook a marinated chicken breast, cube and steam fruit and vegetables, sometimes cook pasta, and then any random recipes I want to try.

For school I send 3-4 small containers - 1 of veggie burger/different meats, 1 of vegetables (several options), 1 of fruit (several options) and sometimes I will send one of plain pasta noodles with parm cheese. I also frequently send homemade pouches with a mix of a fruit or veg and some oatmeal, bananas, avocados or the mini wholly guacamole packs. I also send teething crackers, puffs, yogurt melts and other toddler snack items in bulk every few weeks. I feel like I buy a ton of different snack items, but I would hate for him to get stuck in a rut or not experience new foods and flavors.

As always, I am scouring the internet for new food ideas for him, so if you have good ones, please share!

Lets Eat: 9 Months

Here we are chugging along in month 9... a lot has changed, yet again, this month.

The biggest change of all is that G has decided to no longer nurse. I have so many different emotions about it all, but deep in my heart I know that this change could not have happened any more naturally than it did.


TMI - however, I got my first period since October 2014, and it took a severe hit on my supply. Couple that with my brother's wedding weekend and me heading out of town for the Masters, it was natural for this to happen. My supply hasn't come back since, and G hasn't been bothered to nurse. I was so, so sad at first. I wasn't prepared for it to happen. I felt like I didn't savor the last time we nursed. It all happened so quickly. But when I think about it now, the last time I nursed him was special, and I didn't even know it. It was Easter Sunday at my parents, G was sleepy and nursed for just a minute or two and fell asleep. I held him snuggling for a bit before I brought him out to lay him down. I'll never forget it.


But with this big change, there is a lot of "new" for us.

Schedule:

6:30 am/7:30 am: Wake, 4-6ounce bottle, get ready for school

9:00 am: Snack (puffs, fruit, or wafer cookie) & 6 ounce bottle

11:00 am: Lunch (meat, vegetable & fruit) & 6 ounce bottle

3:00 pm: Snack (puffs, fruit or wafer cookie) & 6 ounce bottle

6:30 pm: Dinner (meat/eggs/fruit/vegetable/yogurt)

7:15 pm: 1-4 ounces of bottle

Night time routine has changed significantly. He's such a big boy now - he feeds himself the bottle and when he is full will sit up, hand me the bottle, reach for his paci and hug me. Cue the waterworks, yall. I kiss him, tell him good night and lay him down while he is wide awake. And we don't hear a peep from him until morning. HOW HAS THIS HAPPENED?!

At G's 9 month appointment, Dr Pass told us that even up to 30 ounces of milk a day is still ok for him, although from the morning and evening bottles this week it seems like he is getting less, which is also fine.

I am pumping in the morning only right now. And I am getting 4-6 ounces. Such a far cry from  what my supply used to be. However, that built up supply that I've had in the deep freezer is now making sense. We should be able to feed G man through May with that supply and maybe even longer depending on if he keeps the smaller amounts in the morning and evening bottles. If I cant stretch the supply until G is one, then I will need to supplement with formula. Which is totally fine, but I truly dont even know where to start with that, but I guess we cross that bridge when we get there.

G is eating everything and anything. The only off limits items according to Dr Pass is shrimp and nuts. School continuously tells us what a great eater he is. We are super fortunate.

Would love any easy recipes for babes, or for families that babes can enjoy. Share - please!

Lets Eat: 8 Months

I posted about our 7 month schedule a few weeks ago, and here we are changing things up again. Does the anxiety ever stop?!


As of Monday G moved from the "baby" side of the infant room to the "older" side of the infant room. Cue the tears. With the move, it will alter his schedule. They say they will ease him into this change, but I have been trying to start the change over the past week by sending snacks for him and doing much more on the finger foods front. Although, theres more in his chair than his mouth most of the time!

Weekday Schedule:

6:30 /7:15am: Wake/Nurse/Get ready for School

8:30/9:00am: Snack (puffs, yogurt drops, teething crackers, etc.)

9:30/10:00am: Milk - Starting with his usual 6 ounces, but plan to decrease?

11/11:30am: Lunch (Veggie burger, diced steamed veggies, peas, chicken quinoa meatballs, etc.) & its been suggested to accompany with milk - 4 ounces?

2:30/3:00pm: Afternoon Snack (same as morning, maybe add diced fruit?) & its been suggested to accompany with milk - 4 ounces?

6/6:30pm: Dinner (Meat, oatmeal, fruit, veg, etc) & Water

7/7:15 pm: Nurse

Bed

Here are my concerns/questions:

• suggestions on snacks besides things like puffs? Seems like empty snacking, although, he doesn't need calories
• how do you decrease the breastmilk amounts? Is going down to 4 ounces per bottle during the day going to shock him?
• everything I read says to still give 24 ounces minimum and 30 ounces max. If I go down to (3) 4 ounce bottles during the day, will his nursing in the morning/evening last longer than it does now to be sure he's getting the 24 ounces? Or I guess you don't have to worry about it?
• suggestions on recipes for lunches/dinners? I have started scouring Pinterest and other "Baby Led Weaning" sites, even though I am not sure that's what I would call what I am doing - ha!

As always, I welcome and love feedback and help! 

Lets Eat! 7 Months

I cant tell you how many times I google "___ month old schedule" or "how many ounces should a ___ month old have in a day".

First Time Mom paranoia over here, yall.

To further my random concerns, I am going to throw our current schedule out there for scrutiny. Opinions are welcomed and I am truly writing this to see where is compares to other kiddos. So bring it.... PLEASE!

Weekday Schedule:

7:00 am: Wake/Nurse, get ready for school

10:00 am: 6oz bottle

11:30 am: 2 tablespoons Oatmeal, 2 tablespoons fruit/vegetable

1:00 pm: 6oz bottle

4:00 pm: 6 oz bottle

6:30 pm: Teething cracker while I get his dinner ready, 2 tablespoons oatmeal, 2 tablespoons fruit/veg, sometimes 1/2 container yogurt

Bath post dinner, get ready for bed, book/guitar time

7:30 pm: Nurse then bed 

I have introduced puffs, yogurt melts and water. Water I allow throughout the day as he would like to drink it, but the puffs and yogurt melts are far and few between.

Too much food? On track? Its all so confusing to me!

He is sleeping great at night, bu his day time snoozes are still short. Typically logging (3) 30 minute naps at school. While at home he will nap longer, but only if he is being held. Any suggestions on how to get him to nap better? I am all ears!

Oink!

After all of my breastfeeding heartache, G&I have been on a roll, for months producing.... well, rolls, baby rolls, if you will. I've know the time was fast approaching to start purees, but that was just terrifying.

While we had been out to eat and even at home G was taking extra interest in our meals. Specifically towards the end of last week there was a lot of grabbing.

Now, don't lecture me on my food choices. I am under pre-pregnancy weight and am taking advantage of all those extra calories I get to consume thanks to breastfeeding. Are there extra pounds to be shed, YES! But for now, I am going to eat like a boy and have ice cream or cookies every night until this well dries up! Judge if you must, I don't care.

Back to the topic at hand: I had severe denial... until about 2 weeks ago. I finally started researching on good old Pinterest, zoning in on posts in my Moms Group on Facebook, and of course, picking the Bestest's brain.

To be honest, even after research it was terrifying. But thanks to boredom of being off work and lazy around the house, I set out to Kroger with a basic grocery list in hand. I found this post, this one and this one to be most helpful for me.

So here I was... I had the cutest sous chef and we got busy

Go Big or Go Home?!

In my first go I made: Pears, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Zucchini, Yellow Squash, Avocado, Sweet Potato, Apple, Blueberry, Peas and Mango purees. I mean, might as well bang it all out, right?

It was so easy. I tag teamed everything with my Beaba and with traditional steaming/blending with my Ninja. I had bought square ice cube trays, but did not get enough for this haul, so I had to wait overnight for them to freeze, put in ziplocks and finish the rest. Noted for next time: don't be so ambitious.

"What did you say?!"

"You're going to give me real food?!"

"Shut your mouth!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I would love to say I had a strategic way of deciding the first veggie I was going to give him, but the real answer is, I showed J the first puree I made (peas) and he dipped a finger in and gave G a taste, and he liked it. From all of my research I knew that we should only give him one new fruit or veggie every 3-ish days, so when the time came peas it was!

I also had originally wanted to wait until G was officially 6 months (Friday) but J had a good point. We have a doctor's appointment that day and maybe it would be good to have a few days under our belt so we knew what to ask her.

G could hardly stand the anticipation

We gave him 2 ounces in a bottle first, then we set out with the peas and 1 tbsp. of oatmeal

He was a natural. It was clear that he was ready (I may have been late to start the solid train in his eyes) He took the spoon away from J and was pretty much feeding himself at one point. J quickly learned to not leave the bowl on his highchair - oops! #parentfail

If we thought Layla loved him before.... enter the best days in her book.

Overall, super successful. I am excited to see how he likes other foods, to talk to the doctor about how much is too much or too little, and to start to be able to give him nibbles of what we are eating. This new stage will be fun & much less overwhelming than it seemed in the beginning!