One year anxiety

So I am about to become a mom to a one year old. Can you say anxiety? Anyone else feeling a little stressed out that it's been a year since having their child? As we creep up to a year I start to reminisce about everything baby W has done. One of the main things that I wanted to tell you today was all about how I learned that you can't compare what your child does to what another child does. Over the year, I have compared baby W to other babies like well he can't do this...or we has been able to do that for months. What I have learned is that it doesn't matter what they can or cannot do.

What matters is...if they are healthy. It's not a long post but it's long enough to get my started back with my baby blog again. Hopefully I will be back soon enough with lots for you.

Is your milk supply low?

Are you freaking out that your milk supply is low? This happened to me. Baby W was nursing and NOTHING was coming out. I have had milk the entire time and then all of the sudden...I was drying out. I needed to do something...and FAST! My problem was because baby W was eating solids I became complacent. I didn't care so much that he wasn't getting milk because he was getting solids. I was wrong. He needed his milk. Here is what I did in order to get my supply up.

1. I drank two - three teas a day of Milkmaid Tea by Earth Mama's Organics. It tastes gross but adding Stevia and a dab of Dasani Water mix it got rid of the licorice taste. Be aware that it is also a detoxing product. You will have to go to the bathroom because it will cleanse your system. It is well worth it in the end though.

2. I drink 96-128 ounces of water a day. I added a ton of alarms in my phone to help me remember to drink my water.

3. I ate about 1-2 oatmeal bars every day. I like the blueberry ones by Nature's Valley and I ate it on the way to work and as an afternoon snack. I'm sure you can eat anything with oats in it and it will help as well. 

4. Because I couldn't just pump when I wanted to, I would pump every 4-5 hours. However, I was learning that I wasn't necessarily pumping hard enough. Check your settings on the pump. If it is not on a high enough setting, it won't allow you to extract all of the milk. Get it all out if you can.

5. Eat. You will use 500 calories a day just on feeding or pumping. You need to make sure that you are eating accordingly. If you're not then you won't pump as much as you need. 

6. You may enjoy your sleep but you probably should get up and pump once or twice at night. Once you get into this habit you will be able to get some milk stored and saved.

Sweet Potatoes Puréed

Of course as I embark on this adventure to make all of Baby W's food I almost burn the house down. No joke. At least you can learn from my mistakes and do the correct thing! :]

Let's start off with the tools you will need:

1-2 sweet potatoes

Peeler

Knife

Cutting board

Pot filled with water

Some type of mixer (magic bullet, baby bullet, etc)

Storage container

Step 1- get the water to a boil. I thought I was being so awesome and bought this little ($9.00) steamer and I would put the food in the steamer and BAM I was done. That was not the case. If you have a steamer-use that. Otherwise, bring a pot of water to a boil. I usually add salt to make it a little faster but I didn't want to expose baby W to it.

Step 2: While the pot is coming to a boil, I would peel the potato. Wash it first then start peeling the potato. I then got my handy dandy knife ready to cut.

Step 3: Cut the slices. I like to make them semi thin and the cut into fourths. I feel like the heat makes it easier to get through it and it will help a lot during the blending process. 

Step 4: Wash the potatoes off in warm water so they don't tighten up. Then put them in your blender and with a little bit of breastmilk or water. I didn't measure the water because I would just keep an eye to see if it was too thick and then add water or breast milk as needed. BLEND!

Step 5: After it gets nice and creamy, I would take them out and pour them into my containers so they would be able to be eaten throughout the week. I did not add any spices because I don't want him to be attracted to specific types of spices i.e. sugar.

This can stay in your fridge for 3 days and in your freezer for 3 months with no problem. You will need about 24 hours for it to thaw and then you can serve it. You can serve it cold or warm. Baby W likes it either way but probably would prefer it to be a little warm.

I can't wait to hear how you like the sweet potatoes and how this works out for you!

Sleeping

I bet you're starting to wonder if you're ever going to sleep again. You won't. Hahah I'm just kidding. As your little one starts to get older you will slowly increase the amount of sleep you and the baby get. 

0-3 months :

* they are the hardest! The baby is awake every few hours. I mean 1-2 hours. And unless your spouse is feeding them there is honestly nothing they can do to help you. 

* your beautiful little baby will wake from a sound sleep and will scream until you feed them. 

* it will be 1-2 hours. Eventually it will be 2-3 hours so just hang on. 

* it's okay if you decide to use a bottle and have your spouse get up during one feeding. Really...it's okay. Let your spouse have that connection that you and your baby have.

* honestly, try to sleep during one of the babies naps. It sounds so childish but it will save your sanity.

3-4 months:

The golden month! Oh my goodness. One day your little baby will skip a feeding at night [because you were getting up every 3 hours] and you're going to freak out but they just extended your sleep from 2.5 hours to 5.5 hour. Yes, you can get excited! When I learned that baby W lost a feeding, I had mixed emotions. At first I was like YES!!! Three more hours of sleep for me and then k was sad because that was one less feeding he needed from me. After a few nights my boobs stopped hurting and i was able to stop waking up when he normally woke up. 

One of my obstacles that I had to work on was a thought that didn't leave my head. If he wasn't feeding during that time a lot... Should I pump to keep my supply up OR sleep? Want to guess what won? If you guessed sleep...you are correct! So here was my thought process... If he's not waking up during that time and he is going to be sleeping through that particular feeding then why am I pumping if he won't need that feeding again? I pumped enough for him during the feeding before and after the feeding after that I didn't really feel like I needed to pump for the feeding that he missed. Now if he was still eating during that time I would not have skipped feeding him or pumping him. I try to stick to his schedule the best that I possibly can. Of course that won't always work but for the most part I make it work. 

Stay tuned for his five month schedule!

Solids already?

So I can't believe it but it's now time for baby W to actually start eating solids. We started off with rice cereal strictly because the doctor told us we have to. It was just to teach him how to eat and how to swallow food. I probably would not have started him on the rice cereal but I am one of those people who follows the doctors orders. The first 3 days were to teach him how to use a spoon because let's face it - he didn't swallow anything. The four after that were to see if he was allergic to the cereal. After seven days we started giving him different foods. We first started off with peas. He loved it… But after the fourth day he was like all right I'm done. I have heard that you can give them food over 3 days buy per our pediatrician we went four days. You could totally tell that he enjoyed eating the food, however, he wanted to see what else is out there. So on the fifth day of him with his new food we switches foods again… And it was great! We actually ended up giving him peaches as his third solid. After that he ate  mangoes. 

How did we decide what food to give him? Well, first off... I did not make his original tasting food. Why? Because I didn't want to go and make a ton of food for him especially if he wasn't going to like it. I wanted to buy separately because you only give the him 2 tablespoons with their first trying food. So I wanted him to use the squeeze packets. I poured it into a bowl and fed him off a spoon and not right out of the  packet. I ended up buying two packets of each mix. So it would be two mangoes. It would be two plums. It would be two peaches. In the beginning I measured it by tablespoons, but now I can estimate that half a packet W will eat. So I can have a packet and I would feed him and then I would watch him and I try to give it to him about two hours before his bedtime. That way if he did have an allergic reaction it was while he was awake and not while he was sleeping. the rice cereal became his breakfast. His typical day looks like this now 

4 month old schedule:

2:00/2:30- nurse

5 AM nurse

*Back to sleep

8:30 AM – nurse +2 tablespoons of rice cereal ( I wait 30 minutes before I give him the cereal. That way his milk will digest)

*nap at 9:30/10 - really just power naps -

11:30/noon - 4 to 5 ounces of breast milk or formula 

*nap at 12:30/1 - power nap again

2:30/3:00- 4 to 5 ounces of breast milk or formula 

Sometimes he took a quick nap from 5

530 tablespoons of food

645 P.m. rest milk and then he went to sleep.

His five month schedule is looking a tad bit different so when it gets solidified I will post about it! Hopefully this helped some of you and any questions you had about how to start solids and a 4 month olds schedule.

Breastfeeding during take off...

Have you ever tried breastfeeding on a plane? Let me tell you that honestly...it kind of sucks. I love breastfeeding baby W don't get me wrong! My husbands family lives in Georgia [we are in Florida] and we decided to fly instead of the 10 hour drive. We spoke to baby W's Doctor and asked what we needed to do for baby W on the plane. Her response was feed him when you're going up and feed him when you're going down. For her...no problem. For us- uhhhh you want me to feed him both times? Well we brought milk on the plane but I decided I was going to breast feed him because I was either going to sit in the bathroom on the plane for 30 minutes pumping or I was going to bring my cover and just feed him. Reality set in and I decided to feed him instead. On the way up (into the air) I was able to feed him because we timed it perfectly for when he eats and when he would need to be fed. For example, our flight was at 6:30 and I knew that I was feeding him every 3 hours. So I got home and fed him around 3:30. 3 hours later we are getting ready to fly in the air and I was able to feed him! Yippee!!! It was great timing and couldn't have been better. The way down? That was a different story. Baby W had just finished eating like an hour before so he really didn't want to eat again. (The flight was 1.50 hours) so unfortunately he was a little bit of a booger because mommy was trying to make him eat and frankly he didn't want to. I learned early on though that if you blow in a babies face they [usually] swallow. That allows them to pop their ears! I know - great idea!!! I ended up playing games with him and distracted him long enough before I even cried. He was so good that the ladies behind us said they didn't even know there was a baby in front of them. (Proud mommy moment much?)

Coming back? A little crazier. Baby W pooped himself right before security. Seriously. And he was tired. So we had to get through security AND the train before we could change is diaper. It honestly was a total of 8 minutes but it felt like an hour because of his screaming. Once I changed him and held him he fell right back to sleep. The plane ride home was just like the way up. I fed him at 10 and we took off at one. The 3 hour feeding window worked out great. He fell asleep as soon as he was done nursing.

He slept like this until we almost landed. I didn't end up waking him during the descent because it would just make him way more angry. What did you do to make your plane experience easier for your infant?

Diaper Bag

I love bags. I love having twenty purses and carrying around as much as I can. However, now that baby W is here...I really hate carrying things. I love that I can throw it in the bottom of his stroller. That spoiled me so now I never want to carry anything! The main question is "What is in my diaper bag?"

I should tell you first that I bought a Vera Bradley diaper bag because I knew that their straps were super strong, and I got it half off during Christmas time. 

Inside the bag:

1- a changing pad. This actually came with the bag. It has a plush side and a  slick side. It's buttoned in and you can just in button it when you like. I don't leave the diaper bag on the changing table when we are out and about, so being able to detach it has been a super help! I also love that I can throw it into the wash quickly.

2-Inside the bag is 6 pockets. Inside those pockets are lots of what I call goodies [my husband doesn't say that]. I have lots inside the bag. 

-baby wipes

-diapers

-boogie wipes

-neat cheeks [ I LOVE these!]

-Tommee Tippee pacifier wipes

-baby powder

-diaper rash cream

-rattle

-extra pacifier

-bibs

burp cloths

-bottles when needed

-nipple shield when needed

I know it sounds like a lot but honestly, it really isn't. This is the easiest way for me to carry the least amount of things. I love what I carry in my bag and when I really need it... I sure am glad I have it in my diaper bag. Hopefully this helps you and all the things you may need in your diaper bag!