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!