Thursday, May 30, 2013

first time flying success-o!

Yay, I am happy to say that baby E did so well for her first time flying. Of course that's not to say she didn't get fussy, she did...but I think that had more to do with her missing her nap. I followed the advice of fellow mommies and also a tsa mommy who suggested giving E a bottle at takeoff and landing over a pacifier. This would help E in alleviating any discomfort from the ear pressure due to the high flying altitude. Each time she had the bottle or was nursing, she was fine. 

On the descent from our first flight (the morning one) - E was jumping around on our laps and being silly. But as soon as the descent was starting she got fussy. That was when I first started noticing her rubbing her ears. She looked so uncomfortable and I had only prepared 1 bottle which she consumed so fast at takeoff. You see, mommy here thought she would still be following her schedule and nap on the short flight. I was wrong! She was so excited on the plane but you could tell she was fighting her sleep. So when the descent started husby and I panicked. I tried to give her the pacifier but she wasn't having it..she was still rubbing her ears. I hastily grabbed my nursing cover and was super relieved that she took to nursing to alleviate her ear pressure.

On the way home we had a night flight so E just had her bottle and knocked out for the whole flight. However, I noticed on the start of the descent she started to rub around her ear area (even though she was asleep). So I quickly gave her a bottle and she was pacified. Haha, luckily I learned from our first flight that I should have 2 bottles prepared just in case! We thought that since she was asleep that she wouldn't need the second, but glad we were prepared bc she actually did need it.

All in all, the experience was way better than I could have hoped. Now I'm looking forward to our next family trip=)! Flight is going to be like 5x longer, so crossing fingers it's just as successful! Haha the one bummer I noticed though was that they don't do family pre-boarding anymore at the airports. Darn, we finally qualify for it and they took it a way just a few years ago! hahah ah well.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

tools of the trade!

I just had a quick chat with one of my preggo friends last week about what equipment I use to make E's baby food. Well, I didn't get a chance to research all the baby food makers out there since we ended up receiving this as a gift at Christmas:


the baby bullet!

Do I like it? Yeah, it does what it's supposed to do. I put in my steamed/baked fruit/veggies/meats in there and it purees it to the consistency of my choice. Of course I add water/breast milk to get the exact consistency that E can eat. There are no presets, just more of a 1-setting blend feature. You can pulse but just pushing the casing up and down, but for the foods I do now I just use the regular blending/pureeing mode. Sure you can use your own blender if you already have one at home...I mean, it's pretty much the same thing. Even though we got this as a gift, I know I would have still bought a separate machine to make E's food. Though not as cost efficient, it gives me piece of mind that her food is made exclusively with a baby food maker with only foods she can ingest right now. I do use our steamer that we already own to steam some veggies/fruits. We have this one:

Oster Steamer!


and it does exactly what I need it to do to make E's food. Yeah I know, "You won't use the blender you already have but you'll use the steamer you already own?" Haha, hey! There's no blades on the steamer and the steamer is easier for me to clean. Plus it's steaming, not much food residue is left so I thought it would be okay to use for E's food=P. So yeah, the baby bullet + our oster steamer = perfect match on making baby E's sustenance!

Buuuuuuut, if we didn't already have the baby bullet I was also told about this model:
The Baby Brezza!

It's pretty much an all-in-one gadget for you baby food needs. Steams and purees - good use of being efficient considering how short on time we all are these days! So yeah, you choose what works best for you. In our case, we made the best of what we were given/had and it works out well for baby E's needs.

I did run short on containers to store her food in the fridge/freezer. I tend to make bigger portions and freeze them so that I can be more time efficient wehn making all her meals. I looked at grocery stores/online for containers and since I just wanted a specific size I opted for the Oxo tot blocks:

I really wanted to just get the lock and lock glass containers, but the ones I saw either came in a package with bigger sizes or if individual - then too pricey for me. So far, no issues with them. If freezing, I don't overfill the containers since I know the food will expand in the freezer. Has nice little markings on the side so I know how many ounces baby girl is getting. Right now it's the perfect size for her - holds up to 4oz. I had ordered 6-2oz containers as well (similar size as the 2 oz jars that came with the baby bullet), but I'll be returning them for more of these 4oz blocks. What works for you guys?


Friday, May 10, 2013

How I feel since being back at work...



Hahah yeah, that's been me since returning to work. I just feel like a zombie most days. It's funny because I could never understand how people drink coffee in the morning AND afternoon. My older sister who is an avid tea drinker hated coffee. But after having 2 kids, she is such a latte fiend. Like she seriously needs her morning espresso to function properly that day! I mean, dude...I would get jitters from just one latte. But now I totally get it...parenthood does that to you!

I would say on a good night, I can average about 6 hours of sleep? There's just so much to do once we get home that those few hours we get after work seem to fly by! We pick up E from the in-laws, get home, husby takes E a bath while I wash all my pumping stuff just so that I can pump later that night, I prep E's foods for the next day w/ the in-laws, try to prepare lunch for husby and I, give E her last bottle, and if we're lucky..maybe squeeze a show in with the husby to unwind. Haha, that's on a good night. Usually one of us (ahem, husby=P) is so tired that there's no tv at all. Not that I mind..it's always nice to just relax with the kindle, randomly search the web, or just sleep! And it cycles on like that for the rest of the week. Oh, the joys!

But, it pays quadrillion infinity fold when we see E smile at us when she wakes up the next day. Or when she tugs at my hair or husby's chin. Or when she squeals in delight and tries to crawl or cruise towards us when we go to pick her up. Or when she does her little twinkle toes jumping like a maniac on our laps=P. Or when she raspberries or puckers her lips at us to try to imitate the sounds we make with her. Ha, it's neverending and we love it.

So yeah, lack of sleep...pshhh no problem. Hahah, it's when I have no sleep AND I'm hungry that you better be worried. Hahah husby can relate to me when I feel like this:

                            
and he understands this golden rule:


muahahah..oh the internet, you crack me up!

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Is it teething or sleep regression or separation anxiety? What IS it???!!!

So for the past 3 weeks or so, baby E has been waking up once maybe twice at night after putting her to sleep. At first I chalked it up to sleep regression because they say ("they" as in articles/books I've been finding about the topic) that sleep regression hits when babies are between 8-10 months old. Pretty much, babies at this age are learning SO much; maybe they're crawling/cruising/walking/talking/etc.. that their brains are just on overload and want to use these new found skills. 

An example I read about to help us adults understand this better was this - When you have a big vacation planned, you get excited right? The night before you're anxious and you just can't sleep because you're thinking so much about it. I guess that's how babies get during this sleep regression phase - they wake up and they just want to keep practicing all that they have learned. Well in our case, baby E has been cruising since around March? So we thought maybe that was it..maybe she just wants to walk already. Every time she'd wake up, she's already standing there waiting for us. Ha, not quietly of course. She's screaming/making noises, but not crying.

I brought this up to E's pediatrician last week at her 9 month appt, and she said it coooould be that. I guess she wasn't as convinced as I was...dang internet reading!=P But she also started asking about how much E was eating throughout the day. She was up to 2-3 solids/day and maybe 20-25 oz breast milk/day. So, since I was previously on a non-dairy diet, doc suggested upping E's meals to at least 3x/day and making snacks in between like avocados - more fats to fill her up. And to supplement a nightly bottle with 8oz of soy formula so that she'd have between 24-28oz milk/soy formula per day. We did this and E slept well again last week. Voila, doc was on point- E was just hungry!

Buuuuut, then this week happened. E didn't wake up every night, but 2x this week was enough for me to think is it sleep regression again? Then I thought, maybe it's separation anxiety. Since I've been back at work for 2 months now, I do notice that E seems a little clingier on my days off with her. Yeah, she's clingy when we're around strangers...but when it's just me she seems to want me there ALL the time. Not that I mind, I just noticed a difference compared to when I was with her everyday during maternity leave. 

Then there's the teething. Maybe it's just teething? On Tuesday I noticed a little white protruding next to bottom right center tooth. Ack, this girl - getting so many teeth already! Ha, so maybe it's that? Poor thing, I guess people are right. Once they start teething, it lasts til they get all of their teeth! 

So out of all my guesses, I'm hoping it's just as simple as the teething issue. Lots of things to consider, but that seems to make the most sense. It'll be another thing if she still wakes up at night after this tooth pops through. *sigh* I guess we've been spoiled with her sleeping through the night for so long! 

Anyone else go through something similar?

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

I can have DAIRY again, well sort of...

My pregnancy was full of ups and downs - but in the long run was well worth it because husby and I are now the proud parents of a beautiful, silly, loud, baby girl! I posted a while ago that I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes during my last trimester. You can imagine my shock and sadness at the time because I always had the notion that, "Hey I'm pregnant, I can eat whatever I WANT!!" Well, not so in my case. However, I quickly turned that low into a high and got on the right track and pretty much just ate healthy. 

So, you would think that after baby E was born that I could go back to my regular eating habits right? I did for a few months...4 months to be exact. Then we had baby E's 4-month well baby check up and found out that she had a milk-protein (MP) allergy. What does that mean? Well since I was exclusively breastfeeding E, it meant that something I was eating was causing the tiny dots of blood we saw in her poopy diapers. Yep, you can be sure that husby and I freaked out the first time we saw those tiny specks. It was actually around her 2-month appointment that we noticed the blood. At first the Dr. thought that maybe it was E fighting off a cold that I may have passed down to her and since we didn't see any more dots of blood in her poop afterwards - we thought the same as well.

But, at her 4-month appointment E had pooped right when we got to the doc's office. I guess you could say we were lucky that she did because the doctor was able to see her actual poop in person and confirm her suspicion that it may be MP allergy. From that point on the doctor wanted me to eliminate all the big dairy culprits (milk, cheese, creams) from my diet and see if that helped. After doing an elimination diet for the next month, we found out that I had to take out ALL forms of dairy (yup, even the hidden dairy like whey, casein, lactate, etc...) and also beef. I was so, so, so sad. I thought after having GD and needing to eat well during my pregnancy, that everything would just go back to normal once E was born. I mean, I guess it could have if I decided to just feed E formula instead of breast milk. But I didn't want to rob E of the nutrients that she could get from my breastmilk if all I needed to do was make some dietary restrictions and sacrifices until she turns 1. So, since December I had been calling myself a pseudo vegan. Hehe, because I couldn't have any dairy or beef, BUT I ate chicken/pork/fish. 

Notice though that I said HAD??? As of E turning 9 months , I am now able to have some dairy and also beef again. Last week was the first time I ate ice cream/froyo/baked goods  with dairy. Albeit, I can only have 1/2 cup per day - but I'll take it! The funny thing is is that I think my stomach isn't used to the dairy back in my system. It starts getting kind of jumpy/nauseous sometimes after I eat dairy. I haven't had any cheese yet which is probably the one thing that I've missed the most next to my fav Chocolate Malted Crunch ice cream.  Just waiting on the doc to give me the go ahead on expanding my dairy repertoire=)! 

Haha- but again just like the diet I had to maintain while I had GD , husby LOVED the diet I was on while eliminating dairy. Pretty much a vegan/paleo diet and sometimes gluten free diet as well. I've never felt so restricted before. I'll be honest, it did depress me in the beginning. I felt as though I was being a horrible mommy. First I get GD, then I had cholestasis (that will be in another post for sure!), and this last part of enduring E's MP allergy. I am glad that she seems to be reacting well to my daily 1/2 cup dairy intake. I know the doctor tried reassuring me that this can happen to babies because their stomach's are not mature enough to break down the protein found in cows milk. Plus E's symptoms were mild, so we were glad for that. Usually babies can outgrow this after 6-9 months, so so far things are looking well for E (crossing fingers that she reacts well to more dairy in my diet and eventually her own diet!!). And I was able to have some dairy sooner at 9 months than at the original time frame of when E would turn 1. So, I'm grateful.

Whew, long post! But again, just wanted to share my experience. I know when I first found out about the MP allergy I hunted and searched the web for things I could eat. More posts to come about that. Buuuuuut I'll leave you with this treat:
Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Chips

I LOVE these mini choco chips. Most dark chocolate chips are dairy free, so this was no different tasting to me. Saved me from all my chocolate cravings and urges to bake! 
Enjoy! Always looking out for you mamas!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

My attempt at homemade baby food! First up - APPLES

Wow, it's been a while since posting. I totally thought I'd be able to post during the times I was nursing or up late at the oddest of hours. Guess things just got more hectic than I imagined!

The reason for this post? I've had my fair share now of attempts at making homemade baby food for baby E. Figured I better have some way to record them so that I can always go back to my go to recipes since everything learned is through trial and error and all my non-stop reading on the web. 

Hubby and I started to feed baby E solids 2x/day when she turned 6 months. Just like this blog, I thought I'd have mucho time to make her baby food. Of course I was wrong, and opted for Plum/Nature's Best/BRU baby food. Even though I'd only purchase the brand that would be on sale for the week, it adds up $$$!! What I spent on single food pouches/jars for 1 week was the same as what I'm spending now on foods to feed baby E for the whole month. And as much as I tried to just purchase the foods that did not have any of those unnecessary additives, some foods had it no matter which brand. I figured, if I can bake in the kitchen and cook (when there's free time available) I better make time to cook for our baby as well!!

So I'm proud to say that I'm going on a month so far of making baby E's food. It took a few tries to figure out what consistency worked well for her, so I decided to jot them down for my memory and to help other moms as well.

First up - APPLES

Apples:
1) What I used - apples & apple corer (optional - but after 3 batches of coring them myself, I finally got a corer.  Saves SO much time!!).

2) Now, you can either steam them or bake them. I've tried both, and it's more of do you to preserve more nutrients for your baby or do you want the faster method?

Baking*
- set oven to 400 degrees and start your prep work
- either core apples by hand or using an apple corer 
 this is the one I have OXO Good Grips Corer:
     -I usually do batches of 4-6 apples so that I have leftovers for future meals
- fill a baking pan with about 2-3 inches of water
- place cored apples (peeled or unpeeled)** in pan and voila, wait for them to bake
- set timer to 45 mins (though it can take anywhere from 45-60mins depending on your oven settings). To check if apples are done, use tongs to squeeze apples and check that they are tender.
- wait for apples to cool, then place in blender/baby food processor.
- you can either add the water you used to bake apples in or use fresh water, up to you
     -amount of water used depends on what kind of apple sauce consistency you want.
     - I add a tablespoon and just add more if I need to as I blend
- Ready to serve baby freshly made apple sauce, apple sauce used to mix in a baby meal, or store in freezer for future use.
- Store in fridge for about 3 days, or place in freezer and try to use within the month.

Steaming*
- either core apples by hand or using a corer (OXO Good Grips Corer)
     -I usually do batches of 4-6 apples so that I have leftovers for future meals
- fill your steamer with the required water amount OR if using a pot to steam, fill it up with about 1-2 inches of water.
- slice apples into wedges
- place apples wedges (peeled or unpeeled)** in steaming tray and let the steamer do it's thing!
- set timer to 15 mins (though it can be more or less depending on your settings). To check if apples are done, use tongs/fork to squeeze apples and check that they are tender.
- wait for apples to cool, then place in blender/baby food processor.
- add water to blender/processor to get desired apple texture
     -amount of water used depends on what kind of apple sauce consistency you want.
     - I add a tablespoon and just add more if I need to as I blend
- Ready to serve baby freshly made apple sauce, apple sauce used to mix in a baby meal, or store in freezer for future use.
- You can store in fridge for about 3 days, or place in freezer and try to use within the month.

*Countless articles I've read say that baking is the best way to preserve the nutrients for your baby. It does take longer, so if you are short on time steaming is the 2nd best way to go for at least 1/3 of the time it takes to bake!

**I think it's up to you to leave the skins on or off - I've tried both, so I think it may be more your comfort level. Articles I've read say that it is okay to leave the skins on for babies 6 months and older, before pureeing it. I will say, that I was a bit wary leaving the skins on this last time I made apple sauce and also pear puree. So I tried to take out any skins I saw that didn't break down to small enough pieces in my baby blender. That's just the paranoid freak in me. I'm sure it's okay for our 9 month old now, but mommy is always worried=P.

Now, that wasn't so bad was it? My brother-in-law saw me making home made baby food for baby E and asked me why I do it. Well, if I can cook hubby and my meals at home shouldn't I do the same for our daughter? I know it's always more convenient to try the store bought way, but doing it this way makes me feel good that I'm providing something that I know is good for my baby. No preservatives, no additives....just all NATURAL!

Get to it, mama!=)