Feeding Herself

Cheerios!

It's been waaaay too long! This photo dates back to Dec. 11th! Cheerios are wonderful!!! I'm pretty sure I started them sooner with Carys than with Caedmon and I KNOW I give them to her a whole lot more than I did him! She loves them and they keep her happy!:)

Using Utensils Already!

Well, not in the traditional sense I guess.:) She had to have her own!

"Caedmon Help Mama"

I hear this phrase often from my little man. It's not always a good thing, in my perspective anyway. :) I walked away for a minute and turned around to find this. He didn't do too badly! And she didn't seem to mind.

6 Months and Solids

Carys turned 6 months on Dec. 3rd. She's such a big girl! I don't have any 6 month pictures because we had them taken...perhaps I'll scan them one of these days and post them. She bit her lower lip and ate her feet through the entire photo shoot. She was a lot more work trying to get a smile than Caedmon, but we did get smiles and they were big! Their 6 month photos truly show their personalities! Caedmon's smiles are easy and laid back; Carys' are huge and all energy!:)

On Friday, Dec. 4th, we started solids. She made some faces, but on the whole I think she liked it and has continued to like cereal. I need to start veggies soon! I figured she'd take to solids pretty well since she wants to be a big girl so badly!

Saturday evening I texted Corey with the exciting news that she had crawled. Not on her hands and knees, but more of the army crawl. Still, she was getting where she wanted to go without rolling! He informed me she's done this the night before, but since it wasn't truly crawling, he didn't know it was exciting! Goodness! So at 6 months she has accomplished something Caedmon didn't do till he was 10 months. The differences between children are so interesting! Glad I had the slow one first or I might have worried!

She continues to be somewhat cranky, but on the whole, her mood is improving. I find out yesterday when I took only her shopping with me that she seems calmer when it's just her. We got home and I heard fussing for the first time that day - Caedmon gets in her space and annoys her! Watch out Caedmon, 'cause soon enough she'll be doing the annoying!:)

She wants everything we have - forget all those baby toys! We wonder sometimes why we even have them. The TV remote control is a whole lot more fun!

She's still spitting, but I suppose it's about average - not too bad for her anyway. More than she had been doing in the last month, but not intolerable.

We go to the doctor on the 22nd, but she was weighed and measured on the 8th - 16lbs. and 26 1/4 inches. She was last weighed and measured at the end of Oct. She didn't gain a whole lot and didn't appear to grow at all and she was at about the 50% on the charts and there was some question about her growth, but the nurse seemed confused by it all since she was in the 95% the last time for her height...so I'm just waiting to see what the doctor says. 'Cause she certainly seems to be growing just fine!

She cries to be fed, so I better end this post - I think she's saying 'enough about me already!' :)

Food Trouble!

I'm at my wits end! Caedmon has all but stopped eating solids. It has been a process building up to this point and I'm going to do my best to explain it quickly - sorry if it gets lengthy, but I need advice!
A few weeks back, my last week of school, he woke up one night crying and had thrown up all of his dinner (solids). After he threw up the second time, we thought perhaps I should nurse him so he didn't become dehydrated (seemed to be dry-heaving). Well, we changed sheets two MORE times! Guess that was a bad idea. Anyway, he hadn't liked supper that much - I'd put an egg yolk with his veggies. Bad mommy! He's had egg yolk before, but with his rice/oatmeal cereal and he didn't even seem to notice it. He hadn't gotten any protein in awhile and I felt the need to give it to him that night for some reason. We're still not sure of the exact reason he had trouble that night - he was fine the next day.
It took me a couple weeks to figure out why he wasn't eating squash - he'd always eaten it just fine before. Then I recalled it was squash he had eaten the night he'd thrown up his supper. O.k. figured that one out.
Then this past weekend, when we went up north, he didn't eat a whole lot and we figured it was because he was away from home and without a high chair. Got to Corey's parents and had a high chair to use. Unfortunately, I don't think I'd yet had the light bulb go on regarding the squash, and although he refused to eat one night, I figured if we could just get it in his mouth, he'd realize it was good and eat. Ooops. We got two bites in and he threw it up. Whew! Learning lessons!
So the week at the in-laws, he did o.k. with breakfast, but struggled with his veggies at supper. Decided to stick to avacado (his first food) and he ate some of it.
I thought he was coming back around till yesterday. Now he eats a few bits of breakfast and he's finished. I've been sticking mostly to avacado, and he's doing the same thing - a few bites (willingly) and then he's done.

It hit me tonight that perhaps I need to just forgo the solids for about a week and see if I can start fresh. I feel like he's leary of anything I stick in his mouth.

This is how he's feeling about solids these days!:/

Solids Part 3

Last night, he seemed like he'd caught on to our little game and he wanted nothing to do with it. I had to slip in the first couple bites while he wasn't paying attention. Then he started opening his mouth for the next bite!! It was very exciting! I think we got about a teaspoon in!:) He didn't sleep quite as long, but still only woke once during the night.

Tonight, he was ready and opened his mouth for the very first bite! He ate everything I fed him tonight, probably about 1/2 a tablespoon or so. We'll see how the night goes. He was so very fussy tonight. He ate the rice cereal, then nursed right away and fell asleep. I haven't heard him peep since I put him to bed. Hopefully it'll be a good night!

Here he is enjoying his bowl after his meal.

Solids - Night #3

I was out and about yesterday - day # 3 of looking for the right size of pants for my husband. Why not bring him with, you might ask. Well, Corey does NOT go shopping with me. If he enters a store at all, it's by himself and it's in and out as quickly as possible - unless, of course, we're talking about Menards, and only then is it a long trip because he won't ask for help. You might also ask why he doesn't buy his own pants. Let's just say, he came fully clothed when we met, but he was also constantly mistaken for a man in his 30's.

All that aside, I was in Target and guess what I found?! Whole Grain AND organic rice cereal! YAH!! And for only $1.64! I was so excited - for that price, we can definitely put away the blender for now. It'll probably come back out when he starts eating his veggies and fruits, only to save some money though, because I'm pretty sure baby food is now perfectly healthy and free of all preservatives.

So we used the store bought kind last night and got some pretty good pictures of his face! Last night, he definitely wasn't digging the rice cereal. After a few bites, his mouth was not open for business! Hopefully he'll get used to it at some point - we'll keep trying! And the best part of all - he only woke up once last night!!! WAHOO!!!:) And it's 7a.m. and he has not yet woken again!

Six Months and Solids!

Yaahhh, Caedmon's 6 months old as of Friday, March 28th and can now begin the next phase of food - solids! My doctor told me that babies need nothing more than breast milk till they're 6 months. Sounds good to me - it's so easy to let him be in charge of his food intake - eating when hungry and eating until he's full, not having to think about what to feed him or how much. Except this one little problem: this past week, all week, he was up two and three times a night and yes, he wanted to eat. So, Friday could not come fast enough! I talked with a friend who is very health conscious and natural and she told me how to make whole grain rice cereal myself. We attempted it and in the end, the consistency wasn't much different than my milk (which is what we added, and lots of it). It was kind of a pain and I'm trying to figure out how we can minimize the work involved. I'd like to feed him whole grains, so I might see if the local health food store sells it, or I'll keep attempting to make my own.

So, his first experience with "solids" was fairly uneventful. He didn't really make any faces and seemed pretty indifferent to it all. And unfortunately, it didn't help him sleep through the night any better. We fed him again last night, but the same thing. He didn't want too much, but then scarfed up my milk when I nursed him again.:( Not sure if he doesn't like it, it wasn't good leftover, or it's just going to take some getting used to..? Lots of questions.

Anyway, here are a few pics.