Homemade Baby Food Part 2

I was able to try out my new hand mixer this weekend and it is amazing!!  It made pureeing quick and easy plus the clean up was quick as well.  This blender is really great.....it came with 5 attachments (3 different types of blades, a whisk, and a chopper.  So far I have only used one blade but it worked great.  It only took a minute to puree things that usually take me about 5.  It also came with a tall measuring cup that works great for the food I am making plus it has a pour spout that makes filling up the ice cube trays a breeze.  In these pictures I am making apples and pears again.....I never seem to have my camera out for the veggies.  Today I tried blueberries and cantalope.  Abigail tried the blueberries tonight and seemed to like them.  I thought they were great.  ; )  Thanks Hank and Rosanne for such a great Christmas gift!!

Here are some pictures of Abigail enjoying the food I have made her.

This is a horrible picture but its the first time Abigail sat in a highchair for more than just a few minutes.  She stayed in it almost the entire meal.  Thanks to the advice from a friend, we used this cover and another blanket to prop her up.

Homemade Baby Food

Abigail has been eating pureed fruits and veggies for a couple of months now but I am just now getting around to writing about it.  I started out wanting to make our own food but I was afraid it would be too hard.  I talked to some friends and did some online research and found out that its not hard at all.  A little time consuming and messy but not difficult.  The first fruit we tried was banana...it was very easy.  Just peel and mash.  Unfortunately, Abigail did not like banana very much.  Next was apples and pears.   I peel all my fruit mainly because its hard to get the peel pureed smooth but also because I can't always buy organic.  Apples are one of the "dirty dozen" foods that are the most highly contaminated with pesticides so organic is best but peeling solves the problem too.  After trying a few fruits I moved on to trying sweet potatoes, carrots, peas and green beans.  Sweet potatoes and carrots are easy and very yummy.  Abigail loves them.  On the other hand, beans have been very hard for me.  I can not seem to get them pureed smooth.  It would't be such a big deal (it doesn't have to be totally smooth) but Abigail so far will not eat anything with pieces in it.  I finally gave up and got some store bought organic green beans.  I am glad I did because green beans are another one of her favorites.  I did not want to throw out all the peas I spent time cooking and pureeing so I mashed them through a strainer to get all the pieces out of them.  Here are some pictures of the process.  As you can see I started out using my grandmothers old food processor.  It is a beast and works well but I am very excited because my in laws gave me a new immersion blender for Christmas.  I am going to use it this weekend and will post some new pictures. 

Peel...

Steam. I use a basic streamer basket to do this.

Puree.  Most fruits are juicy enough to not need anything extra but some vegetables need a little liquid to thin them out a bit.  I add some of the water that I used to steam them in (you can use breast milk too but I don't have a lot of extra lying around).  

Let it cool...

Scoop it into ice cube trays to freeze into 1 oz servings.

Once frozen, I pop them out and store them in labeled freezer bags.  They are good for 3-4 months like this.

When its time to eat I pull a couple of cubes out and pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to thaw.  If I have time I will let them thaw in the refrigerator or out on the counter.  Then they are ready to serve.

6 Month Dr. Visit

We went to see Dr. Dudgeon Thursday.  Abigail weighed in at 14 lbs 7 oz (20th%) and was 25" long (also 20%).  He said she was right on target in growth and development.  He was very happy that the Prilosec was working well and adjusted her dose to accommodate her weight gain.  The only problem we are continuing to talk about is her left eye.  The duct in her right eye seems to have unblocked but the left one has not.  We hope that it will correct on its own but if not we will see an opthomologist after her 9 month visit.  She got another round of vaccines and since its flu season we went ahead and got the flu vaccine.  She did not feel well the rest of the day or the next but she seems to feel better today.  She is a lot more aware of whats going on while we are there....she stared at Dr. Dudgeon and was very interested in everything he did.  

Here are some pictures from the past week....

 I attempted to get a good picture of her in front of the tree.  It was hard trying to make sure she didn't fall, keep her looking at the camera and actually take the picture.  They actually turned out better than I thought they would.  If only I could have caught a smile.  Maybe I will try again when Andy is home to help.

All I want for Christmas....

That's right.....Abigail's lower front teeth are coming in!  She slept horribly all last week so Andy and I thought maybe she was having a growth spurt. Sunday I noticed her gums looked different and when I felt them there were two sharp spots on the lower.  I guess that is really why she has not slept well.  Otherwise, she has not seemed to be too terribly fussy.  I will post a picture when they come in enough to see.

This past Friday we went with some friends on the Polar Express.  For those that don't know, The Polar Express is a train that leaves out of the Heart of Dixie Railroad in Calera, AL.  You ride a short distance to the North Pole where Santa, Mrs. Claus and the elves board the train and visits with everyone.  On the way back you get milk and cookies.  The kids had a blast.  Our train did not leave until 8pm so we were afraid Abigail would be too sleepy and grumpy but she was a trooper.  She took a short nap on the train and woke up just in time to see Santa.  Thanks to my friend Angie we got some great pictures.  

I love Abigail's Santa hat.

 Sleepy girl

 Napping on the train.

 I absolutely love this picture!!

 This is another one of my favorites

 Smiling at the Elf.

Santa and Mrs. Claus

6 Months Old

I can't believe my sweet girl is already 6 months old!!  Time has flown by.  I have to say that the past month has been soooo much better.  I know I have complained a lot about how fussy Abigail has been and her not sleeping well but it was really rough around our house for awhile.  We now have her on Prilosec and it seems to be working great.  She spits up less and overall seems much happier.  We can actually take her places without her crying most of the time.  Its so nice to eat a meal out without having to sooth a crying baby the whole time.  This is not to say that she doesn't have bad days but they have been few the past month.  She is so sweet and growing too fast!  I absolutely love every time she does something new but some days I wish I could slow the process down just a little.  We have to enjoy every moment as it comes because in just a blink of an eye she has moved on to something new.  We are not scheduled for her 6 month Dr. visit until next week so I will update then with how that goes.
Here is where Abigail is at 6 months.....

Eating:  Abigail is getting the same amount of breast milk but we have started adding in some fruits and veggies.  She loves to eat and makes a huge mess!  So far she has eaten apples, peaches, pears, bananas, sweet potatoes, and carrots.  Her favorite so far is apples and her least favorite is bananas (I am going to try these again soon).  All are homemade.  I am trying to make green beans and peas but I am having trouble getting the puree smooth enough and my blender broke today.  : (  Our schedule now is to give her a vegetable at lunch and a fruit and vegetable at dinner.  We have also stopped putting cereal in her bottle at night....I'm not sure how much it helped her sleep and now that she is getting some solids for dinner she is getting plenty full.  I love it because its one less time for me to pump.  I hate pumping!
Here are some pictures of Abigail eating last night.

Sleeping:  Oh sleep!!  Abigail's sleeping pattern seems to change weekly.  As soon as I feel like we are in a routine she changes it up.  Some nights she will wake up a few times and some just once.  One night she even sleep all the way through (10hrs)!!  That was a great night.  She is still sleeping swaddled.  We feel like we will never get her out of the swaddle blanket.  We even have a transitional blanket, but she doesn't sleep well in it either.  She has gotten a lot more wiggly at night so we had to remove her bumpers.  She would start crying and when I looked at her on the monitor she would have her head all the way up in the top corner of the crib.  She still does this but at least there is not anything soft/padded against her head.  She has never rolled over while swaddled so we have decided to just give her more time....from all I have read she will let us know when she is ready to sleep un-swaddled.  

Milestones:  

Smiles

Laughs - oh how I love it when she laughs!

Drags objects toward herself
Plays with hands and feet

Sits without support

Mouths objects - Anything she can get in her hands goes straight in her mouth.

Passes objects from hand to hand

Turns toward sounds and voices

Rolls over in both directions - finally rolled from belly to back on Monday (12/3) Woo Hoo......well she only did it twice, no one saw her and she hasn't done it since.  She hates being on her tummy so much that we wonder if she will ever learn to crawl.  Maybe she will just skip right to walking.  : ) 

In the last couple of week she has started making new sounds and even said dada a few times - Andy is ecstatic!!

She also started bouncing the past couple of weeks.  She has a lot more fun in her exersaucer now that she can bounce.

Here are the pictures from out photo shoot today.