Solids

I know I have a lot of time to think about this yet, but solid baby foods have been on my mind a lot lately.

Am I entirely insane for thinking of making baby food myself?

The more I read about it, the more the idea grows on me. There are so many great resources out there that have really helped me in my research so far. I've been finding this website to be a valuable learning tool. They have everything from what to try and how to make it, to storing and much more.

When it comes to equipment, I pretty much have what's needed. A blender and access to a grocery store! As for storage, I like the idea of covered ice cube trays to freeze cubes and then transferring the cubes into freezer bags.

I have my eye on these Mumi & Bubi trays:

They cost a little more than regular trays, but I like that the bottom is rounded and the slots are flexible. That means that it's a lot easier to get the food cubes out once they're frozen. I think it would be worth the expense, and I'd really one need one set.

Jamie just picked up a chest freezer for our basement on Sunday. Thank goodness, because we need the extra freezer space! My frozen milk stash has taken over quite a bit of our kitchen freezer. The extra deep freeze will definitely come in handy for all things frozen.

Expense wise, making your own baby food seems really budget friendly. I came across this little chart in my searches:

I know that maybe $0.23 per ounce may not sound like a lot of savings, but over time that can add up!

We have another 3ish months at least until we really need to think about solids. But in the mean time, it's always good to know what options are out there.

Three Months

Charlie is three months old! He's getting quite the personality :)

Three Month Stats:

Weight: About 12 1/2ish pounds

Height: 25" -- based on a tape measure measurement.. haha

Clothing: He fits nicely into 0-3. He's starting to outgrow some of it height-wise. I think I put away 3 or 4 sleepers this past weekend. He wears the Gerber 3-6 month onsies.

Diapers: Pampers Swaddlers or Baby Dry Size 1

He's getting so big and cute I can hardly stand it! How can you not smile when you look at his sweet little face?

I'm going to change up my format a bit this month. I really like how my friend Emily has her monthly posts set up, so I'm going to take a spin off that to hopefully keep things a little more organized!

Eating: We've made it three whole months of exclusively breastfeeding! After a rough start, I'm really happy to have made it this far. Charlie is still a pretty slow nurser/bottle drinker though. Sometimes taking up to an hour to feed. We just try to be patient with him and make sure he gets what he needs.

He still has himself on his self-created schedule, which I'm 100% OK with - I love schedules! The majority of the time he's eating 7 times in a 24 hour period. When he takes a bottle, he generally takes 4oz, but sometimes can't quite finish it all. So far we haven't had any issues going between bottle and breast, which is a good thing.

**

Sleeping: I always get nervous when I talk about Charlies sleeping habits. I feel as though taking about it will jinx it and mess everything up!

He's really great about sleeping at night. We've been doing a bedtime "routine" for a little over a month now, and most nights he goes to sleep pretty easily. He gets a bottle around 7PM, then a diaper change and PJ's. We rock him for a bit and then he's out for the night until 4:30am. I feed him and he goes back down till about 7ish. Once in a while he'll get up an extra time around 1 or 2am, but usually not. I'll take this though, I've heard some nightmare stories about baby sleep habits. Those scare me! I'm so grateful that he's a good sleeper so far **knock on wood**

Charlies odd nap position!

Now nap time is a whole other story. I don't understand how some parents get their babies to take naps that are HOURS long. This is a completely foreign thing to me. Charlie will once in a while take a nap that's close to an hour, but it's usually only about 30 minutes tops. He's a cat-napper I guess. It's ok though, he's still a happy baby, so I guess he's getting what he needs.

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Playing: He's becoming more aware of toys and everything around him. He LOVES his Kick & Play Piano gym. He has a little frog toy that he always seems mesmerized with as well - it rattles, vibrates and has a little shiny area on it's belly. When he's in his bouncy seat, he likes to stare at the birds above him.

Playing on his piano gym!

He can't quite purposely grasp onto things yet, but he will hold onto toys if you put them in his hand. Once in a while he will accidentally hook something in the midst of his arm/leg flailing sessions. He always looks a bit shocked when that happens, like "What the heck?? How did I do that?!"

Charlie is a BIG kicker. A lot of times he's just content to lay on a blanket, kick his legs and coo up a storm. The more you talk to him, the more he kicks.

For some reason, he loves it when I sing to him. I have no idea why, I certainly don't have the voice of an angel or anything! He especially gets a kick out of the ABC's, I guess that could be a good thing.

**

Other Things: We had Charlie Baptized on March 4th. He did really well and only looked really shocked when the water touched his head, but he didn't scream or anything. We took the family out to brunch afterwards, it was a pretty good day! He wore his Great Grandfathers baptism gown, which is now 103 YEARS OLD. I was so scared he would spit up on it, thank goodness he didn't!

Dad, Charlie & Mom at Baptism

His head control is getting better all the time. He's not quite ready for things like the Bumbo, or a jumperoo type thing. I tried both of them over the weekend, and all he wanted to do was fling himself forward and chew on his shirt. So I put them away and we'll try again in a couple weeks!

Tummy time - working on those neck muscles!

We're experiencing some really warm weather, considering it's March in Wisconsin. We got the stroller out and we're going to try and take him for his first stroller ride in the next few days. We strapped him in there on Tuesday night and he was all smiley and happy about it, so hopefully he'll like it just as much once we actually get it out of the living room.

My Mom (who baby-sits twice a week) claims that he giggles and laughs - but neither Jamie or I have heard it yet! He sort of laughed once about a week ago, but since then we've heard not a peep of laughter. Tons of cooing and smiling, but no laughs. Maybe we're just not funny enough for him or something!

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Me: Ah me. Well, as I previously mentioned, I'm back to work now. It's tough to find balance. Like, really tough. I'm in serious need of some life organization.

My days are full from 4am until I close my eyes at night (at a time I will not share, because it makes me sounds WAY old), I'm going non-freaking-stop. I wake up, feed Charlie, get ready for work, commute to work, work all day, pick up Charlie, wash bottles, feed Charlie, make dinner, make bottles, do bath time, get all my crap together for the next day, get Charlie to bed, then promptly pass out myself.

Then, I get up the next day and do it all over again.

Jamie and I alternate doing bedtime, so that gives me a little time every other day. But I'm usually making bottles or my lunch during that time.

I won't lie and say I'm not exhausted, because I totally am. I have a feeling it will be that way for at least the next... oh I don't know.. 18 years or so?

Back to the Grind

March 1st marked the end of my maternity leave. 'Twas a sad day indeed!

I enjoyed staying home with Charlie, and it was certainly a great bonding experience for us. I tried my best to enjoy every moment, even the difficult and frustrating times that come along with parenting a newborn. I know he'll never be that little again, so I'm glad I was able to spend that time with him and help him acclimate to the "outside" world.

So back to work I go. While it will be nice to be drawing a full paycheck again, I'm really going to miss my baby! I'm sure the regular adult conversation will be nice, there's only so much you can talk about with a baby.

We are fortunate that my Mom is able to watch him twice a week, so he only needs to be in daycare three times a week. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm happy about daycare though. I felt SO guilty having to send him to daycare. I know that they're "pros", and he is in good hands there, but what parent doesn't feel at least a little apprehensive about shipping their baby off to a strange place for a decent chunk of the day?

I've been trying to make myself feel better by telling myself that he's only technically in daycare for 24 hours a week. 24 out of 168 isn't that bad... right?

I did say "trying" to make myself feel better.

It's not quite working yet.

** I'm going to talk about breastfeeding now. So this is your warning to stop reading if you're one of those weirdos that gets offended/grossed out/awkward about boob talk. (I advise you to get over that, it's a completely natural thing, but I'll save that speech for another time.) Consider yourself warned. **

Being a working Mom and breastfeeding is no walk in the park. But I'm determined to make it work for as long as possible.

I've only been back to work for about a week now, but I really miss the bonding time with Charlie that nursing him provides. With my schedule, I'm only able to nurse him twice a day during the week. I'm pumping 5 times a day Monday thru Friday. And you know what? I've never felt more "cow-like". That thought is a bit disturbing, but I try to push it to the back of my mind.

I was lucky enough to be able to build up a sizeable freezer stash before returning to work - I think there's roughly 300oz (10 full days worth) in there right now. So far, I only dip into it to make Mondays bottles, and that's really only to rotate the stash so it doesn't go bad.

I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up with him through pumping alone, but so far I'm able to get 5 or 6oz more than what he drinks from bottles each day. I hope I can keep it up!

With Charlie 3 months old already, I'm now half way to my short term goal of 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. Considering the struggles we had during the early weeks, I feel pretty great about making it this far! My ultimate goal is to make it to a full year, or when he starts to wean himself, but we'll take it a day a time and see how far we make it!

**end boob talk**

The amount of crap I haul to work with me daily is nearly enough to warrant a paper check list everyday. If I forget just one thing, I could be up a creek with out a paddle. Just a little peek....

• Pump
• All the parts that go with said pump
• Extra parts in case the other break or get lost
• Bottles
• Cooler & Ice Packs
• Towel
• Lunch
• Laptop
• Purse (wallet, time card.. etc)

By the time all of that is packed up I show up to work with... count 'em.... FOUR bags. Yes, four. It's a bit ridiculous really, but it must be done. *sigh*

Then on top of that, on the days I pick Charlie up from daycare, I have those four bags PLUS his bottle cooler bag and the car seat (and the baby, but I figure that must be a give in)! Watching me try to haul all that stuff into the house must be a sight.

Anyways, this is a bit long-winded, so I'll wrap this up.

Here's a smile for your reading time:

 

I'm bummed, yet happy to be back to work. It makes those evenings and weekends all the more special. Now I just need to figure out how to get house work done!

Charlies 3 Month update will be coming soon!