Getting some toofers!

Teething is never fun. I thought Micah was never going to get a tooth and he waited until about 10 months for one to pop through.  He's really efficient through and has been getting them in multiples.  He's got two teeth on the bottom, and man are they sharp!  He also has 2 center top teeth coming in and another one just to the right. He's been quite the tropper though it all for the most part.  We've done tylenol a couple of times but for the most part he's been ok.  (knock on wood).  He's been wanting his pacifier a lot more lately which may be a problem in the future.  I play to say buh-bye to "pacikins" at 15mo when Micah moves up to the toddler room but Micah may have other plans.  He never wanted his pacifier except for bed until about 8mo and he's been chewing on it ever since.  I kinda worry that it will delay his language development because he can't make sounds when he's sucking on it all day.  I haven't read anything about this, just a hunch.  He's starting to mimic sounds and sylables but doesn't quite have the words down yet.  He'll say "cah" for "champ" and babbles "ba-ba-ba" all the time but I don't really think this is related to anything.  He's such a chatter box!  We just love him to pieces!

Quality Family Time

I never thought that we 6am would be my favorite time of day.  Nathan's been on nights working 5pm-5am and he usually gets home right when Micah and I are starting our day.  This morning Micah woke especially early.  At 5:10 he was standing in his crib screaming and jumping on the bed.  The little stink only at 3oz before bed and I knew he would be up early and hungry.  We did a bottle and then I was ready to go back to bed.  Micah had different plans.  We tried rocking and he screamed.  We tried swaying and he screamed.  Finally I laid him in his crib and he continued to scream.  Daddy came to the rescue!  Micah was ready to play and wanted no part of going back to sleep.  Nathan played with Micah while I got ready and they even kept me company while I took a shower.  Micah really loves pulling on the shower curtain.  They played ball in the living room and Micah can actually roll the ball back to you and catch it when you roll it to him.  He's learning so much each day!  This afternoon I picked him up from daycare and he was just standing all by himself with nothing around him!  He had a rolling toy that he was walking with but had moved it aside and was doing it all by himself.  I'd never seen him stand so long without holding on to anything!  It was like he was thinking about taking a step but just couldn't get that far.  It won't be very long now!

In Need of a Vacation

We are all in need of some time off and away from here!  Nathan's been studying like crazy for his yearly inservice exam.  He will take this exam each year in residency but this year it's particularly important that he pass because that means we get a new car!  No, that's not the reward for passing, too bad though.  If he passes he can "moonlight" at other ER's and make some pretty good money that we hope to use for a car payment.  Keep your fingers crossed!  Our cars are about on their last leg.  The Blazer is 11 years old and my Taurus just celebrated her 10th birthday.  The Blazer is going back into the shop on Wednesday because it nearly died as I was coming up the hill towards our house.  We said we'd drive these cars into the ground and I think they're there!

The stress of residency is wearing on all of us.  Nathan is working 60-80hr weeks, I work PT at 20hrs per wk, and Micah is in daycare 3 days a week.  I am so ready for this chapter of our lives to be over and a new door to open.  Nathan's going to start submitting his CV once this exam is over and we will hopefully know where he'll be working by the fall or winter of this year.  It can't get here soon enough!  Right now I'm thinking palm trees and sand!  We always wanted to stay close to family but the state of IL passed a law that will greatly affect Nathan's job as an ER doctor.  The law states that the insurance company can pay whatever they want to a physician who is "out of network" for the patient.  Private practice doctors can refuse to treat someone out of network, but an ER physician cannot refuse care.  So it looks like sunshine and palm trees is where we will be.  Anyone is welcome to come visit!  :) 

Momma Jones-Top Chef

So I chose to make all my own baby food, and its been way easier than expected!  I feel like I make a better baby food than even Gerber, and I should know because I've tasted it all!  I won't serve my son anything that I wouldn't eat myself, and I wouldn't touch some of the store bought foods.  I do have to admit, we used them traveling over the Christmas holiday.  I just couldn't pack anything more into our car!

So here are the steps in making homemade (with love) baby food!

1. Pick a single fruit, vegetable or a combination (remember to follow the 4 day rule with introducing new foods). 

2. Boil, steam or bake the selected items.  If boiling reserve the water for later and use a small amount to prevent too many nutrients from leaching into the water.  I prefer to bake sweet potatoes, and squash but I've also had luck with using the microwave for pumpkin. Who would have thought you could microwave a pumpkin! 
3.  Get out your blender and blend away!  I prefer the blender over the food processor.  I used the Magic Bullet blender to start and then realized it had BPA in it.  Also, it didn't get the food to the right consistency.  I found chunks in some vegetables that I processed the heck out of!  Use a mesh strainer to strain large particles to get a nectar thick puree.  Adjust as baby becomes better with solid foods and more textures. 
4.  Let the puree cool and pour into ice cube trays.  There are all types of fancy baby food making devices and storage containers, but I found that my dollar store ice cube trays worked just as well.  Each cube is ~1oz.  This also saves on waste when you can get out just one cube at a time until baby is full. 
5.   Wrap trays with cellophane wrap and label.  I would make multiple combinations at once and you'd be surprised at how close chicken/sweet potatoes and peach/pear look alike. 
6. Freeze overnight, remove from trays, and store in a labeled freezer back with the contents and date clearly written on the bag.  I try to use the purees within 1mo of making. 

This website was extremely thorough and had lots of great recipes for homemade baby foods!

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

Some of our favorites were:
Pumpkin peach
Squash and sweet potatoes

Blueberry banana (although the acidity really did a number on Micah's bottom.  No more berries for this lil guy!)

Peach, squash and cinnamon

Apple cinnamon

Chicken and apples
Carrots and apples

Micah's almost done with the purees.  He does a fairly decent job with eating a variety of finger foods.  He's really turned his nose up to the spoon and I feel he is telling me that he's done with the mush and ready for the real stuff.  Some of his favorite finger foods include bananas, pears, stewed apples, peaches, peas (hated the green purees though), green beans, cheese, wheat bread, cheerios, and graham crackers.  He still hasn't really liked many meats and wont eat anything solid from a spoon regardless of what it is.  I can feed him a pea on a spoon and he spits it out.  I put it in his mouth with my finger and he gobbles it right up.  What a silly boy!

Cloth Diapering

So we chose to do cloth diapers for the primary reason of saving money.  I did all the research and talked with many other cloth diapering mommas.  I chatted for hours with a lovely lady in Bloomington with a cloth diapering store and she answered all my questions and helped me determine a diaper that would work well for us and those caring for Micah.  Micah is in daycare 3 days a week so this had to be something that anybody could figure out.  Ms. Nancy cares for him most of the time but there are times when other teachers sub throughout the day.  We chose the BumGenius 3.0's with hook and loop (Velcro) closures.  These diapers should get him from 8lbs to 35lbs and I really hope he's potty trained before hitting 30-35 lbs (he's a small guy to start).  These work well for us.  There are quite bulky on a little baby and looking back I kinda wished we would have done a small sized diper until he reached 15lbs or so.  They fit him quite well now that he's bigger.  Cotton Babies is the manufacturer of these diapers and they've been great to work with.  I had problems with the Velcro pulling away from the diaper and there was no way to fix it.  They are replacing 9 diapers and mailing new ones with the snap closures.  What a great company!

I  had a few people who thought we were crazy for doing cloth diapers, but I hope we've proved them wrong.  It's just an extra load of dipes every other day and it's a small price to pay to save thousands of dipes from going to the landfill.  Another bonus is that they should save us some cash.  I don't really know that we've saved as much as we should have.  I tend to spray the heck out of them before they go into the We paid about $350 for 18 diapers in the beginning, but I've since added to our collection.  Just today I received a super cute fire truck cloth diaper by Rumparooz!  It was like Christmas opening it! Funny how I used to get this excited over a new purse or a pair of shoes, not its cloth diapers for my baby's bottom :)   We've also tried Thirsties Duo diaper, BumGenius Flips, and FuziBunz.  All of these are one size diapers except for the Thirsties which have a size 1 and 2 to keep baby diapered from 8-15#.  The Flips have disposable biodegradable inserts which are great for the diaper bag, when I forget to put the diapers in the dryer, and some smaller outfits (again most of these cloth diapers are bulky). The flip insert is a cross between modern diapers and the prefold/cover diapers.   My only beef with these is that the Poo runs off the diaper right on the cover and I have to change the whole thing anyway which defeats the point of "flipping" out the insert and replacing it with a new one.  The Thirsties Duo diapers are a cute print but they still seem really big on Micah.  They should fit 18-40# and Micah is 18.5#.  The FuzziBunz are very trim but have a ton of snaps in odd places.  I've only used this diaper once and I'm sure I'll figure out the perfect fit soon.  I wish I would have tried a variety of cloth diapers before settling on one brand.  I do like the BG 3.0's but I wonder if my choice would have been different if I'd tried other cloth diapers as well.  The hook and loop closure is great for daycare, dad, or the baby sitter but I think I prefer the snaps because of less laundry care and less wear and tear on the diaper.  And I've had a heck of a time with the hook and loop closures making a chain of diapers in the wash! 

The Blizzard of 2011



Snow, snow and more snow!  I've never seen this much snow!  We got it dumped on us!  I woke on Tuesday the 1st and was sad when I saw no snow on the ground.  We were projected to get 12-20 inches and I was hoping to have a snow day off of work.  I took Micah to daycare and went on to work. It started in at about noon and by 1pm we had 3 inches of snow on the ground.  Everyone at the VA clinic was in a panic.  The pharmacy and lab both shut down.  There were no veterans in the clinic and us two dietitians were getting out of there.  Our Chief wanted one of us to stay until 2:00 so I offered to stay.  I booked it out of there at 2:15 and got to PALS (Micah's daycare) just as they were calling parents to pick up their children.  Most of then had already gone home and Micah was one of the last two waiting for a ride.  We heading home and he cried the whole way!  I don't know if he could tell that I was anxious or what the deal was.  I sometimes reach back and hand him his paci but this was not the day to do that.  I was white knuckled and my eyes were on the road.  I'll have to admit there were a few tears on my part too.  We were both scared.  I could barely see the road with all the drifts and even with 4WD I didn't feel safe on the road.  We got home and camped out for the next day.  Nathan went into work at noon and was told to bring an extra change of clothes.  He was planning on staying the night until 11pm rolled around.  He called and said "I think I'm going to drive home"  and I was like "NO DEFINITELY NOT".  The interstates were closed and they enacted the IL National Guard for this storm.  I didn't want him anywhere on that road.  I'd fallen asleep on the couch and woke up at 1am to the garage door opening.  I said "are you ok"  he said yes, then I said "well then I'm going to strangle you!"  So glad he was home safe and sound but not happy about him driving our Taurus in 18 inches of snow!  I was not getting out to get him if he got stuck, that's for sure. 



Diggin through 3 ft of snow!



Poor buddy Champ.  Can't even get to his house.

Champ enjoyed the snow too.  He didn't quite know what to do when we opened the back door and he was staring at a snow drift taller than him.  He tried to turn around and I was like, you go now or you don't go all night.  He dug through the drift and did his business.  He kinda hopped around in the snow like a bunny rabbit.  He loved it!

"Get me out of this house!  I wanna play in the snow!"



"Guess I'll just raid the fridge.  Good thing Mom when to the store before the storm"



On Lockdown

So it's been a really rough week.  It started off last weekend with Nathan off on vacation.  This sounds like it would be great with lots of time to hang out as a family.  Unfortunately it means that he's studying for his big Inservice Exam (yearly residency exams) and we're supposed to be quiet.  Can somebody tell me how to keep a 9.5mo old quiet?  It's so stinkin cold, 7 degrees below zero today, that we can't go outside and play and I'm hesitant to take Micah out to run errands when it's this cold.  Our house is pretty small and Micah doesn't stay entertained in one place for too long.  Please pray that he passes his exam on February 23rd!  If he does he can "moonlight" and make some extra cash working at other hospitals a day or so each month.  I'm hoping this will be our car payment :)  Nathans not so sold on this though. 

We were also on lockdown for bacterial meningitis.  Nathan had a 1 year old girl that was sick with N/V and diarrhea.  He admitted her on Thursday night and was called at home on Saturday morning to go to the hospital and get treated.  Apparently they treat everyone who was in contact with her for more than 10 min.  It's that contagious!  The good thing is that Nathan came home with blood on a pair of scrubs from that night and I made him wash them as soon as he steped in the door.  Micah's in a large daycare and I'd hate to bring something like that there.  Symptoms usually present within 1-2 days so by Sunday we figured that we were all in the clear.  I'll still probably always think that a headache is meningitis after that scare.