Thursday, November 29, 2012

Project: Homemade Baby Food

I've made several small rounds of baby food lately, but last night and today I decided to prepare a bunch so I'd have a stockpile in the freezer. Since I chronicle recipes and baby stuff here, I wanted to record how and what I made for my reference, and maybe it might be useful to another mama too.

We are still on first foods and not really mixing yet, so I chose the following foods:
Ambrosia Apples - 4
Rome Apples - 2
Avocados - 4
Bananas - 2
Blueberries - 8 oz frozen bag
Carrots - 6
Bosc Pears - 2
Peas - 16 oz frozen bag
Sweet Potatoes - 4

Preparation for the chosen foods:
Apples - halve, core, bake on cookie sheet for 30 min at 425º, remove skins, puree 
Avocados - halve, remove pit, scoop meat out with a spoon, puree
Bananas - peel, mash with fork
Blueberries - boil in water for 15 minutes, drain, puree with small amount of reserved cooking water
Carrots - peel, chop, steam for 20 minutes, puree
Pears - peel, halve, core, bake on cookie sheet for 30 min at 425º, puree
Peas - boil in water for 6 minutes, drain, puree
Sweet Potatoes - bake on cookie sheet for 1 hour at 425º, remove skins, mash by hand or puree

After all the foods are mashed/pureed, transfer them to ice cube trays for freezing. I only have 4 ice cube trays and ran out of space in those, so I ended up using small food storage containers and leftover unused breast-milk collection cups from the NICU. After the foods are frozen, pop out the portions and separate appropriately into ziplock freezer bags. I labeled the bags with the food and date.




To serve, I thaw selected portions in the microwave for just a few seconds. After checking for hot spots, I stir in a little formula to desired consistency.

I've chosen to make most of my babies' food for a couple of reasons. If I make it, I know exactly what they're getting and it's hopefully more cost effective in the long run. I'm also silly and plagued with mom guilt and I feel like since I couldn't give them my breast-milk for very long, the least I could do is make them fresh good food. It's more work on the prep side, but after it's made up, it's super convenient to get the individually frozen servings out of the freezer.

After a day of taking care of my munchkins (who were detoxing from Thanksgiving craziness), grocery shopping, cooking, doing laundry, and making baby food, I rewarded myself with this.


And this is for my Aunt Tamara, so she can see the babies in some more of the Christmas duds she bought them. :)

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Grady & Wren: 6 Months



Already pestering each other, oh dear...




Someone figured out how to peel her sticker off...




Mr. Crazy Legs blowing raspberries like usual...




Grady's Stats: 14 lbs 8 oz / 25 inches
Normal Growth Chart: 6th percentile for weight, 7th percentile for height

Wren's Stats: 15 lbs 4 oz / 25.5 inches
Normal Growth Chart: 33rd percentile for weight, 39th percentile for height

Grady's Clothing & Diaper Size: 3-6 Month clothes and Size 2 diapers

Wren's Clothing & Diaper Size: 3-6 Month clothes and Size 2 diapers

Special Outings: On Saturday, October 27, you went to the Fall Festival at church in your pumpkin costumes.  On Friday, November 2, you went with mommy to the meet your new friend Olivia who was born on November 1.

Saturday, November 3, was the first time for you to go out to Choctaw to Uncle Jeff, Aunt Karla,  Tyler, and Michael's house. We went to celebrate your cousins, Tyler and Michael, at their joint birthday party.

Milestones: Grady, you rolled over unassisted for the first time on Thursday, October 18! I put you down on your tummy for some tummy time and you immediately flipped over on your back. So I put you back on your tummy and you did it again. I got out my phone to record you and see if you'd do it a third time, but I guess you were done after the second time. I texted your Dad as soon as it happened so we could celebrate. Now you roll over all the time. I've noticed you are working on rolling from your back to tummy over the last couple of days.

Wren, you started cutting your first tooth on Sunday, November 4. It was completely cut by Monday, November 5. It's really hard to see her tooth in the blurry iPhone pic below, but this is the best I could do with one hand in her mouth and one taking the picture. Grady, you haven't cut any teeth but you are chewing on your fingers and toys and drooling like crazy. I don't imagine it will be much longer for you.

My Thoughts: The first 6 months of your lives has gone by way too fast for my comfort. As I was holding our newborn friend, baby Olivia, it was more than obvious how much you have grown and changed over the last 6 months. It is incredible to see you grow and develop.  I am both excited and sad at the thought of how much more you will change and grow as you approach 12 months. I'm excited because I can't wait to experience all your new milestones, and I'm sad because you will soon be toddlers and not babies anymore.

Routine:
These days our routine looks roughly like this:
6:00am Feed
6:30am-10:15am Nap/Quiet play
10:15am Feed
10:45am-1:30pm Playtime/Tummy time/Cat naps
1:30pm Feed
2:00pm-5:00pm Playtime/Tummy time/Cat naps
5:00pm Feed
5:30pm-7:00pm Playtime/Tummy time/Cat naps/Bath-time
7:00pm Feed
7:30pm Bedtime

Favorites: Baby Einstein "iPod" toy and Sophie the Giraffe

Dislikes:  Wren, you hate teething and it has affected trying to introduce solids to you. You don't like the spoon being near your gums, so right now you aren't a fan of eating your oatmeal. Grady, you don't like being cradled/held like a baby unless you are being given a bottle, or unless Mommy is cuddling you when you are tired. Oftentimes other people try to cradle hold you making you think it's time to eat and you get super mad if you aren't presented with a bottle immediately. 

Food:  You are now on the Sam's generic (Simply Right Sensitivity) of Similac Sensitive Formula for fussiness and gas. You had your first taste of baby oatmeal on Monday, October 29. We increased your formula intake to a little over 6 ounces at each bottle and you both were acting hungry after you finished your bottles. Since you were just shy of 6 months, I decided it wouldn't hurt to start letting you try oatmeal once a day. At your first taste, Wren, you moved it around in your mouth, gagged, smiled, and eventually swallowed  your oatmeal. Grady, at your first taste, you pushed your oatmeal right back out of your mouth and made a series of funny faces.

Waiting on their first taste of oatmeal...



Wren's first taste...



Grady's first taste...


Friday, November 2, 2012

The Great Pumpkins

Wren and Grady were pumpkins for their First Halloween. I changed my mind several times in regards to costumes for them. At first, I decided that since they were too young to trick-or-treat, they didn't need costumes. Then, I decided they needed to have these adorable chenille lion and lamb costumes, but I couldn't justify the price since they can't even walk yet. So I settled for some Carter's sale costumes that were a great price. Each costume included the plush fleece zip-up hooded pumpkin, striped leggings, and a long sleeve t-shirt for $15. It's safe to say that a precious little pumpkin is just a classic First Halloween costume. I was impressed that neither of them got mad when we put them in their costumes. They tolerated it rather nicely. 

We took our little punkin patch to our church's Fall Festival on Saturday, October 27. We didn't stay all that long since the babies couldn't participate in any of the activities. We pretty much went to socialize with friends and to have a place for them to wear their costumes.


The following pics are from a little photo session I had with the babies on Halloween day. They're wearing the underneath part of their costumes and the bibs their Grammy gave them.








Wren was obviously done with the mamarazzi. Grady was less than a willing participant at this point as well. He looks a bit perturbed, maybe because of his sister's screaming or that I put him in tights. Sorry buddy, I'll never make you wear them again.


Can't forget sweet Ruby

On Halloween evening we took a walk with the babies in costume before it was time to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters. Obviously Grady couldn't contain his excitement.