My Faves | All the Sun For You

So things are NOT getting better – in fact – they are getting worse. I am up right now, at 4:15, listening to Matthew scream (not just cry like normal) as he stands in his crib stomping his feet. He woke up at 3:17 (I thought MAYBE this was a good sign since 3/17 is my birthday – I thought maybe it would be an easier night than normal). We are on our (let me check my spreadsheet…) 4.5th progressive waiting cycle with no end in site. I say 4.5 because during the first check, I thought I smelled dirty pants and after 7 minutes waiting during the second cycle, I caved and went in to change him. He hasn’t pooped all day so I didn’t want him falling asleep with dirty pants. I was fooled. Just wet. Sigh. In my head, it is that interruption of the progressive waiting schedule that messed up this night!

This child is stubborn. Holy hell. Not once in the last two nights has he put himself back down – he stands the entire time until I come in and lay him down. The first night, he would give up and lay down – but not anymore. He’s onto me. Who’s training whom here? And the worst thing? I woke up at 3:00 wondering if he would wake up. My body is now trained to get up every night around 2 or 3:00, as I’m trying to train Matthew’s body NOT to!

I am sticking it out, but I bet you I am up for another 45 minutes with this. The good news is that he did sleep longer this time than other nights, but sh*t – it was still only 7 hours. Seven hours is no big deal – he used to do 7 hours without effort when he was 3 months old!

Looking at the monitor, it looks like he’s thinking of laying down. Nope. He may have thought it, but I think he knows I’m due to come in in another minute. Here I go….

I broke the rules and stayed an extra minute. He was falling asleep (I was patting his back, darn it) and I am so tired. I stopped patting his back and saying anything after the 2 minutes, but I stood there an extra minute watching him and putting his blankie on him. I KNOW he can put himself to sleep – he does it every night at bed time. Why can’t he do it in the middle of the night?

Dammit this is hard. And I am starting to wonder if we’re getting anywhere with it. I hope it clicks here soon, because here are our awake cycle times:

Night 1: 35 minutes of awake time

Night 2: 47 minutes of awake time (up 34% from the prior night)

Night 3: a whopping 72 minutes of awake time (up 53% from the prior night)

What will tomorrow bring – 2 hours of awake time? That would be on par if he increases his awake time by the percentage he did tonight. The only thing making me feel at all OK is that we are only doing this once a night. I cannot imagine doing it more than once.

Matthew is asleep now. I am going to bed.

I may not be good at making babies, but I sure am getting good at making baby food!

Prior to M’s arrival, I committed myself to making all of his food from scratch – which is amazing because I don’t even make food for B and me. The reason behind this is that we really wanted him starting out in life with good, natural things. He is perfect the way he is, and as B says a lot, “why mess that up?” So homemade baby food it is for our boy!

I do not make everything organic – simply because if I’m taking the skins off, I’m comfortable with him having regular fruits and veggies. It’s not easy to find organic versions of everything he eats – like asparagus. Even though he’s eating every last bit of that veggie, I buy regular asparagus because regular asparagus is better than NO asparagus. And the boy LOVES asparagus (we do not love the diapers they produce). The one thing I won’t be swayed on though is his meat. He must have all-natural, hormone-free meat. We prefer it to be grass fed as well.

Tonight, I made turkey. We will see if he likes it. I’m not sure he will – he’s starting to be very independent with his eating habits. For instance, I served him split pea stew today (which was so, so good!) and he fought it like he’s never fought a serving of food before. I was stunned and humored by his reaction! He actually refused it, which he has never done. I can usually coax him into eating anything by serving a bit of fruit in between bites, but not this time. After he refused me for the final time, he made this hilarious face, leaned forward, opened his mouth, and threw it up all over his high chair cover (yes, we were out in public). I should have been horrified, but I laughed so hard (and so did my lunch friends, thank goodness) that it hurt!

Tomorrow will be a real test, because I’m presenting him with turkey and its texture is very strange. I think I’ll do this at home though – JUST IN CASE!

The recipe book I use is “Cooking for Baby” from Williams Sonoma, but it’s also on Amazon.com with a different cover (which makes me wonder how many other “WS” cookbooks aren’t really exclusive to them). I have made so many things for M that it really excites me! When you cook for your baby, they are trying so many different things much earlier than if you’d just buy prepackaged food for them. This kid’s palate is amazing! Here is a list of what I’ve made and his reaction to each.

Carrots – loves, loves, LOVES carrots!

Sweet pea puree – took 3 tries but now loves it! (Why, then, does he not love my split pea stew?!)

Spaghetti squash – no, no, no (I didn’t make him try it more than once because I tried it and thought it was awful)

Butternut squash – LOVES it!

Sweet potato puree – This is his comfort food – it is his favorite veggie. If he’s having a rough day (few and far between), he gets sweet potatoes

Pear puree – LOVES pears of all varieties – and I love them because they fix his constipation in no time flat!

Apple puree (applesauce) – LOVES it, but we limit it because it can be binding. I use 4 different apples in one recipe and it’s so good that I also make it for B and me

Asparagus puree – Likes it an awful lot – I dare say he loves it. We do not love the diapers afterwards because it’s hard to tell from smell if it’s #1 or #2

Green beans with mint – Just so-so, which is too bad because we have a lot of it

Baby’s turkey – We don’t know yet

Whipped cauliflower – Loves this now that he’s used to it. We treat it as mashed potatoes because of the texture (we are limiting potatoes)

Whipped broccoli – Just so-so

Blueberry sauce – Meh. We need to mix it with pears to get him to eat it (which is just fine). I used frozen blueberries and will try again but with with fresh berries

Cherry puree – Meh. Again – we mix it with pears to get him to eat it and I made it from frozen cherries which I wouldn’t do again

Peach puree – Loves this if I don’t overcook it!

Nectarine puree – Loves this if I don’t overcook it!

Plum puree – LOVES IT!

Avocado – Did not like it, but we’ll try it again because I really want him to like it (I don’t like avocados and I know I’m missing out!)

Potato and butternut squash stew – This is his favorite food that isn’t a pure fruit. B and I love it as well – it is awesome!

Split pea stew – HATED it (and I don’t like the word, ‘hate,’ but that’s the only way to describe his reaction)! We will try it again later in the week

Amaranth and plum swirl – No idea because I just made this tonight. I’m not crazy about it

Squash and quinoa pilaf – No idea because I just made it tonight. I thought it was awesome!

Baby’s stock – We don’t serve this to him. It’s used to make his stews and other things. It smells really good!

As you can see, I do try everything I make for M. I just don’t think it’s right to make your kids eat foods that you won’t at least try yourself (and that goes for jarred food as well. If we were feeding him prepackaged food, I would certainly try it before giving it to him). What I have found from trying his food is that there are things that I like as well, that I would never have tried if I wasn’t making M’s food for him. In fact, the potato and squash stew is so good that I will make it for all of us over the years – he’s lucky I didn’t hold some back for myself 😉

I am done with his 7-8 month foods now. When he turns 9 months old, things will get more difficult because most of those meals are not appropriate to freeze. I will need to be cooking daily for him which is not what I’m doing now. But – I love doing it so I’ll keep it up!