Jarred baby food

So I have been making all my own baby food, but I had purchased some fruits because frankly I think that fruits are harder to make then veggies. So this morning my little one tried peaches for the first time. She seemed to enjoy them and ate well. They did not sit well with her though. She was spitting up to the point that it was almost throwing up then all afternoon. Joe and I both felt so bad for her. She ate her dinner of oatmeal and sweet potatoes like a champ...in fact she ate way better than normal. So I learned my lesson -make my own food and donate the jarred stuff!

Long time no blogging

So I feel like its been forever since I've blogged about anything. For awhile I was blogging on a daily basis via my cell phone and mobile blogging. Then I stopped because I felt like I had nothing to say, then I had too much to say. I sat there and lay awake in bed and composed blog posts but didn't. So here are is a brief summary of some of the blog posts I thought about writing:

- Our little one is eating - some nights better than others. She loves to feed herself. She only sometimes like eating from a spoon while I feed her. She got pork for the first time tonight. My mother in law made a pork roast in the crock pot and we broke it up into little pieces and let her feed herself. In summary - some of the food she eats nowadays (or at least has tried):apples, pears, bananas, avocados, sweet potatoes (her favorite), acorn squash, butternut squash, yellow squash, zucchini, peas, green beans, yogurt (yo baby brand), rice, oatmeal, puffs - most flavors, and new this week yogurt melts and pork. Soon to try chicken and turkey also.

- Little one is seven months old and rolling like crazy! She is starting to rock on all fours, but no crawling yet

- Happy Mother's Day to my mother and I enjoyed my first mother's day. I got to spend the weekend with my mom and and my came back home to my husband having made me a fabulous dinner!

- I went home to NY/CT for mother's day weekend. We went to the zoo for the first time and I got my fill of some of those foods that I love from home - Dominic's, Pepe's & Colony pizza,and lobster - it was only $4.99/pound in CT so we went a little overboard - I wish I had photographed that!

(at the zoo with cousins)

- We bought a "swagger wagon" (aka - a Toyota Sienna & I love it!)

- Little one slept through the night for the first time in a long time last night after some long horrible sleep nights after she got her first tooth last week. CIO and sleep training do work. Let's just home it wasn't a fluke and tonight is just as good!

-I got the opportunity to participate in a i-spy swap. I can't wait to get the fabrics and begin an i-spy quilt for my little one's first birthday

-I was featured as a guest blogger again on Baby-to-Go. This time to talk about strollers. Harm said she thinks I like my stroller more than my husband. Some weeks I get to spend more time with it than with him so it depends when you talk to me and what his work schedule is like :)

All of these could have been expanded into long posts, but for now...and until later. Goodnight :)

I got a blog award! Yipee!

I got my first blog award! Harm over at Baby-to-go awarded me the... the Happy 101 award! So here goes....

So here are the rules of the Happy 101 Award:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink)
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know about the award.


Ten things that make me happy (in no particular order):
1. Sleeping - as a mom of a seven month old sleep is something that I never get enough of and never take for granted anymore. I also have a wonderful bed!
2. The Shower - The shower is just a great relaxer for me and its one of the few times that I get to be alone!
3. My family back east - My husband and I will have been married 5 years this July and we have owned four homes already. Our move here to Ohio was the farthest from home and its so hard to be away from them!
4. My playgroup - these women have been with me and by my side every week since baby K was just a few weeks old. We've watched our children get their first teeth, roll over for the first time, taste their first solid meals, sleep through the night the first time, etc, etc, etc. I don't know what I would do without these ladies.
5. Pizza from Connecticut - particularly Colony or Pepe's. Unless you've had them you just wouldn't understand
6. A good steak & a big glass of a rich red wine - need I say more!
7. A clean house - I'm a horrible housekeeper and thus I never have a clean house. The twice a month that the cleaning lady comes are just wonderful days to come home to!
8. Travelling - I love flying (even with a baby - she is really good on planes) and I love to go to new places or places that I don't get to get to enough
9. My baby - She is so smiley, even when tired you can get her to smile or giggle. She just lights up my world. I love being a mom, even more than I thought I would.
10. My husband - how could he not make this list. No one else in the world knows how to make me happy the way he does. He is my support, my sounding board, my teammate, my partner, and to sound extra cheesy - my everything. I love him more everyday.


Other blogs that make me Happy & deserve this award:
This Adventure, Our Life - this mom has great photos of her little one, her daughter is almost exactly the same age as our daughter and we recently decided that is our second child is a girl, we too will name her Bailey
All & Sundry - I've been reading/lurking around this blog for a few years now and I love how she keeps it real about motherhood and the craziness of kids
Pics & Kicks - I started reading this blog because I loved her photography and then she lost Gavin earlier in the year and I can't tear myself away from her words
and a new recent favorite - Home Sweet Home - food, kids, crafts, sewing....this is all up my alley!

Sitting on the front porch swing

This afternoon we dropped the dog off to be bathed and groomed and we are enjoying the the sun and beautiful afternoon on the front porch swing!

Homemade baby food

So last night I whipped up a bunch of food for munchers (that is the nickname that Joe has given her). It really wasn't that hard. I made sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and acorn squash. They all needed to be baked in the oven for an hour @ 350 so I just baked them all at once. I then pureed them individually and froze them in ice cube trays. This morning I dumped them into freezer bags and we are good to go on food for awhile.

She doesn't always love eating real food though. Yesterday she ate squash with her daddy and gave him a lip about it... But we carry on!

Six Months Old

I can't believe that my little one is six months old already. She has had a lot of firsts already. She has had her first plane ride, plus two others. She has had her first solid foods - rice cereal, oatmeal, avocado and acorn squash. She has had her first night with someone besides mommy putting her to sleep - thanks Nana Hooke! She has rolled over many times - in fact, its like she won't stay on her back anymore. She has had her first visit to urgent care. I was worried she had an ear infection - but really she was cranky from poor sleeping and a slight cold.

There are many other things she has not done yet. She still can't really sit all by herself. She still has no teeth. She still is not crawling, cruising or any forward or backward movement of any kind yet - just rolling. She is still not sleeping through the night, although she is only eating once which is a big improvement.

She has met most of her cousins, my cousins and her daddy's cousins. She is keeping quite busy. We have started music classes weekly, signed up for weekly swimming classes, we have a weekly playgroup, a weekly stroller aerobics class and usually thrown in there is some meet up with either Ally & Hud or Sara & Jack or one of her other many friends.

She is loving her daddy and all the ways he makes her giggle - he is the best at it. All in all, six months is a good time. She is fun to be around, fairly independent and incredibly happy. All she does is smile - especially at new people and her smile is from ear to ear and warms my heart. Here is to another great second half of the year!

Seven Weeks Old

So this week was a very good week. I started with a few other women a new moms walking group. On Wed. we walked 6 and a half miles and on Friday we walked about 3 miles.

Friday night was a tough night for my husband. Kirsten just did not want anything to do with him. This was tough for him. Sunday though, the two of them danced and laughed all afternoon. He said it was one of the best days he's spent with her since she was born. This made me really happy and it made him even more happy.

Now for the fun part...some photos of her :)

Dancing with Daddy

Deep in thought...
Chilling in the rocker

Happy at seven weeks

Relaxing/almost sleeping in the jumper. Notice where her arm is....

....in the leg hole.

What a week

So after our ordeal in the hospital this week, Joe then had a huge work visit (which went very well). This visit though left me home alone with the dog and the baby from Wednesday right after we got home from the hospital until Friday afternoon. This was tough for me because I felt like I have been holding my daughter (as much as I love to) nonstop from Sunday night until Friday afternoon. I really needed to have someone else hold her. Of course, since Joe has been home she has been great. She has smiled tons (see below pictures) and allowed someone else to hold her and allow both of us to put her down. She's had a great routine of eating, playing/awake time, and sleeping. Needless to say our week is ending much better than it started. Today we are getting ready for the 3:30 OSU v. PSU game (so much has changed since last year's game when Meg and Scott were here and we were a pitcher or two of Bloody Marys in at this time of the day). Its also much warmer this year than last. We took advantage of the pretty day by taking some family pictures. Enjoy:Six weeks has really gone by quick!

Bear hasn't thought its gone quick...here he is eating the six week sign
She is really starting to look like a real person And smiling!

I made her a hat for the cold days that we go for a walk outside in the baby wrap. She seemed to like it!

And now the family just watches the game.

On another note....I started gentian violet this week for my thrush....what an improvement. Now I realize nursing isn't supposed to hurt!

Our Hospital Stay

So here is the whole story about what happened this week with us.

On Monday Kirsten was very fussy. She just was very irritable and not herself. I'd been worried about her stool for awhile and so I decided to take her temperature. I took her temp twice under her armpit and the temps were 99.7 and 99.9. I had Joe reading the directions for the thermometer and he said that it recommended a rectal temp so we did that and it read 102.2. I immediately freaked out and called our pediatrician who told us to go immediately to the Children's Hospital ER.

Just where you want to be - an ER during Flu season. So within 15-20 of our arrival they took us into Triage and took her temp and it was 99.7 - much better but because of our temp at home, they were still worried. The nurse explained to us that we were in for a long night. They would probably have to do a catheter so they could take a urine sample, a blood sample and spinal tap to check for meningitis. She said we might also be admitted for observation for a few days. They then put us into a private waiting room and told us to wait for a room to be available in the ER. This took at least 2 hours and seemed like forever. She was a trooper for the whole thing. Mind you I left the house with nothing - I left her diaper bag at home as well as her pacifier. Things I never normally leave without. What a mistake!

Once in the ER room, we waited for another 45 min at least to meet with the doctor. He again told us about the three procedures that they would do and what they would be testing for. The nurse first inserted the catheter and that was no problem. Then they called in a tech. and the nurse and the tech looked for good veins to run the IV with. They looked in each foot and each hand and found what appeared to be a good vein. The nurse poked and couldn't get the vein and tried some more. Then the tech tried another vein in that same hand and got enough blood for the tests but couldn't get a line in the for the IV. Then the doctors came in for the lumbar puncture.

The doctor started by saying that he gives parents a choice to be in the room or not. Well, for the other two procedures I got to be right there with my baby and soothe her cries. So of course I thought this would be the same. Well when I said I was staying, he said then you need to sit down. This is when I really started sobbing because it sounded like they were torturing her. She did not like the crouch position they were putting and holding her in. They did the first attempt - nothing, then the other doctor tried - nothing. At this point they told me, through my sobs that they would try one more time and then that would be it. I couldn't sit in the room and watch anymore. I needed to get out of that room. I was too worried that it was her spine we were dealing with! You mess up you can do permanent damage. I just couldn't watch anymore. So I paced the ER hall until the doctor told me that they were successfully able to do the puncture.

They then let me hold her again told me that they were indeed going to admit her. She had more abnormalities in her urine that may indicate a urinary tract infection. Once in our room in the infectious disease ward of the hospital the doctor told us that there was protein in the spinal fluid as well, but this may be because of the "traumatic puncture."

By the time they left us to go to sleep it was 2 or 3 in the morning. Around 9AM the doctors came to do rounds. They proceeded to talk in doctor speak to one another about what tests they were running and what they were testing for. I didn't really understand it all, but what I was hearing that all preliminary tests were negative....they just wanted to rule everything out.

They day was pretty uneventful. I wanted nursing students fumble over everything from blood pressure to heart rates. I was told she had a heart murmur that today I was told can no longer be heard. I saw many different nurses...all of which were extremely nice. The only thing that we were waiting on was for a stool - they needed to do a test. This didn't come until 1 AM. Ugh! Its like she knew we were waiting for it!

So this morning during rounds I yet again heard them say that all tests were negative and they thought we would be able to go home today and follow up with my pediatrician tomorrow. And that is exactly what happened. Now she lays upstairs, sleeping in her swing and Joe is off at a work event. All is back to normal and its like none of this happened. Except that it did and I will never forget it! I am just glad my little girl is OK. Thanks to everyone for their prayers and love.

Our little one sleeping in mommy's lap at the hospital with the IV in her right arm.

A mom date?

So a mom from one of the groups I am in exchanged numbers with me today so we could get together to walk or something. Its kinda like mommy dating. I haven't dated in 8 years. Do I wait 3 days to call? Do I send a text? Not quite sure what the etiquette is on this one....