Greens

Eden hates just about every green vegetable imaginable. Peas...hates them. Green beans...was tolerating them a few weeks ago, but as of tonight...not so much. However, I was reading one of my baby food cookbooks and I saw that you could give babies zucchini puree. Desperate to get her to eat something green, I bought some and pureed it and gave it to her a few days ago.


And......



SUCCESS!!!

John's mom got us a baby food maker for Christmas (I had asked her for it as a gift for me but she sent it for "us") and I love making Eden's food. I'm more excited for when she gets a little bit older and I can experiment with more foods, but we're doing pretty well so far. I've made sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, carrots, pears, and I do bananas the day she's going to eat them just by taking a banana and smashing it up before giving it to her. I'm wanting to introduce herbs and spices, but I'm going to wait until her 6 month appointment to check with her doctor just to make sure it'll be ok. I want her to be a good eater and I know I can't control that, but I can try by exposing her to as much as possible now and continuing the trend the older she gets. Tomorrow....we try mango which I'm sure will be a success. I've yet to find a fruit she doesn't like. But I think that's typical.

Christmas

I realize it's a few days past Christmas, but I figure better late than never. We had a really good Christmas despite being away from family. John's mom went crazy buying for Eden which made our tree overly stuffed with presents, but I guess that's never a bad thing (although, in my book, Christmas is not about gifts). John and I opened our gifts to each other and from our parents on Christmas Eve, and we did Eden's on Christmas morning. Even though she didn't know any different, she did seem to enjoy helping open her gifts, but I'm sure it was more about trying to get the paper in her mouth as you will see in the pictures below.

John got me a very nice, new, high tech camera which I'm still trying to figure out how to use to it's ability. I'm hoping that I'll get it all figured out and be able to get some really good pictures in the coming months. I'm so excited about the great pictures it does take...but like I said, I'm still trying to figure out the proper way to use it and get the best shots possible out of it. In the mean time...ENJOY!








And....the aftermath.

My Favorite Pictures

I finally got the photos that I had taken when Eden and I were home in October and I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. She is already such a different baby!










Same picture...just in color.




I like all of them, but these are just my favorites that aren't on Facebook...minus the one.

My Favorite Thing

My favorite thing that Eden has been doing the past few days is the way she looks at me sometimes. It's straight in the face, like really looking at me. It's almost like a look of understanding or wonder...nose to nose, and she just stares straight at me...I don't really know how to explain it, but I LOVE it. It's one of those moments that I'd kill to have in a photo, but considering I'm the only one home with her most days and it's a photo I'd never be able to take myself. Boo! I'm hoping someday she'll do it when John is around and he can maybe catch it...but I'm not super hopeful. However, it's a moment and look that I adore so much, that it's forever in head.

My Own Eyes

Finally...I have seen my daughter roll over with my own eyes. This makes me feel so much better! I knew that she could do it because I've put her in bed awake on her belly and then 10 minutes later she would be on her back kicking her legs up in the air. It's just so much more reassuring when you see it with your own eyes. She has to work at it, but she can do it. Now we just need more practice to get good.

Birthday Picture

Here are some pictures from yesterday of little miss in her birthday jammies. I seriously don't know where the last 5 months have gone, and that they've gone as fast as they have.



And of course...one with "the face."


She still isn't rolling over on a regular basis or sitting up on her own. I know that all kids will go at their own pace, but it makes me feel like I'm a bad parent or something or like I'm doing something wrong. I'm not wanting her to grow up too fast or anything, but I just feel like she should be doing those things. She's capable of rolling on her side and she acts like she's going to go all the way over, but then doesn't. So...I don't know. I just hope I'm doing everything right!

Sneaky

Someone has rolled over in her crib, but doesn't seem to want to any other time. Sneaky baby!

Christmas Photo

I just got our christmas cards out today and here are 2 of the rejected photos that I didn't include. BIG thanks to Tricia for our Christmas bow!! You can see her bow better on the photos that I put on the card, so you'll just have to wait to see.

Smiles

I have a smiley child...however, she hardly ever smiles for the camera. She always gives me "the face." If you're wondering what "the face" is...see below.







That surprised, open mouth, "What the hell are you doing?" look on her face. But sure as shit, as soon as I put it away...SMILE!

Thankfully, I did get one good one today.

This and That

Our house has been hit, yet again, with the cold bug. Or maybe I should say, Eden was hit with the cold bug, and so graciously has passed it on to me. Just when she was finally over the last one, John's time off was up and I finally had to take her back to babysitting at the gym and no more than 2 days later, she was sneezing, and then the next day, nasty boogery nose and congestion. I was fine until yesterday evening. It seemed to have come out of nowhere and punch me right in the throat. UGH!

On top of that, Eden was waking up at 4 am for almost a week and I would hear her little, "Eh, eh, eh, eh," and now that that's stopped...I'M still waking up waiting to hear it. Then I can't fall back to sleep which was the case in point last night. I didn't fall back asleep until 7am, and then the alarm went off at 8 for me to get up and get ready for the gym. Needless to say, I'm dragging ass today. I'd love to take a nap, but I know it'll screw with me when I try, yet again, to go to bed at a reasonable hour. And I'll add that today would be the perfect day for a nap since my little princess has been napping for over 2 hours!! It's stupid that it worries me, but it does because she NEVER naps this long...EVER! Maybe she's moving into taking one long nap a day along with 2 shorter ones, I don't know. I thought we were all figured out, but it appears that that may be changing.

Regardless...I feel a little guilty knowing that I've enjoyed the past 2 hours laying on the couch in my robe, covered up, watching tv, and not entertaining anyone or cleaning anything up. I love playing with Eden, but when I don't feel good, I really enjoy doing nothing. So maybe I don't feel so guilty since I do feel like shit.
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Insert Creative Title Here

So much for trying to post once a week! Oh well. My excuse is that I've been enjoying the fact that my child has been going to bed by 10 just about every night and I stay up either watching tv, getting a movie on the weekends, or catching up with friends on the phone. Granted, I know we should be putting Eden to bed awake by now, or at least that's what "the books" say, but I can't help that she falls asleep taking her last milk...and I damn sure don't plan on feeding her for the last time at 7pm and then trying to put her to bed at 8 or 9, and then her get up at the ass crack of dawn for the day. Nope.

Not much new is going on in our neck of the woods. Eden is trying a variety of foods lately and her favorites appear to be fruit and most things orange (minus squash which her belly doesn't want to digest). I made my own sweet potato baby food today because I don't like the fact that on some of the baby foods, they add asorbic acid. I don't really know that it's necessary, so with those things, I want to make those myself. Although, I may try to just make everything myself...especially when meat and all that stuff is introduced. That chicken sticks shit in a jar that I see on the shelf...there is no way in hell that I'm feeding that to my kid! If I don't want to think about eating it...I'm not giving it to her.

Here's some pictures of Eden and new foods.

Squash is GROSS!!


Greenbeans....not a big fan.


Yummmm! Carrots!!

Really, Santa??

We have been talking about taking Eden to see Santa for the past week, and today when we were at the mall, we walked past just to take a peek of what he looked like. Not too bad. Then, we looked at the prices. $22.99 for the CHEAPEST "package." Really?? For a photo with Santa?? Then they have their "personal camera policy" up which I found entertaining. Basically, it says, "We have to really stick it to you in order to 'bring Santa back' every year," so no using your own camera. Needless to say, we're rethinking that trip to see Santa.

Pumpkin Pop Tarts

Yes. Pop Tarts makes a pumpkin pie flavor.....and yes, I tried them. YUM!!! I had 1 as an after dinner dessert. Looks like I know what I'll be having as dessert for the next 15 nights! They only had the big pack which I didn't really want, but now, I'm not so sad that that's all they had!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Need I say more?

Adventures in Food

We started giving Eden food after we got back from our weekend in Maryland, and so far we've had: rice cereal, oatmeal, and apples. Would you believe that she isn't a fan of the apples? I'm not sure if it's the taste or the consistency, but she didn't seem to be a fan. I'm sure she'll get used to it after a few times, but the look on her face...well, you'll see.

Here's our experience with rice cereal. It's yummy, but I think I like oatmeal just a little bit more.




A few days later, Daddy let me lick on this prune. I didn't hate it!



Apples......EEEWWWWW!

We Made It!

My child is amazing. She did so well on the ride here. We only had to stop twice and made the trip in just 8 hours. I'm so incredibly lucky to have such a good baby. She impresses me every day! I don't know if the shots helped because she still isn't quite herself yet or she is just that good. Don't get me wrong, she got a little fussy here and there, but no giant screaming upsetments. Yay! It's 10:30pm and she is sleeping, thankfully. She didn't want to go to bed until almost midnight last night so I was exhausted today. Speaking of, I think I'll take my butt to bed as well.

Prepping and Packing

I swear if we never go anywhere for the next year I'll be happy. I'm packing us up for our journey tomorrow to Maryland for the JFK 50 again. It's not until Saturday, but since we have a baby in tow this year and he has to pick up all his stuff Friday, we are going down tomorrow. I'm a lot nervous since its an almost 7 hour drive and I'm not 100% sure how Eden will do considering she just got shots Tuesday. Time will tell, but my money is on that it will be ok. She has been beyond amazing every time we have traveled, so I'm hoping that is the status quo.

Trying Something New

I decided a few days ago that I was going to try a new recipe out of my Hungry Girl cookbook and make it for dinner one night this week. Well, last night, I did just that. It was called "Southwestern Surprise" and I was surprised that with all the diced tomatoes in it that I actually liked it! It was categorized as a soup, but is pretty thick and hearty (especially the next day!!) that reminded me of chili. It was SUPER easy to make and makes a TON of it. We both had a big bowl of it, I had a mug of it for lunch today, and there is still a big container of it that I stuck in the freezer. And what's better, is that it's not super fattening or high in calories. If you make it according to the recipe and only use 4oz of cooked ground sirloin, it's only 1 gram of fat and 168 calories for 1 cup of it. I browned a pound of ground sirloin and put it all in instead of just 4oz so I know the calories and fat are more than what it should be, but it still can't be super awful.

We also found Pumpkin Spice bagels at Walmart that are made by Thomas...DELISH! I had one for breakfast this morning and it was really good. I didn't put anything on it. Just stuck it in the microwave for 15 seconds and ate it plain. Reminded me of pumpkin bread mixed with bagel. Yum yum yum!!

4 months old

My precious angel is 4 months old today!! I don't know where the time has gone and can't believe how quickly she is growing up. She's so damn cute!!

Badtime Routine

No, that isn't a typo. Our bedtime routine feels like a badtime routine these past few days. We handled the time change great, but it's starting to feel like we lost an hour rather than gaining one. Eden is not going to bed until 11:45pm, and although she usually sleeps until 10am and gets up once usually during that time for a bottle, sometimes more which is a quick fix of a binky...but it's getting exhausting for me. There are nights where I would like to be in bed by 11 or earlier, but with this new thing she is in...no such luck. I know that to fix this I'm either just going to have to get her up earlier in the morning or just stick it out until she gets it figured out and back into her old routine. It doesn't help that she has a cold, so that may be part of the problem...or maybe the time change did screw with her a bit. Who knows. But she's so damn cute, I could never be upset :)

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

There are two things I love....ice cream from Stewarts here, and just about anything pumpkin. Wouldn't you know that while I was in Cincinnati, John discovered that Stewarts came out with pumpkin pie ice cream. Let me just tell you....it's sinful. I swear it tastes just like Frisch's pumpkin pie in ice cream form. Thankfully, it only comes from behind the counter so you can't buy an entire half gallon (and yes, it's a true half gallon, not those tiny wanna be expensive quarts or whatever most places sell these days), but you can get them to make you a hand packed pint. It's SO good! Damn you Stewarts for being so delicious!!

Back on the Horse

After 2 weeks away from the gym, I finally got back on the horse today. It felt so good! I love going to personal training, but it's expensive and because of that...I can't do it for as long as I'd really like to do it.

Thankfully, my trainer said that I could join a group training session which would cut the cost down from what I pay per session to what I'd pay for the two days a week. The only downfall is that it's at 9:30am and I currently go at 11:30 on Monday and 12 on Wednesday. I choose these times because A.) the Y isn't as busy then and B.) my kid sleeps late and I damn sure don't want to get her into an early bird routine. However, if joining a group will allow me to go that much longer...I just might have to suck it up on those two days. I like having something to look forward to and having to actually BE somewhere.

Crisis Averted

Last night, we averted a potential crisis......poop in the tub!

It was nearing bath time and Eden had yet to poop. I was hoping that maybe she was going to wait until after her bath or overnight/in the morning, unfortunately, as we were at the end of bath time, I smelled poop, then looked to see little bubbles coming from her butt and then heard her grunting. Here's how our conversation went as it was happening.

A: "AHHHHHH!!! Poop in the tub! Poop in the tub!! She's gonna to poop in the tub!!"

J: "Well....what do you want me to do?"

A: Get a towel, get a towel!! I don't care if she poops all over the towel, I just don't want her pooping in the tub! Hurry hurry hurry!!!

John threw me a towel and I hurried up to get E out of the tub. As I reached in to get her, I saw a little bit of poop floating and when I got her out, just a little bit on where she lays. Oddly enough, she never really pooped that much afterwards. I thought for sure she'd go in the middle of the night, but thankfully she waited until the afternoon.

Whew!! Crisis averted....for the most part :)

Finding My Way Back

It's been WAY too long since I've posted and I hate myself just a little bit for getting away from it. It's just so hard because I have 5 million other things I want to get done in the short times that Eden naps during the day, and at night...let's face it, I want to go to bed. I figure if I shoot to post at LEAST once a week, it's better than nothing.

We are still mildly recovering from our trip to Cincinnati. We got home on Tuesday afternoon and although we're settled, I still feel a bit out of sorts mentally. We enjoyed our time back home, but it was equally exhausting. Trying to split my time between my mom's house and my sister's house, not having a vehicle, and just packing everything of Eden's for when I made the switch between houses was nuts. It really made me not want to go home for Christmas and do it again, not to mention, add his family to the mix of people we need to spend time with. It won't feel like Christmas if we stay here, but attempting to drive home makes the trip that much longer and will probably make me that much bitchier.

Aside from all that, Eden was a great traveler, and as always, got lots of compliments from everyone on how cute she is and what a good baby on the plane she was. I think the one thing that cracks me up when people say is, "Oh, she's so alert!" Umm....well yeah, she's almost 4 months. She's not a newborn, she should be alert. It doesn't annoy me, just makes me laugh...like, DUH!

When we were home, a friend of mine who is getting into photography came out to my parents house to do a shoot of us (more of Eden than me, but I wanted some of her and I too). She text me 3 preview pictures which I will happily share here. I LOVE them!! It's killing me to have to wait for the rest of them, but her stepdad who has been more of her dad than her real dad, just died of pancreatic cancer so I know it's going to take her a bit to grieve and then get back to editing. I'm thankful she could take the time out to take our pictures, and whenever she can get the rest to us...I totally understand. Have a look! Forgive the quality since they are uploaded from my phone.





And finally, my favorite "non-professional" picture taken by my Aunt Phyllis! It helps too when you have the cutest kid ever :)

Looking Forward

It's a good day today. John is off the night shift as of this morning and was off today and doesn't go back until Saturday morning. It's nice to have him home all day to help out so I can get things done around the house and just to feel like I have some time off, even if I don't get around to going anywhere. I love my Boo Bear more than anything in the world, but feeling like a single parent 7 days a week is tough. I know it'll get better once she gets into a more concrete routine, and it's not like it's even that bad, but it's not really all that predictable which makes attempting to exercise at home, hard. So, with John being off for 3 days and then going on the day shift, it'll give me some time to feel normal.

A friend of mine from back home is coming up on Friday for the weekend so I'm REALLY looking forward to that. I haven't really had any time to do anything with friends without Eden and I think I'm ready to do that. Granted, it's not like it's going to be anything crazy since she doesn't get in until 1:30 and John has to work Saturday morning, so we can't go out at night, but to be able to get a pedicure, massage, do whatever we want without me worrying about if Eden's going to cry, or if she's too uncomfortable in the car seat, holding her if she does start to hate the car seat, etc. This has been 7 weeks in the making and I'm going to take full advantage of it. I've always just run out and run back, never gone more than an hour. Not this weekend! I think I'll feel a little guilty...but I think I'll get over it.

Bad Timing

Eden has been SO good for the past week or so at sleeping for 5 hour stretches at night which I am beyond thankful for...except last night, and now tonight and I blame my husband. I gotta blame someone don't I? He's put her in her swing close to 9pm before he leaves for work, which always puts her to sleep. Last night, I stopped the swing at 10 and then she woke up at 10:10, I fed her a bottle and then put her down for bed at midnight. Low and behold, she was up at 3:45am and then didn't go back down until 5am, and then was up again at 7am. I was less than thrilled.

Tonight, once again, he put her in her swing at 8:45 because she was falling asleep and he was getting ready to leave for work. I told him to just put her up in her bed and he says, "She probably won't sleep that long." It's now almost midnight. So now I struggle with the decision of whether or not to stop the swing and let her wake up, feed and change her and then put her back down to bed, or to just let her swing until she wakes up at God only knows what time while I just camp out on the couch until she wakes up on her own and then feed her and put her in bed. My fear is that she'll sleep until 4a.m or something crazy like that, which would be great, but is it good for her to sleep in there for that long?? I don't want her to get into the habit of sleeping in there for long periods in the evenings/nights and then not want to sleep in her bed.

Should this happen again tomorrow....I'm making him put her in her bed! I wish I could have gone to bed right when she feel asleep in the swing, but let's face it...there's crap that needs to be cleaned up from dinner and just things I want to do (making a phone call to a friend or just watching tv) to go to bed that early. Plus I'm afraid I'd be awake come 3 or 4a.m. which would make me less than happy.

I'm happy my Boo has a her long stretches of sleep figured out for nights...but not so happy these past two nights have just been bad timing.

Time Management

Good Lord, learning the art of time management as a parent sucks. It's even harder when you have a little one who isn't on an overly predictable schedule. There are so many times where I want to take a nap when she does, but those times always seem to come when it's time to eat a meal and I'm always going to choose to eat versus sleep. I did manage to workout for about a half hour today while she napped, and was hoping to be able to get showered. I did manage the shower, however it lasted a whole 5 minutes or less because she was waking up and I didn't want her screaming (yes, I am that mom that rarely lets her kid cry unless it's necessary like when I have to make a bottle, use the bathroom, etc.) So now I have disgusting sweaty hair which I figure I can hopefully just wash later when she sleeps again, maybe I should do that now instead of posting!

One Month Old

My baby Boo Bear (this is what I've called her since day one. Not sure why, but that's just what came out when I saw her) is one month old today!! I don't know where the past month has gone, but it has flown. Things get a little easier every day despite the struggles we have from time to time, but that's to be expected.

We celebrated her one month birthday today by her taking a big nap late this afternoon (hoping this doesn't mess with her sleeping well tonight), me making some pina colada cupcakes, and putting a headband bow in her hair. We had a cute festive cloth diaper on her this morning before we dressed her for the day, but then when she pooped and daddy changed her, it got on some of the outside so that was the end of that festive diaper.

Here's some pictures of Eden on her one month birthday!

Success!

It appears that the Gerber formula is a success for us!! I was starting to get worried because it had been almost 3 days since Eden has pooped and if she didn't go today, I was going to call yet again. But when E got up at 8 this morning, I changed her diaper and was happy to see just a little bit of poop. I go to change her and sure enough, I should have waited longer because as I'm changing her, she starts pooping more! I couldn't even be mad though because it was regular baby poop...no hard turds, no diarrhea, plan old stinky formula baby poop. I wish her poops would still be more breast milk poops, but at this point, as long as she poops at least once a day, I'll be happy. Looks like we'll be able to combo feed until I decide I've had enough, or my boobs say enough and stop producing. Either way, I'm happy with how things are and I'll be okay with whatever happens from here on out. Yay!

Finding What Works

We've been struggling lately here at the Nakel house with trying to find out what works in terms of supplementing formula along with breastfeeding. There are days where I simply can't nurse Eden ALL day long. It's exhausting and we've had days where she wants to nurse for almost an hour, takes a half hour off, and then wants to nurse again. My boobs simply can't handle that. Plus, in the event that I have a chance to get out of the house by myself, I hate being a slave to the clock of, "Oh I have to hurry up and get back to nurse E." Plus, when people visit, I'm not overly comfortable nursing her in front of people so it's a pain in the ass to go upstairs to feed her...not to mention, no one else can feed her so that's no help to me.

We tried using the little bottles of formula the hospital gave us when we brought her home. It was the Similac Advance ready made and we found out that it gave her horrible diarrhea. All those giant blow outs she was having was caused by that and it broke my heart to know that it was my fault by giving her that. I called the pediatrician and talked to the phone nurse and she suggested I try the Similac Almentium and left a can for us to pick up and try. So we tried that for a few days, but I started to notice that she was SO fussy. John kept saying that it was because a book we have on "Your Baby Week by Week" says something about babies getting fussy at this age, but I was convinced it was the formula. She was never fussing at night when I nurse her, just during the day/evening hours when she'd get a bottle or two.

Well, Mary was giving her a breast milk bottle today and the 2oz. it had just wasn't enough (she usually takes between 3-4 depending on the time of day she gets a bottle) so I made her another 2oz. bottle of the formula to finish her off. Sure as shit, as she was burping her from that, she was instantly fussy. That was all I needed to seal the deal that it was the formula making her fussy, so I made yet another call the the pediatrician phone nurse. This time, they suggested Gerber and said it was supposed to be better for babies who are also breastfed and said they'd leave me a can and cooler pack at the front to pick up.

I'm hoping that this will work for us because it's killing me to know I'm putting my child through hell, just to alleviate some of my inconvenience and stress. I have the utmost respect for the women who can exclusively breastfeed because I just can't do it all the time. I love nursing at night because it's easier for me. No heating up any bottles or messing with anything else, and since I'm the only person who ever gets up with her when it's just John and I, why not. But if this formula doesn't work, I don't know what I'll do!

Gym Time

Grandma got Eden a little gym/activity mat the other day after we got pedicures and so far, she likes it in small doses. She's still pretty picky about whether she wants to be on her back, or in the swing, or in the bouncy seat. This morning she was awake and seeming pretty content, so I took it out of the package, put it together and put E on it. The whale seemed to be her favorite.