Monthly Archives: June 2013

And now Solids!

One of the most exciting part of a growing baby is introducing them to solid food! We started solid foods a week before Joshua turned 6 months.

It all started with my son being interested with everything that we ate during meals. He would look intently with his mouth swallowing saliva and moving like it is motioning to eat. He was doing this as early as 4 months, but i refused to give him any solids.

But about a week before he turned 6 months, I was eating oatmeal for breakfast. Joshua just stared following my spoon from the bowl to my mouth! Poor guy, he really was showing interest to try. That day, I decided that he would try the last few bites of my oatmeal. He finished what was in the bowl and even sighed for more. It was a sign that he was ready for more!

So here comes the adventure of introducing my son to home-made solids. On our first week we did just one meal a day of just oatmeal and powdered cereal. He did very well with that, and on the second week we added lunch into his diet! Lunch was the exciting part because this is where we were experimenting what he could try. Initially we went for boiled squash and breast milk. He loved it. We had that everyday for a week. By the third week, Joshua was having 3 meals a day! He had such an adventurous palate!

Now, let me also be clear… Do not take away milk in the equation just because our baby is eating. One mom gave that tip of making your baby drink breast milk before and after a meal. As a recollection to my blog, Breastmilk is a SUPER FOOD. It is more nutritious than any food we can give our baby, so do not neglect giving it (unless you really want your child to wean).

So here are some recipes of home made food that Joshua enjoys. There are endless possibilities!

Squash Combo:

Cubed Squash
Sliced Carrot
Cubed Potato
Sliced Sayote or Green papaya

Boil these vegetables in water (I use filtered water) until it is cooked. Then set aside and place in blender or hand mash the vegetables with breast milk. You can even add malunggay, broccoli, etc. The possibilities are endless! You can also put a little beef broth to flavor it further.

Pear and Apple Snackadoodle
1 Pear Cubed
1 Apple Cubed

Boil this in water. When it is cooked, place the pear and apple cubes in the blender. Get about 1/4 cup of the boiled water (because the nutrients are still in it), and blend this with the pear and apple. Place in a separate container and chill in the refrigerator. Serve chilled when your child wants to take a snack or merienda.

I am also careful about feeding my little one sweets before his tooth even comes out! Yes, he has not tried ice cream or other sweet stuff. Even the powdered cereal, I prefer the less sweet ones and mix it with oatmeal. I suppose training your child to eat healthy and choose vegetables and fruit over junk food at this early age can develop his eating pattern in the future.

Oh this is such a fun stage! Time to get creative in making homemade food. I have decided to go homemade because its free from preservatives, and ultimately more nutritious than the products found on the shelf of the grocery.

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Momzilla attack

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For about weeks, my schedule has been so hectic… From Elections, traveling to Manila for work,attending Nick Vujicic’s event, Sarbay Fest, and the other activities that come in between. I really sometimes don’t know how I do it… When I tell other people, it seems like they feel stressed for me.

Rest is so important for a nursing mom. When this is violated, certain personality changes happens. I must admit I do feel embarrassed to share this story. Well, this will be an example of what not to follow…

It was the last few days of elections, we had family and friends over. They were so kind to not bother me so much, but I cant help myself, because I want to entertain. During the day, I would nurse and work (so I dont get to nap). At night, when Joshua is asleep, I try to make myself available for my husband too. I make time for us to catch up because he would come home late from campaign. Then, my son’s schedule. I have to make myself available for him because he is still asking for milk around 3 am and wakes up at 5 am everyday.

The evening before election, my son woke up wide awake at around 1:30 AM. It was my time to catch sleep because I was still up around that time. Everytime I would put him to sleep, he would cry. When I lift him up, he would smile and hint he would want to play. Usually this did not bother me. But that evening, I was tired. I wanted my sleep. My son wanted to play. I kept telling Joshua, “Josh, mommy is tired, please go back to sleep.” The response I get is his playful smile. He would try to talk too by cooing and he would smile. But mommy, was not happy. I felt physically too tired to play. So I tried to rock him back to sleep. My son would complain and cry because he was unhappy to go back to sleep. Grrrr….!!!!

Suddenly, I felt upset with the situation. So I sat my little boy by his toys and I told him, “Since you don’t want to sleep, you and I are going to stay up till 5 AM. Do you understand me?” I suddenly lost it. My mind just snapped and I turned into the “mother-no-child-would-wish”. I was upset that I took out my anger on the toys and with all of what is left of my strength I took the Dinosaur toy and played all the music and shook the toy up and down, side-to-side hoping this would make Joshua dizzy. At first he enjoyed it. I kept on saying, “we are not sleeping. We are not going to sleep”!” After playing for about 20 minutes, I saw Joshua wiping his eyes. I knew he started to feel sleepy. Instead of letting him sleep, my anger took over me. I brought him to the bathroom and let him play with his squeaky fish toys. I still kept chanting, “you are not sleeping until tomorrow!” For another 20 minutes Joshua obliged to play. After a while, he started to wipe his eyes and yawn. All the more, I chanted, ” you are not sleeping, do you understand?”… Like a crazy woman I brought him to his lighted drums and insisted he plays with it. The poor little boy again tried to play but this time he was moaning and started to cry because he was tired. But still I forced him to play.

I later started to feel guilty and caught myself. What on earth am I doing? Im making my son suffer because Im too tired to care for him and so I’ll make both of us miserable. Ohhh myyy…

I saw Joshua was really tired from my Momzilla episode, he actually fell asleep after a minute of nursing. He was that tired! As I was putting Joshua down in his crib, I started to pray. I asked forgiveness from God for my unbecoming behavior. I laid my hands on my son and asked God to protect my son from any consequence of my temper.

Im just so thankful God is full of mercy and grace, and they are new every morning! My son wakes up and looks at me with his big, loving eyes without a grudge.

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I never want to see Momzilla attack ever again. I have learned my lesson! I need to discipline myself to rest. This is a season in my life to slow down. I can catch up with the world later.

I shared this story with my other mommy friends and they cracked up laughing at how I lost it. Truly, its funny now… but what a sobering event for me. I pray God to help me be less childish and be a good mommy that Joshua can love and respect…