Its no surprise that mothers have their fair share of funny boo-boos in raising their children. All the more for the first time mothers! I am writing this to share these light moments of learning with minutes of stress in between!

Oh No! No Sleeping Baby!

After 9 months of not having caffeine in my diet because of pregnancy, I started to miss sipping tea. Joshua was probably 2 months old, and I was entertaining a friend at home. I offered her tea, and I drank a cup too. Nothing harmful, it was nice and relaxing feeling until I breastfed my son. Boom! I saw my little infant suddenly on an upbeat mood with jumpy behavior. My baby passed his usual sleeping time (because at that age babies should be sleeping a lot) and was wide awake. After a couple hours, he was tired and could not sleep. He started to cry and whine! It was terribly stressful for me, because nothing could soothe him. It was really the caffeine that he drank through my breast milk! It takes about 6 hours to take out the caffeine from the system of a baby. When your baby non-stop cries, it feels like forever! I learned a very valuable lesson that day and have kept myself caffeine-free!

Baby, I spice up your life!

At 6 months old, solid foods just become another exciting part of a growing baby. As an excited mom to introduce food, I started with squash. Yes I kept the squash in the equation while adding other vegetables such as carrots, sayote, string beans. I kept the squash in the diet for 1 month and a half, eaten twice a day (during lunch and dinner)… The end result, I have a healthy baby with a yellow nose, yellow fingertips and toes! Hahaha, and mind you, it does not fade that easily!

Still on solid food, our pediatrician suggested to put some beef broth on the vegetables I was feeding Joshua. It was a brilliant idea because the bland flavor of the squash can now have a better taste. So, I was diligent to ask our cook to give me soup from his Tinola. He obliged to my request and so he gathered the very last of the soup of that Tinola in a bowl. I was so excited, I placed the vegetables in the blender and added the soup. It was a perfect blend. So I began feeding my son, and he ate. But starting the third spoon, he would take the food and cry right after. I wondered what was wrong. So I gave him milk and kept feeding. He would drink milk and stop crying, and after taking a spoon of food, he would cry. The funny part was we kept feeding, and he kept eating and crying. He finished the entire bowl! Later, I made another batch with the same soup. This time, I tried it. It was only then I realized why he was crying… The food was slightly spicy because of the large chili placed in the Tinola. My son had his first spicy food! I was laughing at the same time thinking, I was a bad mommy for not checking. The only blessing is, now Joshua does not mind a bit of spice in his food.

Oh, and the other boo-boo had to do with me trying to remove the squash from the diet of Joshua. Instead, I decided to replace squash with potatoes. So I had potatoes, sayote, malunggay, string beans, broccoli in his new mix for his lunch and dinner. The problem was I was putting more potatoes in the mix. In about 3 days of that new diet, my son had the most difficult time pushing out his bowel. He was crying in pain and he was really constipated with very hard bowel. I had to soothe him with milk as he was pushing because he was in so much pain. After researching the causes of constipation, I learned that starch causes constipation. It was the potatoes! From that day forward, I took out potatoes from his diet until he is more mature to digest that kind of starch. Wow, had I known, I would have saved him from that pain.

Going Paperless

My son now is interested with so many things. He actually is so curious that almost anything he puts in his mouth. So we try to put away things that might be dirty away from him. One evening, I had him with me on our bed. He was playing with the things on the bed including my newly opened citibank bill. So I left him because he does like looking at pictures. I was busy texting when suddenly I see him chewing something. The paper ad of citibank had a rip. So I opened my sons mouth and right at the roof of his mouth I saw a large piece of that paper ad. I tried to scoop it and it was so stuck in his mouth. We were both struggling! I was trying to get the paper out, and he was trying to get my hands out of his mouth. I was in panic mode because I could not get the paper out and it was getting soaked with his saliva so it was getting more stuck at the roof of his mouth. I had to ask assistance from his nanny to hold him so I can remove the paper. I finally got the paper out but he bit a portion of the paper and chewed and swallowed it. I was screaming his name “Joshua, NOOO…” But it was gone. Totally gone. Joshua had his first paper ad. What else can I do?

Now, I am trying to get Joshua away from paper, because his first attempt was not his last.

When I think about these boo-boos, I laugh. These have become tools for me to learn how to be a better mom to my baby. No mother is perfect, but a little humor makes motherhood a lighthearted fun journey.