Introducing solids and the working mom

At Sadie's 4 month appointment I asked her doctor about introducing rice cereal. Our doctor said she didn't have a problem if we started it, normally she did not talk about introducing solids until the 6th month appointment but if we wanted to start practicing with Sadie we had her approval with the caveat that it was strictly for "fun" and that it was always given after she has a bottle so that she is still getting most of her nutrition from formula.

I get up at 5:15am every morning (at least I try!) and we normally leave the house by 7:00am (again, I try, some mornings it's closer to 7:15am) this gets us to day care by 7:30-7:40am and me to work by 7:50am. All of this is with Sadie just receiving a bottle in the morning.

I get off work at 5:00pm. I get over to the day care by 5:20pm (way more traffic in the afternoon than the morning!) we get home by 5:45pm. Sadie has a bath (on bath nights) and a bottle and is asleep by 7:00pm.

Can you tell me when the heck I am supposed to start fitting in just for "fun" rice cereal during any of that?

Let me go a little deeper. Our night time routine is pretty set in stone at this point, Sadie gets nice and sleepy while having that last bottle, I put her down in her crib, and even if she is awakeish she is OUT within 5 minutes. You're telling me I am supposed to keep my tired, cranky baby up and awake just so she can eat, for "fun", cereal AFTER a bottle? No way. I would have to say this is one of the only points I have disagreed with my doctor about.

I thought about just feeding her the cereal before bath, bottle and bed, but after doing a bit of research I decided I wanted to skip the rice cereal stage. We were only feeding it to her on the weekends, so that's not really that much practice. Plus, Sadie never really took to the rice cereal:

"You sure about this, dad?"

"Mom? I do not approve."

(Note: if we had stuck with the rice cereal we were feeding a whole grain option, not white rice, which some doctors compare to "feeding your child a spoonful of sugar".) Since, I decided to skip the cereal, I felt much better about giving her puréed veggies before a bottle since the veggies would be packed full of nutrition. Even after the 1 to 1.5 ounces of puréed sweet potatoes Sadie eats, she had no problem packing away an 8 ounce bottle. Hello, blissful 12(ish) hour stretch of uninterrupted baby sleep!

I read in my Baby 411 book that the goal is to include solids 3 times a day by the time a baby is 9 months old. So with our night time feeding we are covered for another month or so but then I have to start introducing them at another meal.

I get up at 5:15am every day and I am still struggling to leave the house by 7:00am, remember that? (What the crap takes me so long to get ready in the morning?) Does that mean I need to start getting up 15 to 20 minutes earlier every morning? I know it doesn't sound like that much time, but believe me at 5:15am 15 to 20 minutes is a ton of time! I also hear that feedings can start taking longer and longer too, once babies really decide they want to do it themselves, so that 15 minutes could actually be more like 30 by the time we reach this point.

Here is another option, instead of introducing the 2nd meal as breakfast I could make it lunch and have the day care feed Sadie. Or I could still keep it as breakfast and again have the day care feed her as soon as she gets there in the mornings, while still giving her a breakfast bottle at home.

It's situations like this that sometimes make me wish I wasn't working so I didn't have to worry about it. But then the thought of being a SAHM terrifies me like a thousand burning suns, which incidentally is what Texas feels like this summer, and I tell myself to buck up and not freak out about a situation that is not even here yet.

Like most challenges with Sadie it has all been a learning experience and figuring out what works for us and I know when the time comes to introduce solids at a second meal we'll figure it out. In the meantime I will just stress out in my head with Robert giving me the "you're crazy" side eye.

Finally, I leave you with the best part about all of this:

"Still not sure about this, but it sure is fun to get all over my face!"

Week in an Instant

We started in big time with sweet potatoes, she loooves them. I love that she has started sleeping close to 12 hours at night since we started them!

Didn't believe me about her crazy short "naps"? This is one of her daily reports from day care, she napped from 9:05 – 9:17 and 11:45 – 11:53. These short naps could also be why she sleeps for close to 12 hours!

We've had quite a few of these lovely things in our house this summer. I guess the Texas heat is too much for them too!

I love this onsie my friend Melanie made for Sadie at my baby shower, so stinking cute.

I normally do laundry for Sadie about every two weeks, which is nice, but makes for a HUGE pile of clothes, bibs, burp cloths etc to fold and put up.

Robert was out of town for 8 days last week, he just got home last night, it was rough on him. I tried to send him pictures like this every day.

5 Pins for Friday

Source: bobsyouruncle.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Roadside Signs Place Mats
This is a package of 36 tear off place mats, wouldn't they be awesome to frame and hang in a kitchen?

Source: threeleggedrace.us via Meredith on Pinterest

Texas Themed Onsies
I really must recreate a few of these for Miss Sadie, I MUST.

Source: etsy.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Parrot Costume
I am so excited about Halloween this year!

Source: thebabyblackbird.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Present Idea
I love the idea of this for father's day or for g'parents at Christmas.

Source: homedesign.marthastewart.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Cake of Oreos
I die. Give me that and a gallon of milk and I'll see you Monday.

Week in an Instant

I love these sandals, they were, like, $12 at Forever 21.

Robert left his coffee on the coffee maker one morning, let me clarify, he left it on the coffee maker at 3:30 in the morning.

The first thing I do when I get to my desk in the mornings is take my wedding rings off. They spend more time on my desk, kitchen counter, bathroom vanity, etc than they do on my finger... is that weird?

I put these on for the first time last week since before I had Sadie, go me.

I do say it's time for a new phone (mine is pushing 3 years old) but I'm holding out for the iPhone 5, common Apple announce that release date!

Our jumper is extra tall for some reason, we have it on the lowest setting but Sadie's feet still dangle. She is the right height in the ones at daycare, so we're pretty sure it's just ours. We tried just putting phonebooks under her but that ended up bad. (Can we say papercut?) Robert fixed that problem by putting yoga blocks under her, now she's a jumping fool!

Mamma Discoveries

During the 5+ months I have been a mamma I have discovered that most of the time I am just winging by the seat of my pants and hoping Sadie comes out without needing therapy on the other side. With all that in mind I have stumbled upon a few things that have made some of our tougher challenges bearable. Now, when you read what my challenges are you might want to kill me, because, and I will be the first to admit I got very lucky with Sadie and her temperament, they are pretty minimal.

So here are a few of my discoveries that have worked for us:

Eczema/Dry Skin
Remember how Sadie was born a little late? Well one of the side effects of an overdue baby is that they get to hang out in amniotic fluid without their protective vernix caseosa, the cheese like skin coating babies have that helps moisturize baby's skin. You can see in a photo from this post that Sadie has very little of the vernix caseosa on her:

Miss Sadie May, right after birth

Almost immediately you could tell her poor skin was dried out. Especially on her belly and little legs, the skin felt like fine grit sandpaper. I would lather her with Johnson's Natural Baby Lotion, but it just wasn't helping and things were quickly progressing to full on baby eczema:

Crappy iPhone picture, but notice the red rash on her eyelids, cheeks and around her mouth. The crustiness on her forehead and eyebrows is cradle cap... I'll address that below.

For the first two months of Sadie's life I tried more unscented natural lotions, eczema specific creams, I ditched the baby soap and switched to Dove Sensitive Skin bar soap (THIS ONE REALLY HELPED) but most things just seemed to make her poor skin worse and even more red and patchy the next day. So, you wanna know what finally worked?

After baths I apply a 1:1 mixture of 1% hydrocortisone cream (I use the Target Up and Up brand) and Eucerin Calming Creme. I try my best to avoid the backs of her knees, the insides of her elbows, her palms, soles of her feet and her diaper area, the steroids in the hydrocortisone cream can be more easily absorbed in those areas because the skin in those areas is thinner vs the rest of her skin. On non-bath days I usually just use the Eucerin Creme. If your baby has sensitive/dry skin and you feel like you have tried everything, try this!


Cradle Cap
Oh cradle cap, how you drive me crazy. Around the time Sadie's skin was really freaking out the cradle cap kicked into full force too. It started really bad on her forehead/eyebrow area:

Keep in mind I had NO IDEA this was cradle cap, she did not have it on her scalp, so I thought it was just part of the eczema. Once the rest of her skin started clearing up but this didn't I started doing more research and found out cradle cap can appear on the forehead. My cure for this?

Johnson's Baby Oil with Shea & Cocoa Butter

At bath time I applied a little to my fingers and gently rubbed them over her forehead/eyebrows and then washed it away with a bit of soap and a wash cloth. It took about a week but it finally all fell off. Not long after I got rid of that I noticed cradle cap patches appearing on her scalp. I did the same method of applying a bit to her head, massaging it in and then washing it out with shampoo. After bath time I would then comb her hair which would comb out a lot of the scales. The bad thing about this method was Sadie would start screaming from having her hair combed, her hair would end up super greasy and I felt like there were still a lot of patches. Since Sadie is pretty happy in the bath I decided to try combing her hair in the bath right after massaging in the baby oil, I then shampooed her hair twice to make sure I get all the oil and combed out scales washed off. That made a HUGE difference! She still has bouts of cradle cap so whenever I see it popping up I do this process and it knocks it out.

Getting rid of middle of the night diaper changes
You know how you reach that point where you need to have as little interaction with you baby during the middle of the night, so they don't wake completely up? What's the one way to quickly ruin that? Yup, changing a diaper! However, by the morning Sadie's diaper was soaked and most mornings her sleeper would be damp, no bueno. While browsing at Target one day I decided to pick up a box of these:

Huggies OverNites

Who cares that Sadie wears a size 1 diaper and the smallest these come is a size 3?! I figured I'd be buying these eventually so if they fail I'd just pack them up for a few months later. That night I slapped one on her bottom and the next morning woke up to a very dry baby! The trick to using these before baby is at the recommenced weight is to just criss-cross the tabs as tight as you can (be sure baby is still comfortable!). If you leave them too loose you will have MAJOR leakage, believe me, I speak from experience! Buy these, you wont look back, promise.

Hot water on the go
We formula feed Sadie (read more about that here and here) which means we need to have water for her bottles when we are out. We are not ones to pre-make her bottles and stick them in her diaper bag, formula is only good sitting out at room temperature for one hour, and Sadie want's noting to do with bottles made with cold water. After doing TONS of research on car bottle warmers and finding them all to be pretty lacking I was starting to really freak out about what we were going to do. Then my amazing husband had a brilliant idea, enter this:

Thermos 40oz  Vacuum Insulated Beverage Bottle

This thermos boasts that it can keep hot liquid hot for 24 hours. I, personally, would say 24 hours is pushing it a little, but we don't put our water in there super hot, 12 hours is about the longest I think we have ever used water from it. Sure it's a little bulky and heavy, but it fits in the diaper bag and I'm pretty sure it works way better than an car charger warmer works. Also, we can take this anywhere with us, it doesn't have to stay plugged into our truck.

There you have it, what I consider to be some of the best solutions I have discovered so far as a mamma. I know all of these wont work for everyone, but if you have any of these problems give one of these a try and maybe it will work for you!

5 Pins for Friday

I decided to start linking these up to Kat's Friday Five this week, especially since one of her 5 is that she still has no idea what Pinterest is!

Source: bowerpowerblog.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Reclaimed Wood Panel Wall
Oh man, I need to do this somewhere in my house.

Source: browneyedbaker.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Peanut Butter Cup Crunch Brownie Bars
I have an obsession with all things peanut butter and chocolate, so these brownie bars are right up my alley.

Source: tumblr.com via Meredith on Pinterest

The Rescuing Hug
Such a sweet image. (Thanks Brittany for pinning this.)

Source: sewmanyways.blogspot.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Magazine Storage from Cereal Boxes
I have a million and a half magazines laying around my house that I am thisclose to tossing out (recycling), these MIGHT save their lives.

This Texas Baby: 5 Months

Ok y'all, this is moving way to fast, and I know I am just going to keep saying that over and over for the next 18+ years. You know what five months means? It means one month until she is six months, which is HALF WAY TO A YEAR!! My brain is so not ready for that.

I would have to say that this month brought out Sadie's personality by leaps and bounds. In my opinion she seems to be a lot like me. It takes her a while to warm up to people but then once she is around you for a little while she is happy as a clam. We go through this process every day at day care:

• 7:30ish - walk into her class, NO SMILES, keep in mind she has been smiling and talking her head off at me all morning and even as I am getting her out of the truck to go into day care. As soon as one of the ladies tries to talk to her she just gives them a NO SMILES FOR YOU look. My kid, she's serious (much like I was as a baby and still kinda am).
• 8:00-8:30 - they start doing morning diaper changes and outside time. As soon as they get Sadie on the changing table she becoming a smiling fool! Anyone else's kiddo love the changing table? Sadie has always loved it. What she loves most, next to the changing table, is being outside. They take all the babies outside for about 30 minutes of outside time on blankets before it gets too hot. So after those two fun things Sadie is a happy baby.
• 5:15ish - By the time I pick her up from day care she is chatting with everyone and tossing out smiles left and right.

She goes through this same process with any new people, gives new person the "who the heck are you" stare down, looks at Robert and I like "what is this person doing with me?" and then warms up and smiles and chats away. This is a lot like me, I have been told on several occasions I come off as a B when people first meet me because I don't talk but then I warm up and we are good. It's kind of a running joke with Robert and I that his friend and family are scared of me because of how quite I was when I first met them.

Sadie also really found her voice this month. It's like one day she realized those baby babblings were coming from her and that she could change the way they sound and direct them. Not to mention change the volume on them, mostly to increase the volume.

I am pretty certain she is about 2.5 minutes away from crawling! She is getting up on her hands and knees and can bring one knee forward but then she just kind of falls and ends up scooting. We have hardwood floors throughout our house so I have a pallet of blankets on the living room floor she practices on, but I think the blankets move too much, which gives her problems. I've noticed she moves a lot better on the rug in her room on just on her mattress in her crib when I put her in there while I go to the bathroom etc.

Miss Sadie May is NOT a napper. A good day for her will be maybe two 30-45 minute naps on her day care report, although I did pick her up one day and they had written down that she napped from 12:00 to 12:05... kid you not. Really, don't write down a FIVE MINUTE NAP, that's not a nap. She does a little bit better on the weekends if we are at home and she is napping in her crib in the dark, a little, but not much. On the bright side she is still a pretty excellent night time sleeper. She goes down between 6:30 and 7:00pm (I can put her down pretty awake and she doesn't fuss, how awesome is that?!) and normally wakes up around 3am to be fed again (I'll discuss this in a future post) and then I normally wake her up around 6:30am.

We still aren't doing much in the way of cereal/solids, I am thinking of skipping the cereal stage and going straight to veggie purees, maybe I'll toss some oatmeal in. As a working mom I feel this is a hard thing to get going, again I am working on a post about this too.

I'm planning on taking Sadie's 5 month pictures this weekend so I'll try and post them next week, but we all know that's probably not going to happen. I have gotten terrible at keeping up with photos.

Next month: conquer sitting up!

Week in an Instant

I love her lime green shrug.

Drove to Arlington last weekend, this is how the boys traveled.

We went to Arlington for my cousin's 5th birthday, this is just a smidgen of the crepe paper involved.

Another cousin drew this on her cup during the party, apparently she wants to marry a man with a handlebar mustache. She's 17.

Pretty clouds on the drive home.

Frozen, plastic pie teether is deeeelish.

One More Summer Song!

I have one more song that I love for summer. It was actually the song that inspired that post, so when I realized I forgot it I knew I had to come back an mention it!


Jack Ingram - Barefoot and Crazy

Happy Monday!

5 Pins for Friday (on a Monday!)

I didn't have time last Thursday night to get this post ready like I normally do (I was packing for a weekend trip) so I figured I would throw it together Friday during lunch, but that didn't work out either! So, here are my 5 pins from last week:

Source: somethingtodo-jamie.blogspot.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Shutter Bookshelf
I really wanted to do a barn/farm themed nursery for a boy, these would of been super cute in it!

Source: theletteredcottage.net via Meredith on Pinterest

How To Install Cabinet Molding Tutorial
This would help update anyone's builder grade cabinets.

Source: dana-made-it.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Ruffled Crepe Paper Streamer Tutorial
A fun update for your normal crepe paper

Source: stylemepretty.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Streamers from Lights
We have all the lights still hanging in our backyard from our wedding, this would be a fun way to spruce them up for a party.

Source: shopsweetlulu.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Polka dot Rainbow Straws
Do I have to have an excuse to like these?

Songs of Summer

I don't know about the rest of you, but there are certain songs that just always make me think of summer. Here are a few of my favorites:


Shooter Jennings - 4th of July


Turnpike Troubadours - Long Hot Summer Days


Pat Green - Carry On


Court Yard Hounds - The Coast


The Band of Heathens - Nine Steps Down


Rodney Crowell - Telephone Road
(skip to 25 sec to start hearing the song)


Josh Abbott Band - Road Trippin


Adam Hood - 22 Days Too Long

I could keep going!

What do you think? Are any of these songs on your summer playlist? Will you be adding any of them? What are your favorite summer tunes?

(Man, listening to all of these is making me crave a vacation!)

Heartwrenching

I watched a motorcade escort Marine Lance Corporal John Farias' body from the New Braunfels airport to a local funeral home this morning.

Did I know this young man, this 20-year-old young man? No.

Via Herald-Zeitung

Did most of thousands of people who attended a memorial service for him last night know him? Doubtful.

Via KNBT

 Did the hundreds of people who took time out of their work day or busy summer to stand in the sweltering Texas sun know him? More than likely not.

What about all The Patriot Guard Riders who showed up to escort him home? Again, doubtful.

My office is in downtown New Braunfels, just off the Main Plaza where the motorcade was passing through. I heard about the happenings on the local radio station and my boss said he wanted to go to pay his respects, I tagged along. I am very glad I did. While waiting for the motorcade we stood in the shade under a tree but once it started we moved out into the street and the sun. Standing there in the hot Texas sun, with sweat dripping down my back, I got goosebumps watching the motorcade. It truly reaffirmed my faith in people seeing such a mixture of people come together to welcome someone they did not know back home. It was as if in that moment he was everyone's brother, son, best friend, husband, father, neighbor. This is one of the reasons I love this little-big town I live in.

Here is a video of the motorcade:

 

 Via KGNB

I am not one to get into talks of politics, religion or military pursuits but I feel that no matter your stand on the situation you should always support your servicemen and women, after all, you never know when you might need them to protect you and your family.

Week in an Instant

Never ending bottle washing, but it's always good feeling to see the drying rack full!

When Robert is gone all week Sadie will actually snuggle with him when he gets home. This is pretty epic as she does not do much snuggling these days.

This is the last of our 19 chickens (& even she may be gone now!). I'll tell the story of the 2011 chicken massacre one day, it's still too fresh... 

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies my co-worker made, so good.

Ignoring all the grammar errors, just note that there are no fire hydrants in my neighborhood. That had me a little worried this weekend.

It rained for all of 2 minutes Friday afternoon, not enough to dissipate my fears.

Daily nebulizer treatments make me sad.

Afternoon nap for Daddy and Sadie on the 4th of July.

My little firecracker!