Thank God for babies’ hard heads

I don’t have much to say today except I am so thankful God made babies so tough.

This morning my daughter fell off the bathroom sink. I sit her on the sink every morning and we have no problem. This morning I turned around for just a second maybe even a millisecond and then I heard a loud thump. I turn around and there is my sweetest angel lying face down on the floor screaming. I bent down to pick her up and I fell down too. And when I finally gathered her in my arms I just kept saying I am sorry I am sorry mommy will never leave you unattended again. She had no bruising but she cried for a whole hour. I cried for half an hour.

I was late to work because she wouldn’t stop crying and I couldn’t bear to put her down. Needless to say she will be getting extra hugs and kisses tonight when I get home.

 

What’s for breakfast, lunch, dinner??

As promised in my post What in the Poop? here is my rant about feeding KoKo.

So last week I took KoKo to the doctor’s for her 12 month check-up and the doctor was no help. As a side note I need to find me another pediatrician. Mine sucks. Moving on, I asked the doctor what I should be feeding KoKo or could she give me some suggestions. All she said is feed her whatever you eat just make sure it’s mashed up and that the meat is soft or in crumbles.

Maybe it’s just me being a new mom and all but I wanted her to sit down with me and give me specifics. Was I expecting too much?

I think my biggest challenge with feeding KoKo is being afraid that she will choke. I am not quite sure how big the pieces of food I give her should be. And when I try to let her feed herself most of it ends up on the floor. She hasn’t mastered the spoon or fork and she loves to play with her food. Is this all normal? I wanted the pediatrician to reassure me that I was on the right track.

Some things I am feeding KoKo now are yogurt, she really likes the Chobani fruit yogurt. She will eat a turkey sandwich with cheese. She likes homemade hamburgers. She loves pork and beans and pasta. I am having the hardest time getting her to eat her veggies although she does love cabbage and cornbread but to get her to eat her other veggies I still give her the pureed food.

I have discovered that my biggest challenge is cooking everyday. With it just being my husband and I for so long I am not use to having to cook all the time. Now that KoKo is eating solids I have to cook on a regular basis and I am finding this to be a challenge.

So to all my seasoned moms, can you give me some tips and advice on daily cooking? How to make it easier, how to prepare my daily meals, how to make a grocery list and STICK to it.

As always any advice you can give is welcomed.

 

What in the Poop?

Hello Everyone. As you all know by now KoKo has turned 1. What a great milestone for us. She is babbling all day long, she won’t sit still, she is in to EVERYTHING, and she is now off of formula.

I have highlighted an article that I found very helpful on baby’s poop. I’ll tell you why in a moment this article was so very beneficial to me as a first time mom and I hope it will be beneficial to you too.

I decided not to put my daugher on cow’s milk. It wasn’t for health reasons it was just a personal choice. I just don’t understand why we use animal’s milk to feed our children. Animals don’t use our milk to feed their young. So that is why I chose to start my daughter with Almond milk. I didn’t use soy because when she was about 2 months I tried to put her on soy formula and it made her constipated and irritable and she wouldn’t drink it. Funny how even at that young of age children are already developing their likes and dislikes.

Anyway so I took her off the formula steadily a month before her birthday. So I gave her 6oz of formula and 2 oz of Vanilla Almond milk and the next week 4oz of formula and 4oz of Vanilla Almond milk and so on until one day it was just 8 oz of Vanilla Almond milk. Now here is when things started to get tricky.

KoKo who normally poops 30 minutes to an hour after each meal and only poops about 3 times a day began pooping 4 – 6 times a day. It was so bad that she would wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning pooping. Something she had never done up until this point. I didn’t know what to think. I asked an RN at my job about this behavior and she said that KoKo could be having an allergic reaction to the Almond milk but I was loathe to put her on cow’s milk. So I stopped giving her milk for about four days to see if that would stop what I considered to be excessive pooping. To top it all off the poop was very runny. My husband and my parents were all so very concerned.

After a few days off of the Vanilla Almond milk I tried the unsweetened Almond milk. KoKo was having none of that. I would give it to her in her sippy cup she would take one sip and throw her sippy cup across the room. Her excessive pooping had begun to slow down a bit so I introduced her to the original Almond milk and she took to that just fine. After about a week her bowels went back to 3 to 4 times a day and the mashy consistency returned. It was no longer runny and she was no longer waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning pooping.

I am still not sure what caused her bowels to run like that. I don’t know if it was the milk, coming off the formula, or the pureed food I feed her. That’s another pet peeve of mine, what am I suppose to feed a toddler with no molars? My pediatrician and dentist have been most unhelpful. But I will save that rant for another post.

 

 

Easter Sunday

Hello. It has been a long time since I posted. I have so much to say but I won’t say it all in this post.

May 7th was KoKo’s first birthday! Pictures to follow of course. We didn’t or we aren’t going to have a grand party for her I just think it is a waste of money considering she doesn’t even understand it’s her birthday or what it is. But we are going to get her a little cupcake and let her make a mess. This is really more for our amusement than hers. Plus it will give us an event to video and show her when she gets older.

For now I will share with you her pictures from Easter Sunday. To me and her fans (father & grandparents) she looks like a dollbaby. I tell you the truth being a mommy wears me out but I see my KoKo and a feeling of uncontrollable love takes over me. Enjoy the photos.

The First 1,000 days of your baby’s life

 

Learn more about why the first 1,000 days of a child’s life are so important: http://bit.ly/1cR7lM6

Are mommies suppose to change?

I was talking to a friend the other day and she was telling me how she was spending the weekend at the spa. I thought to myself that sounds nice. I remember when…

Then on the way home Friday from work I was listening to my favorite old school radio station and they were playing my old house music and I was grooving. I begin thinking to myself I sure would like to go to a club that plays house music and dance on the dance floor while I drink me a beer or some type of mixed drink. Again I thought to myself I remember when…

Because I am a new mommy should I shake off my old ways? Should I no longer like to party, to drink, or to want to spend some time by myself?

My cousin had a birthday party at the bowling alley two weekends ago and I wasn’t able to go because I didn’t have a babysitter for KoKo. Would it have been ok to find a babysitter and go to my cousin’s party? I haven’t missed one of her birthday party events since she began having them a few years ago. I really wanted to go to. Am I no longer suppose to have these urges now that I am a mommy?

What is appropriate mommy behavior anyway?  Before I had KoKo mothers would always tell me what a great experience motherhood is but they never told me they miss the time before the kids came.

Is is wrong that I am missing my remember when moments?

I’m such a Lady

I believe KoKo was about 6 months in this photo. She was out shopping with mommy and daddy.

Man’s idea of raising babies

Let me preference this post by saying, I love my husband and I am so thankful that he is the man he is. Kind, loving, sincere, a good provider but I would love it if he and I could switch places. I previously wrote a post that men have it so easy and I still very much feel that way.

Now that KoKo is 9 months it is a given that I am the primary caregiver. Believe it or not my husband still gripes about me not cleaning or cooking. In the beginning I use to argue with him but now I just ignore him. I figure if he wants something cleaned then he should clean it. If he is hungry then he should fix him something to eat. Now don’t get me wrong on my off days I will cook – sometimes but not every off day. KoKo is at the point now where it is hard to cook if I am at home by myself. She won’t sit in her bouncer, forget trying to put her in a playpen and we don’t have any gates. Which means when I am in the kitchen she is right beside me crawling around getting into everything. It is very hard trying to cook when you have a miniature human pulling on your pants legs or pulling everything out of the dishwasher as you are trying to put the dishes in.

Honestly, I feel like my husband should do all of the cooking and cleaning. The reason I say this is because he works from 6p – 2a. So everyday five days a week, he is at home by himself from 10a until he goes to work. Isn’t that enough time to cook and clean? I do not get days by myself. If I am not at work I am with KoKo. If I am not with KoKo then that means I had an appointment or went to the grocery store so I am still not just lounging. My husband gets to lounge all the time and yet when I get home the kitchen is a mess, the living room is a mess, the bathroom is a mess, the bedroom is a mess. I think to myself, what has he been doing all day.

On top of that on the days that I am off and he gets off earlier in the day like around 5ish or so (in the evening) he comes home and takes a shower and goes straight to sleep. OMG! I wish I could just come home from work take a shower and go to sleep. Even on the days that I work and he is off and KoKo stays home with him, when I walk in the door he hands KoKo to me and I don’t see him anymore because he is hiding out in his man cave. Mind you the house isn’t clean or any food cooked.  So if he doesn’t do it why does he think I am going to do it? I don’t get the leisure time he gets but he doesn’t understand that and I am at my wits end trying to make him.

When KoKo cries in the middle of the night I wake up turn towards her and put her back to sleep. What does my husband do? Turn away from her like she is disturbing his sleep. Uh, the nerve.

I guess I just needed to get some of this stuff off of my chest before I pop. Tell me the truth fellow moms, are all dads like this or do I just have a special case?

Random Thoughts of the Day

Why don’t public places have baby changing tables in the men’s bathrooms? Do they assume men will never go out alone with babies or that when they do babies won’t need changing? And why doesn’t all public places have a family bathroom for this same reason.

And why do places like Carter’s and Children’s Place have such heavy doors to get into their stores? For instance KoKo and I went to a Carter’s store at an outdoor mall outlet and KoKo was in her stroller. The doors were so freaking heavy I had the hardest time keeping them open while getting KoKo in. Why can’t they have automatic doors especially when they are a store for children? They know mothers will have strollers. Geesh.

Why don’t public places and employers create rooms for nursing moms to have some privacy? Since people seem to think something so natural and wonderful is vulgar why don’t they create safe, quiet, private spaces for nursing moms? I think everyone would appreciate that, what do you think?

Why do women only get 6 weeks off for maternity leave? It takes 6 weeks for your baby to bond with you and then its off to the daycare or nanny while mommy goes back to work. It’s awful! I had the hardest time coming back to work. Even though my daughter (Thank God) can stay with her grandparents while I am at work I still would much rather be at home with her doing mommy daughter things then fooling with these idiots I work with.

Baby’s First Teeth: How to Care for Them

This article comes from http://www.fitpregnancy.com

By the time your child is 5, more than 30 percent of his classmates will have tooth decay, which can be well advanced even by age 3. “Early preventative care is the key to keeping your baby cavity-free,” says Elizabeth a. Shick, D.D.S., M.P.H., assistant professor of pediatric dentistry at the University of Colorado, Denver School of Dental Medicine.

Related: The New Mom’s Survival Guide

But the tips you’ve heard from your mom and your mom’s mom might not be the best plan of action today (like waiting until baby’s older to use fluoride toothpaste): the American Dental Association recently changed their guidelines. Read on to learn the latest in tooth-care, plus timeless tips that keep your baby’s teeth cavity-free.

Related: The Truth About Teething

Keep bacteria at bay. Before the first tooth erupts, wipe your baby’s gums with a wet washcloth after every feeding.  The Mam Oral Care Rabbit features soft rabbit “ears” that fit over your fingers so you can gently remove bacteria. ($6, amazon.com)

Brush early and often. Starting with the first tooth, begin a twice-daily routine using a soft infant brush. Place the soft rubber bristles of the NUK Grins & Giggles Infant Tooth & Gum Cleanser on your fingertip to “brush” your baby’steeth. ($7, amazon.com)

Use fluoride sooner than you think. Brush baby’s first teeth with a tiny amount of fluoride toothpaste as soon as teeth surface (instead of waiting until baby’s older), according to the latest guidelines from the American Dental Association, which suggest an early start for optimal cavity prevention. The recommendation follows a new review published in The Journal of the American Dental Association, finding that fluoride toothpaste can reduce cavities in children under 6-years-old. Just make sure you use small amounts, to avoid ingestion.

Soothe sore gums. You can alleviate pain with teething rings, cold spoons or a cold wet washcloth or even a clean finger. One of the best teething rings that also doubles as a toothbrush is Baby Buddy Baby’s 1st Toothbrush. ($5, amazon.com)  This product was developed by a pediatric dentist. If you choose a teething medicine, reach for one that doesn’t contain the local anesthetic benzocaine; the Food and Drug administration recommends that parents not choose benzocaine products for children younger than 2 years old as its use can lead to methemoglobinemia, a rare but serious disorder in which the amount of oxygen in the blood stream is greatly reduced. Hylands Homeopathic Teething Tablets are free of benzocaine, dyes and parabens. ($7, amazon.com)

Even breast milk and formula can lead to tooth decay, so take your baby to a pediatric dentist shortly after she gets her first tooth (usually around 6 months) and no later than her first birthday.