Meal Prep With Baby

Meal preparation can be tricky with a baby.

A baby takes up a lot of my mental capacity. Some days, the last thing I want to do is think about what to make for lunch or supper, especially when I want my meals to be healthy.

A baby makes grocery shopping more complicated. If the baby is in a good mood, it can be a fun experience. I get to get out of the house, and my baby gets to see and hear interesting new things. However, if my baby is fussy, it’s a whole different story.

Even after I decide what to make and have the ingredients, putting the food together can take awhile. If my baby is napping during supper prep time, great! If she wants to be held when I need to be chopping vegetables or standing near the stove, it’s not so great.

My solution? When I go grocery shopping, I make sure to buy a green pepper, red onion, mushrooms, and tomato. I chop each of them up when my daughter is napping, and store them in the refrigerator in Ziplock bags. The possibilities for easy meals to make with these ingredients are endless, and most of them require only one hand (because your other hand is busy holding on to your baby, of course).

Lately, I’ve been making pizza. I buy pizza crust from the store, or make my own. I spread pizza sauce over the crust, sprinkle on a layer of cheese, and load it up with the pre-cut veggies. Ten minutes in the oven at 425 degrees, and supper is ready.

My husband likes making omelets with the veggies. He whisks a few eggs with some milk, throws in the veggies, and adds some cheese at the end. Breakfast is served!

An easy choice for lunch is a veggie wrap. I spread a little ranch on a whole wheat tortilla, add the veggies, and maybe add some avocado, lunch meat, and/or cheese.

If you like salads, the pre-cut vegetables liven up a plain romaine lettuce salad.

The next time you are chopping vegetables for a recipe, do yourself a favor and chop more than you need. Having pre-cut vegetables on hand makes meal preparation with a baby a breeze.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday dear me! Happy birthday to me!

Yep, you guessed it: It’s my birthday. Another year gone, another year older.

Birthdays used to be so exciting. I remember looking at the calendar in anticipation when I was younger, counting down the days until I got to eat cake and open presents. It was nearly impossible to go to sleep the night before.

I’d wake up early, go into my parents’ bedroom, and the entire family would gather around for gift opening. I would be freed of my morning duty of making my bed, and would skip off to school.

Going to school on my birthday was the best. I loved handing out my homemade birthday treats to my classmates (ah, the days when it was safe and acceptable to bring homemade treats). I’d race home after school (I have to insert another “ah” here: Ah, the days when walking home from school alone was safe) and get busy playing with my new toys.

Having a Saturday birthday was even better – I got to sleep in AND play with my toys all day.

My dear mother always made whatever meal I requested, and my favorite cake – usually something with a lot of chocolate. We invited aunts, uncles, and cousins to help celebrate.

Now that I’m a grown-up and a mother, birthdays are still fun, but they sure aren’t the same as when I was young.

The excitement and anticipation are still there, but the night before the big day is sleepless because of frequent breastfeeding, not because of adrenaline.

I briefly consider abandoning my morning duties – making our bed, emptying and loading the dishwasher, rinsing poopy diapers, and doing laundry – but quickly decide against it when I realize no one will pick up my slack, and it will just mean twice as much work the next day.

I don’t go to school. In fact, this year, I didn’t even go outside. When your birthday happens to fall on the same day as a major snowstorm, going out with a 6-month-old baby isn’t exactly a good idea.

I still got to play with my new “toys,” however, and my husband made my requested meal and favorite cake. Just like when I was young, we invited family over to help celebrate.

As far as special treatment goes, adults might still be extra nice to me, but my daughter doesn’t know the difference. She still cries like normal, poops like normal, and, of course, snuggles like normal.

I tried explaining to her that, because it’s my birthday, she really shouldn’t be fussy at all today.

I’m not holding my breath.

Multitasking

My daughter has an insatiable curiosity these days. She wants to know what everyone is saying, doing, eating, and holding. She wants to touch and taste anything and everything she can get her drool-covered hands on. No more are the days when I can hold her on my lap and expect whatever food or drink is in my hand to remain un-spilled. I have to be on a constant guard.

I’ve always made a point to talk to her and explain everything I am doing. “Now Mommy is pouring the hot water into the mug for her tea,” or, “Daddy is taking out his computer to do his work.” I do this to help her develop a good vocabulary, and also to keep her entertained. Now that she likes to touch things, I make a point to talk about what I am doing and, whenever safe and appropriate, let her feel what I am doing.

She was a little cranky today and wanted to be walked, so I decided to take her on a tour of the house and let her touch and hear the names of everything. “Snowman,” “plant,” “picture frame,” and “TV” were some of the items she got to touch and hear the names of.

About 30 seconds into the tour, I was struck with a genius idea: Why not dust and tour at the same time?

You might not be excited about this idea, but I was. I’m at home all day with an almost 6–month-old child. She’s a people person. She likes to be held and talked to. On the other hand, my husband is a carefree sort of guy. The kind that puts things down when he’s finished with them, and then forgets to put them away. I’m constantly battling to keep my house clean and organized and also keep my baby happy. The idea that I could kill both birds with one stone filled me with joy.

We had a delightful 15-minute walk around the house. She was eager to look at, hear about, and touch everything I picked up, and I was relieved to wipe the dust from under each object. Happy baby? Check. Cleaner house? Check. Satisfied mother? Double check!

Cradle Cap

My daughter was born chubby, bald, and beautiful. It doesn’t look like she’ll have a full head of hair anytime soon. I didn’t see any reason we’d need one of those cute baby brushes for quite awhile, although we received a few as gifts.

As I was lying next to her one lazy afternoon, I thought about how I love having my hair brushed. It always relaxes me and feels so good. I decided brushing my daughter’s “hair” with a soft brush might feel good to her too. I got one out, and started softly brushing her head. She seemed to love it, appeared very relaxed, and was lying very still.

Suddenly, I noticed little white flakes floating in the air after each brush stroke. Having grown up with taking care of babies, I knew exactly what this was – cradle cap.

I continued brushing until the flakes stopped coming off. Then, I got on my computer to do a little research. (I have to admit, I go a little crazy with my computer research when it comes to my baby.) From everything I read, it seemed that no one really knows what causes cradle cap, and that, although it might not be pretty, it isn’t harmful to the baby. Satisfied that the cradle cap wasn’t a result of me being a bad mother who had a dirty baby, I decided to keep an eye on it and relax.

I recalled my mother telling me that when one of my siblings had cradle cap, a well-meaning friend told her, “Just leave it alone. It will go away on its own.” My mother cringes as she remembers how it indeed did not go away on its own. Instead, it got out of control, and thick. Yuck! I wasn’t letting that happen.

After doing a little trial and error with cradle cap control, I figured out a system that works very well for me. First, I wash my baby’s head gently with a washcloth each morning. I don’t put any shampoo or soap on it; I just use warm water. About once a week, I put a little baby lotion on her head (we use Aveeno Baby Daily Moisture Lotion) and brush it for about five minutes. I make sure to wash the brush with soap and water after I’m done.

This has completely taken care of the problem. Every now and then I see some yellowish patches on the top of her head, which I promptly take care of, but other than that, the cradle cap is a thing of the past.

Our Experience With Kangaroo Care

My daughter was born with some minor health concerns. Because of this, the pediatricians at the hospital recommended she remain in the hospital for a week to be observed. It was very upsetting that we didn’t get to take her home; however, the experience was not entirely negative. I was able to stay in my daughter’s room the entire week, and we learned about a very valuable method of caring for babies. This method is called Kangaroo Care.

Kangaroo Care is a method often used with premature babies, but it has been proven to be very successful in helping both premature and term babies overcome a myriad of problems. Our daughter was not a preemie, but she had health issues related to her respiration rate. We were encouraged to do Kangaroo Care with her to speed up her recovery.

When I first entered my daughter’s room and expressed my desire to hold her, the nurses instructed me to wear my hospital gown with the front part open. They placed my baby, wearing only her diaper, on my bare chest. They described her position as head-up, skin-to-skin, tummy-to-tummy. She was hooked up to many monitors, so we could see exactly how this method of holding was affecting her breathing, oxygen intake, blood pressure, and pulse. The nurses were pleased with what they saw, and encouraged me to keep holding her like this – head up, skin-to-skin, and tummy-to-tummy.

In addition to holding her in this position, they also encouraged me to breastfeed on demand – that is, feed her whenever she wants to eat, paying no attention to the clock.

My husband and I were eager to do anything to speed up her recovery, so we utilized Kangaroo Care around the clock. She was constantly held skin-to-skin by either my husband or me, and I breastfed her whenever she so much as hinted that she was hungry.

After one 24-hour day of continuous Kangaroo Care, she had almost completely recovered. She remained in the hospital to complete her round of antibiotics, but we were no longer worried about her. I obviously have no way of knowing if she would have had such a speedy recovery without Kangaroo Care, but I truly believe it played a major role in helping her get better.

For a full week, our daughter had skin-to-skin contact with us and breastfed whenever she wanted. Even after she got out of the hospital, we continued to use Kangaroo Care regularly. It was wonderful. Rather than trying to get my house back in order, I was content to relax and snuggle with my baby. I knew that I needed to rest, and I felt confident that my daughter was reaping tremendous benefits.

Benefits of Kangaroo Care

Kangaroo Care is a wonderful way to bond with your baby and improve your baby’s health and well-being. There are numerous benefits associated with Kangaroo Care.

My husband and I did Kangaroo Care with our daughter nearly 24 hours a day for the first week of her life. We can’t say enough good things about the experience.

This blog will discuss the benefits of Kangaroo Care, and why Kangaroo Care works.

As I read and research Kangaroo Care, many of the benefits seem to center around an amazing feature of the female body. When a baby, wearing only a diaper, is placed between its mother’s bare breasts, the mother’s breasts change temperature in order to help her baby maintain its optimal body temperature. For example, if the baby begins to get a bit chilly, the mother’s breasts will warm up. If the baby is too warm, the mother’s breasts will cool down. It sounds a bit unbelievable, but it’s true.

Why is this important? If you think about it, a baby that isn’t using his energy to regulate his body temperature is able to use that energy elsewhere. As a result, babies participating in Kangaroo Care are shown to gain weight more quickly and have more rapid brain development.

Kangaroo Care gives the baby constant, easy access to the breast. This results in improved weight gain and better success and confidence in breastfeeding for both mother and baby.

Men do not have the ability to regulate body temperature like women and obviously cannot breastfeed, but there are other benefits of Kangaroo care that are able to be achieved by fathers. For this reason, men should also be encouraged to provide Kangaroo Care to their infants.

Kangaroo Care from either parent usually results in an improvement in breathing patterns, a more regular heart rate, and better oxygen saturation levels. When a baby is placed on the parent’s chest, the baby can hear the breathing and heartbeat of the parent. This stimulates the baby to have a similar breathing pattern and heart rate. In other words, the baby mimics its parent.

Additional benefits of Kangaroo Care include the following: longer periods of restful sleep, less crying, and longer alert periods.

To learn more about Kangaroo Care and our experience with it, visit my other blog.

When to Introduce Solids

Our daughter is approaching the age when solid foods can be introduced. She’s 5 1/2 months old and currently is exclusively breastfed. I’m going back and forth on when we’re going to start giving her solids.

She’s gaining weight fine on breast milk alone (hello, I think weighing 17 pounds at 4 ½ months probably means she’s getting enough!), and I hesitate to mess with something that is going so well. I know there are people who are of the opinion that breast milk alone isn’t enough for a baby once they reach six months of age, but I’ve witnessed cases where babies had only breast milk until they were one and had no negative effects from it. One might even argue that these children benefited from not eating solids until later.

I’ve read about possible allergies that can be caused by introducing solids too early, and putting food off seems like such an easy thing to do to avoid what might be a lifelong allergy.

I also love the bond we have with breastfeeding. As of right now, I am the only person who can feed her. If we are in a group of people who all want to hold her and she gets hungry, whoever is holding her has to give her back to me. When she is fussy, I can always comfort and soothe her through breastfeeding. And, when someone else is holding her, even if she isn’t hungry or fussy but I can tell she wants me, I can always use the excuse of, “Well, she’s probably hungry,” and take her immediately. This helps me avoid hurting anyone’s feelings or making anyone mad, because no one can argue or feel inadequate when I truly am the only person with the ability to give her anything to eat.

On the other hand, I’m so excited about the thought of her eating real food! I can’t wait to see the look on her face when she first tastes rice cereal, squash, sweet potatoes, pears. I see her curiosity when we eat, and notice how she watches what we do. I watch my friends feeding their babies, see how anxious and excited their little faces get when they see the food coming, watch as the drool drips down their chubby little lips and chins in anticipation.

Even with all the excitement surrounding a baby’s first taste of “real” food, I don’t feel any sort of rush to get started on it. I suppose there is no hurry in doing “big kid” things with her. Once we start solids, we probably won’t go back. Someday, chances are, I’ll look back and wish I hadn’t been in such a rush. I’ll probably think back to the days when life was simpler, when what my baby wanted or needed didn’t have to be opened, heated, or spoon-fed. I’ll think back to the days when lunchtime meant snuggling up on the couch, then taking a nap afterwards.

Solid foods? Those can wait.