Monkey's first foods: A bit of orange

Today Chris gave Monkey a tiny piece of the orange he was eating. She seemed pretty interested at first, that was of course until she actually tasted it and the following are what you would expect. She is so cute. We definitely won't be trying oranges again for a long while.

First bite.

First taste.

'Definitely not what I thought it would taste like'

'I don't like it!'

'Daddy I am not impressed!'

Monkey's first foods: Rice Rusks

Today we gave monkey a rice husk for the first time. They are long skinny flat wafer like things that melt in your mouth. She had a good time chomping on that, she is getting to be such a big girl that she likes trying to feed herself. The only downfall to these things are that by the time it was mostly gone the rest was mush in her hand and all over her face and it was sooo sticky that it was super hard to get off! At least she had fun eating it though by the grin on her face. :)

First bite.

"hmm this is really good!?' I love this expression :)

LOL we laughed so hard at these since we jokingly called them her teeth! I know we are mean.. she still looks cute though!

"I think I like them"

I guess we need to start letting her feed herself or 'try' to feed herself more. I just cringe every time I think of the mess she will make. Then I also cringe at the thought of having a 6 year old that I still have to feed because I never let her make a mess in figuring out how to do it herself. lol. ;)

Monkey's first foods: Oat Cereal and Butternut Squash

November 1st 2011 - We gave monkey oat cereal for the first time today. Before that she had just been eating rice cereal. Unfortunately after a day or so she started getting patches of really dried rashy skin and also lots of red dots all over her back. The only new thing that we had tried was the oat cereal so we reverted back to rice and only gave her other food that she had already tried to see if it was the oats that was causing it. 

After a week or so there was no change, so we pretty much ruled out oat cereal being the cause. Instead we looked to baby eczema information on the internet. Chris said that he remembered our pediatrician that we were taking her to before we found a family doctor said that we might have to watch for that because she might have a touch of it. I don't remember him saying that at all but I am sure I was worrying about other things like was she eating enough, did she weigh enough, was she growing enough.

All the information we found pretty much points to that and we followed some of the suggestions like keep bath water not to hot, bath baby ever few days instead of every day, use gentle laundry detergent, make sure her skin is moisturized etc. It seems to have helped so that is a relief. We do have a weight check near the end of December so we will ask the nurse or doctor about it then. It doesn't seem to bother her at all so that is a relief to me.

She ate the oat cereal up though no complaints :) Such a good little eater!

November 19th 2011 - We gave her butternut squash. She has had squash before but this one said butternut on the jar. For the sake of logging her new foods I decided to include it just in case there was a difference. The other jar could have been butternut squash for all I knew but it was such a long time ago that she tried it and I only wrote down squash so who knows. :) Plus any picture of monkey is just so cute. At least we think so.

Food face!

Monkey's first foods: Pears and Sweet Potato

This past Wednesday I gave Monkey pears for the first time. She liked them, LOL, just like she has liked everything we have tried to give her (except green beans the first night) or I guess maybe she is just indifferent. I'm not really sure which it is. I'm just glad that she is eating well :) It's finally nice to not be stressing and wondering if she is getting enough to eat. (I nursed her for the first 6 months exclusively and it was a rough 6 months). I'm sort of sad but at the same time really relieved and MUCH MUCH more happier now that she gets mostly formula during the day.  It really is a relief because the stress was not making me a happy camper and it was just one thing after another. Now I can finally enjoy spending time with her without being worried constantly.

Not to sure what to think...

I guess I like them.

So today we tried sweet potatoes and as usual she just gobbled them all up :) Also she gained a new nickname. I commented that today she didn't have a food mustache like she usually does instead it was a potato beard. Chris was like, 'like a pirate? Like black beard except it's potato beard?' LOL. So potato beard she is, well maybe only when she eats potatos.

Yum sweet potato! (hmm I guess this is almost a potato mustache)

Potato Beard!

Monkey's first foods: Peas

Today I gave monkey peas for the first time. A book I got from the library on weaning your baby to solids suggested that when introducing new foods that it is best to do it at some point early in the day so that if she does have a reaction to it you will notice it. I really never thought about it and really it does make sense. I really doubt she will be allergic to anything since there really isn't any allergies on either side of our families but it never hurts to be cautious. We feed her pretty close to 5pm and that only leaves us with an hour before she is in bed so if she did develop any sort of reaction too any new food we really wouldn't notice it. So today I tried the new food at lunch time and gave her her rice cereal at night. Chris said he was a bit disappointed that he wouldn't be here to see her take the first bites of peas but I took lots of pictures and sent them to him at work. I have to say that it is a bit awkward when trying to take photos and feed her at the same time. If you leave the bowl unguarded her little hand shots out to try and grab a hold of it. Or she tries to grab the spoon, which is cute but not good at the same time since she like jams it into her mouth and as far as possible. I might have to look for some bigger plastic baby spoons for her to chomp on. It might actually be fun for her to try and feed herself sometime soon. I'm sure she will like at least making a mess.

Today she also for the first time was ready and waiting with her mouth open for each spoonful. I don't know if she was more hungry today or if she just really liked them or what. Having said that I don't force feed her or anything, she lets me know when she is done eating.  It was cute none the less. Here is some cute little pictures of her first bites. I took so many of them I'm sure she was just thinking 'mommy less photo taking more feeding!'

This is her favorite bib ;) haha

After the first bite.

MMMMM!

Chomp!

Also she is getting to be such a big girl that she can hold onto her bottle all by herself!

Monkey's first foods: Apples

Yesterday we fed Monkey some apples for the first time. Here are some photos to show how it went. 

The first bite.

Hmmm do I like them?

YEP! :)

 She gobbled them up just like a good girl that she is :)

Monkey's first foods: Carrots

We tried a new food this past Tuesday (the 11th). Carrots! I'm surprised that they tasted like pureed carrots considering when I opened the jar they seemed to be an unnatural shade of fluorescent orange. I swear if I had a black light they would be glowing under it! Although it could be just the lighting in the kitchen. Regardless the little monkey ate them down like nothing. I'm glad that so far everything we have tried to give her she has eaten. Here are some baby cuteness for everyone to look at.

Getting ready for the first bite...

here goes nothing...

I don't think she knows what to think...

I guess there okay. Love the carrot mustache!

She just finished that jar tonight so tomorrow will be another brand new food. Not really sure what yet. Maybe apple or peaches or some other type of fruit.

Monkey's first foods: Bananas

Yesterday we gave monkey bananas for the first time. There was almost no reaction last night so I guess she liked them. She almost seemed pretty indifferent. I guess that is a good thing? It's not like she refused to eat them or anything. We got the first few bites on camera again so here is some baby monkey cuteness. I'm surprised that so far she has liked pretty much everything we have tried to give her. I guess I should be happy that we don't have a picky eater on our hands!

First spoonful.

Taste testing.

It's delicious!?

 

Monkey's first foods: Green Beans

So yesterday we tried a new food. Green Beans. She has been a trooper with everything else we have tried but this was the first miss. She made a few faces but still gave it a shot, but it was so horrible to her that she ended up started to cough and choke. That really scared us. Chris tried to pull her out the high chair forgetting that she was strapped in but thankfully she cleared it on her own. Not a great feeling having your heart jump into your throat! We might try to give her a bite or two of it tonight and if it's the same we will go back to squash or peaches, then maybe try green beans in a few weeks again. It sucks that I will probably have to throw out the rest of the jar since it says to ditch anything left in it after three days. I hate wasting food. I really don't blame her for the faces since I tried a little bit of it and I have to say it tasted really gross! I like green beans but not in puree form. Yuck!

The first bite...

Not really sure what to think...

Not really liking it...

More 'I don't like it' faces...

Green beans make me sad :(.

Update: Just to update that when I tried to give her a bit tonight just to make sure that she didn't like it, she surprised me and ate it without making a face. What a strange child I have. But I am glad that now I won't have to waste the rest of the jar.

Monkey's first foods: Peaches

Chris fed her some peaches tonight when he got home from work. She seemed unsure what to think about them. She made a few sour faces but she still ate them. We will see how she does on them tommarrow night.

Here she is clearly not sure what to think..

the anticipation is almost unbearable...

she is still a trooper and tries her first spoonful...

and clearly makes a sour face. lol

Babies new foods: Squash

So on sunday we started monkey on a new food. We decided to try some squash. She sort of made a face at first but then continued to eat it so I guess that she liked it? lol. She made a wierd face when Chris pretended to take a bit off her spoon instead of giving it to her. So now around lunch time we are giving her a tablespoon or two of rice cereal and then at supper time a tablespoon of squash. She gobbles both up it makes me feel again she isn't getting enough breast milk. I think I am done with nursing, or at least mostly. I probably will not drop the just before bed, in the middle of the night or the morning feedings unless when we get to that point she doesn't want to nurse. I made it to 6 months so I am happy with that. The only thing that scares me about stopping is that I nurse her to sleep. I wish that I wouldn't have gotten in that habit but for my own sanity it was just so much easier. At night time Chris can get her to sleep but it takes almost an hour (if for some reason she wakes up when we try to put her in her crib) but then she has the natural it's night time so you should be sleeping clock going against her trying to stay awake. I have no idea what I am going to do during the day to get her to nap! I'm usually stressed enough trying to get her to sleep long enough, or get enough short naps in that she isn't cranky mccrank pants all day long. I guess doing it sooner then later is better since I will have to go back to work in Jan and I won't be around to nurse on demand anymore. The question now is when will I actually start to wean. I might wait until after her next baby well check (which is next week) and be able to talk to the nurse and the doctor. I have no idea what to do anymore....

Her not sure what to think face...

Not impressed that daddy is pretending to eat her food face...lol