Food update and 11-month stats

So the babies were 11 months old last Monday.

I was all excited to go see Sister Carla to ask her about Connor's on and off food strike.

"My concern is keeping a fine balance because I want him to get enough nutritious food but also I don't want eating / mealtimes to become an issue.

And...

The more seasoned mothers among you will be nodding your heads ... but there is nothing wrong with him.

She said he is trying to assert his independence (with a control freak mother) and is very clearly showing when he's had enough (he purses his lips and shakes his head no, no, NO!).

She suggested a couple of things:

1. have a choice available for meals and always start with the healthier choice (my Annabel Karmel meals - do you know I am still cooking them once a week?!) and then have the back-up ready (Provita and peanut butter/ toast with cottage cheese).
2. don't force the issue - when he says no, it's no.
3. let him start feeding himself - OY! (she said it's normal that half the food ends up on him, the chair, the floor but it is all normal and there's no other way for him to learn - double OY!)

Kendra has no problems but they do this sympathetic crying thing so when he starts acting up, she'll start too.

There was a small concern with K getting enough milk because she doesn't really care for milk and with them having 3 meals and 2 snacks, she's happy to not have a lot.

Apparently you count milk and milk products - I hadn't been counting in the yoghurt and the milk we use to make their cereal - so there is NO problems. They both get well over 500 ml a day.

With the sleeping, ha! She very nicely told me that they definitely don't need to have any bottles at night (try telling them!) and if we don't want problems later on, we'd best do some sleep training.

Those words send TERROR into my heart.

But I told D and we decided that we'd do it the wussy way - by weakening their bottles even more. So now at night they get 50 ml of formula and 100 ml of water. Connor accepted it for a couple of nights but then SCREAMED on night 3. I had to steel myself to not go get him a proper bottle by chanting, "he doesn't need this bottle!" because I can't bear the sound of the crying.

Tonight is night 7 and then we're going to weaken even more.

Over the 6 days, they've both slept through once and on the other 5 nights they only woke once, usually around 4 (after 10 hours sleep), but last night it was 1.30 (I think that's due to the party they went to yesterday).

As for the eating, I'm a little hesitant to write this but I think we're over the hurdle for the moment because that very night at supper, he ate beautifully with V feeding him and then even fed himself properly for the first time (with a spoon!). He's repeated this at every lunch and supper so it was definitely that he wanted to feed himself.

Now, the stats:

Connor weighs 10.18 kg (22,4 pounds) and Kendra weighs 7.45 kg (16.4 pounds). The gap is narrowing. At 9 months there was a 2,9 kg difference in their weight; now there's only 2,72.

So that's it - all is good.

Only thing - next month they need more injections.


How was your week last week? What do you have planned for this week?

P.S. I need to tell you what I realised after the electricity headache and what I'm doing to get a new, improved, streamlined life (!)

If it's not one thing, it's another

I've alluded to this before but looks like we have some food issues.

They've stopped being good eaters.

The main culprit is Connor but Kendra has her moments too.

So today, being their 11-month birthday, I've booked an appointment with Sister Carla and I am armed with all my questions.

It'll also be nice to get them weighed.

At the birthday party on Saturday when I held one of the babies, it occurred to me that he could very possibly be heavier than Kendra (he is 5 1/2 months and she's 11!).

It's not an issue to me anymore simply because she is so active - crawling, pulling up, cruising along furniture, etc.

she loves the vacuum cleaner

But I am keen to see what she weighs as she eats more than her brother does these days.

Okay, back to the eating.

They both LOVE cereals. We give them oats and Maltabella (Purity) mostly and only baby cereal when they have a really, really bad food day.

(I'm very strict with food and I don't cave easily)

They eat fruits and even eat it like we do (chunk of apple and orange).

And yoghurt - well, they are clearly my kids because they LOVE plain Greek yoghurt. LOVE IT.

Kendra

Has become very interested in what's IN the food, so if any food falls from the spoon, she uses those tiny baby fingers (and they're minute!) to pick up the lentils, carrots, etc. one by one.

No problem but...... she's so focussed that she won't eat while she's otherwise engaged.

So eating takes forever and some days she just feels like she has "had it" and won't even open her mouth.

She's not the main problem.

Connor on the other hand has good days very rarely but mostly his new thing is he doesn't like food.

He will have toast with anything, fruit, yoghurt and cereal. So he is getting something in him.

But I have this crazy notion that his diet needs to be balanced and nutritious.

And he won't eat my beloved Annabel Karmel meals.

I think it's because he wants to feed himself and doesn't want baby mush. Even though it's technically not baby mush.

I've even started cooking things like butternut and lentil risotto so that no pureeing is necessary. He does eat this type of meal better and of course, anything with a cheese sauce.

V made them a fish in a cheesy white sauce a few weeks ago which Connor loved so that's the new thing - fish twice a week for him.

Actually now that I'm typing this out it really doesn't seem that bad.

Although... I can't see how we're ever going to get them off bottles (Heather, you're a rock star!) if they don't start eating properly.

Maybe I just lack patience?

Honestly these kids are so cute and lovable that those 20 minutes 3 times a day try my patience to no end.


(I've taught Kendra to kiss (I know, I know, most mothers teach their kids useful things like animals, colours and whatnot - I teach my kids how to kiss!) and it is the cutest, wettest thing ever. Connor also kisses but we're working on not biting while we kiss :))

I have a confession - I purposely give V the more difficult things to feed them (the proper, nutritious meals) because she's much better at getting them to eat. On the weekends I'm a slacker mother - I only try one proper meal and if they don't want it, I've decided life is too short to fight with babies so then it's cereal, toast, fruit, yoghurt - easy stuff.

I have another confession. Six weeks ago I had to start buying Purity prunes because my poor boy battles with constipation.

What are your food concerns or confessions?

Do you think I'm worried about nothing? Or is this cause for concern?

my "sulky teenager"


Swimming is serious business

Cauliflower and avocado

I had cauliflower for supper (on the side of my curry, rice and butternut) and remembered how much I love it. Hmmmmm. I don't buy cauliflower because D doesn't eat it and there's no way I can get through one all by myself before it goes bad.

Enter... the babies. I had a bright idea after looking through the Annabel Karmel book. So I made them some cauliflower with a cheesy sauce ("yummy" as we say to Connor to encourage him to eat), pureed it and it's in the little ice trays as we speak. I can't wait to see how that goes - who will be my fellow cauliflower eater?

Speaking of food, I HATE spending huge amounts of money (said she who is busy buying a house - but that doesn't count, does it?) for things I KNOW I can get cheaper. The avocadoes have been ridiculously expensive lately (and we're not in the UK where fruits and veggies are generally expensive - like R30 for two corn on the cob - goodness, we get about 8 or 9 for that price) so I can't bring myself to spend that kind of money.

Yet... every time we go see the baby nurse, she asks if I've given them avocado yet and I say no. I don't want to tell her I'm cheap so I just say I haven't got around to it yet LOL and then she kindly tells me it's a great first food.

This weekend was my weekend to do the grocery shop and yes, I spent R400 more than D does! But I got the darn avos. And Connor ate it - not with real enjoyment like cereal, but then again these days, cereal and plain yoghurt are really the only things he DEVOURS - but with no crying and no spitting. This is success for me these days (oh, how my standards have slipped).

Kendra let me know in no uncertain terms that she was not a fan of avocado - spat it out in my face. I tried again and again - same result.

Later I did a sandwich for them (Saffy, I told you I'd try) with avocado and cream cheese and she pulled that thing aside and THREW the avocado side at me but nibbled on the cream cheese side.

So there - definitely not a fan of avocado. Just in case I was unsure.

The food thing is going much better mainly because I'm pandering to him. This is another thing I said I'd never do when I had children "one day" and here I am, desperate to get food into him.

We know he likes cereal and yoghurt, so every day he gets fruit and yoghurt for one meal and for another, cereal with a chicken cube hidden inside. Oh, I'm a sly one. The third meal is the one where I still persist in getting some "real food" inside him.

We went back to giving veggies only (but I sneak cream cheese so he gets some protein), and now we're on 2/3 veggies, 1/3 chicken/ lentils. He often doesn't finish and then I put the leftovers into the cereal too. It sounds disgusting but what does he know?

Since he's taken a liking (I use that word loosely because what I mean is he doesn't scream when I feed it to him) to two of Annabel Karmel's dishes, both with chicken, so that's what he has 4 out of 5 days.

Nanny Viola told me the only reason he's eating the veggies is for the cream cheese LOL. Every day when I get home I ask her, "how did Connor eat today?" and we go through the whole debrief. She even has to rate the ease of eating (verbally, not in The Notebook!) from 1 - 10. Kendra is our benchmark as the way she eats is a 10. Most days she tells me 7 or 8 for Connor, but remember she has Patience with a capital P and I do not.

I'm in pajamas and going to get a nice hot mug of tea before working on my newsletter.

Today was lovely - grey skies, rainy weather and an empty office so I could get on with things and do good, focussed work. I then dashed to the shops to buy formula and nappies and then home for a quick tidy before the agent came to value our property.

We drove past the house after church yesterday and saw that it was a show house from 2 - 5pm (apparently show houses are different times all over Jhb; in our suburbs they're Sundays 2 - 5pm) so D went back to have a look after dropping us off. Of course I was on tenterhooks wondering WHAT he'd find to complain about.

He LOVED the house but did have a moan about one little piece of the property where we need extra electric fencing. I switched off as I do when talking about boring, man bits but ........we decided we're going to put in an offer based on what he tells us our house can fetch.

While technically we can pay what she wants for Number 46, I'm sure people won't give us what we want for ours since it's a buyer's market. And bottom line, I need x deposit on the new place as I don't want a bond bigger than a certain amount. Apparently everything is negotiable according to the agent - his commission, etc, etc. Hmmm. I don't even want to THINK about all the lawyer and bank schlep so I have to keep thinking about that view from the lounge.

But enough about me...

How has your Monday been?

P.S. The reason I haven't been commenting much is that my computer has gone in as they think there's a virus and I'm working on the slowest laptop known to man. When I get the other back, this one's got to go in for them to make it faster.

P.P.S. Tomorrow I want to give you a sleep update as it's been a while, hasn't it?

Food strike!

Connor is on a food strike.

Not all food.... only meat and veggies-type food (and yes, also our beloved Annabel Karmel food!)

Of course this is highlighted because Kendra is a DREAM eater.

Except for her new trick, spitting. I let her do it once but then thought, "what the hell?! this is a BABY spitting food at ME" so stopped feeding her.

She's very clever and stopped that nonsense the minute I got up from my
seat.

Normally she opens her mouth WIDE like a little bird and eats everything. We have to show her the empty bowl so she can see the meal's over, otherwise she'll keep opening that little mouth. Very very cute

I swear she gets cuter by the day. Example....

"Kendra, what are you?"

BABABABABA

"Good girl! And what's Connor?"

BABABABABA

(of course, I time my questions for when she starts her talking :)

Anyway, our feeding schedule is currently:

8 am - veggies and chicken/ lentils/ minced beef

10 am - milk

12 am - fruit and yoghurt

2 pm - milk

4 pm - cereal - since the 8-month appt, I give one block of food here too

5:30 - 6 pm milk


Back to Connor.

He started whining more at mealtimes a few weeks ago... but still ate.

Now he won't even open that mouth for the first mouthful!

This is what I've tried:

• I sing Wild Thing to him, which he loves, so he laughs and when he opens his mouth, I quickly pop a mouthful in. Just thought of something - maybe it's my SINGING he's laughing at. I know David (my friend, Nat's son) laughs at her when she prays :)
• not giving him any milk for HOURS before the meal just in case he wasn't properly hungry - not the answer because he does the same thing even if his last feed in the night was at 3am
• giving him whatever he doesn't finish (in the beginning, usually just a teaspoon's worth) mixed into his cereal - worked for about 3 days and then he realised what was happening so is now wise to my tricks

It all came to a head on Thursday afternoon.

They'd been out late for a walk so the mealtimes were running late and into the time V leaves (5 pm) so I said I'd feed Connor so she could get going (she's very committed and likes to do all the things on her list before even thinking of leaving).

Well, BIG MESS. He fought me like crazy - his entire face, hands, legs and feet were FULL of food so I literally took him straight to the bathroom and gave him his second bath within hours.

Next day I decided not to mess with V and her way of doing things and she fed him. Much better - still a bit of whining but very bad as with me.

Then on the weekend, he just flat out refused everything. Annabel Karmel food, plain veggies, sweet potato, even CEREAL, our go-to food. He thought the cereal had food in it.

I always SAID (all those things you say you'll never do when you're a mother) I'll never make a big issue about food but I know that no eating means no sleeping and frankly, I'm old and I need my sleep.

I even found myself saying things like, "do you KNOW how I slaved over a hot stove cooking this for you?" - it's true, my kitchen is blazing hot in the afternoons :) I cringe writing that but I'm committed to keeping it real.

Eventually I thought let's just try some banana and yoghurt, thinking he'd also spit it out so I didn't even bother with a bib.

BIG MISTAKE - look!

On Sunday he deigned to eat a few baby spoons' worth of food (not even teaspoons) and was properly back on his cereal - I tried no funny business initially but later sneaked in some cream cheese.

On Monday morning when V arrived I was stern with her.

"V, have you been telling me the truth about Connor's eating? Because he refused EVERYTHING with us this weekend."

She laughed and said he does whine at the start but he will eat with her. I've said before that she has ENDLESS patience with them.

Still, I'm not happy that he doesn't want to open his mouth and eat properly because HE USED TO eat nicely. If he'd always had eating problems I wouldn't mind this so much.

Yesterday, we did mostly veg...2 veg cubes and 1 with protein. Still a bit of whining.

So we've gone back to basics today.

3 butternut cubes with a teaspoon of cream cheese. He whined but not too much. V tells me she thinks he was only eating FOR the cream cheese. This boy is going to drive me nuts.

He will have butternut for 3 days and then we'll switch to sweet potato and carrots like in the early days but keep trying my Annabel Karmel meals since my freezer is FULL of them. I think I got addicted to the food ice cubes and went a bit wild.

Right, over to you. (I keep thinking, the nurse said they need two protein meals a day and he REFUSES)

ANY IDEAS???

(a funny thing just occurred to me - Nat told me David just SEES her approaching with the butternut and starts crying :) Typical South African male [meat, no veggies] as I've seen him happily eating biltong. I wonder if it's still the same - must check)

All out of love

I forgot to take my iPod from around my neck when I went to a meeting with my boss.

So I take it off and place it on the table next to me.

Him: What are you listening to?

Me: Oh, my type of music.

Him: Yes???

Me: 80's love songs

Him: Air Supply?

Me: EXACTLY!

I am SOOO predictable. Good thing I'm not easily embarrassed!


*****************


On Monday the nurse told me to give them more protein as that will help with the sleep.

I can just HEAR the chorus of "I told you so" from Candice and Ilse :)

Well, we did that very thing at "supper" and both days Connor's slept WORSE.

As if it's even possible (okay, ANYTHING is better than the newborn days - must focus on the positive).

But I am all Zen and relaxed about the sleep thing and have not freaked.

Yet.

Although need to ask you guys - is it pure coincidence? Or can giving more protein make them wake more, maybe because they're digesting it? I don't know - thinking aloud...


P.S. Kendra has literally found her voice and is talking NON-STOP. No more babbles but full-on talking, if I could only understand what she's saying :)

Connor's antics

see the scratch on his nose

1. Connor finally "twigged" (do you say twigged where you live?) that rolling means he can move and he is now rolling up a storm - front to back, back to front, every which way.
2. Not in the slightest bit interested in crawling; instead he's working on the sitting. Every day he seems to sit better - I can leave him without support longer and longer.
3. He's been able to hold his own bottle for ages but is really only motivated to do so when either I'm too slow and he's starving (like when he's been sleeping past his feed time) or during the day when he's all pleasant and charming. At night he's lazy - he literally lays with his arms down at his side and wants us to hold his bottle.
4. He still has his two teeth and loves biting any fingers he can find, except his own. His toes are fair game though.
   
5. He suddenly went off his veggies - I think he got bored because he still ate the fruit, yoghurt and cereal - but the MINUTE I introduced Annabel Karmel he was into his food all again. I reduced the portions a bit since we now eat protein and that has helped. We also take whatever food he doesn't finish and mix it into his cereal which he then polishes off. He LOVES his cereal.
6. Connor is still a lovely, laidback, happy baby 95% of the time; the rest of the time he can get quite grumpy, just like his father! He so loves hugging and snuggling - oh, it's LOVELY. Sometimes I don't want to put him down.
   
7. He seems to be stretching his awake time to the two-hour mark. We are still highly vigilant because we do not like to see the craziness come out if he gets overtired.
8. At night he wakes crying (for a bottle I think) but during the day he wakes, amuses himself for a bit (rolling around his cot and playing with the stuffed animals) and only when bored or hungry, cries for us.
9. After any night feeds, he falls asleep immediately. I don't do any patting, shh-ing, rocking, nothing!
10. Connor seems to be more into Kendra than she is into him.
11. He loves being outside. I've started putting him in the walker just inside the open kitchen door after feeding him. He loves looking at the trees, grass, leaves. But the best is when he and D go sit at the pool - they're exactly the same - very laid-back so they sit in silence for 10 - 15 minutes at a time, just having quality time. It's too sweet.
12. He is ALL BOY - which I absolutely love - eats like a boy (messy), grunts like a boy and is WILD. He also has scratches on his face all the time even though we keep his nails short.
    
13. One day I sang "Wild Thing" by The Troggs to him and he laughed. So that's our song because he's my wild boy.
    
    To think I didn't know what I'd do with a boy! I love having one of each - they are so different!

look at my smiling baby boy - we have hours of fun talking and laughing while Kendra crawls all over us :)

behind the scenes

People have been asking me some questions when I reply to their comments.

(by the way, if you have a blogger account, please go to your profile and check/ tick the box that says "show email address". What then happens is if you leave a comment, it comes through to my email and I can respond directly to you and we can have a nice CHAT :))

Okay then, moving along.

Baby monitoring in South Africa

Obviously if you're seeing the paediatrician, they always weigh and measure the baby.

Outside of those appointments, many of the big pharmacies have a little clinic (one teeny, tiny room) with a nurse who does wellness checks (all the stats), immunisations and also other things like flu vaccinations, cholesterol, blood sugar and BP checks. Nothing is free - the wellness checks at Dischem cost me R45 per baby and I've had my BP checked before at a Clicks pharmacy for R25.

Many of the larger companies (or maybe it's just insurance? because we have doctors who work in underwriting) also have on-site clinics operating at certain hours for staff to use (this is totally free where I work). I can literally walk 5 minutes to the other side of the property and get a cholesterol, blood sugar or BP check every week if I wanted to do so. When I was pregnant and had my one sick day, this is the nurse who checked my BP for me and told me to go home.

Back to the baby checks.

In some medical practices there are also nurses who do wellness checks and immunisations for babies. These are often more expensive but still cheaper than going to the paed.

We're now going to a new nurse who charged us R100 for the consultation but for twins, doesn't charge a double consult fee. This is unusual but I don't argue - less out of our medical savings account.

I prefer the environment of this small medical centre (4 GP's, podiatrist, psychologist and the baby nurse) to the craziness of Dischem.

What I've explained above is all PRIVATE health care for the 15% of South Africans (it may be less) who do have private medical aids.

I don't have any experience about the government hospitals and clinics except that the clinics are completely free IF you're prepared to sit and queue for hours and hours on end.

Our national health is not great. Just the mention of going to a "government hospital" sends shudders through us privileged folk :)

Yes, I moan about this and that, but I do know that I am extremely privileged to be able to afford a private medical aid. If we didn't have it, I dread to think what would have happened with C & K and the NICU.

Let me know in the comments if you want more detail on anything.

Now the baby food.

This is the book I bought at Sadia's recommendation and........... I'm loving it!

I'd never heard of Annabel Karmel before but she is genius.

As I was reading I realised that my kids have been eating really boring food!

On Monday I cooked up some chicken (with carrots, sweet potato) and pureed it like crazy as I was so scared they'd choke.

Tuesday morning they had this for breakfast (yes, my kids are weird - they like their veggies in the morning and their cereal in the afternoon) and.........

Kendra pulled her face as she does with all new food but she still eats it.

Connor? Connor loved it. He literally SMACKED HIS LIPS. Too cute - D and I left late so that we could see them have their first taste of chicken.

I asked Nanny Viola how they've been enjoying the chicken and she says "they LOVE it" :)

I'm trying a new recipe every few days - a different chicken one today - but I expect to have similar reactions.

I can't tell you all the differences she recommends (too many) but I do believe you should get her book if you don't intend to buy jarred baby food (a huge ripoff in my view).

South Africans - I ordered mine from Kalahari.net and it arrived on my (work) doorstep within 5 days.

Like a list, only more wordy

Gee what a week.

The sleep issues continue but thanks to some of the comments on the sleep post, I immediately introduced lentils to both of them and saw an immediate improvement in their sleep (both only waking up twice a night now).

Loved reading this post and even cried a little, sap that I am.

Had a HORRIBLE day at work on Thursday - my access disc was "dead" and I had a wonderful time holding up a queue of cars behind me (that, in itself, doesn't bother me - it's the people shouting out "helpful" comments like "turn the disc around" and "swipe the middle of the card". Grrrr), my lipstick fell down the drain (a brand new one) and I had to drive to a meeting I was not prepared for to a place I'd never been (I do not deal well with the unknown).

Fortunately, the meeting was great, I could actually add value which made the huge schlep worthwhile. I took the opportunity to go straight home afterwards, thus arriving home an hour earlier.

Kendra is now crawling. I mentioned before that she is Spirited so she screams if anything doesn't go her way - she's impatient to go places, almost like her body's holding her back and after an effort or two, she screeches because she can't move as fast as she'd like. Oh, we are in for fun times around here. I've bought plug covers and those plastic corners for the tables and now D has to do his man stuff to babyproof the place.

Connor finally got that rolling means he can go places. I saw the cutest thing in the world (of course I'm biased) when I peeked in on him last night and saw him all sprawled out on his back (he hasn't slept on his back since he was about 9 weeks old) with his arms above his head. He looked a bit like someone dancing :)

My book arrived! Sadia referenced the Annabel Karmel baby food book in one of my baby food posts. I swear I wanted to start cooking just from looking at the pics. I've bought the stuff and will cook a recipe with chicken this week. I've already learned such a lot - mainly that my poor kids are eating seriously boring food and baby food can be a lot more exciting.

Have had the most terrible internet week EVER. Don't I sound like a drama queen?! 1 - 1.5 hours to work on your business + S L O W internet = HUGE frustration. I've phoned the ISP twice, they tell me the same rubbish (everything is fine on our side, reboot, unplug the modem, blah blah blah) which of course I've already done a gazillion times and STILL 5 - 10% connectivity. Miraculously it's been around 50% since Friday afternoon so not great, but manageable. Finally had a chance to catch up on posting my Project 365 pics.

And now, some cute pics from church last weekend.

we'd rather have her sleeping than screaming :)

she is OUT!

I think Connor's trying to tell me something

look how tall he's getting

these are Connor's toes sticking out of the blanket when he fell asleep

How has your week been?

7 months sleep regression

We were getting into a really good routine where Connor was only waking once and Kendra twice every night.

For some of you that might be horrific but that's bliss to us.

Okay, maybe not BLISS, but let's say, manageable!

It started at exactly 6 months but wasn't consistent. I just counted in The Notebook

Connor's awake times...........Frequency
1........................................................11
2........................................................16
3........................................................5

(3 of those 5 times was in the last 4 days!)

Kendra's awake times...........Frequency
1........................................................3
2........................................................13
3........................................................15


Three days ago the "good sleeping" stopped.

Coincidentally it happened right after I told a work colleague that the sleeping was really getting much better - ha!

Then I spoke to another friend who said she put cereal in her girls' bottles and that worked. So of course I tried it.

No change.

If anything, they woke EARLIER in the evening than before. Grrr.

I've noticed that if they sleep the first stretch really long like 7 - 8 hours, then they only wake once (Connor) or twice (Kendra).

When they have a short first sleep (around 5 hours) it's like it sets a pattern of quick sleeps - we've even had them waking every two hours.

Which totally knackers me since I'm so old.

I bought an e-book on the internet a few weeks ago on Sleep (what else?!) and as part of the cost, you get two free email consults, so I've been compiling my questions as I don't want to waste them, but also decided to quickly google this cereal in the bottle business and I found this 3-pager, http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/content/cerealinbottle.pdf

Bottom line - there's no correlation between the cereal in the bottle and sleeping better.

Hmmm, my babies are textbook cases. So after tonight (I'd already made their "going to sleep" bottles with cereal), no more.

So here are the questions I'm about to email the lady.

• why is it that C is so big yet is still hungry at night? (I can hear his stomach growling - there is NO doubt that he's starving)
• how do I get him back to sleep without feeding when K wakes him?
• why do they not wake at the same time every night (not the two babies waking at the same time, but each baby wakes at different times every night)? I'd love to reduce the amount of milk in the, let's say "4 am" bottle, but the 4 am bottle could be at 2, 3, 4:30, anytime.
• how do you get that first stretch of sleep to consistently be longer?

I was actually thinking about why I blog and ask your advice vs googling and the answer is........ when you google, you find case studies and averages which, I'm sorry to say, have never applied to my kids, but with you guys, you find actual, real live examples of things that are working. Yay!

So would love to hear your insights :)

P.S. I'm way too scared to let them cry it out. Simply because the day before C's second tooth arrived (Sat 23 Jan), C wouldn't settle and go to sleep and he cried for two hours straight. My heart can't stand the screaming so eventually we gave him some Baby Panado and he calmed down enough to sleep. Remember this is my "easy" baby so imagine Kendra!

I have no problem letting them cry once I've tried to soothe them and I know they're not hungry, wet or too hot/ cold. But not just "cold".

More on making my own baby food

The method

I'm quite the obsessive when it comes to baby food (I only realised this after speaking to other mothers) so I wrote down the 5 yellow veggies (pumpkin, butternut, sweet potato, carrots and gem squash) and did a little table in the front of their notebook.

I then mark off when each child has successfully had 4 days of that vegetable.

To date, they are both okay with all 5.

Kendra seems to like carrots the most and Connor favours butternut and gem squash.

I don't take nonsense from them though; they both need to eat everything whether they like it or not. I don't force feed but I do a whole song and dance (literally) because I am not going to be cooking 3 different meals when they can eat our food. No way!

And so far, they eat everything - they gobble their favourites faster than the rest but they eat everything.

I've just started introducing green veggies this week - I mixed broccoli and butternut which was a hit with both kids.

Tried peas with Connor on Monday and he HATED them (don't blame him, actually, I don't eat peas either).

Once we knew that they were okay with a particular veg, I started mixing up two of a particular yellow veg, all the time keeping careful notes, like carrots and sweet potato, gem squash and carrots, etc.

* By the way, be warned that carrots will stain your lovely baby utensils horribly.


How we cook and puree the veggies

Viola peels and cooks the vegetables for me while I'm at work. We boil them in a pot with a bit of water, just enough until soft (to retain nutrients).

I then use a stick blender to puree the veggies. I find that I have to add about 60 ml cool, boiled water (about 2 oz) to about 500 g veggies (half a pound). Start there and adjust the water as necessary. Otherwise it seems as if the veggies are too solid and they're more likely to choke.

You'll have to add a lot more water in the beginning when they first start having veggies. As I mentioned before, the paed said to not go too fine for too long otherwise they'll gag if there's the slightest lumps in food afterwards. Again, not having that kind of fussiness.

The easiest way to cook gemsquash

• Stab the hard outer skin about 5 - 6 times with a sharp knife, preferably after you're stressed, so you really get out your frustrations.
• Place in a plastic bag (we use old bread bags) and microwave on high for about 5 - 7 minutes (that's for 3 medium-sized gems).
• Once cooked and cooled, slice open, scoop out the pips, add a tiny bit of water and mash with a spoon or fork.

Another of my quirks - I LOVE the smell of cooked gemsquash but also don't eat it.

Sidenote - Kendra is eating BEAUTIFULLY these days. Kendra! I never would have believed it.

She is such a little girl, all dainty and neat and even opens her mouth when she's finished a bite. Too cute! Basically she's as clean at the end as when we start feeding whereas Connor is such a messy boy (I love it!). I took a photo this week of the butternut ALL over his face. Will blog.

Cooking the fruit

We do it in much the same way as the veggies - peel, boil in a tiny bit of water, puree. So far we've only given Connor apples, pears and bananas. Kendra started on bananas this week.

Bananas are easy as you just mash, no cooking, so they're also my fruit of choice if we're out. When avocado pears go on special, I'll be trying those too. Someone at work told me to also give them mangoes and papaya - yummy!

I don't like them to have a lot of fruit as it's sweet, so they both only get about 50 - 60 g (I can't remember - made a gigantic load about two weeks ago and we're still going through all that) plus two heaped tablespoons plain yoghurt. Again, I don't want them getting used to sweet things.

Yes, I will be one of those "no sweets or chocolates for my kids" mothers.


Storing it

I happen to have a storage container obsession and had quite a bit of these small plastic containers lying around, all brand new and unused and perfect for the babies' food.

Kendra is eating a lot more than when I first posted so she now also gets the big containers.

Kendra started with about 50 g food (I am precise - I use a kitchen scale and weigh everything - it makes it easier for me as I'm a black and white sort of person) and is now eating 70g. Connor has 100 g.

I started small (even with Connor) because I hate wasting food. If they polished it off and still seemed hungry then I increased the portion gradually until they look happy.

The babies "tell" you when they're done eating by trying to escape the spoon.

* A word of advice - label your food. After it's all frozen, the food all looks the same. I use masking tape and a permanent marker. Masking tape is cheap, lasts forever and peels off easily when you need to re-label the containers.


Defrosting

In the evening while preparing/ heating supper, I make up their bottles for the night and the next morning's first one so there isn't a big rush if V is a bit late. I can't STAND a baby screaming for food.

That's when I take out the frozen food portions for each baby for the next day and put into the fridge to defrost overnight.


*************

I think that's it!

Please ask questions in the comments and I'll keep editing until I answer all questions :)

Also, to the others who make their own baby food (Heather, Saffy, etc.) please share your tips!

Making my own baby food

Once, ages ago, I saw someone on TV make baby food and freeze them in ice-cube trays.

I thought this was a brilliant idea and filed it away for when I had my own babies.

Of course that was years and years ago as this whole babymaking business took so long to get sorted.

Anyway, then we started solids.

And I quickly realised that it actually made better sense for me to spoon the food straight into containers and freeze them so that the container served as the bowl.

*sob* no cute ice-cubes for me

But seriously, this works so, so well that be warned, if I meet you, I will strongly encourage you to do your own baby food.

It's sooo much cheaper for one and I know exactly what's in there - nothing but veggies or fruit.

I bought ONE butternut for R12,78 ($1.73).

V peeled and cooked it.

I mashed it all up and portioned it out. There were 6 portions for Connor and 6 for Kendra.


Now if you had to buy Purity (bottled baby food), you'd pay between R5 and R7 a bottle, depending where you shop. Let's say R6.

I got enough food as would be in 9 bottles of Purity. That's R54 worth.

And I paid R12,78.

It is SOOOO worth it!

Same story with the other veggies and fruit. Some work out even better because butternut has that hard outer shell so you're actually paying for that, as you pay per kilogram.

Look.


And it's so easy.

For example, with the gem squash, I poked holes in the skin, popped them into an empty bread packet and into the microwave for about 5 - 7 minutes. Done! Slide open, scoop out seeds, scoop out squash and mash. Easy!

This suits the organising part of my personality just perfectly. I am LOVING preparing their foods and mixing it all up. I was a dud at the breastfeeding but am a rock star at this stuff :)


At one point I thought I'd be doing the Purity thing sometimes when life is hectic but now, I honestly can't bring myself to spend that kind of money. After all, I have twins. That, and I'm cheap!

What are you doing about baby food?

P.S. This is my post for SteadyMom's 30-minute blog challenge (her new book is out - have a look)

Solids

As you know, Connor started cereal at 4 months and it was going so well that I was scared to mess with a good thing by starting the veggies.

These babies are more than enough work at the best of times.

However, someone (Amy) said something like "oh, just do it" and I decided to go for it.

My baby textbook, Baby Sense, said to first start with all the yellow veggies, so he had butternut, pumpkin, sweet potato and then carrots.

They say you should introduce one food to a baby at a time, for four days, to check for allergies, so that's what we did, although some weeks he ate the same veggie for 6 days in a row if I made more than 4 days' worth.

Yes, I make my own baby food - more on that later.

Then we started mixing some of those foods - like sweet potato and pumpkin.

And then we went to see the paed. Can't remember if I said (and to lazy to read through old posts) but he was very happy that they'd started solids (!). He also told me to not blend the food too fine as he's seen lots of babies who eat Purity (that's the most common baby food in a jar here and is so smooth) and now cannot eat anything with lumps or textures because they start gagging and vomiting simply because they're not used to it.

Well, I am certain of one thing - I don't plan to have fussy eaters so I decided to do more textures there and then.

Enter gem squash. Which is stringy..... so I thought, "well, if Connor doesn't like it, then D will have to finish the squash". I'm not one for gems...

Viola (the nanny) told me that Connor LOVED the gem squash and had no problem with the stringiness.

(I've just looked up the reference on Wikipedia and now, for the first time in my life I find that gem squash is a fruit!!!)

This boy likes his food.

We started him on fruits last Saturday - so far he's had Granny Smith apples (my favourites) and bananas. Next on the menu are pears.

As for the cereal, he's had rice cereal and maize cereal. (South Africans, the paed said he could have normal mielie meal!)

He can also have yoghurts and when they're properly 6 months (8 months actual) we can start introducing mince and chicken. Hmmm, I'm a bit wary of that.

But the main thing is this - I got that we can experiment with lots of different textured food.

Lovely!

Now Kendra started cereal a month later, at 5 months.

She is not so keen on the food and eats s l o w l y. Dear Lord, you need the patience of Job.

And, sadly, she eats better for Viola than she does for us. But we've been observing V so now we prop her up in exactly the same way and give her lots of encouragement (lots of "good girl") and it's going a tiny bit faster.

She's also had rice cereal and maize cereal. More keen on the maize than the rice cereal.

On Thursday last week (exactly 6 months) we started her veggies. She's had pumpkin and is now on the butternut.

So far so good.

I think she's getting more used to food because I've actually seen her open her mouth ready for the next spoon. This is huge for Kendra :)

At the moment she's eating half the amount of veggies as Connor and about two-thirds his amount of cereal.

Oh, one more thing the paed said (can you tell I got my money's worth - I peppered him with SO many questions) is that they eat better if they touch the food.

oooh, gross! (I hate messes but I'm learning to tolerate them)

So here we go, Kendra getting into her food.

P.S. you'll have noticed I don't have high chairs for the babies and quite honestly, I don't know that I need them until they can eat by themselves. I have to hold down Connor's hands otherwise there's food EVERYWHERE (worse than Kendra).

6-month check-up (corrected age 4 months)

So the babies are 6 months old - I can't believe it!

Tried to make an appointment earlier this week and was HORRIFIED when told that the fabulous Dr R (their paed from NICU days) has left the practice.

I then investigated further (phoned my friend, M) and found that Dr R wanted a job that didn't require her to be on call, seeing as she's about 28 weeks pregnant and has a 20-month old little girl too. Our hospital doesn't allow that - all doctors have to be on call - so she then looked for another job.

Huge sadness as we LOVE Dr R.

Note to self - will have to hook up on Facebook.

Anyway, lots of issues with receptionists but finally managed to get an appt for the afternoon with Dr S, whose practice it is.

We arrived bang on time, armed with babies and my list of questions. I always come prepared as I'm not prepared to shell out R1000 and not get every single question answered.

Was prepared to hate him.... because of appointment-setting issues but the man was VERY nice.

He even played with Kendra and Connor and really took his time checking them over.

Now here's the stuff I live for, the stats :)

Kendra

Now weighs 5,18 kg (11 lbs) (and is finally in Pampers 2), is 62,4 cm tall and has a head circumference of 42 cm.

Previously she was at 60% of her expected weight and she is now at 80% of her expected weight and on the 10th percentile. Moving up her growth curve very nicely.

Yayyy - we are very happy. The cereal is working and we started her veggies today too. Such a minute amount as she is not a food lover like her brother.

Developmentally she's doing fine. That's all the detail I have! Amazing - I am not at all freaked out by these things, only the sleep.

Connor

Weighs 7,68 kg (17 lbs) and is 67 cm tall. D didn't write down the head circumference as I was working hard to keep Connor from crying too much.

Don't know what on earth got into these kids - they were freaking out and screaming. And he was very gentle with them because I was right there. I am rougher with them.

Again, Connor is on 50-something percentile for age 6 months, and for his corrected age, is way ahead of the pack. He is a big boy. There is now a 2,5 kg difference in their weights.

Developmentally, he's at age 5 months. That's all I heard. It's better than their corrected age of 4 months, so am happy.

Dr S was very happy that he's on cereal and veggies and said I can start experimenting with fruits, yoghurt, rougher textures, etc.

Knowing me, it will take forever to get there :) I don't like to mess with a good thing.

So we continue as we have been doing. Next appointment at 9 months.

P.S. Connor has his first tooth! Poor baby was so calm and placid - the little tooth arrived with no fanfare. On Wed he started moaning a little bit when we tried to give him his bottle. Had a look in his mouth, fully expecting to see red gums and instead, a little white tooth. Too cute.

P.P.S. On Wed night Kendra only woke twice and Connor only woke once. Maybe they can sense that we're going to let them "cry it out" :)

P.P.P.S. I asked how much they should be sleeping in a 24-hour period at this age - 13 - 14 hours, 10 at night and the rest during the day. The doctor says they probably will still wake once a night until 9 months! Kendra might wake twice because of hunger - any more than this means they're waking for "other than hunger" reasons. So Connor sleeps a lot, but honestly, he goes crazy if he doesn't sleep after 90 - 120 minutes.

What we're doing about the sleep thing and 4-month sleep regression

This boy loves his sleep. I have tons of photos of him sleeping. It's all I can do to resist kissing those cheeks...
Kendra, on the other hand, is not one for lots of sleep. And when she IS sleeping, I don't even venture near her cot - too scared of waking her - so this pic was taken by D.


Okay, so I promised to talk some about the sleep thing.

We all know the basic theory of sleep:

Make sure they get enough to eat during the day and they should sleep for long periods at night.

Right...

Except it's not so easy.

Because you can't force feed your kids. Believe me, I've tried and as you all told me a while back, they WILL only eat when they're hungry.

Right... so I've relaxed about that somewhat.

Then, as you know, Connor's been on solids for a month already and this week, we also started Kendra on cereal. She's not such a huge fan of the eating.... same deal with cereal... but at least she eats. This is a girl who eats to live, not lives to eat, like her mother :)

Which throws out the whole "you can only start sleep training if they eat 24 ounces (720 ml) in a day".

We are only comfortable doing our science experiments on Connor at this point. Kendra has 600-odd ml a day plus the one cereal feed. But the minute (the MINUTE) she hits 5 kg, we're going to start experimenting with her too.

ANYWAY....

I've now finished The Baby Sleep Solution and Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Twins.


Not very impressed with Healthy Sleep Habits... maybe that's because I don't do the one down, both down thing.... I actually don't know how twin mothers do that. Or maybe my babies are just super-impatient.

Confession - I really don't mind being busy one baby after the other during the days. It gives me oodles of one-on-one time with each baby where we can kiss, smell their baby smells and whisper sweet nothings one to another (I know they're also telling me how much they love me).

Back to the books.

The Baby Sleep Solution, on the other hand, was excellent. I like people that get to the point and are practical. This book is just that. And you can read it in two hours which is great because none of us have time to read loads of theory.

I liked it so much I made D read it.

Now here's the problem.

D is a very by-the-book sort of person. I take what I want and leave the rest and so we're fighting a little about the means of implementing.

E.g. she says to feed the babies every 4 hours during the day. My babies have NEVER ever had a four-hour schedule. Connor might stretch to 4 hours now and again but never consistently. Now I can't see the harm of feeding every 3 hours (most of the time, during the day, they feed in bits and pieces so I think it'll be a challenge to even get them onto a solid 3-hour schedule) as long as they get as much milk into those bodies as possible. D wants us to strictly follow the book and move them (miraculously) from 2 to 4 hours.

See?

Anyway, we'll sort it all out.

The one concept I LOVED (and I loved lots) in the book was this:

• track your babies' night feeds for a week (we already had The Notebook so I started right away)
• if your babies are waking up 3 times a night (as ours are, sometimes more!), they will naturally drink whatever they want at each of those feeds. Don't force them to drink more (as I had been doing) as the point is to eliminate the night feeds
  
• usually of those 3 feeds, the middle feed is the least and this is the one that can get eliminated the quickest
• follow their lead - if you make a bottle with 150 ml and they only drink 120 ml, NEVER again make 150 ml for that feed again.
• for 3 nights, keep them on the reduced feed (that the baby set), then reduce by half an ounce (15 ml) for the next 3 nights, and so on, and so on, until that feed is GONE.
• you MUST make up those ml during the day somewhere. I do it at the first morning feed as he is starving by then.
  

So far Connor is down to 75 ml on that middle feed. That's about 2 and a half ounces.

Although (BREAKING NEWS!)... in the last week,

• Connor only woke twice during the night (we classify "night" as between 7 pm and 7 am) - Sunday night and then last night
• For that first stretch, he's had two nights of 8 hr 30, one 7 hr, 6hr 35, 6hr and two 5 hr 30.

I hope this doesn't come back to bite me in the bum now that I've written this blog post......

Now Kendra, while not yet on the science experiments, has had one 8-hour, one 7-hour, one 6-hour and one 5-hour session in the last week.

So things are improving just a little bit.

Good thing too because this week at work I actually have to DO some work.

Would you believe that my old emails are restored but any that people sent me since July until Thursday are gone into cyberspace? It actually feels freeing but also slightly scary. Tomorrow I will contact all my clients to see if they've sent anything they actually want me to respond to! Fun and games :)

Also, interesting that all the good sleep nights have been with no night nanny. I'm actually glad in a strange (control freaky) way that we are now done with that as the babies sleep better for us than they do when the night nanny is here. And we now don't have to spend that money.

I mentioned to my MIL last weekend that this week was the last week (two nights) of night nanny. She goes, "why?!" I said, "because the money's run out!" I don't know why that's so strange to her because she seriously looked surprised. Money doesn't grow on trees and I'm not in the least blase about money, in fact, quite the opposite.


****************

P.S. Mandy commented a few days ago and I'm posting her comment here

It's 2:00 in the morning here in Oregon and Josiah has decided to start waking up every 2 hours like he did as a newborn. He'll be 4 months old on the 22nd. Is this the 4 month sleep regression? Is he not getting enough food anymore? What do all your books say about this?! Help me!!! I need my sleep back!!! ;-)

Ha! I love that you think I'm a sleep expert, Mandy.

But usually with my babies, whenever they hit a growth spurt and need more food, the sleep goes all bonkers and I have to adjust something.

I haven't yet encountered anything in my books (!) about a 4-month thing but I have looked on blogs and I see that there is such a thing as the 4-month sleep regression. The "experts" say that it's usually things like teething, developmental spurts and so on...

Please chime in if you know more.

And now I need to go to bed - it's work tomorrow :)

P.S. Sorry about this but I had to enable word verification as I'm being spammed :(

Connor and the cereal

Doesn't that sound like the title of a children's book?

When we had our 4-month check-up, the paed said we could start Connor with cereal.

Some people are horrified that my 4-month-old baby is eating cereal so let me tell you what the paed and BabySense say.

Babies automatically fall into a routine where they have a long first stretch of sleep in the evenings. This was happening for Kendra as she would sleep from about 6pm to midnight or just after, but Connor still had the same old 4, 4 and a half hour stints.


If they're not showing that stretch despite drinking enough milk (he was), then the milk is not enough for them.

Hence the cereal.

So we started with 1 tablespoon on Sunday 8th November. Can you see this was momentous for us?

And I have never been more proud of my boy.

He took to it beautifully - first mouthful he chewed slowly like "mmm, what's this new thing?" and then it was "oh YES, this is what I've been waiting for"

Just like that, he took to it and we've never looked back.

I sit on the floor, Connor in the feeding pillow and I hold his hands with my left hand while feeding him with the right hand.

Then I read in Babysense that babies really only FULLY experience things when they touch and put them in their mouths so one day I was brave and I let him at the cereal.

BIG mess but he loved it. Cereal in his nose, all over his face because those hands get busy!

So did it work?

Hmm, well, not exactly.

That Sunday he slept for 9 and a half hours in the first stretch and I was BEAMING. I thought this is IT - finally the answer to all my problems.

But alas, the next night he slept 5 and a half hours, and then the next night 5 hours so the cereal wasn't magic like I thought.

After about two weeks of this I decided to increase to TWO tablespoons (yes, I'm slow) and then I had 6 and a half hours.

So we've stayed on the 2 tablespoons. We average around 6 hours but he's slept for 7 and a half hours too. Only thing is they go to bed quite early, about 5 - 5:30, so we never wait longer than 1 am.

I've tried to make the bed time later but he turns into Crabby Connor and it's just not worth it. I'd rather have the peace of a quick bedtime and a 1 am wake-up than a two-hour screaming fest (no jokes) and then have him sleep an hour or two later.


Then when the night time stretch was sorted, I continued reading Babysense and they said if the baby doesn't stretch 4 hours between the first and second morning feeds, then it's probably time for morning cereal.

He didn't stretch so we started morning cereal.

The boy LOVES his cereal.

Again we started with 1 tablespoon but most days we now have 2. If I see he's not drinking enough milk, I put him on 1 Tsp as the book says the cereal is a supplement to, not instead of, the milk.

According to the book, we should have already started him on veggies and whatnot but I'm too scared to mess with a good thing. I love those precious 6 - 7 hours too much.

Kendra is still doing her 6 hour stints although just the last few days I have noticed that she's been waking after 4,5 - 5 hours, so is probably needing more food again.

I've increased her feeds from today so we'll see if that improves it. The paed did say we can start her in a month's time which is Monday as the children will be 5 months old.

I can hardly believe it.

P.S. Have only 3 weekdays left before I start work.

P.P.S. Must also tell you about my weight and work clothes!

Strung out

That's how I'm feeling.

On edge, irritable, close to tears, stressed.

And very alone.

Last night I realised that I'm pre-menstrual. I'm thinking these new hormonal feelings are one of two things:

• either because of the new birth control pills or
• because I'm going back to work in two weeks
  

Could be either option or both because I'm normally very even-tempered and realistic about things so it's got to be something else. I usually go into problem-solver mode when I'm stressed otherwise I'd crack in my job :)

Also I've figured out why it's so difficult to go back to work after maternity leave. It's because the children finally get CUTE! And responsive.

Even my stroppy child, Kendra, has been rewarding me with lots of beautiful smiles and talking back to me.

Connor's always been very verbal and chats up a storm with me all the time. As my MIL says, "he only has eyes for his mother". Very complimentary but also scary because I don't want to be the only one who can comfort him...

I have such a lot to say (lots of noise in my head) and don't quite know where to start so let's do some bullets:

1. finished chapter 1 of sleep sense last night - all about how sleep works. I learned why the babies sometimes only sleep for 45 minutes.
2. very inspired by Mo's weight loss plan. STILL have my 0.5 kg to go - no surprise as I've been to gym twice this whole month and have not changed my eating habits at all.
   
3. Connor's started cereal. While he loves it, it's not quite doing what I thought I would. Night 1 he slept for 9 hours, then totally normal sleep for next 13 days. Then I increased to 2 tablespoons, again two nights of 7 hour stretches and the last two nights normal sleep again (4 hours).
4. I don't know how people "know" what to do with all this stuff - solids, sleep, stimulating them. I honestly feel like such a loser. They've had their pram for 9 weeks and we've been out 3 times. I'm too scared to take them out.
5. The babies still have not been to church. Beautiful. In 20 weeks!
6. Have a telephone meeting with my boss this afternoon. Hope it is all good - need to find out if I'll be in the same department or not when I get back.
   
7. 3 ladies pitched for interviews. In addition to last week's 2 so I had 5 to choose from in total. The last lady of the day was just delightful! Contacted agent to make her an offer (way above what she wanted), the agent's contacted her but no response yet. Why must everything be so hard?
   

And now I'm crying again. I think I need to go to gym just to get out of the house, get a different perspective and try to get rid of the stress.