Diary of a First Time Mom

Archive for the ‘food’ Category

I realize it has been ages since I’ve posted here.  So much has been going on, and most of it gets posted to my Facebook page that I all but forget to actually write on Wyatt’s blog!

So here he is, eating dinner tonight.  Corn on the cob is a winner!

Hand Made Pumpkin Pie…

Crust Ingredients

Rolling in Dough

With Filling

Ready!

I don’t know where this idea came from.  It just kind of happened…

So I am reading a book recommended to me called “Baby Led Weaning” which is the principle that if you put food in front of the baby, eventually he or she will eat it when they are ready.  I have to say, the concept really clicked for me.  It makes sense!  You provide the baby an opportunity to take the next step.  Like putting him on the floor to explore, and eventually he will crawl.

So we started out with steamed carrots and squash.  Placed the baby at his high chair.  Put pieces of vegetables on his tray.  And we sat down to eat our dinner.  How civilized!

Except Wyatt has just been nursed.  And he was tired.  And not interested in those orange things sitting in front of him.  At one point, Scott offered him a piece of squash.  Wyatt put it in his mouth, and proceeded to make a *bleeeeeh* face and we watched as slobbery squash drooled out of his mouth.

But it is an experiment.  And he is getting 100% of what he needs from his usual feedings, so we are just exploring.  He gets to touch and taste food on his terms!

So that was a few days ago.  I am still in the beginning of the book and so am not going to worry about progressing too fast.  But it has been in the back of my mind for a while.

Today I had a bowl of blueberries sitting with me on the floor.  He WANTED that bowl!  Maybe it was the bright color.  But does that explain him sitting up to take a handful of my Subway sub at lunch?  Not what I imagined his first meal being (and so I did not let him grab it).  But those two things got me thinking that I should be encouraging him to reach out and share my food.

So at dinner tonight, I was tired and lazy and cooked off a pot of brown rice.  By the time I had fed Wyatt, the rice was done.  But he was full of energy and wanted to play so I just spooned out a bowl of plain brown rice and sat on the floor with him to play…

Can you guess what happened next?

Yes, well that was fun. I actually ran out of memory on my iPhone (probably due to the 1100+ photos on there!) so I grabbed the big camera and shot some more video. Amazing how the iPhone 4 video quality is better than the Sony Cybershot. But I digress…

And finally, here we have some action shots. And yes. Bath time was next.

Fresh Pita for Lunch

Finally!  The Dude is letting me eat fresh veggies again!  Made this avocado, tomato, cheese and sprouts pita today and it was yummy.

Now, I think it’s time for a brownie for desert…

So my big solution to “food depression” (aka – getting so hungry that I cannot eat) is to shop ahead and make a bunch of meals.  Makes sense, right?  From the very beginning, the baby made it clear that protein was a must and sugar was not really appreciated.  It did so by giving me the shakes until I ate a piece of meat or cheese, and making my gums so sensitive that any sugary item that came in contact with them would send shooting pain into my head, similar to having a cavity drilled with no pain medication.So I listen, and adapt, and repeat.

This week I did a big shop at Whole Foods and made a big lasagna, bought ground beef for burgers as well as a $14 organic whole chicken to roast last night.  Yum, right?  Well, I pulled out the chicken last night and unwrapped it to rinse it off and prepare it for it’s 90 minutes in the sauna.  Turns out, baby does not like chicken.  (Sidenote:  I am eating a grilled cheese sandwich as I type this, and am concerned it might come up on me as I am having flash backs of the chicken episode just by writing about it…)

After gagging over the sink, I wondered if it was off.  So I dressed it anyway, put it in the fridge and had Scott smell it when he came home.  He said it smelled fine, so I put it in the oven.  At about the half-way point, I thought I would check on it to see if the cooking of chicken smelled better than raw.  A logical decision.  Turns out, it was not.  Gagging continued.  I began to wonder if this is how vegetarians feel when they smell raw or cooking meat.  If so, I apologize to any who have been here when we have been barbecuing.

The end result was not much better.  I cooled and wrapped the chicken and put it in the fridge.  Scott said he will pick it apart tomorrow so at least it won’t go to waste.  But seriously, I can still smell that sick, raw flesh in my nose when I think about it.  Of course, I asked for this, because I was initially disgusted at the amount of meat I was eating and repeatedly said that I can’t wait to eat vegetarian again, even if it is just for a week or so.  Ta da!

The good news is that I like vegetables again.  So that seems fair.  Time to start planning all over again.

So instead of a chicken dinner, I had a bowl of cereal for dinner.  It was actually pretty good.  And I was able to get to sleep quite easily.

Until 4am.  When a lone cicada, directly outside my window, decided to start chirping loudly.  You would think I would be able to block it out but I also woke up with a headache (waa waa, I know) and so this sound was splitting my head in two.  I must have complained externally, as Scott woke up and offered to go out and kill “Jiminy” for me.  But I said no.  All those Disney movies made me feel guilty.  So I took his second suggestion, and moved to the spare bedroom.  Man, that bed is comfy!  And that is where the strange dreams began…

One dream had something to do with my iPhone and losing all the info on it, but I think that may be due to the fact I was debating downloading the latest update…  But still haven’t.  In the next dream, I looked in the mirror to discover I was missing three teeth!  But then remembered I was dreaming and looked again to find one had returned.  So it was just a matter of time…

The only other dream I remember was to do with finding a turtle upside-down in our garage.  I took him outside and was feeding him lettuce and other greens.  And it was raining.  Strange since it has been a while since we have had any rain.  Plus it’s in the 100s F here right now.

So there you have it.  I’m off to wash some veggies…

I have officially become the victim of what I had always heard would eventually happen. Women, usually older women, keep telling me to really enjoy my pregnancy and how it was the best time of their lives. They speak of how their hair, skin and nails were never as good as when they were pregnant. They tell me they never felt better! I usually smile. Through clenched teeth. Not because I was annoyed. But because I was walking around feeling perpetually nauseous.

And now it has happened to me. And I am not complaining! But I feel… good! In fact, I had almost completely forgotten all the strange and unusual side-effects of the first trimester, until last night, as I was drifting off, it all came back to me.

In case I did not properly chronicle it in a prior post, here are some of the things that came up during my first three months of pregnancy (in no particular order):

• Nausea – really bad nausea.
• Skin rash across my whole face, probably due to the floods of hormones.  My skin literally went “AHHHHHHHHHH!” and broke out from forehead to chin.
• The need to have something in my stomach at all times.  ALL times.  It was especially strange how much relief one little cracker and a glass of water could bring.
• Emotional outbursts.  More than the usual…
• Feeling miserable, mentally.  Almost like a mild depression.  I actually wonder if this is due to the amount of vitamins that were being used for the baby and I had not caught up by taking enough for me too.
• Fatigue.  As in sudden whole body shut down.  One time, I was folding laundry and had two more sheets to fold.  You know how when you are folding sheets by yourself, you hold your arms up high and grab the corners?  I literally could not lift my arms.  I had to drop the sheets where I stood, and lay down.  I think I passed out for about two hours.
• Food aversions / cravings.  Bananas were my best friend.  I ate one right before bed and then in the middle of the night.  Suddenly, bananas made me sick.  Even the mention of them set me off into a serious case of the burps.  Scott loved the power, and would frequently whisper “ba-na-nas” in my ear, and then laugh as I would burp for the next five minutes.  Yuck.
• Hating food.  It was such a chore to eat.  Nothing tasted good.  But it was a necessity.

I am sure there are others, but these are the only ones I can think of now.  And for how long?  Sneaky Nature has already started flooding my brain with the happy hormones and I am starting to feel really great!  I went on a Subway kick.  Got my hair done.  Cleaned out my office.  Sold a bunch of stuff on eBay.  And started to eat for pleasure again.

But I wanted to log my observations (not complaints!) of the first trimester, before the second really kicks in, I get my serious energy boost and Nature sends a Will Smith-esque guy to my door to flash the bad memories away.  Tricky Nature.  I’m on to you…

It has been a long time since I have felt like cooking.  So when I finally got to Whole Foods yesterday with a proper shopping list, it felt really great especially to be buying stuff for a meal rather than just crackers and bananas.

I started with fruit.

And then moved on to the ingredients for my lasagna.

I was surprised to find that the watermelon was sufficient to fill me up while I was preparing and cooking the lasagna.  Maybe it was the eight slices I ate…

The lasagna was great and it’s perfect to have in the fridge as it only takes 10 minutes to heat up a piece in the toaster oven and it’s packed full of protein so even if I do wait until the “omg have to eat NOW” feeling hits me, I have instant relief in the form of a large slice of cheesy goodness.

One word of warning.  When pregnant, do not overeat.  I had always heard this but did not fully understand why.  Trust me.  Don’t do it.

PS:  If you are interested to know about my adventures last week regarding Scott’s mom’s house being hit by a flash flood, please visit my other blog Insanity is Relative.