A Week of Firsts

This has been a week of many firsts for our little chunker.

*Monday: First vegetable- sweet peas!
*Tuesday: First time being constipated; gross, I know. (formula can sometimes do that)
*Wednesday: First time eating Prunes & drinking 2 oz of infant apple juice! Also first cold/sickness :-(
*Thursday: He spit his food out of his mouth (prunes) & laughed about it.
*Friday: Official diagnosis from the doctor of double ear infection :-(  He is also 17 pounds even!

This week has been very long. Since John hasn't felt good since Tuesday night, him & I have not had much sleep. Wednesday after calling the nurse to see what I could do to treat his cold symptoms; congestion (he sounded like darth vader), coughing & gagging, we went to Babies R Us to get the stuff. Little Noses saline drops & baby Vick's vapor rub. He really hates the saline drops & screamed bloody murder every time I used them & suctioned his nose. The vapor rub we put on his chest along with the bottoms of his feet then covered his feet with socks. I thought the nurse was a little crazy for saying this works but I was willing to do whatever it was to make John feel better again. It really does help quite a bit!

Thursday I was hopeful that John would be feeling better but he actually got worse. I started noticing that he was pulling at his right ear & when he'd nurse he wouldn't nurse when laying on his right side. So I called the doctors office again at around 4:30pm to report back that John was not improving. That night I mixed his oatmeal up with breastmilk instead of formula & the breastmilk totally broke down the oatmeal. It was weird. And he was really thrown off by the flavor for some reason. Our night was rough. He was up a lot. He won't lay flat which I can totally understand, so I didn't even attempt his crib. He slept in his swing. I think the movement of that somehow helped his congestion.

Today we had an appointment at 2:15pm & sure enough both of his ears are infected. Poor little guy. The good news is that he's big enough- a whopping 17 pounds - for me to give him 3.75ml of Benadryl! I know that some people have problems with medicine & babies but it will help him to sleep well; something he hasn't been able to do for a week+ & it will help with all the nasty drainage. Plus, when baby sleeps good, so does mommy!!

I had to cancel John & I's pictures for tomorrow unfortunatley. I am so super bummed!! I was looking forward to it a lot!! But, I didn't want to not cancel & have John scream & be miserable while trying to get him to smile & be cute... that wouldn't be fun or productive for anyone. I'm trying not to be too sad because Nathan & I will get pictures done of our little family when he's home on R&R.

John's been crashed since about 4pm tonight & no, I haven't even given him the Benadryl yet lol. I hate seeing him sick. It's such a helpless feeling to see your child suffering. I've told John so many times this week that I wish I could be sick instead of him. The only enjoyable thing is that he's super cuddly- something he hasn't wished to do since he was a newborn. It made me really miss the tiny baby he used to be!

Anyway, I've spent a couple months now researching different baby food makers. I really want to make his food for a few reasons. First & foremost it's much healthier! No preservative & he gets a real taste of what the food tastes like that he'll be eating when he's old enough to sit at the table. Second, it's way cheaper! Third, it's fun & satisfying. I enjoy doing these kinds of things for him. My choices came down to the Baby Bullet, the Beaba Babycook & the Baby Brezza Prima. As cute as the Baby Bullet is; I decided against it because you can't steam the food in the maker. The Beaba Babycook does steam, chop, puree, defrost, reheat & sanitize all in the same container (2 cups). The Baby Brezza Prima does all the same except for it has an option to hit one button and it'll automatically go from steaming straight into pureeing or chopping. It also has a larger capacity; 4 cups. It's a little more expensive ($150 vs $120) but the Prima is the baby food maker I decided on. It'll be faster & more efficient. I can make big batches, separate & freeze in less steps & time. I know some parents think baby food makers are a waste of money; that a food processor will do the job but now there's no second guessing on how long to cook the food because it's all programmed in. I'm really excited for it to get here!

Courtesy of Williams-Sonoma