Food

I like food. I like shopping for food. I like feeding my family and friends. I'd do it all the time if I didn't have to worry about making a living or any nonsense like that.

We hosted Easter this past weekend and experimented with a few new recipes. Success! I think I have a couple new "regular" dishes.

It's not hard. Cooking, I mean. It's the one thing in life that is very easy NOT to fall into a rut for me. And with more of a focus on organic and ingredients and evolving what we eat to even healthier than what we do now.

We have one rule about eating in this house. You have to try it. My kids are good about it. I'm not sure if that's because they are wired that way, or whether it's because both Chris and I are good examples, or whether my food is actually tasty. But for the most part, they comply. Okay, O does, regularly.

I wonder. I wonder if there is a place for someone who is NOT a trained cook or chef to have a point of view on how kids eat. How families eat. Would people care? Will I be talking to myself? Hmmm.

G: Peas

Wow. This was fun tonight.

G: Reversal of Fortune

Don't misinterpret that. We're beyond lucky to have this little girl and love her to bits.

I think I may have mentioned in an earlier post that she was sleeping nine hours, eating well, and even doing a #2 on a regular basis. Clearly, I was asking for the jinx.

That came to a grinding halt in the last week as the train seemingly went off the rails. Now:

• she is not sleeping well
• she it not taking more than 3 oz at a time
• she's much fussy than she was
• she's spitting up more that she was
• when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she's almost in a painful "startle" reflex, crying and inconsolable
• she demands a bottle in the middle of the night since she wakes so much

She does have a bit of a cold as well, that I assume is residual damage from her brother's cough last week. But that has really just been the last three days.

Allergy? Formula? Ear infection? Teething? Lactose intolerant? All those hypotheses were in round one. Yesterday, I took her to our pediatrician (who we love, if I haven't mentioned that).

He pretty much ruled out everything mentioned above. (I personally was thinking ear infection, but they were clean.)

Based on all we told him, he had three theories:

1. It's a sleep problem. She doesn't self-soothe yet. We know this is ultimately going to be an issue. But, he felt there was a bit too much going on with the eating to mean this was the crux of the issue.
2. It's a virus. Possible, he said, but no fever, so it's a long shot.
3. It's reflux. Meaning, the gastro-intestinal variety (actually I'm not sure what other types of reflux are). This is the age it starts, around 4 - 5 months, and since she seems more disturbed at night, he feels like it's making sense.
   

So, I have a prescription for baby. That's the easy part. It's less of a dose than infant Tylenol - a liquid Pepcid. The other thing to give her...Mylanta. Three and a half droppers full. That is just foul torture, for all of us.

We'll see. There have been very minor improvements here and there today. Cross your fingers.

I wish you could talk, baby girl. Makes us so sad.

G: "Carrots!"

Are better than sweet potatoes. Yummy.

G: Solid Food!

Whew, it's a milestone every other day here.

Little miss G had her doc's appt yesterday with our fave pediatrician, and weighed in at 16 lbs 4 oz. Nice and healthy, but not too big at all.

She has been reaching for our dinner (and breakfast, and lunch) plates for at least a month and giving us this "not fair!" look for some time, too, when we are eating in front of her. So we got the green light for orange vegetables from her doc yesterday, but waited until today to try it out since she seemed a little feverish/off from her immunizations yesterday.

For those who are thinking, "what? no cereal?", our pediatrician said she is getting enough iron via her formula at this point, so why not...give her the good stuff.

Here is G right after her first bites of sweet potato. No crying, just messiness. She'll get a hang of it soon. Go, little girl!