Off the Boob

I mentioned during my last post that Amelia is now fully weaned, and I've gotten a lot of questions about what that was like from many curious moms. Some were particularly interested because they are looking forward to weaning their own in the near future. So, I figured a full post about it is in order. If breastfeeding weirds you out (it shouldn't, but if it does, this is your warning), stop reading here.

I will say that as with most.... all?... things child and parenting related, there is no formula to weaning. I read here and there some suggestions about the process but I hadn't done a lot of research. I figured that at some point, Amelia would struggle with her boob addiction and then I would have to turn to the internet or a lactation consultant for help. I am betting that this is why so many moms were curious about how she ended up fully weaning. When you have a breastfed baby, it seems that they love the boob more than anything on this earth. It's their source of nutrition, comfort, snuggling, and bonding, so even when baby is eating solids, a lot of babies are not going to give up mama's breast without objection.

In Amelia's case, this is especially true, as she doesn't take a pacifier or have any other kind of possession that she has a strong attachment too. No special blankie or stuffed animal, nothing will replace cuddles in her book. So, at about ten months, I was starting to worry that Amelia was going to be an extended nursing kind of kid out of desperation rather than choice. I say this while noting that I really don't have anything against extended breastfeeding. It works for some families and I know it grosses some people out, but to them I say, mind your own business.

The big barrier that I could envision to Amelia weaning was naps and nighttime. Our lactation consultant had warned us that nursing to sleep was not a good idea, as many kids have a hard time stopping that habit. However, since we have been cursed with a child that is not a good sleeper, I had given up long ago on trying to make her sleep without nursing. It was easier and more peaceful for everyone in our household, so I went with the flow and did what worked best for her. I had also read about several mamas allowing their children to do this without long term reprecussions, so I figured that much like weaning from a paci, we would stop the nursing to sleep at some point.

For me, it seems like anything that I do serious worrying about, Amelia will just suddenly switch one day, as if to say 'Have a little faith in me, Mom, I'll grow up in my own time!' I started working from home in September, and all of my work is done on the computer. When I started my new job, I would prop a pillow on my lap and let Amelia nurse while I was working. One day, when she was about 11 months old, she crawled up to me, fussing a bit, and I didn't realize that she was tired. So I turned on some soothing kid's music that I had borrowed from the library and started rocking her as I worked. Before I knew it, she was passed out on my shoulder, and I was ecstatic that I had finally gotten her to sleep without breastfeeding. After that, I started trying to rock her for all her naps. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes I gave up and let her nurse. I would say about a month later, she was being rocked to sleep for all naps.

This rocking to sleep was HUGE for me. Because Amelia had always nursed to sleep, it was rather stressful for me to leave her with other people during naps. I knew that they would somehow get her to sleep, but it would probably be a struggle for them. It was easier for other people when she took bottles, but she has refused those since June, so options were pretty limited during nap times.

I should also note that Amelia's lack of pacifiers was not an intentional parenting decision on our part. We did wait until she was about five days old to give her one, per the advice of our lactation consultant. I'm not sure if the waiting made her impartial to them, or if she simply enjoyed the boob more, but at three months I tried to put her in her crib one day while slipping a paci in her mouth and she pulled it out of her mouth and handed it to me. She has never taken one since.

The next task at hand for us was getting Amelia to drink whole milk. We were lucky in this department because Amelia really likes her milk and drinks well from a sippy.... well... one particular sippy. Anyways, we have always left a sippy of water on the floor for her to have when she gets thirsty. This worked best for her because if you try to force anything on her rather than letting her try figure it out for herself, she will refuse it. As far as introducing milk, I diluted it with water at first to get her used to the taste and also to get her tummy used to it. Amelia seemed a tad gassy with it at first, but within a week, she was drinking it 'full strength' and enjoying it.

The last step for us was ending the nighttime nursing. Not even two months ago, she was often nursing two to three times a night, so I thought this could be a huge struggle. Alas, Amelia has had a lingering cold for the past month, and her ability to nurse was pretty limited since she could barely breathe. I had to sleep on the couch with her many times when she had a middle of the night coughing attack, or I would cuddle her back to sleep rather than nursing. Magically, it seemed, she stopped nursing and that was that!

So, we've made it. Amelia has been a 100% breastfed baby, and I'm terribly proud of this. While I was lucky in that I did not face any obstacles with breasfeeding, no latching or supply problems, nor any problems with pumping when I was working outside of our home, I really never loved breastfeeding the way some moms do. While many moms enjoy it for the bonding and snuggling time, I think this was hard for me because of Amelia's colic. I was already holding her pretty much 24 hours a day because of her discomfort and fussiness, so having her latched onto me just gave me this odd feeling of being trapped, at least for the first couple of months. I came to appreciate breastfeeding for it's convenience at some point, probably when she was past her colic, but I still really never thought it was all that fabulous from a mom point of view. Despite that, I pushed through the times that I heard the cans of formula calling to me in the baby aisle, and did what I felt was best for my daughter.

These days, she much prefers her sippy and mama's chili over a plain old boob anyways:

This chili is WAY better than Mom's boobs.

Picky, Picky

Amelia has always been an eater. When we went to her two week check up, she had nursed so much that she had a callous on her lip. She wasn't all that thrilled with solid foods when she was four months old, so we waited till she was six months. When we tried again, she was excited to eat and would grab the spoon and shove it in her mouth. It was fabulous. I foolishly thought that my child would not put us through the difficult paces of a picky eater. She would try anything, and even if she made a face, I could still shovel it in her mouth, make a happy noise, and convince her to take another bite. I made the decision that Amelia would not have any juice unless it was a special occasion, and we used processed foods as treats. Her cheerios were the regular kind rather than honey nut or apple cinnamon, and she loved them. I decided that I had this eating thing down, and raising a child with healthy eating habits would be one of the areas that I would excel.

First time mommies. So overconfident.

Or at least I am, apparently. If I had to pinpoint it, I would say this pickiness started back in August when we went on vacation. Like most vacations, we went out to eat a lot, and one of the frequent meal choices for Amelia was green beans. However, green beans in a restaurant are often not just dumped from the can and seasoned with salt and pepper. Oh, no, they are slow cooked in onion and bacon pieces and simmered to deliciousness. She loved them. Then we got home and gave her our regular old green beans, slightly warm with little seasoning. She turned her head and looked at us like we had bugs crawling out of our ears.

Fast forward to October and I am battling a little one who smashes her carrots around on her tray, throws her cheerios overboard to the dog, and determined yesterday that she can use her tongue to push distasteful food back out of her mouth. I, like many moms, am facing the eternal parenting question... Do I say, oh well, that's your meal, guess you'll be hungry then? Or do I give her what I know she'll eat? At eleven months old, I know I can't tell her you can't leave your seat until you have a bite of everything. So my current tactic is, offer her the food she isn't so fond of first, while hiding what she wants (generally fruit-- I have yet to see her refuse to eat any kind of fruit-- so far, anyways). Then when she gives me that determined I am not eating anymore of this look, I give her the fruit until she's full.

It works for now. Still, I wonder what eating related challenges I will face as she gets older. Also, I wonder if she'll turn into a human blueberry like the naughty little girl on Willy Wonka. Or, in her case, a peach.

Here is a video I found of when she was four months old and we tried solids. If you add a little hair to her head, this is pretty much how she looks now when we feed her anything except chicken, fruit or cheese.

Finally, a Food Post

Recently, I added a little detail to my blog by adding this description "Health, food, and the rollercoaster of mommyhood". The problem with this is I realized I really don't talk about food much. It's not because I don't cook. I LOVE to cook. I remember when Amelia had colic and I was stuck holding her all day, I was literally depressed when we would watch cooking shows because I wasn't able to do it anymore.

Things with a nine month old are a bit easier and I get to make dinner much more often. However, documenting it for my blog is a struggle. It seems like whenever I'm just about done making our meal and reaching for my camera, she is starting to get bored and whine. Or, stories about my race training and her development seem to push my food posts off to the side.

With that in mind, today I will post what I made for dinner one day last week. And, somehow I will figure out a way to do this regularly. Maybe something tacky sounding like Food Fridays. In any case, we had linguine with red peppers, mushrooms, and artichoke hearts. My most used source for cooking inspiration is www.allrecipes.com, but I would say my second most used source is 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes: Delicious, Easy-to-Make, Healthy Meals for Everyone. We are not a vegetarian family, but I would say that we eat vegetarian meals about 25% of the time. It is generally less expensive than meals with meat and I enjoy cooking with fresh vegetables, especially in the summer. My husband is great about it and often raves just as much about our vegetarian meals as he does all our other dinners.

I got the basics for this dish from the above cited vegetarian cookbook. I didn't really follow it exactly, just glanced at the ingredient list and whipped it up. Here it is, the best that I can put it into words:

1 jar roasted red peppers
8-12 oz fresh mushrooms (I used portabella, you can use whichever type you prefer)
1 can quartered artichoke hearts
1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
a dash or two crushed red pepper flakes
a couple tablespoons olive oil
1 package linguine
feta cheese

Spray a medium sized frying pan with cooking spray or use a little olive oil. Saute mushrooms over medium heat in the frying pan until almost cooked through, then add chopped roasted red peppers, garlic, and artichoke hearts. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper (I put crushed red pepper in almost all our pasta dishes, Jon likes spicy dishes, and I think the red pepper has a nice amount of heat without going overboard). Heat through until garlic is sauteed. In a separate pot, heat water to boiling for the pasta and cook linguine. After pasta is cooked to al dente, toss it with the cooked veggies and drizzle olive oil over the mixed pasta and veggies. Toss again, taste, add seasoning and more olive oil if needed. Top with feta cheese.

We dish out our own pasta then put as much feta as we each want on our personal servings rather than dumping the whole container of feta into the final pot of pasta and tossing. You could also top with parmesan cheese if you aren't a fan of feta.

I have to add in a picture of the flowers I bought myself at our farmer's market this week:

Guess how much? FOUR DOLLARS. Awesomeness.

Our Family's Quest to Eat Local, Healthy, and Cheap

Food has always been a love of mine. Growing up, I enjoyed helping my parents cook and then during my teenage years I started exploring my own cooking abilities. I started making many dinners for our family, baking cheesecakes from scratch and sending them into my dad's work, and baking fresh bread, sans bread machine (and STILL don't have one, thank you very much. The world's best therapy is kneading bread by hand).

Despite that love, food has also been my enemy. Like many people, food is my comfort and support when things are bad-- or my celebration when things are good. Even though I pretty much stopped eating fast food in middle school in an effort to lose weight, I'm definitely like a good number of Americans who take pounds off then pack them back on. Over my adult years, I have developed some healthier habits, such as regular exercise, drinking mostly water throughout the day, and eating more fruit. Generally, I do not stuff myself when I'm stressed out, although I will more than likely reach for a brownie rather than a banana if I've had a bad day.

Beyond just trying to eat healthier, I'm fascinated with foods in different cultures and especially interested in the demise of food in our society. Things like genetically modified food, government regulations, and where the produce and meat that fill our plates really come from, and why we put up with such crap, are topics that I devour. I can't wait to read Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit by Barry Estabrook. After I read Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, I talked about it during my entire annual week long vacation with my mom. I've watched Food, Inc. at least twice and just requested it from our public library again.

You would think with all this knowledge in hand, I would eat nothing but locally and organically grown foods. It's true that I always aspire to after reading a new book or watching another documentary. However, much like recycling (no, I don't recycle, I'm going straight to hell), it sounds like a great idea but I never follow through. It seems so time consuming and expensive, and being the perfectionist that I am, if I can't do it 100%, I'm unlikely to do it at all.

This summer has brought on a lot of new inspiration for me. As Amelia has been starting on solid foods, I've been very particular about what she eats. Which has made me wonder... why aren't I the same about what I put in my body? And further more, how much longer can I get away with eating a cookie in front of her while insisting that she eat her homemade pureed plums? From the way she stares me down while I eat a popsicle, I can tell you that the answer is not much longer.

Add to this unemployment, which has resulted in us not having much money for groceries or entertainment, and you have the perfect storm to do a complete overhaul on how we eat. Here's my new battle plan:

• A further reduction on my eating of junk. Amelia can eat yogurt (gag!), cottage cheese, fruits, and veggies, so unless I sneak a cookie in the kitchen, that's what I've mostly reduced my snacks to.
• No more running to the store for whatever sounds good for the evening. I'm planning our meals ahead of time using mostly ingredients that we already have on hand and adding the few that we need to the shopping list. Last week this cut our food cost almost 50%!
• Shopping at local farmer's markets. We have two close by, which provides a fun time out for Amelia and I, as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. I buy whatever looks good and build many of my weeknight menus based on those ingredients.
• We also have two butchers that sell locally raised meat, so we will be filling our freezer with what I purchase from those shops. I especially like Tank's in Elmore, OH. Their meat is comparably priced to any local grocer's and tastes WAY better.

Here is what I bought at this week's farmer's market:

And here is what I had for dinner the night I bought these veggies. The baklava was from a baker across the street and some of the veggies on the salad I had bought the week before at a different market.

Stay tuned for updates on how our new eating plan is working out :)