Food at Daycare

Inevitably, 10pm rolls around and I realize I need to pack food for daycare. I always have a stash of pouches on hand, but I like to use those sparingly, preferring to put together my own menu for them. But in a pinch, pouches rule. I've used Target's Up and Up brand, as well as Ella's Kitchen and Plum Organics.

But seeing as we're trying to do less purees and more textured food, a la Baby Led Weaning, I don't use them often. I've begun encouraging the daycare workers not to mush the food up completely and spoon feed, but rather to just put it in front of the babies and let them try to figure it out. They do really well with Cheerios so I know they can do it, plus I've seen them tear into a banana and a piece of hamburger without issue. Unfortunately I don't think daycare is quite ready to give them big chunks of food, so little chunks or mashed food it is.

Indigo gets upset because he just wants the food in his belly, and can't always grasp it, so they usually end up spoon feeding him in the end. But Periwinkle gets her hands dirty and has fun with it. That's my girl!

So today I sent a little bowl with half a scrambled egg and a cut up strawberry, for each of them. They might need to be fed the strawberries as they are little slippery pieces, but I know they can mash them up just fine with their gums so they should be okay once they get them in their mouths. And the egg was in big enough pieces they should be able to pick them up. I'll see when I pick them up how they did... I was pretty proud of that little breakfast menu so I hope it was a success! I've never sent those items before, so it'd be nice to have this new option available in the future!

I also microwaved a sweet potato (a fairly small one) and mashed it up a bit (but not too much). They each got half a potato. I also sauteed some baby spinach (baby spinach for babies!) in some EVOO. What started out as two cups of spinach got reduced to about 1/4c. sauteed spinach each. I mixed that in with the potatoes, and I'm hoping they just grab it all with their hands and get nice and messy trying to eat it.

A lot of my twin mom friends say their babies are only drinking 24oz. of formula/breastmilk these days. Mine still drink 30-32oz. Fatties? I doubt it. I think they just aren't being forcefed three pureed meals a day so they are still relying on formula for their nutrition, which is as it should be right now. They are trying new foods, learning how to use their hands to feed themselves, and not necessarily filling up on solids. Which is the whole point of BLW. Food is fun until one!

Any other suggestions on fun foods I can send to daycare? Stuff that is easily mashable by little toothless (or nearly toothless) mouths but that they can still feed themselves?

Indigo vs. the Nebulizer

Little man got a little cold, and then started coughing a rather lot, and wheezing a bit. Fearing the dreaded croup, I brought him to the doctor last week. Apparently it's bronchiolitis, aka a cold gone bad. He was prescribed nebulizer treatments, which seem to be helping. Unfortunately, he's not a big fan. While he fell asleep in my arms during the first treatment at the doctor, ever since he tends to whine and try to look away from it. Or eat it.

As a result, he hasn't been as into the baby-led weaning lately. He'll eat applesauce or yogurt off a spoon, but he's not as enthusiastic about holding his own food. Although last night he did quite well with the banana I gave him. He also enjoyed a pancake over the weekend.

He has also rolled over from back to front twice! He's trying to keep up with Periwinkle, who will roll across the floor, or her brother, if you let her. We find her sleeping on her tummy nightly now.

We had a lovely Mother's Day at the in-laws. The kids got me some flowers and a sweet card, and Blue got me chocolate and a card. Stupid me had thought he'd forget, but of course he didn't!

Periwinkle also has decided lately that she loves to stand. Here she is showing off:

A Year Old!

This blog, not the babies, of course! A year ago I posted about finding out about twins, and the slew of ultrasound photos and drawings of fruit soon followed.

This has been such a great outlet to connect with other moms and moms-to-be, as well as a way for family living far from me to keep tabs on everything going on.

And of course, now I use it to inundate you all with adorable photos of the kiddos, along with the ups and downs of sleep training, baby-led weaning, and just general day-to-day life.

Thanks for sticking with me over the past year. I definitely plan on continuing blogging, and I hope to branch out a bit and make some posts a bit more universal for other moms. Are there any topics you want me to discuss? Any burning questions about raising twins? About baby-led weaning or baby sign language (I'm still new at those so those might require more time to answer)? Ask and I shall try to answer!

Also, the DietBet now has 29 participants and the pot is over $1k! It's not to late to join in over here!!

Here is Periwinkle enjoying her hamburger for dinner!

Also, a wreath I made tonight because Zumba was cancelled and I found myself finally having the time to do it. The stuff has been sitting in my car for two weeks. It was super easy. I bought three flowers from Michael's that shared a color scheme (green, pink, white) and jammed them into a premade stick wreath, also from Michael's. I added a ribbon that came on a stack of goodies my dad sent me for Mother's Day (awww...need to call him and thank him tomorrow!) and voila! Springtime wreath! How's that for crafty?

Six Month Doctor Visit and Progress with Solids

We finally got to the pediatrician this week. She tried to really push mushy food on us, but other than incorporating oatmeal into our baby-led weaning, we're sticking with our plan. We won't serve them anything mushy unless we'd eat it the same way (mashed potatoes, soups, oatmeal, etc). So this week they tried chicken and rice soup. Indigo was all over it; Periwinkle just looked offended.

I was getting the feeling that she didn't like spoons at all, as she'd rejected yogurt previously, but tonight we tried natural applesauce. The spoon finally clicked for her, and she got very excited about it. She definitely got some down. I committed a BLW faux pas by holding the spoon for her, but by the time I got to Indigo I got with the program. I fed him one spoonful so he knew what was going on. Then I put the spoon in his hand and guided it to his mouth. The next spoonful I loaded up for him and handed him the spoon. He exuberantly aimed it toward his mouth and missed spectacularly. I helped him out, then placed his hand closer to the spoon end to help with his aim. He then went for it again and made it into his mouth, but way too far in. Cue gag reflex. The next spoonful he seemed to get right. I would say applesauce was a hit for both of them.

Tomorrow we will try some oatmeal (from plain oats, not the sugared up packets I enjoy). We're focusing on the spoon foods for a few days because I'd like daycare to give them solids at at least one meal a day, and I highly doubt they'd feel comfortable giving a hunk of meat or cheese to the babies, which I understand. So we'll let them deal with the mushy solids and we'll keep trying with the solid solids at home.

Indigo is getting two teeth in, so I'm hopeful he'll get the hang of biting off a bit and chewing soon. Periwinkle seems to be lagging behind him a bit, although she did enjoy sucking on an orange slice this morning.

But the great thing with BLW is there's no rush. The motto is "Food is fun until 1!" Then we'll start worrying about making sure they are getting certain amounts of solids. Until then, it's about learning how to deal with the solid foods they are presented with, and letting them feed themselves. Indigo is obviously going to do just fine with that, even with the spoon! I was really very impressed with his hand-eye coordination at his first meal with a spoon!

So the rest of the doctor's appointment went better than the solids discussion. Indigo is 27 inches long (65th percentile) and weighs 16lbs14oz (35th). His head circumference seemed a bit more in line although I can't remember what the exact number was. His percentile went down so he's more average now.

Periwinkle is 25 inches long and weighs 15lb 4oz. She's my little lady. She enjoyed rolling around on the table while waiting for the doctor, which is something she's been doing like crazy this week. She even slept most of last night on her stomach, although she did eventually cry for us to come turn her over. I'm confident she'll figure out rolling the other direction soon enough. She even scootched forward a bit on the table in a pseudo-crawling motion! Crazy!

So she's rocking the movement, and Indigo is rocking the eating, and we're just so excited to see their progress.

I've also begun trying sign language. The kids have really started noticing our cats, so I try to sign the word for cat when I can get their attention during their cat-baby staring contests. I also try to sign "mommy" when I am holding them, "all done" when they seem ready stop playing with whatever they are playing with or when the bottle or applesauce is gone, "more?" between bites of solids, and my made-up sign for "bedtime" that might actually be the real sign but I'm not sure. I also want to start signing "diaper" but as that sign happens at the waist it's hard to do it when I'm holding them. It'll take several months but soon they will understand what I'm signing and soon be able to sign back, hopefully eliminating some communication frustration before they learn to speak.

So lots of fun stuff going on here! Here are some cute pictures from the past week or so:

Baby-Led Weaning and Boston Vacation

It has begun. And so far, Indigo and Periwinkle seem intrigued! Last night we presented them with a plate with bread, steamed carrots with salt and pepper, and havarti cheese. Periwinkle dove for the cheese and licked it for a bit, while Indigo enjoyed the carrots most of all. Neither of them seemed interested in the bread.

So I tried just bread tonight, mainly because I was flying solo as Blue was in class, and it was a big hit! Indigo even managed to break a small piece off, suck on it for a while to get it nice and mushy, and with some pursed lips and confused glances, swallowed it. He coughed about ten minutes later but was fine. My biggest worry with this is choking, but as long as they are kept upright while "eating" they do well. I'm excited to try more foods and to get the high chairs from the relative storing them for us to make feeding them easier.

And just so you know, foods are offered AFTER they drink their bottles, so they are not hungry when exploring new foods. This will cut down on frustration as they learn to swallow and allow them to just have fun with it.

On another note, last week we took four days off from the babies (my parents gladly watched them) and went to the Boston area for a vacation. Ha ha. This was long-planned so we stuck with it despite the crazy week Boston was having, and spent a lot of time in the hotel sleeping and making friends with the bartender, and around Lexington and Concord.

Relaxing!

 

 

Love the colors at the hotel bar

The food was amazing at a few of the places we ate. I highly recommend:

Concord: Helen's Restaurant (fell in love with their tomato avocado melt)

Lexington: Lexx (esp. mac n cheese and white chocolate martini) and Vine Brook Tavern (prime rib was divine).

Mac n cheese with bacon. Nom nom!

Delicious white chocolate martini

We did eventually get to meet up with friends after the amazing law enforcement dudes and dudettes caught the bad guys. It was such a relief to know we were safe to enjoy the city Blue and I both love.