feeding the baby for real

in my opinion breastfeeding (after the initial month) gets really easy (except for teething & sickness and the nights that never end etc.)  but now my baby is getting big and is 1 so i have to give him more actual food and i'm finding that difficult since it takes so much research an preparation and i just like how easy breastfeeding is.  but my little boy is still growing (his daddy says "he's not HAVING a growth spurt, he IS a growth spurt!). he eats ALL THE TIME! when he's not nursing he's hungry for food and then when he's done eating he wants to nurse!

so i'm trying really hard to find good recipes for my big baby/little kid.  He didnt really start eating until at 11 months  (he's 14 months now) seems he wasnt really interested in food, and i really didnt want to push starting it with so many kids having wheat/dairy/autism problems - and i read that if your still breastfeeding (we are) you dont have to really feed them any food until they're one and you dont really have to worry about it all that much until 2. Just offer a variety of super healthy stuff and let them decide what they want.  the mom just has to offer. before they turn 1 its just for "fun" so they can play at texture and tastes. they dont even have enzymes to break it down and get anything from it until 9 or 10 months - why oh why do they push eating at 4 months old!! oh yea - because all the info a dr. gives you in America is based on formula fed babies so much of the advice they give you is based on what they do for formula fed babies which is totally different than a breastfed baby! - hmm to be discussed more in another post. 

so i've been looking for food that he would even try while trying not to get stressed out that he's boycotting the veggies right now. and i found this goodie from Expectant Expat who was preggers in Italy - check out this awesome Italian recipe for baby (I WANT MORE LIKE THIS!)

Pumpkin and Rice for Baby (Ricordate che i bambini adorano la zucca e questo bel piatto arancione e’ una deliziosa tentazione**.)

1.You cook or steam brown rice

2. You add sprig of rosemary when the rice is 75% cooked

3. You then add small chopped pieces of pumkin (fresh best of course, but not necessary) and stir until the rice is cooked.

4. Before serving to your delighted baby, you sprinkle with extra virgin olive oil and a little parmegiano.

Delish.

**this is taken directly from the recipe that i translated and reads: “remember that babies adore pumpkin and that this beautiful orange dish is a delicious temptation!”

isnt that amazing? I want to eat that! that's the kind of baby food i want to make. since we are in the he-can-eat-anything but i dont want to give him just "anything" he's a BABY stage of eating.

in in that post she comments on the theory about how pregnancy and breastfeeding opens up the babies tastebuds to like what the mom eats. its totally true! my anti-veggie baby (who is so good at selectively spitting out the only veggie from his mouth full of food its amazing) he drank carrot juice today AND LOVED IT! and the only thing i could think was "yea your mom likes it too! and i drank a lot of it when i was pregs!" so thats cool.

and one more recipe 

this one i made up all on my own!  inspired by the idea of being a "sneaky chef" like Jerry Seinfeld's wife i made pancakes with finely shredded carrots and zucchini and banana and blueberries in it and WOW IT WAS SO GOOD! i personally am a huge fan of carrot and zucchini bread and banana bread and so this was so good in my opinion. but it turns out that it was also really good in my baby's opinion - he ate a whole 5" pancake! I got my little baby to gobble up zucchini and carrot!! and my husband really liked it too. You barely see the carrots and dont see any of the zucchini so it looks just like a regular old pancake. and the mashed bananas are so good in it that you dont have to have syrup or add the 1 tbsp of sugar that you normally would to plain pancakes (i tried it without syrup because i ran out - it was really good with just butter! and baby doesnt get any syrup on his. just butter for the extra fat).

so here's my very first "my" recipe!

Super Yummy Banana Blueberry Pancakes (with carrot & zucchini!)

this is your basic pancake recipe (also calls for 1 tbsp of sugar but i dont need it for this one)

1 c whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk or plain yogurt*

1 lemon (added to the milk to curdle it)

1 beaten egg

2 tbsp cooking oil (i've used melted butter before too)

-here are my variations 

you can use one or all of them and its still very good

1 carrot shredded fine 

1 whole or 1/2 small/medium zucchini shredded fine 

1/2 banana mashed with fork until soupy

1 c frozen blueberries (unless the fresh ones are in season/cheaper)

*this is very very good with the plain yogurt instead of the milk!  

if you use the yogurt you might also need to add a splash of milk or cream (or water if youre out of milk) if the pancake batter is too thick

and another substitute for the milk - you can also use cream or even spoiled milk if you happen to have it. spoiled milk actually makes better pancakes

Recipe:

Dry mixture

in a medium mixing bowl add flour and shredded carrots and zucchini and mix together to coat the carrots and zucchini.  add baking powder and salt and mix.

Liquid mixture

in a large measuring cup (or another medium mixing bowl) add milk and juice of the lemon and stir (or substitute the milk & lemon for Plain Yogurt).  beat 1 egg and add to the liquid mixture.  add the cooking oil and the smashed bananas and mix it all together.

add the Liquid mixture to the Dry mixture all at once and stir until just moistened. add the blueberries and stir (dont over mix - batter should be lumpy). if mixture is too thick (like cookie dough) add a little milk.  if its too thin (like soup or gravy) add a little flour.

for standard sized pancakes pour about 1/4 - 1/2 cup batter onto an already hot medium-heat skillet (iron skillets work best! $9.99 at IKEA). Cook about 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.  turn it to the 2nd side when pancakes have bubbly surfaces and edges are slightly dry.  make sure its cooked all the way through - they tend to take a longer to cook through than regular pancakes because of all the good stuff in them.  If its cooked dark on the outside and the batter is still raw in the middle turn the heat down.  serve warm with butter and real maple syrup, or whip cream, or butter and powdered sugar. 

these are really good! enjoy.

feeling the BABY gap

(otherwise known as WHERE DID ALL MY FRIENDS GO?)

so i've been noticing for a while how having a baby changes your life in more ways than you think.  

days and nights are now totally changed.  

the marriage is changed.  

the routine house car food tv watching spare time reading

and wow - the focus of your life... your whole life

all changed

your brain is being changed for you too. you dont have ownership of your own mind any more.

in fact you dont have ownership of anything that you thought you had before.  your heart and mind and body,  your arms and tears and love and thinking..

it all belongs to the baby.  he owns it.  and the change is when you start to give into that and be glad for it and be willing to give it with love.  to realize..  i'm a mommy.  i'm HIS mommy. because what i think and do and eat and say - that impacts his life WAY more than it even does mine.

but this was all internal and close to home.  thats what i thought would change. what i expected to change.  all my stuff and all the house and family stuff, the things within arms reach.

what i didnt realize was how much all of my external relationships would change as well

im trying to figure this one out. 

why does this event change relationships that other major events in my life didnt? 

i think ive figured some of it out:

having a baby is intense! 

being a mom is intense!  

breastfeeding is intense

definitely not in a bad way - let me explain:  breastfeeding takes up a lot of your day so if you breastfeed its on your mind a lot and how its going etc.  

and more of an impact than the other routine baby stuff 

- breastfeeding is very emotional.  

it was made that way.  we are given deep hormonal emotional changes when we breastfeed. thats how we were created to bond with our babies. it was built in.  

so this is a lot of stuff going on a lot of changes and these are deep deep things that need to be supported and shared with us by our husbands and families and friends.  but most people arent going through this same thing so its hard for them to get it.  the husband goes through it with you and your friends kind of do.. especially if they have kids too.  but it seems that only another current new mommy "gets" what the new mommy is going through.  and new mommys really need people to be able to relate.  to relate to I HAD A BABY!  and I AM OWNED BY THIS CHILD!  and I AM SO OVERWHELMED WITH WHAT IS GOING ON! even if its just the fact that this love is intense and these feelings are intense and the way that youre life is just forced to conform to this new role ITS INTENSE!!  

and its hard for people without kids to relate to that kind of INTENSE

because its...

intense.

and people who do have kids, but their kids are older, well they're now accustomed to the deep impact and they're used to having their life in this new altered state.  

unlike me, who is standing here still a bit stunned at this last year and feeling like "What Just Happened?!"  yes because my life doesnt resemble what it once was (back when we were married and childless which we now refer to as "still single").  and it doesnt look like anything i had planned.  so its just hard to know where to go from here when you dont know where on the map to look since you really dont know where you are or who to ask for directions or where youre even trying to go in the first place.

so as the Smoking Popes say "lets hear it for sleepless nights, lets do it again... Lets Hear It For Love!"

News Videos on Chinese Policewoman

I found a couple more articles on the Chinese Policewoman who saved the orphaned infants after the earthquake by nursing them. 

These links have good news videos

timesofmalta.com - news video

Officer breast-feeds quake orphans - CNN.com

I found it very interesting how CNN covered the story without showing any breastfeeding whatsoever, in fact she seemed to be kept covered up as much as possible.  Interesting cultural difference we have here in America.  

I had originally posted this story to TheLactivist as a comment and she made it a blog post as well.

This amazing story also goes against the theory of "youre not making enough milk" that people who are more comfortable with bottles say to breastfeeding mommys when the baby's nursing demand is different than a bottle schedule.  She was able to make enough milk for 9 babies at one point plus her own.  Thats a lot of milk.  Right there when she needed it.

So there you go. 

So, I guess they're less like milk jugs and more like milk wells.

dude i totally breastfeed.

so we are at 13 months.

we are still breastfeeding.

thank goodness.

i am very glad for this.

i had always thought that i would like to breastfeed my baby until he was 2. and after researching about it on the web (kellymom.com is the best!) and talking to professionals (that i respect & agree with) and reading up on it in books, it turns out that its a very good idea. and now it looks like we are well on our way to making it to 2.

i did wonder if it was really going to happen. while i was pregnant if people asked me if i was going to breastfeed i would say "id like to" or "i hope to" or "i'm going to try to." it seemed like it was a "hope it happens" thing, kind of like how i thought natural birth was too.

but now i think about it differently.

i have read so many posts from breastfeeding mothers that have overcome some amazing things to be able to breastfeed. one had a baby who was very sick and in and out of the hospital and she wasnt able to begin successful breastfeeding at the breast until her baby was 5 months old! but she did it! and my baby niece was in the NICU after she was born for 2 weeks and her mother wasnt allowed to even try to breastfeed until the baby was 10 days old. thats hard! because its hard to get a baby interested in it later on! its so much more work. and especially for the little one who's been through the trauma of starting out life strapped down in a hospital. and for the mommy! thats so tough. they make you feel like youre not good enough to feed this baby because they cant measure and chart your milk. but even with all that they did it! and now she's a pro nurser!! she loves it! and i really think my sister is a rockstar to be able to have done that. she is my breastfeeding hero.

i have read about mothers who were able to Relactate - get their breasts to begin producing milk again. they do it to be able to breastfeed adopted babies. yes. thats right. women can make their breasts produce milk without having just given birth. seriously. that totally amazes me.

so what ive learned to change my mind about is this: you just have to really really really want to do it. then when the major obstacles come in your way you will have the desire to push through them. and you will. you will breastfeed. and know that all the other breastfeeding mommys are right there with you 100%!!

i just want to hi-5 all the nursing mommys.

A Mother's Love Never Dies

I was reading a story about what 2 mothers did during the horrible earthquake in China.  I was moved to tears.  For about 1/2 an hour.  I am still breastfeeding my 13 month old so this really hit me hard. The love of a Mother is truly one of the most beautiful things.

From The Electric New Paper, Singapore there was this article:

CHINA QUAKE
AMID THE COUNTLESS TRAGEDIES, A FEW...BRIGHT SPOTS
This female cop helps to breastfeed 8 babies
Another baby survives after a victim makes sure her child keeps on breastfeeding even after mum dies
May 20, 2008

THE earthquake in China unleashed one of the most powerful forces on earth - love.

Whether it is a mother saving her child, a female cop breastfeeding lost infants or celebrities moved to act, it was there like a comforting blanket amid the pain, grief and heartbreak.

Perhaps one of the most powerful examples of these acts of love is the last desperate act of a dying mother, trapped in the rubble, trying to save her 3-month-old baby.

Knowing the end was near, she nestled her baby to her breast, so that the baby could survive after she wasgone.

Dr Gong Pu, a 30-year-old gynaecologist told nddaily.com that rescuers were searching through rubble along a river in Chengdu when they came across a young woman cradling a baby in her bosom.

The mother had lifted up her shirt to breastfeed the baby. By the time they were found, the mother had already stopped breathing.

PROTECTING HER BABY

Said Dr Gong: 'We carried the baby carefully from the mum's arms. The baby started crying after its mouth left the mum's breast.

'It left tears in our eyes.

'From the way she was carrying the baby, we could see that the mum was doing all she can to protect her child.

A MOTHER'S  INSTINCT to protect even extended to strangers.

In Jiangyou county, policeman Jiang Xiaojuan, 29, was seen breastfeeding a rescued infant.

Mrs Jiang is still lactating as she gave birth six months ago.

However, when she heard about the quake, she left her baby in the care of her parents.

And when she saw hungry infants crying at the rescue centre, her motherly instincts took over.

She is nursing the children of three women who were left homeless by the quake and were too traumatised to give milk, as well as five orphans.

The orphans had been placed in an orphanage which does not have powdered milk.

Mrs Jiang's selfless act prompted netizens to sing praises of her on various online forums.

Some even posted MTV-style videos of her, using just that breastfeeding picture on youku.com, the Chinese equivalent of YouTube.

Said one netizen, called The Mollusc in Dayun River: 'To the most respected policewoman, I offer you the greatest salute.'

Another named Dearest Mum said: 'You have taught us what is the meaning of a mother's love.'

That's the power of compassion and it has spread.

Is that not heartwrenching?  I truly love that mother for what she did for her baby.  And nursing someone else's baby to keep him alive is amazing.  Nursing 8 babies?  Beautiful!  Thats the love of a Mommy.  It never dies.