Feed Me, Mama!

Our little Hungry, Hungry Harpo loves to eat! Clearly I spend as much time feeding her as I do taking pictures of her hungry little cuteness.

 

 At her four month well visit, our ped gave us the go ahead to start giving her baby cereal. As I've mentioned before, we feed her oatmeal rather than rice and have just started mixing in some fruits & veggies! After reading some reviews, we have been giving her Earth's Best & Plum brands. They are organic (I swore I wasn't going to be that mom, but turns out, I am) and they all taste good! Yes, we've tried everything we've ever fed to her. 

We started with cereal once a day for two weeks, then upped it to twice a day, the second feeding being at 6 pm when we eat dinner. At five months, we started mixing in one food at a time into her cereal. I give her about 1.5 oz of baby cereal mixed with milk - and then I add in 1-2 oz of her fruit/veggie in with it. I AM TOTALLY WINGING THIS. I have used our doctors directions along with the gazillion things I have read online as guidelines, but at some point, you just have to decide for yourselves.

 

She then finishes her bottle after she eats, which is much more her style since she can SLAM it. Then as soon as the bottle is gone, she hoots and snorts, reaching for her empty bottle & bowl. Are you sure it's all gone?! 

We have also learned that she hates peas. Which is ironic, because we hate changing diapers when she is eating peas.

So far she has had Sweet Potatoes, Apples, Squash, Peas, Pears & Bananas. Some people say fruit first, others say veggies first... we did it in this order. Once again, winging it, parents of the year.

My next adventure is going to be making some baby food of our own! I've read some awesome tutorials on pinterest, with great tips on how to make & store in bulk. I'm all about saving money, plus I love cooking, so hopefully it is successful! :) And I will be sure to share!

Also, I wanted to thank everyone for the awesome advice on the post about Harper's whack sleep habits. You know your shit's crazy when you threaten your husband to sleep in the guest room as a joke and he says OH MY GOSH, CAN I PLEASE?! Ha! It is official - baby girl is TEETHING. So far she has not been grumpy at all, but sleep has still been a little rough. She does sleep in her pack n play in our room at this point, but will be going in her crib shortly. Once she is a little better at rolling from her belly to her back (and our blackout wood blinds arrive to block out the awful street light that shines in her window!)... she's off to occupy her own little Harpie digs.

The Day My Baby Stopped Sleeping.

 Harper used to be a rockstar sleeper. We would put her to bed wide awake around 8:30-9pm, and she would sleep soundly until 5 am. Some days she would even sleep until 7 am. Once she started busting out of her swaddle, right around 4 months, we stopped swaddling her and started using sleep sacks instead. Still slept like a champ.

 Then one night around 1:00 am, I woke up to her making noise, looked over and I see THIS.

"What's up mama. I don't like sleeping anymore!"

And she wasn't kidding. Since that random night, nothing changing in her bedtime routine or sleeping environment, my kid stopped sleeping.Since she started rolling over and trying to sit up, we have since taken her out of the Nap Nanny as well. This causes her to wake up in the middle of the night, fling her paci out of her pack n play and onto the floor, and then lift her legs and SLAM them down on the mattress eight hundred times.. over... and over... and over... and over. We wake up and as soon as she sees us, she starts to laugh. Hilariously cute... but frustrating nonetheless.

Her bedtime routine looks like this:

8:30 pm - Bath, using lavender-this-smell-makes-you-sleepy scented bath wash

8:45 pm - Bottle, 8 oz. while being rocked in the glider

9:00 pm - bed, flat on back wearing a sleep sack, room temp at 73, fan on, dark room & noise maker

Putting her down isn't even the hard part, she usually still goes right to sleep. It's the middle of the night shitshow that we are struggling with. I typically end up feeding her once around 3:30-4 when she eventually starts crying her eyes out. But she literally won't sleep for more than a solid two hours anymore. And she typically takes a 45-90 min. nap in mid morning and another in late afternoon for about an hour and a half to two hours.

If you haven't read the book "Go The F*ck to Sleep"... it's funny business. You must check it out! And NO, I don't actually read it to her.

Suggestions are WELCOME! But otherwise, just here to vent. Luckily I actually survive okay on little sleep.. so it could be worse. Just wanted to share my experience, to let all you mama's know that you're not alone & motherhood is not perfect... although pretty close.

In fact, her lack of sleep, which has lead to my lack of sleep and therefore my brain capacity to run at half mass.... caused me to take her car seat out of the stroller BEFORE detaching my diaper bag straps from the handle bar, causing my full $3.70 Venti iced coffee to go flying across the parking lot.

  It's a good thing my sweet, sweet baby cannot understand curse words yet.

Four Month Favorites & the Fourth of July...

...how festive that they are in the same post? :)

Aden + Anais Sleep Sacks - love these things. Light enough that baby doesn't sweat, but just enough to keep them a little extra cozy at night. Plus, I swear Harper lulls herself to sleep by playing with the fabric.

Aden + Anais Sleep Sack

LifeFactory Teether - Harper loves these because she can grip it with both hands and hold it in her mouth. She can squeeze it and manipulate it to get it in her mouth... plus you can hook them onto the little plastic links so it doesn't get dropped onto the ground.

Boogie Wipes - And ya gotta go with the grape! Since Harper has just started teething, she gets a little bit of a runny nose now and then, I swear these things stick the boogies right onto the wipes. They smell amazing & clean her little nose right up.

Gerber Oatmeal Baby Cereal - Just after her four month birthday, we started her on baby cereal. She was constantly looking at our food, opening her mouth when we ate and she was hungry all the time (I know, you'd never know it by her chubby little thighs, right?). Ped gave us the go ahead, so we tried rice cereal first. After about three days, she wasn't a fan. I did some research, saw that it didn't have much nutritional value anyway & read that lots of people recommended Oatmeal instead. So we tried that instead, and it was a hit!! She literally dive bombs her face at the spoon, she can't get enough! It is so so so fun to watch her eat off a spoon. And for anyone who is going to give me shit and say babies should only have breastmilk for the first year, no need for cereal, blah blah blah, please don't be a hater. Our ped recommended it, she loves it, we like it and that's how we're gonna roll.

Sophie the Giraffe - enough said! This thing is way cute, it was one of the first things we bought when I found out I was pregnant and her eyes light up when we squeak it at her! It's all natural & something about the texture/taste makes babies love it even more. If you have a baby or expecting, this is a. must. have. PS. Watch this video, you'll love Sophie even more!

Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether

Jumperoo - We bought this after recommendations from my 3 month must have list. At first she wasn't so sure, but at about the four and a half month mark, this became her favorite thing in the world. While her feet don't quite touch the ground, we put a tempur-pedic foam pillow underneath, so it is sturdy enough for her to push/bounce from. Not only is this pure entertainment for babies, but for parents as well. We watch her jump around in this all night long and crack up.

Fisher-Price Luv U Zoo Jumperoo

Baby Carrier (K'Tan) - We love the K'Tan!! It was perfect for when she was really little, but also grew with her now that we can put her in other positions. She LOVES to be in it and it gives me some hands-free time. Plus it is super easy to put on. I highly recommend this! We have been talking about getting an Ergo too now that she is bigger, I have heard great things about them!

K'tan Baby Carrier

 Harper says Happy Belated Fourth of July to you all! We had such a fun fourth, plus I loved her little outfit. We spent the day at the pool, got to go to a country concert & then to see fireworks!

 She was a total champ & loved watching them. She got a little irritated when she found out that she could not have a funnel cake, but she got over it.

Thank you to everyone for the sweet comments on our house & Harper's ever evolving cuteness. Now that we are all settled in, I hope to share more pics soon, as well as an all encompassing post about our registry and our faves (and not so faves) so far! Hope you all are enjoying your summer - because August (which I pretend is AUTUMN) is just around the corner - so it's almost time to get our Fall on! :)