Eatin' Well

Today was my second day of making Harper's food. All that food I made a while back when I posted has lasted up until now! With lots to spare!

We started Harper on twice a day feedings once we got back from vacation and she's doing really well on it. It's been a bit tricky to figure out her new schedule, but Jane was very diligent this week about journaling all her activities this past week so we could make some sense about how much she's drinking, when and how she's sleeping.

She still really loves her long morning nap, so we're sticking with it. She usually very happy to go down about an hour after she's woken up in the morning and will sleep for about 2 hours. Then it's a bottle and a good long playtime. We've figured out that she likes to eat around noon-ish, so her playtime gets broken up by a "lunch". She'll go down again for a nap around 2 and sleep for another 2 hours. We are still sticking close to a 7pm bedtime, so depending on how the schedule has gone during the day, she'll either take another nap or just stay up.

This schedule is definitely very loosey-goosey and flexible with how she's feeling. Pretty much the only thing she's really consistent with so far is her morning nap. This morning we all slept in, so she got up at 8:15, went back down at 9:00 and slept until noon. She went down for her mid-afternoon nap at 3-ish and slept until 5:30 and those were her only naps of the day. Soo.. definitely still trying to figure it all out.

Today I whipped up some more sweet potatoes and squash, which is her favorite. She's also loving bananas and carrots, but she's not such a fan of applesauce. I've had to mix some bananas in with her applesauce which makes her much happier.

I also pureed some canned (no sugar added) peaches and pears and gave her the pears for lunch which went over really well. I'm anxious to try peaches, but will wait another 2 days to make sure she tolerates the pears well.

This week I ordered some meat foods from diapers.com, so I'm anxious to see how those go. They're Earth's Best which means they're organic and all-natural. Even though I'm a vegetarian, I don't have a problem with her trying it and deciding for herself what she chooses to do as she gets older. Especially since my vegetarianism is due to my dislike of meat, not because of any certain beliefs I have. Organic meat and free range turkey and chicken is a little pricey to buy at the store, so this was the next best thing, especially because I feel a little funny about all the hormones they put into regular chicken and things. Plus I can't stomach the idea of having to deal with boiling/cooking the stuff, then cutting it up and pureeing for her. blech.

On my next Cooking Day, I'll be doing peas, broccoli, prunes and spinach, most likely. We've been holding off on the greens until she was a little older and her digestive system was a bit more mature. But I think we're definitely ready to try now.

In other progress, she's doing really well sitting up and hardly ever topples over anymore. She's still getting up on all fours and rocking, and she loves to scoot around on her tummy but has not yet gotten the hang of crawling. She's doing great at holding her sippy cup with two hands, which is fun to watch, though she still needs to figure out to tip her head back so she gets some actual water out of it. She's still working on getting those bottom teeth through so she mostly gnaws on the cup anyway.

No consonants in her babbling yet, but lots of "ehhh"s and "aahhh"s and of course she loves to scream and laugh. Her newest thing is spitting which she discovered last weekend and thankfully has not continued too much since then.

On Tuesday, Election Day, she'll be 7 months old!! Getting so big!