Monday 30 April 2012

Barrage of Photos and Videos

Since my last post, I've been busy making Q lots of baby food and filling up our freezer.  Here are the latest food stats:
  • avocado (she tried this a little while ago and now seems to quite like it! She ate half of one the other day actually)
  • cauliflower (not a fan and makes quite funny faces and gag noises occasionally...but mix it with one of our secret weapon foods [aka sweet potato or parsnip] and she'll eat it)
  • broccoli (same deal as with cauliflower)
  • plums (yum!)
  • corn on the cob (big fan of this...must have gotten that from me!)
  • green beans with mint (same deal as with the cauliflower and broccoli...although her breath smells delicious afterward!)
  • ground turkey (mixed with either apple or pear and she's a happy camper!)
  • turnip (tried this tonight and was a big fan!  We might have now added something else to the secret weapon list!)
I also have papaya, tomatoes, green beans (no mint) in the freezer to come!

Still not a lot to report on the crawling front.  Quinn is getting really good at scooting around backwards and in circles still...but is moving a lot faster!  Today we put her down on the foam mats and watched her as she made her way across the floor to the stools with ease.  She also seems to get herself stuck underneath the coaches or table in the living room...silly girl!

Here are a bunch of photos and videos! :) Enjoy!

Easter Bunny in Arizona

Q and Mama in Arizona

Trying Mum-Mums for the first time.  She loves them!

Bundled up

Sleeping on the couch past her bedtime

Happy baby!!!



Friday 20 April 2012

Happy Easter + Vacation + New Foods!

So it's been a while since I've updated the blog, but we've been crazy busy!  We left for our annual Easter Arizona vacation on April 6 and just got back on Tuesday, so it's been nuts trying to get the house organized!

Quinn wasn't such a great traveler on the journey down to Phoenix, but it was a really long day for her.  She slept through the morning flight to Washington-Dulles, but then we had a 6 hour layover in Washington.  Through most of it she was pretty good - playing on the floor, napping a bit in her carrier...and then it all went downhill.  She started to fuss quite a bit before getting on the plane, so all I could think was "well, I'm pretty sure that the whole plane already hates us" (lol), and then on the plane, she did a lot more fussing before eventually falling asleep for the last 45 minutes of the 5 hour flight.  Didn't help that she was really backed up and that was definitely bothering her.  I thought that the guy sitting next to Steve was going to jump out of the plane.  Oh well!  We made it there safe and sound and Quinn slept through the night that night.  Truthfully, she slept through the night every night except for 1, which is nothing to complain about!  My Mom had bought a "sleep spa" that has music and a light projection on the ceiling that seemed to keep Q asleep as it played all night.  Golden!

Quinn's first Easter was a success!  The Easter Bunny found her all the way at Nanny and Pepere's house in Arizona and spoiled her rotten.  I'll post some photos soon once I get them downloaded from my camera.

Quinn had a lot of fun in Arizona!  It's so great to see her so interactive.  She met lots of new people and was good as gold for her babysitters when we had some different things going on later at night.  No troubles with her taking the bottle from them either!  We took Quinn in the pool and she is improving on her kicking skills, but only likes to paddle with one arm.  She also received 3 new bathing suits as gifts, including a bikini which is super cute! (Again, pictures to follow on my next post)  As usual, Quinn charmed everyone around her and is a big flirt!  I swear that if she had more hair that she'd actually flip it!  We were at this one restaurant and it was getting close to nap time, so Nanny was carrying Q around so that she'd fall asleep.  But every time that someone walked by, she'd pop her head up and give a great big gummy smile.  If it was a woman, they'd only get the smile...if it was a man, he'd get the smile and a happy sound to go with it.  What a nut! :)

Since we've been home, I've started making her some new foods to try.  We also started feeding her some oatmeal cereal in place of the rice, hoping that that will make a difference in her digestion.  Quinn's eating 3 meals of solids a day now that we're back and more on a schedule.  Here's the new food update:
  • oatmeal cereal - loves it!!! Plus I love the smell of it in the morning.
  • zucchini - big fan of this one too!  It's also so easy to make that I'm a big fan of it too.
  • blueberry sauce - added this to her cereal this morning.  Quinn gobbled the purple cereal all up!
  • cauliflower - going to try this one tonight for dinner.  Since she likes parsnips, I'm thinking that this one should be ok too!
The other foods that I'm going to be trying with her are apricots (already made and frozen) and turkey.  One of the baby food recipe books that I have recommends adding apples or pears to the turkey to help with the consistency and to add a familiar flavour.  Quinn's a huge fan of both apples and pears, so I'm suspecting that it should go OK!  There are so many recipes that I can't wait to try with her!

Monday 2 April 2012

Bottle Progress Has Been Made!!!

There are definitely pros and cons to bottles and soothers as we've come to find out.  Quinn has historically not been a fan of either.  I'm very happy about the no soother thing because it means that we don't have to wean her off of it later...and that's less work for us!  She usually just chews on the soother anyway, so sometimes it does keep her occupied, she just doesn't suck on it.  And that's the same thing that she has been doing with bottle nipples and sippie cups.  She'll take the bottle nipple or the sippy cup spout in her mouth, slide it to the side, and just chew on it with her imaginary molars.

When we think back about Quinn's feeding history, it hasn't been the easiest road as I've outlined in earlier blog posts.  She fed well in the hospital and then when my milk came in, she couldn't feed very well and we actually had to feed her off of a syringe/feeding tube.  Then we hired a lactation consultant and she got me using a nipple shield, which helped Quinn actually eat.  The next part in the series is what gave us the big brain wave about bottle feeding - I did the "bait and switch" with the nipple shield and she actually started feeding without the shield.  So what I did this time, was start to nurse her and then stick the bottle in her mouth.  The first time that I did it (last week), the bottled milk had gotten a little too cold for the bait and switch to really work well, but she did suck a couple of times off of the bottle before pushing it away.  So we tried the bottle again yesterday...and success!!!  With the bait and switch method, Quinn actually ate the 2 oz of milk in the bottle.  It was so hard to contain my glee!  Today we tried it again with freshly pumped milk (about an ounce), and I didn't even have to do the switch.  We're currently trying to see if she'll take any more of some frozen milk that I thawed, but I think that she just might be too tired tonight to try again.  Oh well!  Progress has been made!