Week 8

Emmaline's rash seems to be gone. I still think it was some kind of reaction to the high chair. We've been feeding her fully-clothed for the past week. Tonight we gave her vitamins again so we will see if anything shows up tomorrow. Next weekend, if all goes well, we will introduce some food with apple again to rule out both of those as the cause.

Emma's fussiness was also gone during the week (although it has returned this weekend). Still no upper tooth, but I think that I feel a little bump on the gum. If you zoom in on the picture this week, you should be able to see her bottom teeth! It's been a struggle to actually get a clear picture of them. The picture was taken at Aubrey's 1st birthday party. No cake for Emma, but she did get to have some diluted prune juice in her sippy cup. We first gave it to her in a bottle at day care this week and we were told that she absolutely loved it!

The mango continued to be a big hit this week (for Emma AND mommy). She ate almost every piece that we gave her. A few tiny pieces ended up on the floor, but most of it made it to the mouth. She's not too interested in the puffs yet and most of those are tossed on the ground for the cats to sniff. Tonight she had butternut squash again. It was very squishy and she actually played around with it for a while. She mixed some of it up with the puffs. I also gave her a few bites of the chicken I had for dinner. It was really cute to see her holding it in her fist and chewing on it with her 2 teeth. The not-so-nice development with her teeth is that yesterday she starting biting me (while nursing). She did it 3x while I was feeding her before bed and once during the 3:30am feeding. She only does it on the left side! I shouldn't be surprised because we almost always have issues with that side. I tend to get mastitis on the right side, but everything else has happened to the left.

Emma continues to be right on the brink of crawling. For the past month we keep saying "one more week". Yesterday she managed to crawl a little, but would move an inch or so and then plop back down on her belly. We've decided that she needs to do more than that for us to make it official. It's so strange how there are things that I can't wait for her to be grown-up enough to do, but at the same time I want her to stay a little baby too! I am so anxious for that top tooth to pop in (mostly to end this fussiness), but I also miss her gummy grin. I want her to start crawling, but I miss the little lump that could lay still in bed with me on weekend mornings instead of rolling around kicking me in the back and poking my eyes.

Week 7

Emma had a variety of food this week: at the beginning of the week (Sunday, Monday) and at the end (Saturday). All the in-between days were too chaotic. It did give us a chance to eliminate some things to see if we can figure out where the rash is coming from. We eliminated her vitamins, apples, and have tried to keep her off the carpet. The carpet one is quite difficult since she doesn't like to stay on the blankets we put on the floor. We thought it was working, because the rash was starting to clear up. But it returned tonight! I'm now thinking that the culprit is her high-chair. The new plan is to feed her with clothes on and put a blanket down over the chair. It's going to mean messier laundry.

Over the past few days, Emma has been a little monster. Evenings have been especially rough, she wants to be held every second and cries when you move away from her at all. With Dan being away at soccer most nights, it made for a very worn-out mommy! I've noticed that she's tugging on her ears again (they were clear on Monday at the doctor's so I don't think it's an infection + no fever) and today she was sucking on her top lip. The last time she sucked on her lip was right before she sprouted the bottom teeth. I'm thinking that the top tooth might appear soon and explain this extreme fussiness. I miss my easy-going baby!

Today we introduced mango - it seemed to be a hit. She literally sucked down a couple slices (and terrified me). We also gave her a few rice puffs to start working on her pincher grasp. She managed to eat 1 and learned how to pick the others up and fling them on the floor. Part of me feels bad that she doesn't "eat" anything at daycare. I'm a bit surprised that the ladies have never asked me about food since Emma is the only baby who still only gets bottles (she's also the youngest, but not by much). Perhaps when she figures out the puffs, she can at least have those as a snack during the day. I wouldn't mind them giving her purees, but I want her to still use the spoon herself and that leads to a HUGE mess (as evidenced by the photo this week).

On a sad note, my aunt Bonnie lost her battle with cancer this week. She had gone downhill fast and was in a lot of pain. The family will miss her, but we are glad that she is no longer suffering. Dan's aunt Mary was diagnosed with a brain tumor. They operated on Monday and determined that it is a cancerous glioblastoma. The prognosis is 3 months without treatment, 1-3 years with treatment. It reminds me of how lucky we are that my sister is alive and well 9 years after they found her glioma (her prognosis was 5 years). It also makes me extremely thankful that the clusters they found on my brain a few years ago are "not of clinical significance".

Days 27-29

Days 28-29
Skipped solids both days. Thursday I had a dentist appointment and then Dan had a soccer game so we just couldn't work out a schedule. Plus she was sleepy so I nursed her at 7:30 (instead of 8) and she fell asleep right away. I ended up going in at 4:30 and woke her up to change and nurse her. Then she was back out until 6:30.

Friday Emmaline didn't nap much and was very fussy all evening. I was hoping that we could just nurse at 7:30 and put her straight to bed again, but no such luck. Started nursing at 7:30, by 8 I had to pass her to Dan and pump but got less than an ounce so I'm guessing she had eaten more than I realized. I was going to get a bottle out of the fridge to feed her, but tried to nurse again. At that point (around 8:30) she finally started to seem sleepy so I put her in the crib and she immediately woke up again. Dan rocked her and would try to put her in the crib once she was asleep, only to have her roll over and wake up. By 9:30 she seemed to be out.... that lasted until 10:30. By midnight I was up nursing her again and she woke up a few times after that. At 3:45 I nursed her again and then had Dan swaddle her. Didn't hear a peep out of her until 7:45.

On a happy note, Emma started clapping her hands! (Of course this took place while she was supposed to by nursing at 7:30.)

Day 27
Menu: watermelon and pureed prunes

This week ended up being super rushed, so now I sit here on a Saturday trying to remember what the heck happened on Wednesday! Wednesday our crinkle cutter arrived (via amazon) and so I used that to cut up the watermelon into strips. Emma liked it, mommy did not. She was able to break off BIG pieces and kept gagging. I was a nervous wreck! Looking back, I realize that we've probably been cutting the strips way too thick (with all the foods, not just watermelon). I've been doing them thicker because I'm afraid that she'd just shove a skinny slice too far back and choke, but I'm starting to understand that skinnier might be better because when she does break off pieces, they'd be much smaller.
The prunes went well, as usual. In the end, we had a very messy, sticky baby!

Days 23-26

Day 26

Nap and milk schedule are off today so we're skipping solids again.

Day 25

Menu: Sweet potatos and pureed prunes

Not much for variety, but we had leftovers. She did have a gagging incident with the sweet potato today (actually got quiet for a fraction of a second which freaked me out). Dan handles these things much better than I do! She, of course, cleared it and was happy as can be.

Day 24

Menu: Sweet potatos and pureed prunes

Newest food - pureed prunes! We went with prunes to help correct our recent "too many bananas" issue. It seems to have helped. I still can't tell if she loves purees or if she really just loves her spoon, either way she tends to have a good time. For now, I think prunes are in the top 5 foods for her (#1 is carrots and #2 is butternut squash). She flipped out a bit towards the end. We think it was a combination of her still being tired from last night's lack of sleep and the prunes starting to dry and get sticky on her face.

Day 23

Emmaline was a very good girl for Jess while Dan and I had our eye exams (and got new glasses). By the time we got home things were too rushed getting ready to go out of town and so we skipped solids for the day. Part of me feels like I should feel guilty when we skip foods, but I know that all of her nutritional needs are being met via breastmilk (and the vitamin supplement she now takes). The point of BLW is letting her experience textures & flavors while she develops a healthy relationship with food. I truly think that if we pushed ourselves to do solids everyday, we'd be stressed and that would start to make foods a negative thing for her.

Speaking of our out of town trip. That was quite a learning experience! Dan learned to never try to put Emma to bed without a bottle. We both learned that she won't sleep in a pack 'n' play - so we need to get rooms with a king sized bed unless I want to wake up with her turned sideways kicking me in the back! Generally, we are not co-sleepers and we are very proud that Emma has slept in her crib since her first night home. We are, however, very comfortable with letting her sleep with us on trips now. :)