My Clingy Valentine
I don’t know if he sensed Valentine’s Day or what, but Baby Boy has entered an EXTREMELY CLINGY STAGE.
He has Mommyitis big-time. He used to be really good about sitting and playing by himself, or sitting on the floor and watching me walk around and clean up or whatever. But in the last two weeks? Yeesh!
He cries when I put him down. He will crawl away and play for, oh, a minute or two, and then whirls around and crawls back me. And climbs up my body until he is wrapped around my neck. And holds on for dear life.
It is cute for three reasons.
#1: I love feeling so loved.
#2: I love that he wants to be with me so desperately.
#3: He is freaking adorable, and who wouldn’t think that is cute?
But it is also disconcerting for three reasons.
#1: I don’t want him to grow into one of those annoyingly clingy kids.
#2: It’s getting really hard to get anything done.
#3. He is HEAVY and my arms are WEAK!
Seriously. This baby is 21-ish pounds (and on the average-to-short side), so carrying him around is like lugging a sack of potatoes on my hip. He sometimes clings like a baby monkey (the times when he reeeeally doesn’t want me to put him down). But other times I have to hold him there. For what feels like FOREVER.
Can’t type anymore.
Arms ache.
When moms worry about choking …
You know my fear of choking? Specifically, Baby Boy choking?
He has almost done it.
And every time, I almost have a heart attack.
Two weeks ago, he stuffed too many puffs in his mouth and started to sputter. He wasn’t actually choking, but it was terrifying. If Darling Husband hadn’t been right there, telling me he was fine, I would have probably called 9-1-1.
Baby Boy coughed a couple of times, and suddenly a little vomit-y gush ran down his chin. He was fine. But I stopped giving him puffs.
He did the same thing the next day with a NumNum cookie. I stopped giving him cookies.
He never chokes on Cheerios, so I kept giving him those. Slowly I felt less anxious about it all, and I started giving him puffs and cookies again. I wished I could just keep giving him purees — food that is guaranteed not to get stuck in his throat! — but he was becoming insistent on only wanting finger foods.
And then we introduced the baby pancakes, which he loved. He tried noodles (chopped into minuscule pieces) with butter the other night, and absolutely devoured them. His little fists were shiny with butter, and he kept packing them in. He just loved them.
And then he started sputtering.
I can’t even fully describe how I feel when this happens. My chest tightens up. I feel panicky. I lean over his highchair and try to ask, calmly, “Are you OK?” I stand still and wait for him to cough it up, but I’m half a second away from ripping off the tray and flipping him over my arm, if necessary.
He coughed on the noodles for a few seconds, and then the vomit-y gush came. He picked up another noodle and popped it in his mouth like nothing happened, while I tried to stop my heart from pounding so hard.
Baby Boy is going to keep working on finger foods. He has to — he’s definitely moving past the purees. But I need to work on them, too.
I’m going to sign up for an Infant CPR course, so I can hopefully feel more confident that I could help him if it became necessary. I learned the basics years ago, but it doesn’t feel like enough.
I’m going to keep being very careful about the foods I give him, cutting them into very small pieces, and watching him closely when he eats.
And most of all, I’m going to try to relax a little.
A fascinating, must-read post … about cupboard organization
Remember my messy, disorganized baby-stuff jumble from yesterday’s post? After being totally inspired by Emily over at imperfect, I attacked the cupboard during Baby Boy’s afternoon nap.
Here’s what it looks like now …
No, we don’t feed our baby Hamburger Helper. Not yet, at least. I decided to go with Option A, and switch his stuff to a larger cupboard.
Here’s the new-and-improved cupboard:
It hasn’t even been 24 hours yet, but already it’s sooo much more convenient. This is the (much larger) cupboard that used to house Mr. Hamburger Helper and his pantry buddies. But it was seriously empty, as you can tell by how easily it all fit into the smaller cupboard.
Since we have to open Baby Boy’s cupboard about ninety times a day to get bibs, cups, bottles, etc., so it’s much nicer to have room to put everything. No more cramming things back in! It’s also nice to be able to fit ALL of his stuff together — even things like his special no-egg pasta (have yet to make it), and canned vegetables (also have yet to make them) that were formerly housed with “our” food.
I honestly don’t know why it took me so long to think of this. I think I was just so accustomed to everything being in its own usual cupboard that it never occurred to me that THINGS CAN MOVE. STUFF CAN CHANGE. Because hey, who knows, it might even FUNCTION BETTER. Lesson learned!
Itsy-bitsy, baby-friendly, whole-wheat, egg-yolk-only baby cereal pancakes
After my success with making baby smoothies, I got all excited and wanted to find new foods for Baby Boy — so mealtimes would be less frustrating for both of us.
I found a recipe on the internet months ago for “Baby Pancakes,” but I ended up simplifying it, because I didn’t have barley and other strange things. Then I held off on making them until I felt Baby Boy could better handle the chewing gumming and swallowing. I have a horrible fear of choking.
Bitsy Baby Pancakes
(Makes two dozen mini-pancakes)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup baby cereal
- 1 cup breast milk or formula
- 1/2 cup mashed fruit
- 1 tbsp melted margarine
- 3 egg yolks
- Apple juice
Mix everything (except the apple juice) together, and then slowly add apple juice while stirring until it looks like regular pancake batter. I had to add about a cup, I think, before the batter was runny enough. Then you just pour little circles and cook them like regular pancakes (I used an electric griddle set to 375F).
The pancakes seemed a little dense, but overall looked and tasted OK. I spread them out on plates and stuck them in the freezer, then transfered them to a big ziplock baggie for freezing.
When Baby Boy woke up from his nap the other day, I was ready for him. I spread some butter on a pancake, cut it into TINY pieces (see above: horrible fear of choking), and added a few tiny drops of maple syrup (we are Canadian).
He freaking LOVED it. He kept picking up the pieces in his chubby little fingers and stuffing them into his mouth. He was eating a real lunch (well, brunch). He ate almost every piece, and drank a smoothie. I am the best mother evahhhhhhh.
It is very exciting, this making-food-your-child-actually-likes thing. Making purees was fun for me, but he always made such horrible faces that it was not entirely rewarding.
I was so happy that I gave him a big kiss … and he smelled like maple syrup. Um … don’t judge.
Babies come with a lot of "stuff"
I think I need to be more diligent about storing baby eating-ware in the kitchen.
Over at imperfect, Emily has it all figured out. One tidy basket to hold all of Thomas’s bibs, bowls, spoons, cups, bottles, pump parts, etc.
Our place? Well, for starters, it’s an ENTIRE CUPBOARD. See?
No matter how many times I clean it, it still gets all messy-looking. And I really can’t get rid of any of it!
Here are the solutions I’m considering …
- Switch to another (larger) cupboard
- Split up his stuff, so his food goes with our food, his cups go with our glasses, etc.
- Ignore the problem
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Heather's Handmade Life 