Making baby... food

You thought I was going to title this something else, didn't you?

As a new mom, I didn't know anything about feeding babies. Thankfully the What to Expect the First Year book was given to me so I could learn the basics. I also received four different baby cookbooks that give some information, but a lot of it is contradictory to the other books. Asking other mothers and the doctor for insight (mostly) resulted in replies like "oh, you know, just start them with a little and see what happens." AAAGH. My nerd-like instincts to read everything available aren't very helpful when the information is vague.

However, the cookbooks have been helpful because baby food is rather pricey (especially if you are buying organic) and Joseph rapidly progressed from 1 solid 'feeding' a day to 3. (He'd like to advance to more, but we are holding steady for now since I'm trying to make sure the breast feeding stays steady too!) I started making my own baby food and think it's super easy! If you're interested, read on for the basics of how to do it yourself.

To make baby food, you don't need very much. My recommended tools are:

1. Steamer basket - this is the one I bought: Progressive International 11 Inch Stainless Steel Steamer Basket
2. Baby food containers - I like Fresh Baby So Easy Baby Food and Breast Milk Trays and Annabel Karmel Stackable Food Pots (or just use glass jars!)
3. Food processor - we were given one for Christmas a year ago, whoo hoo!

Place the steamer basket in a pot with enough water at the bottom to avoid burning the pot (which I did once and had to toss the carrots as they tasted metallic... yikes!). Bring to a boil and let steam (covered) for 6-12 minutes, depending on the type of food you're cooking. Dump the results (carefully... don't get burned!) in the processor along with some or all of the water from the pot (based on your preference). Puree to desired consistency, cool, place in containers, and freeze! It'll keep for up to 3 months.

Types of foods to try: sweet potatoes, carrots, sweet peas, green beans, butternut squash, pumpkin, pears, apples. Most of these need to be peeled and cut up before steaming. (Also, it might be easier to do squash and pumpkin in the oven and scrape the ooey goodness into the processor after.)

In summary, pretty much anything you can get at the store in a jar you can make yourself! I have yet to try meats but they will be coming up on the menu soon! :)

Also, for the lazy moms out there (can I get a what what?) ripe bananas and avocados are super easy-- just mash them up, add some breast milk for texture--and they have been a big hit with the little guy!

And, on a side note, I've stopped giving Joseph rice cereal. It just seemed like it was constipating him (which also has happened with bananas and carrots too) and I think he is getting enough iron from the milk without needing more. Anyone else have any thoughts on that?

Guilty pleasures and actors/models

I don't view myself as a celebrity stalker. I dislike the concept of paparazzi. I'm not into reality shows. I don't even watch TV (we don't have one, although we do have Netflix via a Wii and a projector).

However, I know more about the love lives and activities of celebrities than most people. How so? My 'guilty pleasures:'

• Reading celeb magazines (i.e., People) in waiting rooms. 
• Looking at the red-carpet photos the night after a big event (i.e. the Oscars).

I'm sure other people out there do the same thing... but I cringe from telling people this (although now that it's on my blog, it's out there for all to see!). Perhaps it's because I'm supposed to be 'smart?' Or because, quite honestly, who cares who is dating whom or working on what movie? Regardless, it's something I find myself gravitating towards every time I'm at the doctor's, dentist's, or anywhere else with magazines.

On a semi-related topic, how does this whole beautiful people dating beautiful people thing work? Do people just walk up to each other at events/parties and say, hey, we should be beautiful together? Is it all the work of managers/publicists? Is it just because these people get thrown together because of their 'fabulous' lives and they realize that they like each other?

Delicious and dairy-free?

Q: Is it possible to make delicious foods that are also dairy-free?
A: You betcha!

Since we found out that Joseph had a cow's milk allergy/intolerance, I've changed to eating dairy-free. That has been hard for me as 1) I like cheese! And lots of other dairy products! and 2) I was used to using cheese, milk, sour cream, etc. in my cooking. Although I haven't been able to find alternatives that work for all of my favorites, I have been able to use alternative products in many of my favorite 'treat' recipes. This has helped me to feel less deprived as I'm avoiding dairy.

Every once in a while I plan to post the results and/or recipes for my dairy-free experimenting. Today we will discuss the hot cross buns I made for Easter!

Original recipe: Martha Stewart's best hot cross buns

My dairy-free version (substitutions are in bold italics):

Ashley's Delicious Dairy-free Hot Cross Buns

• 12 Tbsp Earth Balance soy-free, melted and cooled
• 1 cup So Delicious vanilla coconut milk
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 4 1/2 tsps instant yeast
• 1 Tbsp coarse salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Zest of 1 orange
• 4 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 5 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1/3 cup craisins (dried cranberries)
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 4 Tbsp Earth Balance soy-free, melted
• 2 Tbsp wildflower honey

1. Butter a large bowl (with Earth Balance); set aside. Take second large bowl and mix together the sugar, salt, butter, zests, eggs, and yeast until smooth with wooden spoon. Place 1 cup coconut milk in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Heat until milk reaches 110 degrees on a candy thermometer. Pour milk into other ingredients. Add flour, and mix until dough forms. Continue kneading, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary, until smooth.
   
2. Add raisins; knead briefly by hand. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead briefly to evenly distribute raisins in dough. Shape into a ball. Place dough in ('buttered') prepared bowl. Turn to coat with butter. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour or so.
   
3. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. Turn dough out onto floured work surface. Knead briefly and roll dough into a log. Cut log in half and cut each half into 6-8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a tightly formed ball. Place on prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart. Cover baking sheets with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until buns are touching and doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
   
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees with racks positioned in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Snip crosses into top of buns with kitchen shears. Transfer buns to oven and bake until golden brown, 18 to 25 minutes, rotating baking sheets after 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature.
   
5. Meanwhile, melt butter in microwaveable bowl. Add honey and mix. Brush mixture over buns with pastry brush.
   

 Enjoy! My family had these and couldn't tell that there was no cow's milk or butter in them.

Cloth diapers - the sequel

Here's the skinny on some of those other cloth diaper questions that I had when starting (and you might have if you're considering cloth):

Overnights: Now that Joseph is bigger, we realized that using the same type of diaper for day and overnight wasn't working anymore, so I investigated overnight options. There are lots of opinions out there, but what we found to work best so far is using the Fuzzibunz covers (since that's all we have! :) but stuffing them with Bigger Weeds hemp prefolds wrapped around the small Fuzzibunz microfiber insert. We also have recently purchased a medium-sized LoopyDo hemp/microfiber insert (recommendation from the Luvaboos' store owner and mom) and really like it - absorbs very well and is easier to assemble and clean than the prefold/insert combo. I’ve ordered some more of them and will be discontinuing use of the prefolds as they are more bulky.

Timing-wise, he’s now in a diaper for 10-12 hours with no bad results that I’m aware of.

Other cloth diapering moms have also recommended Drybees or other special “overnight” diapers. I haven’t tried any of these but if you have comment and tell me what worked for you!

Cleaning: At first, my hesitation about cloth was cleaning (otherwise known as, what to do with the poop?). However, things haven’t been that bad. I will be honest and say that smells are a problem from time to time, but honestly the worst smells have been pee (surprising to me!) and the smell of the diapers when you put them in the washer after they’ve been sitting for a day or so. The poop didn’t really smell that bad, and breastfed poops are pretty mild in terms of volume and leaking. The diapers (covers and inserts) do have some stains on them, but I’m looking forward to sunning them once spring is officially here in Rochester and seeing the dingy diapers turn clean again!

Switching to solids: So far, Joseph LOVES solids. So what has this meant for his diapers? Well, not too much of a change actually - in fact, they’ve actually gotten a little better to change! (Yes, I was surprised too.) Although the poops are bigger (occasionally) and more “formed” (yes, this is the part where I gross you out with TMI!), they actually come off the cover more easily (so far!) and (if caught early) don’t stain as much as some of the breastmilk-only poops did.
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Well, that’s it for my cloth diaper series! I hope you learned something and that you investigate the option seriously if you haven’t done so yet. Good luck and have fun with your diapering adventure!

Breastfeeding and culture

I've been thinking about this a lot lately as Joseph continues to grow: how long will I keep breastfeeding him?

There have been several incidences when I was thinking about not continuing anymore (ex: two days ago when the teething monster reappeared and bit me several times! tears and stress my friends.) but if I take things on a day-by-day basis these kinks tend to work themselves out and we've been doing really well overall.

However, will I keep breastfeeding once he is 1 year old? How about 14 months? 2 years? (Of course, this will depend on him too - if he self-weans I'm not going to keep pumping or try to get him interested in starting up again.)

One of the things I've been thinking about in conjunction with this is the cultural taboo of breastfeeding once your baby can walk/talk/reach your breast without aid. Girls in my eighth grade class used to share stories of a little girl called 'B' who was 4 or 5 and would ask her mom for milk in public. The negative connotations were obvious: ewww that's gross! She's too big to breastfeed! And ewww moms are old and shouldn't be sharing their boobs in public!

Now that I'm grown-up (and I do use the term loosely ;) I have a much different perspective. I think breastfeeding is the best for a variety of reasons, but I still find that I have an aversion to older kids breastfeeding. I watched the movie Babies when it came to the Little and was rather shocked at the nonchalant way in which the African mothers would hold out a breast to their kids (and possibly others' kids too?) of various ages. (Of course, there may be economic reasons for continuing to breastfeed too, but I think it's more cultural than anything else.)

I had another shock when I attended a La Leche League meeting and saw a mother with two kids tandem feeding - on one side was the 2-year old (or maybe older?), standing up and suckling, and on the other side was the 3-month old baby. That weirded me out! (Plus the older kid was sort of jealously staring at the baby while nursing.) And of course there is the obvious reference to the Grown-Ups movie with the "48-month old" demanding milk from his mom.

So is this merely the by-product of the culturally ingrained prejudice against breastfeeding for longer than 1 year? Or is it just weird? Tell me what you think.

Breastfeeding reflection interlude

I have 5 minutes to write and thought I'd take a break from cloth diapers today.

Breastfeeding is still going well - although Joseph has 5+ teeth (with more on the way) he's learned not to bite down on me while he's feeding. We still do have some contact issues (i.e., when latching or when he falls asleep while nursing) but 99% of the time it's all good!

However, as he's started eating more solids, he has been decreasing his milk consumption, so he's down to 6 feedings a day from 7-8 feedings a day. I'm sure he's still getting enough ounces (The boy is not losing any weight! He's my chunky monkey!) but it's a little weird to get used to the decrease after being so used to nursing frequently for 6 months. However, one big plus has been that I only have to pump 2 times a day instead of 3 or 4. Makes me happy and it doesn't take as much time away from work. So that is my happy thought for the day.

Also, who knew that unsalted rice cakes were so yummy?

Cloth diapering: The options

There are lots of options nowadays for cloth diapering. Here's a quick run-down:

• "Traditional" prefolds - This is what most people think of when they hear the term cloth diaper - the kind with the folding (aka assembly required) and pins. However, there are many types of prefolds on the market, and there are these awesome things called Snappis that work just as well (if not better than) pins. Most people also use 'covers' or 'wraps' with the prefolds to avoid leakage - these range from the classic 'plastic pants' to the many different styles of wraps available. My rating: 2 out of 5 stars. The price is nice, but I couldn't get the hang of folding the diapers (had a lot of leakage) and when Joseph was really small it was hard to find plastic pants that would work.

• Wraps with inserts - You buy a cute, cloth outer “wrap” and then fill it with inserts (or folded prefolds). Voila! My rating: 3 out of 5 stars. We tried a few different wraps (Flip covers were a favorite), but found that the mess (leakage) was higher depending on what kind of insert we used. More experimentation may have led to better results however.

• Pocket diapers - Similar concept to wraps but these inserts/liners come with the diaper (in most cases) and are sized for the diaper. There is a ‘pocket’ from front to back that you stuff with the liners. To clean, pull the liners out, rinse, rinse the cover, and toss in a wet bag. Perfecto! My rating: 5 out of 5 stars. These had the least leakage (depending on if the snaps/sizing was correct!) and were some of the least labor-intensive to clean. Also much easier to explain to our babysitters than the different insert options!

• All-in-ones (AIOs) - These are the mack trucks of cloth diapers. Essentially, they are pocket diapers without pockets - the liners are built in, which means no assembly required and very easy to rinse. The downside? Takes longer to dry after washing. My rating: ?? We never used these, but I’ve heard very good things about them from friends!

The next sub-category is sized diapers vs. one-size (or adjustable) diapers.

• Sized diapers mean that you buy diapers in a size (i.e., XS, S, M, L, XL) so that they fit well at whatever weight/length the baby is. The downlow: These should get less wear and tear than adjustables, as they won’t be used as long. However, you have to buy more of them (i.e., 10-24 in each size if you don’t want to do laundry every 3 hours), which makes them more costly.

• One-size diapers mean that they adjust to fit the baby, using snaps, velcro, and/or elastic. Most say they fit from 8 - 35 pounds (which may mean different things depending on the baby). The downlow: These are more cost-effective (i.e., buy 24 of them and use them until potty training is over). However, since they will be used more frequently, they may not last as long. (I’m hoping to get two babies’ worth of use out of ours though... time will tell!) Also, adjusting the size as baby grows is not always 100% on target with the recommended sizing.

Our experience: We started by buying a bunch of different types of diapers at one of Luvaboos' gently used sales - I think we ended up with some pockets, some prefolds, inserts, and wraps. (No AIOs though - I've never used them to date!)

Our favorite brand was (and still is!) Fuzzibunz. We used the XS sized pocket diapers when Joseph was tiny, and they worked really well - hardly ever leaked and the snaps are super easy. Once we had decided on the brand, we then moved to the one-size diapers as my husband was much happier with spending the $$ on something we could use until Joseph was 2. Fuzzibunz also had a pretty cool one-size diaper that they had recently launched (with neat elastic bands!) that we liked better than some other one-size options. (These other snap-only versions were very bulky... Joseph looked like a sumo wrestler!)

Recently, we did have to contact Fuzzibunz as one of our diapers had some peeling of the inner waterproof layer. (They have a one-year warranty on all of their diapers.) I was nervous about contacting them but the customer service was fast and very helpful! We mailed in the problem products and they sent us back a new diaper and some baby leg warmers (too cute!) within one week of receipt.

And no, Fuzzibunz isn’t paying me to write this. However, I’ll take free diapers whenever they want to send them to me though! (Hint, hint.)

Cloth diapering: Why use cloth?

We started using cloth diapers when Joseph was about 6 weeks old, and are still going strong at 6 months plus. I thought I'd write a little bit about our experiences in case anyone out there needed a guide. However, please note that all of these are opinions and I don't claim to be a "diaper expert!"

Our journey began before Joseph was born. Rochester is fortunate to have an actual cloth diaper store, Luvaboos (visit their website if you're curious!), which allowed us to go see the diapers in person. They sell a lot of other cool organic and earth-friendly baby and mom products too. My first experience was buying some gifts for my cousin's wife's baby shower, and it was rather overwhelming! I came back to the store with my husband, Joe, for their “cloth diapering 101” class, where we learned about the different types of cloth diapers and the benefits. Here’s a summary of the benefits we learned about:

• Cost benefits: To be honest, this is the main reason we went with cloth. The Luvaboos comparison showed us that we could save several thousand dollars by using cloth. My simplified comparison (with approximate numbers from our actual purchases) is below:

Cloth diaper costs:
26 one-size pocket diapers @ approx. $20 each = $520
4 wet bags @ $20 each = $80
Diaper sprayer ($30) + Cloth wipes ($32) = $62
Increased water costs (+$10 every 3 months over 2 years) = $80
Diaper-friendly detergent ($0.30/load x about 243 loads in 2 years) = $73
Hemp inserts (for overnight) = $35
Cloth-diaper friendly diaper rash cream (projected cost for 2 years) = $104
Grand total of about $954.

Disposable costs:
Assuming 8 diapers/day over 2 years (8 diapers x 730 days = 5,840 diapers used) x Average cost per diaper of $0.21 (based on Sam’s Club prices) = $1,226.40.
Add to that the cost of wipes ($0.025 per wipe x 10 wipes/day x 730 days = $182.50), a diaper genie with its little weenie bags ($25 + $144 = $169), and traditional diaper rash cremes (let’s say $60 over 2 years) equals...
Grand total of about $1,638. 

The difference: $1,638 - 954 = $684 saved. (In actuality, probably a bit more.)
Other savings: 5,000 less diapers in a landfill. AND - I can reuse the diapers for baby #2! 

• Health benefits: One of the key benefits from our point of view was less chemicals on baby’s skin. Yes, you can buy chlorine-free disposable diapers, but most disposables have lots of chemicals in them. We did use disposables for the first 6 weeks however, as 1) meconium is nasty to clean up and 2) we were given a diaper cake for our baby shower and felt obligated to use it. We also have used disposables when we went on a family road trip instead of trying to clean cloth diapers on the road (although we switched back to cloth on the day we were traveling home). Joseph didn’t seem to mind either type particularly but I did notice that he seemed to get  rashy with the disposables. (However, he tends to get rashy in his leg area anyway, so that’s not a conclusive argument against disposables.)
  
  
• Sustainability/"green" benefits: Less trash in a landfill. Reusing instead of disposing. The list goes on. (However, more water is used to wash the diapers, so that could be a downside. But I’m pretty sure that the water can be ‘cleaned’ and reused for something, and it’s still better than putting tons of plastic into a landfill!)
  
  
• Other benefits: We’ve heard rumors that it’s easier to potty train when using cloth (I’ll have to post if that’s true for us when the time comes!). And yes, one psuedo-benefit is that the diapers are cute with a capital C! 

In summary, we have been very happy with cloth diapers. Next time I’ll write about the different kinds out there and what we found when we tried some of them.

Working and breastfeeding

Sometimes I don't like pumping. It's noisy, a little painful sometimes, and it forces me to take breaks even if I'm working on something important.

However, I was realizing today how blessed I am. I have the ability to produce healthy, wonderful food for my baby boy while I'm away from him. I'm even more blessed to have been able to afford a great electric pump that works really well (even though it's old!). And I'm able to work a "real job" to help obtain the income our family needs while my extended family helps us by watching our son. (And we are able to help my sister by paying her to watch him too!)

So, even though I'd rather be home with him all the time, I'm still very blessed. And I do like my job! Which is more than a lot of people can say. God is so good.