Vegetables

The advice some of you gave to introduce all veggies before any fruits makes total sense. I am surprised her doctor didn't say that and also that it wasn't mentioned in the literature I was reading on introducing foods. The doctor only said to wait 5 days before introducing each new food and to only introduce fruits, veggies, and cereal in the next 2 months. She also mentioned fruit juices, but I will not be introducing those in that time frame. Eating fruit is better than drinking it. I had read to wait on corn until at least 6 months. So am I forgetting any veggies? I am planning on introducing peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potatoes, and squash in the coming weeks (one at a time of course). I am planning to make the peas, carrots, and green beans from frozen veggies and the sweet potatoes and squash from fresh veggies. I'll make them and then freeeze them in an ice cube tray and then after they're frozen put the cubes of baby food into a freezer bag. Then once she's had all of those then I'll start on apples, bananas, etc.

Thinking about veggies makes me wonder how we'll handle these once she's eating table foods. Unfortunately Paul & I are not the best role models when it comes to eating veggies. Do I make veggies for her that Paul & I don't eat? Do I make myself eat them to be a good role model even though I don't like them? Hmmmmm well we have a little time to figure that out as Mommy and Daddy don't eat baby food. :-) Paul's mom fed her some rice cereal last night, and she mixed in a little formula and that made a big difference in terms of Nadia's reaction although of course she's still learning how to use her tongue when eating solid foods. I tried to do the same this morning, but she made the same faces (grimmacing) for me that she made yesterday.

Nadia was very quiet most of the time Paul's parents were with us last night. We kept trying to get her to talk (coo), but she was silent until close to the time they left. Of course we were happy that she wasn't crying while we were at Applebee's. She was a good little girl. :-) We were celebrating Paul's mom's bday, but she was the one who came bearing gifts. I'll post pics later first of all the beautiful clothes Nadia received and also of her wearing her new red dress. I asked for sizes 3-6 and 6-9 month dresses for Nadia for Christmas. I should change that to only size 6-9 months because the 3-6 month dress was just barely long enough so she won't be in that size for long in terms of dresses. Grandma loves Nadia!!!

I am very perplexed about the sleeping situation. At 12 weeks old she was doing great at night (only one feeding a night and sleeping 10 hours total on average), but naps were a struggle and almost none were taken in the crib. Now naps are usually a breeze in her crib as long as we get her down after she's been up for 90 minutes. Right now she's taking her third nap that she's had in her crib today, and it will probably be her last as we try to keep her up for a longer period of time prior to bedtime. The first two naps were 45 minutes each, and really this is her 4th nap as she took a 45 minute nap in my arms during church (that felt so great - it's nice to have her still nap in my arms every now and then!!!!). I am not sure how long she would have slept yesterday afternoon. I woke her up after she had been asleep for 2 hours (at 3:15) as I wanted to nurse her before Paul's parents showed up, plus I didn't want her to sleep "too long" although I am not sure exactly what is "too long" as I haven't had to deal with that since naps are amost always only 45 minutes long. Anyhow the bottom line is that naps are going WELL these days but now night time sleep is regressing. Last night the longest stretch was 3 hours, but since I didn't go to bed at 7pm when she did, my longest stretch was 2 hours. :-( She did sleep 9 hours total so I'm still getting more sleep than when she was a newborn, but I know at 4 months old she should not be getting up so many times in the night. Any suggestions what to do if she doesn't start going back in the right direction on her own? I really want to get back to one feeding a night. Last night there were 3 feedings and then she was up for the day at 6:30. I was relieved though that her day didn't start until 6:30am (new time) as I was fearing it might start at 4:30am in light of the time change.