Sick...

Side Note - I'm really going to start trying to blog more often.

This morning Miss Avery woke up pretty congested but since we live in "death valley" when it comes to allergens, I wrote it off as just more pollen in the air. Avery was acting like herself until....

I put her down for her morning nap. Now, during the week, homegirl doesn't nap at day care. I think she's afraid she'll miss something. At least she handles it well and is normally happy. But on the weekends, she will nap for about an hour in the morning and again in the afternoon. Well this morning she slept for only 20 minutes. When she got up I was holding her while I was finishing watching the season finale of Grey's (OMG! it was a good one! I hope they don't die!) Avery just laid on me and cuddled. She fell asleep on my chest and this is SOOOOO unlike her. She hadn't felt warm but I figured I'd go check again.

Her temp was 99.6 according to the Exergen. I love that thermometer for a quick check. After a little while Avery felt warmer and after a recheck, her temperature was 101.2! I called the pediatrician and they said she probably had a fever virus and to go ahead and treat it today and then bring her in tomorrow if she still has a fever.

Poor baby. She has been so miserable but still happy. I walked into the living room where she was sitting on the floor playing with her leap frog table with Robert and she looked at me and cracked up. I have no idea what was so funny but apparently I was the funniest thing she had seen today.

Product Review: Flowspoon (and our first solid foods)!

My very good friend Lauren of Instinct Parenting called me about 2 months ago asking if I could be a "mommy reviewer" of a new product she found. The product is called the FlowSpoon. She told me that it was a new spoon that would help ease the transition from breast/bottle to solids. I was EXCITED about the opportunity to try something new. You never know if it might be the next VELCRO product, ya know?

So - on April 7, 2009, on Avery's 6 month Birthday, I pulled out the homemade butternut squash I had baked and carefully frozen into 1 oz portions, and prepared to start solids for the first time. Here we go... once we started solids, our 'life' would be changed. A whole new event was being added to our daily routine and never again would we change a "breastfed" baby poopy diaper...

I used the FlowSpoon. to feed Avery and I really liked how UNMESSY it was compared to the regular take 'n toss spoons I had, but I had difficulty "reloading" the spoon. I was using small, 4 oz plastic cups to hold thawed squash in and I just couldn't seem to get the spoon into a good position to get the pureed vegetable in to the spoon.

However, when I did get it filled up, Avery emptied it like a champ. She was familiar with the soft roundness of the tip of the spoon and was used to the sucking motion to get stuff IN her mouth. The squash puree that we used was just that - pureed squash. I did not thin it out much because I had read that it's best to add needed liquids to foods AFTER they thaw since some foods tend to get a little more watery/runny. Avery seemed to be ok with the thicker pureed squash though so I went back to the old saying of "if it ain't broke..."

I did however, think many times that it might just be because Avery was older, and REALLY ready for solids that she didn't need the transition spoon. She never had any issues with eating, or switching back and forth from breast to bottle; she has been a relatively EASY baby with very few difficulties. She never spit out any of the food and ate it right up. The new experience was FUN for her. We might not have been such a great test case for it because of this. BUT... if I had started her earlier on a runny rice cereal mixture, I think the FlowSpoon. would have been an AWESOME tool to help a baby learn to EAT solids. It's a much better alternative to putting rice cereal in a bottle. And some babies are not as aware of their surroundings/environment, so they may need some help getting the hang of the new skill of EATING.

I have included some pictures of Avery's first solids. (the mess is more of mom's user error than baby not eating :) ) and I really promise she enjoyed it!!! She just has some special faces she makes. Even 5 weeks later, we haven't found a food she WON'T eat, she will just make a face and keep on chewing.