Have I mentioned lately how cute she is??Last night was much better. I told Cory to put Little Honk back in her bassinet with me when I went to bed and for him not to stay up until her early morning feeding (usually 1 or 2). So he came to bed around midnight, much closer to his normal bedtime, and she woke up at 2 and 6. But in between that, she went right back to sleep. I think maybe the other night, she was high on my cold medicine. I can't think of any other reason for her to be so wide-awake. Of course, it's "breast-feeding approved" meds, but you just never know. Everyone reacts to things differently. The important thing is that Cory got some sleep.
I don't know if I've mentioned it here before or not, but since Kaia is a preemie, developmentally we follow her age and milestones as if she had been born "on time." I keep forgetting this and stressing out. Well, not stressing out really but worrying some. Anyway, things that babies are usually doing by the end of month one, we can expect her to do around the end of month two. She'd be 9 days old today had she stayed inside as long as she was supposed to. Isn't that wild?
Also, back to the tongue thing... I think Kelly was right in suggesting a different nipple. We have an assortment of bottles and we mostly use Dr. Brown but I have a couple of Avent ones that I had been trying on her... I think the nipple on that one is both too short and too flexible. It's harder to get into her mouth in the first place, much less when her tongue is there. So I'm going to get some more Dr. Brown bottles and only use those. Thanks to everyone for their input on everything. It really helps so keep the comments coming.On an unrelated to baby note (what??), I'd love to hear what you guys have for dinners during the week that is easy and healthy. What are some of the things are in regular rotation in your household?
9 comments:
Jerm's Easy Does it Chicken Parm
Get the Banquet or Tyson breaded chicken filets.
Jar of your favorite pasta sauce (Ragu, Prego, Newman's Own...)
Bag of shredded mozzerella.
Fettucini or spagetti noodles.
Boil the pasta.
Cook the chicken in the oven according to the package. With 5 minutes left remove and spoon the pasta sauce over the chicken.
I usually add some sauce to the noodles after I drain them.
Remove the chicken and spread the shredded mozzarella over it put back in the oven. Cook until cheese is melted.
Plate the pasta and add the chicken on top. Viola!
The Campbell's supper bakes are also the bomb. We eat the cheesy chicken or garlic chicken at least once a week. All you need to add is the chicken.
http://www.campbellsoup.com/Supper_Bakes.asp
And easy fall back for us is some canned flavored tomatoes, ground beef or turkey and some pasta.
We also buy a lot of the veggies you can steam in a bag.
Mark needs to give you his stir fry recipe.
We eat Morningstar veggie corndogs (cook them in the oven, man they are good) and the Morningstar veggie chicken nuggets (oven again). We put chicken in the crockpot with a can of tomatoes with mild chiles. After the chicken cooks all day (you can use frozen chicken for this btw) I shred it and we eat it with refried beans in whole wheat tortillas (Rachel loves this). We eat bean burritoes. The stores in Tulsa sell the mexican brand wheat tortillas which taste about a million times better than the mission whole wheat tortillas and are lower in calories too. I have an easy recipe for homemade mac and cheese- I use the healthier multigrain pasta and we mix in broccoli and tuna.
I've done a lot of reading about the growth hormones in chicken and the link between this and early puberty in girls and cancer so I really try to limit their exposure to normal chicken- hence the veggie chicken.
I also use canned diced tomatoes and tomato paste to make easy homemade pasta sauce. Sometimes we have english muffin pizza, sometimes I make baked pasta, and sometimes we have pasta with red sauce. I also use egg beaters to do scrambled eggs pretty often.
I usually plan a menu for the week on Sunday mornings while Dave runs. He takes the girls to the store and does the shopping late Sunday mornings so that I can get in a long run. I also try to vary the veggies but I usually eat a spinach salad with most meals (not the eggs). The more planning I do up front the healthier our meals and the less likely we are to spend a lot of money/calories eating fast food. Jerm's chicken parm is looking good!
And I love the frozen veggies you can steam in the bag too. Avoid the chopped broccoli, though, and go with the florets.
I bet Kaia was hopped up on Benadryl. The girls totally ruined my tolerance for medicine and for alcohol. The dark side of nursing...
Melissa
I am glad the nipple thing helped out. Something else I wanted to also tell you to try was to let her suck on your index funger before feeding. She may be having some difficut with tongue position as well as getting a "central groove" formed in her tongue, which could lead to some groping becasue she has the instinct to eat and suck. The more sucking she does the more "exercise" her tongue will get and all of the theories that apply eith exercise physiology also apply with the tongue and other muscles in the mouth. There is actually some research to show that children with this issue benefit from he use of a pacifier, but I think working some time in with your finger would work just as well.
The concept of "adjusted age" is difficult for anyone. I still forget about it and I work with children with developmental disabilities every day, so I deal with 15-year olds with the cognitive abilities of a 2-year old. The nice thing is that the developmetnal gap gets shorter and shorter each month and then when they turn 1, you don't have to worry about it anymore. I am sure she is doing fabulously and she has bright parents, so I'm sure her developmental age will catch up with her chronological age in no time.
Kelly
The second picture is so cute. I can imagine how difficult it is with the age adjustment thing. I am constantly consulting the books on what Andrew is supposed to be doing each week, and he had to be evicted from my belly. I love "Little Honk". We call Andrew the "Fire Truck" because he sounds like the siren.
For meals, we eat alot of TV dinners. Probably not the best, but they are fast. We especially like the Lean Cuisine three meat pizza. We get the bagged skillet meals too. We love the Morning Star meatless corndogs.
One good, easy recipe I make is for Bisquick Chicken Pot Pie:
1 2/3 C frozen vegetables, thawed
1 lg can of chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 C Bisquick
1/2 C milk
1 egg or egg substitute
Preheat oven to 400. In an ungreased pie plate, stir together chicken, veggies, and soup. In a bowl, stir remaining ingredients. Poor over mixture in pie plate. Bake for 30 minute or until golden. Enjoy!
Yay! Things look great and so does Kaia.
I love Adam's chicken stew. He cooks diced chicken breast, diced potatoes, diced carrots and celery. Then adds V8 to desired consistency. Adds 2 bay leaves, oregeno, salt and pepper and cooks for 30 minutes. Don't forget a few splashes of tabasco. Hardly any fat at all and soooo good.
I also like Jerm's idea but Adam is a health nut so what he does is use chicken tenders and uses shake and bake italian style. Bake it and do the same Jerm does except use wheat noodles and sliced mozarella. Oh yum.
I could go on and on. I even make a really great vegetarian chili that is da bomb.
This week:
Monday: chicken stew
Tuesday: rigatoni w/turkey pasta sauce
Wednesday: oriental shrimp
Thursday: chicken fajitas
Friday: turkey hot dogs.
She seriously gets cuter every day, doesn't she?!
Well, I have no family to care for but I seem to have trouble just taking care of myself most days... I pretty much eat the same thing every night. Veggies lightly sauteed in garlic and olive oil and some sort of protein. Takes like 5 minutes, 10 max, and it's healthy. Boring, but healthy... and fast. And I'm lazy :)
Beautiful pictures (both Doug and I think so). It's wonderful to see her different expressions - what a cutie!
Our favorite easy dinner is a Boboli pizza shell with pre-made sauce and fresh toppings. Cheese, of course. Veggies can go on raw (sliced thin) or cooked. Meat or no meat. Leftover meat, fish or lunchmeat work well. More cheese. You get the picture. Bakes in 10 minutes. Eat with salad from a bag.
Also, I think an occasional 2-3 ounces of beer or wine with dinner is good for mother's milk. At least it was in my family (never on an empty stomach). Buon appetito!
Dude...I so got this. Tex mex skillet:
.5 lb ground turkey
can of black beans; drained and rinsed
can of mexican corn; drained and rinsed
15 oz can tomato sauce
1 c instant rice
1/2 c water
2 oz reduced fat cheese (i use part skim mozzarella)
1 Tbsp chili powder
brown the turkey; add the chili powder and stir in; throw in tomato sauce, corn, beans, rice and water; stir and bring to boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 min; put cheese on top and cover again for five min or until cheese is melted. serves six and is healthy and low-fat. freezes well too
I even boil the turkey sometimes before I cook everything to get the sat fat out.
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