Milking It

Sweet Baby Zo Zo lurvvvvvvvvvvvvs food. She dances when she eats and loves everything. You can tell by how she's 11 months wearing a 2T. Yeah, she's a big mama. Not chubby, but she looks like she's a lot older than she actually is.

Because of my breastfeeding woes (my supply dropped because of work), I wanted her to take as much milk as possible. She didn't start baby food until she was 5 months and didn't stop breastfeeding until she was 7 months. Zo Zo started table food shortly after at 9 months. At 11 months, her father and I decided it was time to introduce whole milk.

Milk was something I was really torn about. I grew up on whole milk, papa grew up on whole milk. Our parents, sisters, niece and nephew all grew up on whole milk, but why? The FDA and pretty much everyone else on the earth says whole cows milk, but why? Have you ever thought about the fact that humans are the only species that drinks other animal's milk? When a fawn is finished nursing from its mother, it doesn't trot on over to Giant Eagle (or Giant Deer, lol. Not that funny) and pick up a gallon of cows milk. The now, adult deer, is just finished with milk. The nutrients that they once got from mama are made up with the increase consumption of food. My point? BABIES DON'T NEED COWS MILK. Cows milk is recommended because it's easily available to the masses. No other reason.

This got me thinking of other alternatives. The most likely, of course are soy and almond milk, but there is also goat and hemp milk. Goat's milk is most similar to human breast milk, and was my number one choice. It comes in a powder and liquid, but both are pretty pricey and can only be found at health food store. Then hemp milk. It's packed full of protien and is by far the most nutritious choice, but again, not readily available. I've only been able to find it online. After consideration of budget and access, we decided to go with a whole cow's and almond milk combo. Right? After all that I went with cow's milk anyhow, but the almond milk makes it more appetizing to Sweet Baby Zo Zo and keeps her full longer. If you have any other milk questions, check out this article from The Ecologist. It tells you even more milk alternatives. This is a great resource not only for baby, but for a health conscious adult also. http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/food_and_drink/847876/top_10alternatives_to_cows_milk.html

Like I said earlier, Sweet Baby Zo Zo loves food and I love making it for her. I've always made her own food. Besides the occasional Popeye's biscuit (I know, so bad, but who doesn't love Popeye's biscuits?) and anything her aunts and grandparents might have snuck and gave to her (We have a don't ask, don't tell policy), Zoe has only had homemade food. I got a great deal on a Baby Chef baby food maker from Buy Buy Baby. It's fantastic! It steams, purées and warms all in one. Here are a few food/spice combanations that are Sweet Baby Zo Zo approved:

Green beans/mint

Spinach/garlic

Acorn squash/sage

Sweet potatoes/nutmeg

Apples/cinnamon 

Brown rice/chicken broth

Carrots/thyme

White potato/chives/cheese

All of these can be made with water or milk (breast, formula or whatever kind you use). I would hold out on adding extra liquid to any of the green vegetables. They're full of so much natural water, once they're puréed they don't need it. Mama's baby food specialty and Sweet Baby Zo Zo's favorite, is a cheesy egg bake.

2 egg yolks

1/8 tsp of fresh, minced garlic

1/8 tsp of milk (your choice)

1/2 tsp chives

1/2 tbs sheredded cheddar

Coconut oil

Preheat oven to 375. Rub a oven safe ramekin with coconut oil to prevent sticking (I'm obsessed with coconut oil). Add the garlic to the bottom of the ramekin and evenly distribute. Add the egg yolks and top with chives and cheese. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 15 min. Voila! That's it. It's have your kid breaking out the high chair dance moves.

Fatten up those little nuggets and kiss those adorable chubby cheeks. Bon appetit, little babies!

Christmas Ale, Non Animated Movie, Kinky Sex Time: Sleep Training Your Baby

I love babies! A lot. I openly talk about doing another 9 months of damage to my body, mind and relationship all the time. A new baby isn't in the plan for me in the immediate future (an accident is out of my control though :D), but I know tons of people who are expecting, thinking about children or have newborns.

THE MOST IMPORTANT, SMARTEST, AND BEST DECISION YOU CAN MAKE AS A NEW PARENT!!! 

Yes, it's that important where it needs all caps. Getting your baby on a sleep schedule. As a new parent, you have to accept the fact that you're not going to be getting nearly as much sleep as you were use to pre pregnancy (I stopped sleeping at around 5 months), but if you want to have energy to do daily tasks, like showering and brushing your teeth and feeding yourself, try to do this as soon as possible.

1) Stock up on coffee, red bull, whatever you need, and force yourself to stay up so you can make sure you're little angel is not sleeping all day and partying all night. It's so easy to want to close you're eyes for "just a second", but don't! The payoff is worth staying awake for 48 hours straight (you'll get some sleep, don't worry).

2) Choose when naptime works best for you. Sweet Baby Zo Zo gets 2 naps a day. Once around 11am and 3. 11 is when I get my workout in and 3 is when I usually take a nap with her.

3) Wear her out when she's awake. Play hard, sleep harder. Dance, tickle, crawl, jump. Don't have your kid sit and watch Disney Junior all day. Movies and television don't burn hardly any energy.

4) Decide what time you would like your child to go to sleep. I'm always nervous with anything before 7:30pm. Fear of a well rested child waking up at 3am is my nightmare. Whether the baby is sleepy at that the time the first few nights isn't important. Set up a routine that the baby knows that after dinner, bath and story come bed. Sometimes Sweet Baby Zo Zo won't go down right away. I usually put a few toys in her crib and she plays until she falls asleep on her own.

5) Never let your baby oversleep. Or if you do, be sure to adjust. If she takes a long morning nap, she just gets one nap that day and will probably go to bed a little earlier. Or if the afternoon nap stretches a little late, I'm ready to have her up until 10. This goes for the morning as well. Pick the wake up time and make sure to stay close to that. Otherwise, your whole day will be pushed back.

6) Learn your baby's sleepy ques. Things they do to show they're tired. Sweet Baby Zo Zo will rub her eyes, get fussy for no other reason and want a big bottle right before bed.

Here's how a typical day goes for her:

8:00-9:30 Wake up

9:30 Breakfast

9:45-11 Playtime/Movie

11-1 Nap

1 Lunch

1:30 Story/Playtime

3-4 Nap

4-6:30 Family Time

6:30 Dinner

7-8:30 Bedtime

8:30-Until GROWN UP TIME

Don't follow our schedule hour for hour. This is more of a guideline. Life is always changing when you have a baby, so sticking to this on the daily basis is damn near impossible. Plus, figure out what works for your family. I promise though, if you follow these tips diligently for a week straight, your baby will go from a nocturnal demon spawn to the precious sleeping angel you prayed for.

The perks of having grown up time are endless. That is your pocket of time to feel as much like your old self as possible. For me, it's Christmas ale, non animated movie and kinky sex time. For you, you may read or knit or play sudoku. Your life has changed so much so quickly. Don't feel bad for missing you. Don't feel bad for longing for a drink or wanting to dress up in leather for your man or playing so much Grand Theft Auto V that you want to walk out your apartment and randomly start shooting people (don't)

Remember, parenting is as hard as you allow it to be. It's all about putting in the time and work.