Mommy is taking over the feedings

Tristan has lost his appetite and he is not eating much or drinking much milk. It has become a power struggle to feed him anything. We refuse to feed him unhealthy things so if he doesn't eat, we just stop feeding him. Having said that, we do try and get him to eat what he will in a hour. We didn't used to have a time limit but now we do. He gets cranky if he has to stay in the highchair too long. If he doesn't finish his food, we just offer it in his next meal.

A good meal is when Tristan eats at least 50% of what we give him. Tonight, he ate about 5%. I didn't feed him since I wanted a break for a change so I let Jean-Louis do it. Needless to say I am much more effective at feeding Tristan and although I absolutely hate meal time these days, I have to take charge and do the feedings from now on or Tristan is going to lose weight. I am so frustrated! No one is to blame and I know Jean-Louis really tries during the feeding too. I pretty much have been helping him feed Tristan the past couple of weeks. Tonight I was fed up and so tired of it so I let him do it all. After I prepared the meal and placed it on the table, I just let him take over. After wards, I was just mad because Tristan pretty much skipped the meal. The hour was up so we just had to move on.

Believe me when I say that we have tried hard and tried everything. We have consulted books and looked online and it seems like a very common problem around this time. That doesn't make it less frustrating though. We prepare finger food for Tristan because he is happy eating that way. As he eats, we also finger feed him because he is picky and ends up chucking most of the food on the floor. This is how it goes. We give him the spoon to play with during meal time so he can learn how to use it. From what I can see, I think he is still far away from feeding himself with a spoon :(

I am happy to cook baby food but these days, we keep having leftovers and I find myself having to cook something new for him almost every day to keep it interesting. I am also starting to throw food away too and those that know me know how I hate to waste food. There you have it - I said hate twice in the same post!

Just to give you an idea of what we have been feeding him lately, the following is a list of what his meals consisted of today. Note, besides breakfast, he didn't eat everything we offered him. He also gets 2 sessions of breastmilk feeding and 1 bottle of formula.

BREAKFAST

• 4-5 heaping tbsp Multigrain cereal (flavored with fruit)
• 2 tbsp of plain high-fat yogurt
• 1-2 tbsp of cooked apple
• water
• 1 ml Vitamin D

LUNCH

• 1 tbsp of tomato
• 3-4 slices of chayotes
• 2-3 tbsp of baked kabocha squash
• 5 pieces of whole wheat rotini
• small chunk of overcooked veal
• few peas & corns
• 1/5 slice of whole wheat bread
• 1 tbsp of mozzarella
• A few nutrios
• water

DINNER

• The leftover lunch (2 slices of chayotes, smaller chunk of veal, some tomato)
• 3 tbsp tomato
• 5 pieces of whole wheat rotini
• 2 tbsp of overcooked lima beans
• 1-2 tbsp of fruit (pomegranate seeds & banana)
• water

H1N1 and seasonal flu shots

As parents, we all know how miserable it is when your baby falls ill. If the baby is sick, they are cranky, they may not sleep well, or eat well, and are extra clingy. If that isn't bad enough, chances are you will catch their cold too and fall sick yourself. And being sick and haven't to take care of a sick baby is the worst of the worst things out there! So there you have it - we're not taking our chances and Tristan needs to be vaccinated against the flu.

Yesterday, we brought Tristan in to a public clinic that opened up in our neighborhood. They were administering H1N1 and seasonal flu shots. It's only the second week that the H1N1 vaccine has been available in Canada and this week Tristan falls under the priority group of children 6 months to 5 years. The H1N1 vaccine will probably open up to the general public in a week or two and that will be when Jean-Louis and I will get ours. We also plan to get the seasonal flu shot. We have never gotten the seasonal flu shot before but since we became parents, it has become much more important for us to stay well. I am especially concerned about myself since I can't explain how I could have fallen sick 3 times in the past 3 months. I am normally quite resistant to catching colds. I'm so tired of getting sick.

The clinic we went to was open from 9AM-3PM. We wanted to go early because we didn't want them to run out of vaccines. We heard about shortages in vaccines and long line ups so we were a bit worried. It started out exactly how I pictured it: lining up outside in the cold and freezing rain. I felt sorry for some of the parents and kids in the line up because they were all under dressed for the weather. It was no fun but once we got inside, things went quite well. Tristan received 2 pokes, 1 in each thigh. He cried on initial contact only. He was such a trooper :) Afterwards, we were instructed to sit down for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have a reaction to the vaccine. The whole journey took about 2 hours and we got home around 12:45PM.

When we got home, we just continued on with the rest of our daily routine. Tristan seemed to be doing well so we didn't even bother giving him any Tylenol. We have been observing him and feeling for his temperature but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He went to sleep at his usual bedtime of 9PM. During the night, we noticed he had some difficulty staying asleep. This was unusual so I got Jean-Louis to check his temperature the second time he woke up. He felt a bit warm so we decided to give him some Tylenol around 2:30AM. After that, I held him for a bit until he fell asleep and then I put him down. That seemed to have done the trick and he slept until 8:30AM. In the morning, after his milk, we gave him a second dosage of Tylenol. After that, I think we more or less returned back to normal.

Weaning the baby from breastmilk

For the past 3 days, I eliminated my afternoon feeding and gave Tristan a bit more formula milk and solid food. The thought of weaning still makes me sad but lately having to endure another cold without proper medication, a breast yeast infection, and now teeth clamping on my nipples, I actually think weaning would be great about now. I am down to just two feedings per day.

Honestly, I did not anticipate all the teeth clamping and biting. When Tristan's bottom teeth came out, he didn't bite me while I fed him and there was no problem at all. Now with his razor sharp big teeth coming out at the top, he can't help but clamp down while sucking. Apparently, he did it in the past without me knowing. I noticed some scars not too long ago. However, now his teeth is really starting to stick out and it hurts like hell when he clamps down! And at the same spot over and over - ouch! I'm losing some serious skin and possibly flush, I don't know. I actually tried to feed him at a different angle today but it wasn't effective. Grrr!

I remember a friend telling me that if the baby bites during breastfeeding, remove him, tell him, and try again. This is how you teach him not to bite on Mommy while feeding. My problem is that I didn't do that to start with so if I start now, he would be clueless. He has been feeding like this for a long time and he probably thinks he is doing everything just right. Actually, there were a few times I had to remove him since it hurt so much. I just try to re-latch him on in a slightly different angle. Now, he doesn't do it all the time because sometimes it doesn't hurt at all. The question is how do I explain that to him? When I remove him too often, he gets annoyed and he doesn't even want to drink. Yeah, these days it has been fairly hard to feed him as is.

Baby's first Halloween

Happy Halloween! I got to carve a pumpkin this year - woohoo! I love carving pumpkins. Last year I didn't because I was too pregnant. This year I decided to carve one for Tristan so after browsing around for ideas, I settled on aviator Snoopy. Since there is so much talk these days about the movie, Amelia, I thought it was appropriate as well :) This design was a lot simpler than most of my previous carvings but it still took around 40 minutes. As usual, Jean-Louis prepped the pumpkin for me by removing most of the flesh inside. He did a great job but I could have actually used a bit more flesh in the area I was working in, if you know what I mean ;-) Anyhow, it all worked out and I'm happy with the end result :)

We bought a scary shirt from Gymboree for Tristan to wear. We probably shouldn't have done that since he will only get to wear it once or people might think we are creeps. Actually, I already put it on him one other time leading up to Halloween. The skeleton on it is suppose to glow in the dark but I don't see it. Maybe in special lighting?

Jean-Louis and I are feeling a bit under the weather so there was no party tonight. It's too bad because Halloween doesn't often land on a Saturday night. If I were much younger and childless (and not sick), I would have loved to throw a costume party. My cold is actually getting worst. I don't think having New York Fries for lunch helped either! I am drinking so much too and honestly, I think it is only making me pee more, nothing else. Man, I hate being sick and I can't wait to get the flu shot. Never had it before so I sure hope it will work magic.

Things I meant to report

I have a random list of things I meant to say but it didn't make sense to create blog posts for each of them. I'm just going to list them below. In other words, this is the lazy me trying to skip blog posts :)

• Tristan started clapping his hands this past week.
• Tristan started teething at the top of his mouth 1 or 2 weeks ago. He's going to look like a bunny soon.
• We confirmed a few days ago that Tristan is allergic to eggplant. We suspected it before and the same thing happened this time when we fed him some. His chin turned red almost instantly after he ate it. Hopefully, he will grow out of it. Neither of us have any food allergies so we think it is just bizarre that he would.
  
• A few days ago, I caught a cold. It's the third time since mid August!
• A few days ago, I started to treat myself for another breast yeast infection. Ugh.
  
• A few days ago, I discovered bloody marks on my nipple so Tristan has definitely been biting me!
  
• I was contacted about a job recently that I didn't apply for. That is always a good thing :)
• Less than a week ago, I discovered that there is a Jacadi in Vancouver! I know!!!
• In the past week or so, I wait listed Tristan in 2 more nearby daycares and started to look into nanny sharing and babysitting. No leads so far but honestly, I haven't put a lot of time into it yet :(
  
• Just yesterday, Tristan started to drag the exersaucer across the room of the office. He's also playing with wires and plugs a lot more now. And he loves to open drawers and cupboards!
  
• Recently, Tristan hates being strapped in the highchair for feeding. This is a first.
• The past two days, I have started to feed Tristan a bit more formula milk. So far he is drinking everything.
• Last but not least, Tristan is now sleeping from 9:30PM to 7 or 7:30AM. This has been going on for about 2 weeks now (knock on wood). As a result, his naps are a bit shorter during the day. It's great news for me since I get to sleep in a bit more but at the same time, I can't do much during the day since he is up most of the time. Oh well - you can't win them all :)
  

A big potato mess

Lately, Tristan has been wanting to eat on his own. We prepare finger foods for him like cubed carrots, branches of broccoli, tofu, rotini pasta, and cheese. It's a bit of a pain for us to let him eat like this because it means massive cleanup for us afterwards. The alternative is for us to feed him and he cries throughout the entire feeding. When it comes to babies, no option is a great option. The past few days we opted for the no crying option and big mess. Today's lunch was a huge mess.

I decided to cook potato for a change. We like to give him a little something different every day so he doesn't get too bored. He is teething at the top right now too so it is even more important to keep him happy during meal time. Now, if he would only eat potato like cheese, it wouldn't be so bad but he ate it like... well, potatoes :( Massive, massive mess. He squeezed them, chucked them on the floor, smeared them on the tray, and he ate some. This is typical of his behavior, except if it were another vegetable, it wouldn't be so bad. The potatoes were powdery and would dry hard. He rubbed his face, stroked his hair, ears, - pretty much everything was touched by potato. It acted like a gel in his hair - yuck! I think he liked how it felt being sticky to his head so he kept touching and massaging his head with the mash potato. I sat eating my hot pot soup and shaking my head while I watched. Why, why did I give him potato this way? Well, what was done was done and I couldn't waste the moment without a good picture and then writing this post to warn all the other parents NOT to finger feed their babies overcooked potatoes.

Lesson learned: don't use overcooked yellow potatoes as finger food for the baby.

He's walking!

Jean-Louis bragged about Tristan taking 2 steps the other day but I didn't see it. He has maybe taken a step before but I wouldn't call that walking. Today, he took at least 4 quick steps towards me so it is now official. Tristan is walking! Does that make him a toddler now? Wow, babies sure don't stay babies for long.

First steps and walking - amazing! Tonight, we will bring out the camcorder and try to record it. We'll try after dinner because after a meal is when he is usually the most hyper and energetic. We did the same thing when he started to crawl. Exciting but scary too. Now, we have to toddler proof our home!