Sunday, August 28, 2011

11 months!

This picture and the two month shot have been the hardest to get...so wiggly! I wanted their California themed shirts to show up better, Caleb's is obvious, Eli has 'sunset beach' and Thomas has 'Monterey bay.'
Mr T playing the double marackas
this is how I spend my days, at the bottom of their doggy pile, afraid to move since I might knock someone over


Thomas took his first real bonafide step just a day shy of turning 11 months old!!!

Baby Food Making Operation

The growing season has been pretty rotten here. The rest of the country is boiling but the west coast has had a cold summer, just a few days over 90 degrees here! I like the heat : ) So everything that has come out of my garden, which hasn't been much, goes to the babies. In addition I buy lots of fresh fruits and veggies from the grocery store and make all sorts of different combinations of baby food. I keep it interesting for the babies by building up their repertoire of spices like basil, dill, cinnamon, cumin, rosemary just to name a few. Although I had to cut back on the amount of garlic I give them cause they started having really bad breath. I don't make really big batches of food just enough for two meals. One gets eaten fresh and the other I freeze. I don't like the idea of freezing a bunch because I want the boys to eat as much fresh food as possible and if it's been frozen for weeks it's not really fresh any more.

I kind of got inpatient with the four day wait rule to introduce something new so now I do a two day wait rule. I figure if they are going to have a bad allergy to something it'll probably show up within a day of eating it. So I spent about a week and a half getting everyone up to date with some ingredients so that the boys could have Tom-Kah, a delicious Thai soup that I make (I dabble in Thai cooking). But I'm wondering at what point do parents throw caution to the wind? It's gonna take a million years if I do a two wait rule on all new foods, I call for 2 years.
I guess I'm just not cut out for growing carrots

Breastfeeding Operation

I'm still keeping it up, everyone nurses and the last one also gets a bottle of formula. Although Eli still refuses to drink any formula which I offer it to him every so often just to see if he's changed his mind. Eli is just being ridiculous because he has no problem eating rice cereal made with formula. The biggest challenge lately is just eating enough to keep with the demands of three very active little boys. During the day I nurse each boy 5 times and on a normal night I nurse twice, on a bad one 4 times. So that is 17-19 times a day that I nurse babies! As we are approaching the boys first birthday I'm excited about patting myself on the back for providing the majority of milk my boys have drank for one whole year! It has been one of the biggest challenges of my life, I pumped exclusively until the boys were old enough to nurse on there own and then continued to pump another two months in hopes that I could stimulate my body to produce enough for everyone. And might I add I was all alone with the babies for a good chunk of that time, it is very hard to hold a baby while pumping! I prayed that no one would get too upset while I pumped. Once they turn one, I am giving myself a break. I still want to nurse them as long as they want but not too much past two, cause then it's just creepy (for me, I'm not judging anyone else here). I'm hoping Eli will drink non-formula milk so that I can do a nice rotation of nurse two babies and hand the third one a bottle/sippy cup, which they've proven capable of doing but don't want to as of yet. As they get older I'd like to drop a nursing session here and there and just have them drink regular milk.

How do they sleep?

I get this question a lot. Thomas still sleeps through the night, yay for him! But I should define what sleeping through the night means for me, which is baby wakes up but easily falls back to sleep and does NOT need to eat to fall asleep. So really most nights Thomas needs some light snuggling. Caleb and Eli only wake up once. I haven't layed down the law to stop them but I'm not in a big hurry for them to sleep through the night since I feel pretty well rested the way it is now and I really like to snuggle them. They are only little once and we have till we get sick of it to use alternative methods or maybe they'll just do it on their own like Thomas. On the other hand naps have taken a different turn. Most of the time they would fall asleep nursing or almost and I'd finish the job with a little rocking. It's pretty easy to get them to fall asleep, I've never spent more than 5 minutes if they are actually tired. Ok so lately the minute I put them down they wake up and cry. Since I have the other babies to attend to I'd just say "sorry pal but I've got to get to your brother(s), I'll come back later." Well by the time I get back they are fast asleep. So now most of the time they just put themselvses to sleep!
Eli loves his Ray Allan bear, he's so cute with it. He cuddles it, picks him up, bites his nose, or lays on it : )
it's been HOT!...well just two days really
I love this face

3 comments:

Jessica said...

Your carrots are adorable, but your kids are way cuter! Good for you, taking the time and energy to give your boys real food that will do wonders for their growing little bodies. Keep up the good work.

Myra 米兰 said...

wow! walking! Can't wait to see you guys :)

nan cee said...

Oh my how the time does fly! Next month the boys will be one year old! And they just keep getting cuter and cuter and bigger and bigger! You are certainly to be commended for all your hard work and efforts in nursing and feeding them and for growing a garden!
Cheers to you!
My love and prayers are always with you,
A. Nancy