Diaper Rash Woes

I'm so sad that my little one has had diaper rash for the past week or so. She never got diaper rash before she starting eating solids and now she gets it every couple weeks. This current go around is a bit harder for me to kick. Her other rashes went away after a few days. This one is sticking around much too long.

I am always pretty neurotic about changing Quorra's diapers often. Once I notice that she has pooped or peed she gets changed. Then I dry her bottom with a cloth diaper before putting her disposable diaper on. I give her no-diaper time after her bath too. This process was great for preventing diaper rash for the first six months of her life. Once Quorra started eating solids, though, I couldn't keep them away. I watch what foods she eats to see if a certain one or type of food causes it and I haven't found any correlation.

I thought maybe it's the wipes... Maybe it's the diapers... Maybe it's the person who took care of her that day... I can't figure it out.

Quorra's poor little bottom is all red, raw, and now peeling a tiny bit. I feel so bad for her. I can tell it's painful since she fusses when I wipe her (which I don't do unless I have to). Petroleum jelly hasn't helped. Desatin hasn't  helped. Burt's Bees Diaper Ointment hasn't helped. I have now turned to A&D Ointment.

Wish me luck. If you all have any suggestions I would love to hear them. If the ointment doesn't help my next step is to put breastmilk on her bottom. Sounds weird, I know, but I have heard that breastmilk does wonders.

Have you moms have had a diaper rash that just wouldn't go away? What helped?

Babies, Babies Everywhere!

Sorry I have been absent lately. I am learning that it was actually easier to take care of Quorra when she was a newborn. She is now 7 months old (cue tears) and requires constant attention. She is either eating, playing, or cuddling. I get no down time. She went from sleeping practically all the time that she wasn't nursing to taking one 45 minute (if I'm lucky) nap in the evening. On the weekends when I get to spend the whole day with her she still only takes a few naps throughout the entire day and they are all shorter than an hour. She needs to be entertained all the time. Like, now. She is yelling at me from her bouncer because she is now bored with it.

I love playing with her though. She laughs and giggles and squeals. She is amazing and is learning all the time. I wish that I could look at things with the same amazement that she does. As Quorra is getting older she is much more persistent with her need for mommy-cuddles. She is definitely a mommy-baby. It's fine with me because I love to have her with me and, even though it makes it tough to do anything else, I'll stop what I'm doing anytime to hold her. My family has noticed that she wants to always be with mommy and has made comments about her  learning to be okay with separation. Really, when I am gone she is fine. She wants me when she knows I am there. While it might get on some people's nerves I am truly okay with it. Okay.... I'll be honest. I love it. I love knowing that all Quorra wants is me.

On another note, I have another nephew as of today!! My brother Chris has a new son! His fiancee, Kendalle, gave birth to a 7 lb 13.8 oz little boy today at 6:45pm. His name is Benjamin Nunes (Nunes is a family name) and he is adorable.

Both parents and Benjamin are doing great but are very tired. I got to see them for a few minutes today but was sure not to stay long. I know that after giving birth all you want to do is sleep for a couple minutes and spend time getting to know your baby. I'll see them again tomorrow, I'm sure. 

If you couldn't tell yet, our family is pretty good at making the babies. Benjamin is the fifth in the past 12 months. And my second cousin is expecting her first baby in September. The family reunion this year is going to be chock full of babies. I can't wait to get them all together! 

I am so excited that I got to meet the new member of the family. I am nervous for the young parents but they have the best support system in the world. 

Nom Nom

My loverly sister’s mother-in-law got me a Baby Bullet for my baby shower gift. She got the word from Jessica that I was planning to make my own baby food and wanted the magical Baby Bullet. Good job, Lela! I love it!

We planned to wait until Quorra was six months old to start her on solids. I did my research on starting babies on solids and the best thing for their little baby guts is to wait until they are six months or 15 pounds. Since Quorra is a little bean and not yet 15 pounds we went with the six month milestone. About a week before her half birthday we started her on “real food.”

I took out my handy-dandy Baby Bullet and got to work. The cook book that comes with the Baby Bullet was very helpful. Not necessarily because of the recipes, but because it gives you information on what to give babies when and how often. I’ll go through the best way to transition to solids a little later. First I’ll tell you how I made my baby food.

I took ½ cup of brown rice and milled it to a powder. Then I mixed the rice powder with 4 cups of water and brought it to a boil. Once it boiled I turned it to low, cover, and cooked it for 20 minutes. Once it was done I let it cool and put it into my little baby food containers and freezer tray. The recipe actually made more then would fit into the containers and tray so some of it went into a Pyrex container in the freezer.

Cooking the rice cereal

On to the bananas! I took a banana, peeled it, put it in the blender cup with some water, and blended it. TA-DA! Banana baby food. The second time I made it I didn’t add the water. The blended bananas alone are liquid-y enough.

Banana puree in the freezer tray

Quorra did pretty good with the food, considering all she had tasted to that point was boob milk. Honestly, after a couple rounds of making baby food I don’t know why people buy the stuff. It’s super easy and sooo much cheaper. A half cup of brown rice makes 16 or so servings. One banana makes about 4 servings, depending on the size (that’s what she said). And by “serving” I mean a full container of food. Quorra is only eating ¼ - ½ of a container per meal right now. So I made her a lot of food for PENNIES. Seriously, go buy a Baby Bullet and make your own baby food. Right now.

Happy little containers of delicious homemade baby food

My next step is to buy an electric steamer. This way when I start giving her food that I need to steam first I can do it in the electric steamer and just let it do its own thing instead of watching it on the stove.

Okay, so now I will tell you the process to moving from boob to food. Of course, all babies and mommies are different so don’t take this as me saying this is the “right” way. This is just the way I’m doing it as a result of suggestions from my pediatrician, my research results, and how it works for me and Quorra. I waited until my little bean was six months old and then started given her one meal of food a day. We give it to her between 7am and noon and she gets ¼ - ½ of a container of food and then some boob.

Nom

We started her on rice cereal and bananas since they were both more bland tastes. We are giving her about a week before we try new foods. This helps her tummy and taste buds get used to the food before we move her on to a new food. It also is a way to look for allergies. Our pediatrician recommended one food per week but we did two. (She knows, it’s cool.) After a couple weeks of her having one meal a day we are going to move to two meals a day. Our next food will probably be either apples or pears.

Then we are going to gradually (over months) add more meals of baby food. She will still get plenty of breast milk and will end baby food meals with more boob. As she gets older she’ll also get to try thicker consistencies of food and more mixtures. My plan is to supplement with breast milk until she is a year old. This is my goal for now. We are going to play it by ear as we go through moving to food. I can’t see myself breast feeding until she is two but who knows. Never say never. And if she decides before she is a year old that she is good with only food then we will stop nursing. She seems to love nursing as much as I do so I have a feeling that that won’t happen. As she gets teeth we will move to finger foods.

I want to make her as much of her food as I can. I’m sure there will be a time when I get lazy and buy food but I know it is healthier for her to have homemade food. This way I know what is in her food. Plus, it won’t have any weird chemical or preservatives in it. Her bananas were brown within a couple hours. What do they do to the jarred bananas to keep them from browning? My ingredients for banana baby food: bananas. Rice cereal ingredients: brown rice and water.

I will give you all updates as we go along with the move to solids. Who knows what Quorra or I will decide works best but at least I have a plan laid out. I’m a planner, remember? I need one. I am comfortable knowing that we might vary from the plan. That’s just how it goes with a baby. 

Wuz Appaningggg

If you didn’t know, the title of this post is a reference to Born in East LA. If you haven’t seen Born in East LA you should watch it. It’s funny.

So an update to what has been “appening” is that I finally got to meet George! Also, some new tattoos have made their debut!

Last weekend my cousin Kristin came down from Pennsylvania to hang out with us for a bit before her maternity leave was over. She was getting a little stir crazy in the house so she came down to Virginia with little George. I’m super duper glad she came down! I really was looking forward to meeting George and he is adorable. He’s just a little string bean and oh so handsome. He looks so much like his late grandfather (his namesake) that it is pretty unbelievable.

Hi George!

Kristin rode down with my aunts on Friday and we went to my in-laws restaurant, Mamma Mias, for dinner. That is becoming our regular routine when the cousins come to visit us. Then Kristin, Jessica, and I spent Saturday hanging around with the three adorable babies. Sunday I took Miss Quorra to church and then we spent the day with the family. That night us girls went out to dinner with the fabulous RHH.

Be jealous. We hoard cuteness.

Also, Romeo and I got new tattoos!! When I was pregnant I told Romeo that I would like to get a tattoo of our new baby girl’s birth date. After I knew for sure what I wanted to get and felt back to normal, post birth, I asked Romeo if he would be interested in getting a tattoo as well. It would be his first so I was surprised how excited he was at the idea.

So we went to the tattoo parlor and made our appointments. My tattoo was done a few days before Romeo’s and he got even more excited after he saw mine. I ended up getting Quorra’s name along with her birth date. I feel like to matter what happens in life, she will always be my daughter. Through thick and thin, arguments and cuddles, I am her mommy and she is my baby. I LOVE the way my tattoo ended up! I told the artist that I wanted it to be simple, feminine, and for it to fit my body well. I think he did exactly that. It is hard for me to photograph myself because of where it is. I bends when I move so it tends to look curved. I promise it is straight in person.

Love it!

Romeo got a version of a sacred heart with Quorra’s name in a banner. It looks amazing! I’m so glad that he decided to go for it and get the tattoo. He loves it too and I am looking forward to our portrait session with Quorra so we can get pictures of her with our two tattoos.

Love his too!

 I already have another tattoo in the works. No details for you now, but it will be a bonding tattoo for the Fierce Foursome of us cousins. I can’t wait to go get it.