Doing well here and happy to have my trusty partner in parenting, Going Mom, home since she took off today. Avery is having her 6 month checkup and a couple more vaccinations. Remember her 5 month shots?
Yeah, oh joy…..
I’ll let you know how everything goes, but now I just want to talk about the Going Strong Challenge I posted several days ago; run a 5k with your kids.
So, have you found a race yet? Not trying to be pushy, just thought I’d check in. I know I don’t have thousands of readers or anything, but if just one of you accepts and finishes the challenge, I’d be satisfied.
Really, just getting out and being active with your kids is the main message here. I still need to pick a race to run or walk (run if in stroller, walk if I’m wearing her) with Avery, but I am signed up and ready to run my last 10k before I’m 30!
The race is called the Unforgotten Heroes Memorial Day Run and is a 5k or 10k. This is the 1st annual run and will be held at the Texas Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on Memorial Day. That’s Monday, May 26th, if you needed to know.
If you’re in the area, come join the fun and support a great cause! Are you already running on Memorial Day? What race do you have lined up?
Most of my “training” has been with Avery in the B.O.B. and our Golden, Abby, on a leash. Needless to say, I’m not expecting to PR by any means, just to run my best and enjoy the last race of my twenties. Eeeesh!
Since this run will be solo with Kelley and Avery there to support me, I still need to step up to my own challenge and run a 5k with Avery. There are plenty of races this summer so don’t worry, it won’t be long before I find one.
The best supporters, and best looking!
Hope you’re having a great Friday and getting ready for a fun and relaxing Memorial Day weekend!
Are you or aren’t you running a race this weekend?
I’m convinced Avery, and probably a lot of other babies are all aware of yo-yo dieting! Maybe babies were the ones that actually started the whole fad diet! Most likely (and realistically) not, but maybe…
How often do you and others around you make a comment about baby’s chubby legs, Michelin Man arms, or fat cheeks? I know Going Mom and I are guilty of saying something like this about Avery every day. To us, it’s cute, but to them, weeeelllllll maybe they are really concerned about their figure.
In being so concerned about their “chubby” figure, I think that’s why babies refuse the bottle, real food put in front of them, and sometimes even the boob. One day they will be eating like champs, but the next day you’re lucky just to get them to eat anything! Uh oh, did you mention something about their giant cheeks some time in between?
Okay, again, this sounds pretty farfetched, but doesn’t it feel that way sometimes?
Avery has days where she’ll happily and easily accept the bottle from me and we’re all good. Then, other days, she’ll start out fine for like a minute, and then push out with her tongue and turn her head side to side. I eventually get the message and reluctantly give up.
Oh sure, she’s interested in THAT bottle!
Just the other week she was tearing through herbottles to where everything Going Mom left for us in the fridge was gone. I was feeling pretty proud of myself and I was even happy to get up early in the morning when she was crying for food.
Kelley is an awesome mom and gets up in the wee hours to feed Avery even though she has to go to work. On occasion, I will go to feed Avery a bottle instead so Kelley can get a little more rest, and it can be a hassle. Trying to feed a squirmy baby with a bottle in the dark is hard, but when they refuse the thing, it’s down right impossible!
So, that was last week and we had gotten used to thinking she’s going to be eating more from here on out. Rookie parents here, checking in! Avery is now back on her bottle boycott and we fight to the last ounce just like times before.
All of this fluctuation in eating is apparently a normal baby thing, but I’m holding out and saying there’s a .000328% chance that babies know about and practice yo-yo dieting.
Which brings me to my other speculation about babies and eating; introducing solids. We recently started to introduce Avery to solid foods through baby-led weaning with zero success so far. The first day we blamed it on her being too tired and fussy, but the second try she was awake and was happy. Then we put her in the highchair.
If you look close enough, I think you can see two horns starting to poke out of her forehead.
We’ve tried a few times since then all with no luck. Being the college-educated parents that we are, we knew it couldn’t be the food that’s making her mad, so it must be the highchair. Deductive reasoning at its finest!
With our revelation, we tried offering food with her in the best baby seat in the house hoping for better results. I even showed her how fun and exciting a green bean can be!
She wasn’t buying it. I mean, c’mon, doesn’t it look exciting? No? So maybe she just doesn’t like green; I’ll try a pretty carrot!
Crap, we’re running out of things to blame it on other than that she’s a baby and doing anything new takes time…….and A LOT of patience!
Although we really don’t like the highchair we have, I guess we’ll stop making up reasons why Avery isn’t immediately taking to new food. So we’ll have patience and keep on trying, and as some of you have commented, maybe I’ll give in and offer something sweeter. 🙂
But seriously, we are thinking about returning our Chicco Polly highchair to get something else. The tray is just annoying at how it slides off, and on and the crotch strap under the tray catches Avery’s feet when we try to slide it on.
What kind of highchair do/did you use?Please let us know what worked for you as maybe it will at least help Avery figure out this new way of eating!
This post is part of the Love All Dads Link-up where other awesome dads link their favorite posts from the week. Check out all of the fun other posts by clicking on the button below:
Can you think of something that has an up and a down side?
Recently, Avery hit a growth spurt and was going through bottles just like her diapers! This is the up side as I was worried she wasn’t eating enough to facilitate growth. But the down side was how quickly the dirty bottles collected in the sink.
Luckily, Medela sent us their Quick Clean™ products for review at the same time.
Each day, I have to clean all of the bottles and the breast pump parts Going Mom uses at work. This can be difficult at the end of the day when Avery is demanding attention while I’m preparing dinner, picking up around the house, and Going Mom is just trying to change out of work clothes.
Since I’m not the one pumping breastmilk at work, Going Mom made use of the wipes and micro-steam bags while I used the breastmilk removal soap to tackle the mounting bottles at home. With feedback from my wife, I’ll go over each item providing our pros and cons.
Quick Clean™ Breastmilk Removal Soap
Medela’s description:
Quick Clean breastmilk removal soap removes stubborn breastmilk residue up to 3 days old and is clinically tested under physician supervision not to cause skin irritation. No-scrub soap is safe and hypoallergenic with no added fragrance or taste that might discourage baby from breastfeeding.
I had trouble accepting the “no-scrub” part of this soap, but appreciate that it is fragrance free and didn’t irritate my skin. I followed the directions on the bottle and used 3 pumps of soap for every gallon of lukewarm water. I let Kelley’s breast pump parts and all of the components of the bottles soak for 5 minutes and rinsed with water.
Not using the bottle brush saved a lot of time and it felt too good to be true. Unfortunately, it was too good to be true; at least the no-scrub part. After letting everything air dry, the bottles had a haziness that we haven’t seen before and just didn’t seem thoroughly clean.
But don’t wave this off as ineffective, I tried it again along with using the scrubber and everything came out clean; no haze! So maybe the soap cleans without scrubbing, but I don’t like seeing a haze and scrubbing will fix that.
Pros:
Can be used for all breast pump parts, bottles, nipples, and even dishes
Safe and hypoallergenic
No fragrance to irritate skin or alter taste for baby
Cons:
“No-scrub” didn’t work (for me)
Quick Clean™ Breastpump & Accessory Wipes
Medela’s description:
Convenient portable cleaning, no need for soap and water cleaning after each pump session. Hygienic wipes proven safe for cleaning of breastpumps and accessories as well as high chairs, tables, cribs and countertops.
Kelley used these at work after pumping and liked them for the most part, but they left a soapy residue that needed to be rinsed. Also, it is difficult to get into the small areas of some of the parts with the wipes alone. She still prefers to just have me clean everything with the Quick Clean™ Soap when she gets home and that’s fine with me; she’s busy enough as it is!
Since the wipes are good for more than just pump parts, we are having better luck using them at home. Now that we’re starting baby-led weaning with Avery, I have a feeling they will be quite handy for the highchair!
Pros:
Able to use anywhere when on the go
Good for cleaning more than just breast pump accessories like high chairs, countertops, toys, and more
Hygienic
Cons:
Leaves a soapy film that sometimes needs rinsing
Can’t get into the hard to reach places on small parts
Quick Clean™ Micro-Steam™ Bags
Medela’s description:
Disinfect your breastpump breastshields, accessories, breastmilk bottles, nipples, pacifiers and more in about 3 minutes.
Of the three products, these are hands down our favorite! Going Mom uses the bags at work and home to clean and sanitize all breast pump accessories and bottle nipples. We love how quick and efficient the bags are and they are easily transportable.
Pros:
Kills 99.9% of germs and bacteria when used
Simple to use
Great for storing pump parts and keeps you from losing the small pieces
Each bag can be used up to 20 times and even includes checkboxes to make sure you keep an accurate count
Very sturdy and will not easily rip or get punctured
Cons:
None
Overall, we have been happy with Medela’s Quick Clean™ products but love the steam bags the most. The soap is working fine now that I scrub and I honestly feel better about scrubbing dirty accessories anyway. Although the wipes aren’t the best solution for Going Mom when at work, I’m finding they are helpful for quick cleaning around the house.
Have you tried any of Medela’s Quick Clean™ products? If not, do you want to?
Any favorite cleaning solutions that you use?
Thank you, Medela, for allowing me the opportunity to use and review your line of Quick Clean™ products!
Disclosure: Medela provided everything mentioned in this post free of charge but did not compensate me for this post in any way. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my (and my wife’s) own.
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
