Baby food

I figured out what we spend on the wonderful pureed baby food for the month of December. Are you ready for this? $50. Yes I know, it's crazy because the dang kid isn't even that big and really doesn't eat $50 worth of food in my opinion. You want to know what is worse? I purchased all the baby food on sale and it was still $50. So I decided that I was going to make my own baby food.

I read the book Super Baby Food and thought the author was an overachieving nut job. . . who had some good ideas worth trying. But if she thinks for one MINUTE that I am going to grind my own grains and make baby cereal from scratch or build myself a homemade yogurt cooker then she has another thing coming. But the book did encourage me to try the whole baby food deal because the author claimed it was simple.

And it was simple. I did some pureeing with Lucas and ultimately just fed him store bought baby food because finding produce worth a damned that was affordable was next to impossible. But with Nick I have access to lots of yummy produce at very reasonable rates.

I am proud to report that I have now made the following baby foods which I expect to feed Nick for a month:

• pears
• kiwi
• sweet potato
• papaya
• prunes
• pears with blackberries
• squash
• applesauce

To make all of this food (which is filling my freezer) it cost me a whopping $16 not including the reusable Gladware containers.

I'm the bestest most wholesome Mom ever huh? Yeah hold onto the award until you hear this:

Nick has for the last two months screamed and cried when we try to get him to fall asleep by himself in his own bed. We thought we had this all behind us until a few nights ago when he started screaming all over again. The doctor checked him and he is totally healthy. And his separation anxiety is really REALLY bad. I can't set him down with out the waterworks starting. I can't leave the room or anything. The kid is super clingy. Last night we tried like we do every night to force him to sleep by letting him cry it out - again. I am ashamed to say that this usually works after hours of screaming, swollen eyes, throwing up, more screaming, Nick loosing his voice and finally. . . he goes to sleep. Then this is repeated throughout the night.

Well last night was the LAST NIGHT that we will do this to our poor little Nick. I finally had a long overdue light bulb come on that asked me "Why are you doing this?". And the only answer AJ and I could come up with was that "this" was what we were told we were supposed to do. Nick is happy in our bed, we are happy with Nick in our bed. . . so SCREW ALL THE PROFESSIONALS who told us that this was going to damage our kid and our marriage because they aren't the ones trying to get some sleep. They don't have to deal with the crushing guilt I am living with and more importantly they aren't the ones who have to look at a freaked out little baby with a rash and swollen red eyes from crying so much.