Mommy Monday: Starting Solids!

Emilia turns 6 months next Monday, which means...weaning time!  I have gotten so many questions about when I'm going to start her on solids, what foods I'm going to feed her, how I'm going to introduce them, etc.  I have held off on weaning her till 6 months, as that's what doctors recommend in Ireland and although I can tell she's probably physically ready (she is extremely interested in food and gets so excited everytime I eat in front of her!) I really wanted her main source of nutrition for the first 6 months of her life to be breast milk.  I do intend to continue breast feeding her until 12 months though, alongside her solid foods!  Here she is sitting up in the shop model Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair...hers comes in tomorrow and we can't wait for her to get it! :)  We got the walnut one with the pink silhouette cushion.  I'm so excited to start feeding her at the table with us! 

Emilia has been reaching for anything we are eating recently and if we extend it towards her she tries to grab it and put it in her mouth!  This was what happened when my sister Erika gave her her yoghurt carton (she didn't actually get to eat any, but she tried!).  So far she has had a little lick of apple, a tiny taste of banana and an itty-bitty lick of ice-cream!  She has liked everything she tasted but to be honest, she has never been given enough to really "try" anything.  

She also has two teeth now!  Her two front bottom teeth came in together, making her smile all the more adorable :)  Hopefully this will help her out a bit when she does start on solids but even without them she wants to bite and gnaw on everything, especially hard plastic toys.  Her gums bled a bit when those teeth first started to cut through which gave me a fright but I've been assured it's totally normal (I didn't know that!!)  Right now we are giving her Teetha granules or Bonjela teething gel for the pain and she is also wearing her amber necklace, but I do take it off her at night.  

I've always known that I wanted to make all of Emilia's baby food myself so I wanted to share an amazing book that I found while pregnant.  It's the Annabel Karmel New Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner and it's full of wonderful recipes for great home-cooked meals that are easy to prepare and healthy for your baby.  She also gives you tons of information on how to begin the weaning process and what to feed your baby first, which foods are best, etc.  All things that I feel are so helpful for first-time mommies! 

 

The thing that really drew me to this particular book is the meal planner part, which gives you a clear, easy-to-follow menu for the first few weeks of feeding your baby.  You also get a meal planner for stage 2 (7-9 months) and an older baby/toddler (9 months+).  The book provides you with lots of recipes too, from the simplest of meals like fruit puree to more complicated things like full proper dinners for when the kids are older.  

I really can't tell you how helpful this book has been to me...and I haven't even started Emilia on solids yet!  But this just makes me feel a lot more confident about the whole thing and I can't wait to start preparing her meals!  It's strange because even though I generally hate cooking, the thought of cooking food for Emilia really excites me and I know I'm going to enjoy it so much!  Does anybody else feel this way?!   

Reaching for a cupcake last night...Albi wanted some too, ha ha ha!  

So that's my plan for starting Emilia on solids...I hope it answered all of your questions!  Basically I just hope to give her the best nutrition I possibly can by making her healthy home-cooked foods and trying to limit jars/store-bought baby foods with lots of added salt/sugar/nasty ingredients I don't know anything about!  I'm excited to start this journey and I definitely plan to share my experiences with all of you!  I hope you will join me :)