Homemade Baby Food

     I've been neglecting the blog lately. My excuse? No time. Sara Beth is in a very hands-on stage right now. It's not a bad thing, but it does take all my attention.
     For the last 6.75 months, Sara Beth has been exclusively breastfed. No water, cereal, formula, or baby food yet. She's been gaining weight, meeting all the right milestones, and growing strong and smart with just her momma's milk. I'm pretty proud of that! What a blessing!
     Well, she's growing up fast and it's finally time for her to taste what else is out there. (I've put it off long enough!) I'm still planning to nurse her every four hours or so, except during the night when she goes 10-12 hours. The baby food is just for tasting, to get her used to solid foods. She tasted sweet potatoes for the first time this morning and seemed to like them. It was a fun morning for our little family!
     Those of you that know me well, will not be surprised that I'm making SB's food from scratch. No offense to anyone that uses jarred baby food, but here are my thoughts on it. Adam and I do not eat very much packaged food, so why should SB? Baby food is really easy to make, so no worries.
     Here are some pictures from my first time making baby food and Sara Beth's first time eating it. Enjoy!

Sweet potatoes and zucchini from the farmer's market and organic apples from the grocery store



Sweet potatoes ready to steam. I love this little machine (Thanks, Carol!), but you could do the same thing with a pot of water, a steamer basket, and a food processor.



All cooked and blended

My supplies- A cookbook, freezer trays, and Sara Beth's first sippy cup of water

Almost done and ready for the freezer

Her first bite of yummy food-- delicious!

Going Green

The slogan is everywhere these days. It's on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and even the topic of decorating shows on HGTV. "Going green" is very trendy right now. I guess whether it's a trend or not, it's still good for the environment. We're doing our part by using cloth diapers and cloth wipes and by taking full advantage of Shreveport's curb-side recycling program. We need to do more, I know, but any little bit helps.
Recycling-- It bugs me beyond measure when I drive past a blue recycling can filled with trash. How hard is it to throw paper, plastic, glass, and metal into the blue bin instead of the black one? You don't even have to separate it! We overflow our little recycle bin in the kitchen twice as often as we take out the trash. Soon we're going to start composting too. That should cut down even more on the trash that we produce.
Cloth diapers-- Tuesday, when our weekly supply of clean cloth diapers were delivered, it came with a note from CottonTails saying that we had already saved 547 diapers from being thrown in the local landfill. Isn't that amazing? We've been using cloth diapers for less than 2 months so far and have already used that many diapers. Crazy! We are really enjoying the cloth diapers, by the way. Sara Beth hasn't had any sign of diaper rash. I guess cotton is good for her little bottom. It's super easy once you get the hang of it-- not much harder than disposables. I definitely recommend using cloth diapers, with or without the diaper service, to anyone with a baby.
Cloth wipes-- At first, I was using disposable wipes. I mean, we had a closet full of them from our baby showers. Why not use them up? But, after I saw how quickly those disappeared, I decided to give cloth wipes a try. I looked into purchasing some online, but they were too expensive for frugal me. Then, while on the internet, I saw a post about how you could cut up flannel receiving blankets and make wipes out of them. Great idea! I had an overflow of blankets that I needed to do something with anyway. It was really easy. I just cut the blankets into 7 inch by 7 inch squares and sewed 2 squares together. Ta Da-- close to 100 2-ply reusable cloth baby wipes for free! It doesn't even add much to my laundry stack either. Even if I washed all of my wipes at the same time (which I never do), it would be like washing 8 baby blankets. No problem! 

Cloth Diapers 101

It's been 1 week now since we started our adventure into cloth diapering. Tomorrow will be our first pick up from the diaper service. Boy, is it about time! Our diaper pail is full to the top with barely enough room for today's diapers. It's been ok so far. I'm not over the moon about them yet, but they really aren't much more trouble than disposables. We are still perfecting our folding techniques, trying our hardest to find a way to contain the poo. Pee diapers are no problem! But the poo. . . it always gets on the diaper cover (which means more laundry for me). Oh well, it's a learning experience, I guess!

On another note. . . we've been loving all the sweet friends who have visited and brought over food and gifts! We feel very loved! Thanks everybody!

Cloth Diaper Service

Today, I met with Alan from Cotton Tails Cloth Diaper Service. He brought my start-up kit with everything I'll need to diaper our sweet baby when he/she finally arrives. I was already planning on using cloth diapers before I learned about the service. In fact, I have several Bum Genius All-in-one diapers in the closet. I was ready to do it all myself, when, at my last baby shower, Adam's parents gave us a great gift--- 6 months of paid cloth diaper service with Cotton Tails. Thanks Mrs. Jonell and Mr. David! It's a brand-new business that just started last month. Alan, the owner, lives a mile from us and he and his wife are expected their first baby as well. It's great that we have this type of service available in Shreveport now! I hope it takes off! If you are interested, check them out at http://www.louisianacottontails.com/. It costs about the same as using disposable diapers, but it's way better for the environment.