Baby Food!

First food = sweet potato

Someone is excited to start.  First day of solids = 6 month birthday!

Not so sure about it at first...

Getting the hang of it!

These are so yummy!

The smile says it all!

I have been waiting for this milestone for a long time!  I know...I know...I could have started solids two months ago, but then realized that we had a good thing going (aka I am lazy) and that we would wait until she was 6 months old. 

I have known since the beginning that I wanted to take the time to make my own baby food for Lainey.  Not that I have anything against the jarred stuff, but I wanted to know exactly what I was feeding her and to find the best and most fresh ingredients possible to maximize her palate.  I know what you are thinking...maximizing a baby's palate?  My goal is that she will be requesting to eat lots of different fruits and veggies from now forward and that I don't have a picky eater on my hands.  I have been researching and reading about different methods to make this as easy as possible.  Luckily, I stumbled upon some great blogs that had perfect how-to videos on methods to prepare and store baby food.  There are a lot of contraptions and appliances for buying products that make baby food, but I wanted to go simple.  The only things that I bought were a steaming basket, silicone ice cube trays, freezer bags, and a baby food cookbook.   I already had a blender and the Easter Bunny brought Lainey a small food mill that I can take for traveling or doing protiens and peas. 

First batch and so easy to make! 

Getting the system down!

Apples/Pears,
Peas,
Sweet Potato, Carrots

Just the first of many batches to come! 

So far she has eaten whole grain oatmeal cereal + mashed banana or apple/pear combo in the AM, sweet potato + avocado in the PM.  She is loving it and her favorite seems to be the sweet potato!  After tasting it, I can see why.  They were delish!  No butter, no brown sugar, no salt.  Just a simple baked sweet potato.  Maybe that is how I should start eating my food.  I forget sometimes to taste before sprinkling on the above without thinking about it.  She may have to fight me for the rest of the batch! 

-Manda

Birth Story

Happy Half Birthday Laineybug! (Three days late!) 

I can't believe that six months have passed since the day that she came into the world.  As I was reminiscing about the past 6 months with my sweet girl, I was quickly reminded of the day that she came into the world and how I really needed to write down what happened.  Let's revisit that wonderful day. 

Oct 9th, 2011
My mom, Brandon, and I made it to church and on time.  This in of itself is a miracle.
 
My water broke in the middle of the homily.  Yeah, I am being serious.  I guess Fr. Dave was really funny that day.

I nonchalantly waddled to the church bathroom thinking that I had just peed my pants instead of going into labor.

I proceeded to ask my BFF Jolena (who thankfully was also hanging out in the church bathroom with her two year old) if this is what it feels like to pee your pants. 

"Ooohhhh Noooo honey...I think that your water broke!  YEAAA!!!!"  (Jolena with a North Dakota accent)

I waddled myself out the door, water still breaking, and made it to the car in which my husband politely asked if he could put the dog's rug down on the seat for me to sit on.  Thanks honey.  I would hate to get amniotic fluid of your first born child on your sweet baby BMW's tan, soft leather. 

Called hospital and they said to get my butt in there. Luckily, I got to work in a quick shower and some breakfast at McDonalds (Egg McMuffin + Smoothie), which would come back to haunt me 10 times later that day. 

Made the trip to the hospital by 10:30am...still no contractions but the water was still breaking!  I thought that when your water broke it was done in like 2 minutes.  Nope.  It takes hours folks.  Hours.  Thank you to the movies for making me naive in this department. 

11:09am - ohhhhh, so that is what a contraction feels like!

We ask every single nurse, medical student, janitor, resident, dietary aide, and passerby to pick which name we should choose since we couldn't come to a final decision between Madeline (Mady) or Lainey.   If she came out as a red head, she was going to be a Lucy. 

Laboring until 1:00pm and I finally broke down and asked for an epidural.  Please.  Then apologized over and over again to my mom for being a farm girl and not doing this drug free.

I heard the following phrase at least 20 times.  "The anesthesiologist should be here in the next 10 minutes."   Let's just say the epidural didn't arrive until 5:00pm.  I was pissed and would have given her a piece of my mind, but the fact that this lady had the key to euphoria in the form of bupivacaine and fentanyl...I decided to thank her instead by throwing up my Egg McMuffin and Smoothie all over the bed.  

8:00pm - My husband jokes for the 100th time in that hour that he thinks that I am going to deliver a 10 lbs baby. 

We tally up our votes for our baby girl names.  I win by a landslide, but we decide to meet her first to finalize.  (Or so I tell Brandon...haha!)

9:00pm and the pushing begins.  Little did I know, but I was throwing a push party!  I kind of forgot that by choosing to have your baby at a teaching hospital entitles A LOT of peeps to be up in your business. 

Luckily...Sunday Night Football was on TV during this hour and was more entertaining to my attending, resident, medical student, and husband.  Packers vs. Falcons.  Aaron Rodgers was my attending's quarterback on his fantasy roster and he had to have a good showing.  Hello????  I know Aaron Rodgers is a stud, but can a girl get some coaching on how to deliver.  This was my first rodeo! 

9:51 pm - In the haze of Sunday Night Football, Faith Hill singing the theme song (what happened to Hank Williams Jr.?), and my husband and attending high fiving over a touchdown...I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, screaming 7 pounder that was called Baby Walker for the first 12 hours of her life. 

The amount of joy that this little bug has brought to my life is too enormous to even describe.  Happy 6 month birthday Laineybug!  I will always love you to the moon and back!

-Manda (aka Mom)

A Story by Lainey

I have so much catching up to do with the blog!  So much has happened in the past couple of weeks and I haven't had time to sit down and write it out.   The story of my life.  Warning: my goal for the weekend is to pound out at least 3-4 new blogs.  This should be exciting news for my five loyal readers!  haha! 

Lainey has done so many new things in the past two weeks and this is one of them.  All of a sudden and out of no where, she has decided to get her babble on.  Her three words that she is babbling about are: ma-ma, da-da, and ba-ba.  The funny thing is...half the time it sounds like she is either saying bad ma-ma or bad ba-ba.  Sounds like someone is in trouble.  :o) 

Enjoy!

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny herself

Loving this stuff called grass!

Easter is one of my favorite holidays for many reasons.  Spring is in the air and there is nothing like tulips, hyacinths, and daffodils popping out of the earth after a dreary winter.  All of the pretty dresses, hats, bow ties, and suits that the little kiddos are dressed up in for church.  (I never appreciated this one growing up as my sister and I ALWAYS wore matching dresses)  One thing that I greatly miss...the Annual Hurley Easter Egg Hunt.  Growing up, the Hurley cousins would always meet at Grandma Evelyn's the Saturday before and spend all morning decorating Easter eggs.  Let's just say that many of us went to church the next day with blue, pink, yellow, and orange fingers. After going to church as a family, we would scarf down a wonderful homemade meal of ham, deviled eggs, hashbrown casserole, kolaches, creamed corn, and even more kolaches.  There was always one rule at the Hurley gatherings and that was: the dishes had to be washed and put away before any fun was had (i.e. Christmas gifts, Easter Egg Hunts)  We spent hours taking turns hiding eggs and then finding them as Grandma and Grandpa's house/farm had millions of great spots for hiding.  Finally, I remember going to the alfalfa field across the road and flying our brand new kites until the Kansas wind tore them to shreds.  (Usually after 15 minutes...)   Awww...the good 'ol days.  However, now that Lainey is in the picture, it has been so much fun to get into the holiday spirit again. 

I make a pretty cute Easter Bunny!

Dad decided that I needed a photo op with an actual Easter Bunny, so we spent 35 minutes outside in the rain to get this keeper. 

Do I look excited or what?  At least I didn't cry!

Lainey looking for her favorite friend - Nellie!

Three generations!

Love this girl to pieces!

My mom was able to come up to Minnesota for the week and we spent our Easter going to a church service, eating brunch, and then watching our neighbors hide cans of beer, wine bottles, and pop in our backyard for their annual Easter hunt.  (Note to self: plan adult Easter Alcohol Hunt next year). 

BahBah on our way to church!

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!  We sure did with our cute bunny!