Today Gabi is 5 weeks old. Not last night, but the night before she mostly slept through the night. She went to sleep at about 12:00 midnight, and I woke her up at 6:30 to feed her. Last night was pretty good too. She went to sleep a bit after 10:00, and woke up (on her own) at around 4:30 for a feeding. I have mixed feelings about her sleeping so long. On the one hand I love it. 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep is nice, but on the other hand she has not been gaining weight like she should have, so I wonder if it would be more responsible of me to wake her up after 4 hours to feed her.
There are three things that I think factor in to her sleeping so well. First she is eating more because of my supplementing her feedings. I really hope that as her corrected gestational age gets to 40 to 42 weeks her strength will be such that she can transfer adequate milk on her own, and I won’t have to do it forever. Second (and third) has to do with swaddling her. When I use normal receiving blankets to swaddle her they are both thin and small. I have been using a larger blanket so I can swaddle her more securely, and it also happens to be thicker, so I think that her more secure swaddling, and the fact she is warmer, are the 2nd and 3rd reasons why she sleeps better at night.
I have a request to make of all of you who are more creative in the kitchen than I am. I really want to do a better job of feeding my family. My goals are 1. more variety, 2. more healthy (at least a little bit). My problems are that I have no kitchen creativity, and no skill in the kitchen, other than the ability to read instructions (that aren’t too complicated), and I’m trying to juggle a toddler and an infant. So please give me some ideas of EASY (and I mean really easy), quick menu ideas. I need breakfast, lunch and supper ideas.
We love Taco Soup at our house. It is so quick and easy, I'm going to teach it to a group of 10 year old girls in a few weeks. I'll get you the recipe.
Ryan has started making 7 times the recipe of waffle batter (whole wheat). Then we cook them all (about 50) up, eat a few for what ever meal is next and freeze the rest. For breakfast, we pull out a frozen waffle, pop it in the toaster and it's ready to eat! We've been eating a lot less cereal since he started doing this.
There are dozens of ways to make mac and cheese that are healthy. Also, we shop at Costco and buy fish and poultry and meat in bulk. It helps to have a big freezer. Our meals usually consist of fish or meat of some kind, a vegetable and a starch. Sometimes we eat two kinds of vegetables and skip the starch. It's easy, quick and healthy. Seasonings for the meat are usually salt and pepper. Nothing fancy, but tastes delicious.
Go to kraftfoods.com and sign up for their free magazine and emails (they will send you coupons in the emails).
They have tons of super easy and yummy meals!
Allrecipes.com also has easy recipes. When you search for recipes, they will ask you what level of cooking you want, and you can choose easy. I know your aversion to oatmeal, but try my recipe for baked oatmeal(there's a link to it on my blog). It's healthy, and it tastes like a big soft oatmeal cookie. It is delicious!
No recipe ideas. Just a thought for you. Watch out using a thick blanket for swaddling–especially in the summer. Sleep is good, heat exhaustion not so great. I found the perfect baby burrito blanket was Chrissy was little. It's secure enough to hold in place and lightweight enough that I didn't have to worry about her overheating (and she was a baby in southern California in an apartment with no air conditioning, so that was majorly important).
She's so pretty! I can't believe it's been 5 weeks already.
What a cutie! For menu ideas, my children love rice and beans. Here is how it works: Cook rice like you normally would. Heat up a can of chili. Combine the rice and the chili. We love it with sour cream and cheese, on tortillas or not. It is good with salsa, tomatoes or by itself.
I think you are a GREAT Mom!
I second the taco soup idea, and this is my recipe:
1 Lg. can tomato soup
1-2 canned tomatoes
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can kidney beans
1 can red beans
1 can chicken (from costco)
1 pkg. taco seasoning
It seriously takes the amount of time to open the cans, dump everything in, and heat it on the stove. Add sour cream, cheese, chips, and you're good to go.
Another one we like for dinner/breakfast is breakfast sandwiches: fry up an egg, add ham and cheese to english muffin or toast, and serve it with fruit.
Gabi is beautiful!