Schedules

I'm having trouble getting myself back on to a schedule or into a rhythm or something, which is partly why I've not been blogging. After Vegas, I spent a lot of time catching up on sleep, and this week I've been getting back into the 4:00 a.m. to noon twice a week schedule.

Adding to all this is that Celeste's schedule is in flux, too. Part of it is trying to adjust to the new sleeping regimen; her bath and bedtime have shifted back to between 7:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., but her wakes have been all over the place — as early as 5:30 a.m. or 6:00 a.m. and as late as 8:15 a.m. Not that she's sleeping straight through or anything; she still needs to feed twice a night (usually between 11:30 p.m. and 1:00 a.m. and then sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 4:00 a.m. or so), and sometimes she takes the first morning feed as yet another night feeding and goes straight back to bed (that's what happened the morning she slept until 8:15 a.m.). And, with that varying waking time, her naps range wildly; on a good day, she has a short morning nap, an okay (45 or 75 minute) afternoon nap, and a quick nap late in the day to "top off" before getting ready for bed.

Feeding Celeste

Her feedings (both solids and breastmilk) are similarly scattered through out the day; usually she gets a morning solids meal and a late afternoon/early evening one, but sometimes she only has one and (on rare occasions) she has three. It's mostly an on demand thing and she can be picky. The fun bit is that she makes lots of really neat growls and hyurrrrm and other yummy noises while being fed solids. When she gets on a roll, it's a riot.

As for what she's eating, she is has a pretty good variety available to her now, but we don't have everything in the freezer at any given time. On the approved list (grouped into yoghurt, grains, fruits, and vegetables, but otherwise in no particular order) are: yoghurt (Greek and regular); rice, oatmeal, and barley cereal, as well as teething biscuits and rice cakes; apples (and apple juice), pears, asian pears, plums, peaches, and bananas; sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, peas, acorn squash, summer squash, zucchini, butternut squash, and avocado. We made up some parsnips for her tonight, so she'll probably get to try those tomorrow.

Not surprisingly, the faves have been the sweet things: plums, apples, pears, and asian pears. Green beans are tolerated when mixed with something sweeter, such as sweet potato. Zucchini was too bitter (although we didn't try mixing it with other stuff), and avocado gets a mild expression of distaste, but each time we give her some, she seem to take to it more.

As for the fingerfood, she can't quite handle the rice cakes, but she does enjoy the teething biscuits. When we've tried giving her little bits of diced acorn squash, for example, she'll pick it up, but refuses to bring it to her mouth. Stray things off the floor? Straight into the mouth: Food off her highchair tray? Not a chance.

The first yoghurt she tried was some YoBaby Plus stuff that a S--- and G--- left here. She was okay with it, but Evelin and I didn't like that the second ingredient was sugar (sure it's "organic milled cane sugar," but still ...), so I checked at Trader Joe's where ΦΑΓΕ Greek yoghurt was finally back on the shelves. The full-fat ΦΑΓΕ Total Greek Yoghurt was there, whole milk and sugar-free. At the same time, Evelin picked up some Brown Cow yoghurt that was also whole milk and sugar-free, but not as thick and luscious as the ΦΑΓΕ stuff. (Evelin compares the ΦΑΓΕ yoghurt to sour cream.) Celeste seems fine with either the Brown Cow or the ΦΑΓΕ, and will eat either plain or mixed with some cereal or fruit ... even avocado.