Foodie, Food, Food

Now that Ellie is six months she's entered into the wonderful world of solid foods.  Her nutrition still comes from breast milk (and a little formula), so the solids are just for fun and exploring. 

Trying purple sweet potatoes

Feeding Ellie in the beginning was so difficult, so I'm glad to be enjoying this part of it.  I'm still pumping, but I've dropped to 4-5 pumps a day.  I usually get about 22 oz of breast milk a day, and the rest we supplement.  Ellie is eating 25-30 oz per day, so most of her meals are coming straight from me.  I was really, really committed to exclusively breastfeeding until six months, but after so many medical issues, I had no choice but to supplement with formula.  After my wound debridement surgery was scheduled I knew I'd have to give her formula, since you have to pump and dump for 24 hours after anesthesia.  Instead of having the surgery, though, I got mastitis and ended up with a fever of 102.4, so I got IV antibiotics instead.  From the mastitis I went to a stomach virus, and then straight into pneumonia.  Needless to say, it's been a rough month and my milk supply has taken a hit.  I'm planning on pumping for as long as I can, but I'm pretty proud of myself for making it this far in spite all of the obstacles I've had to deal with over the past six months. 

Hanging out in the highchair

I know lots of babies are really interested in solid foods, grabbing for anything their parents are eating and reaching out for foods.  Ellie seems to be kind of nonchalant about the whole solid food thing.  She eats most of what we give her, she helps put the spoon in her mouth, but she's also perfectly happy with just her bottle.  She sits in her high chair and is just as happy to watch us eat as she is to get fed.  She's liked everything that she's tried so far, though anything with banana is best.  We started with butternut squash, then added in bananas.  Next we tried sweet potatoes.  Then was green beans, and today Ellie had apple for the first time.  We have a mesh chewing thing that I can put a larger piece of fruit in and she can safely gnaw on it for a bit, so that's how she got her apple.  Bananas, we found, are awfully messing in that thing!  Her next food will either be carrots or spinach (since those are both in my fridge right now).  I'm making everything she eats from the produce I get in my bi-weekly veggie bin, so even Ellie is supporting local growers! 

First food -- butternut squash

As with everything else, Ellie is quick to tell us when she's had enough