How Not to Start Baby-Led Weaning with your Baby

05/19/2016 R.C. Liley 16 Comments

This was originally posted on May 18, 2014. Thankfully, we are long past the baby-led weaning days!

I’m writing this from the comfort of our couch on Saturday night after a long and busy, but mostly good day. Avery is as mobile as she can be without being able to crawl, and she surprises us by sitting right up immediately after we set her down.

Crazy kid, we love her so much, but she can really wear us out! It helps that I’m celebrating World Whiskey Day with my Breckenridge Distillery Bourbon to wind things down though.

So, um, yeah, baby-led weaning (BLW), is not off to a great start for us. I get that this was our first day and first try and blah, blah, but I still got my hopes up ready to watch Avery grasp a green bean and eat it like she does her red plastic bird.

But the exact opposite happened; she refused to even touch the food I set in front of her! Mommy’s water cup? Sure, she’ll grab at and try to put it in her mouth all day! Food you are actually supposed to put in your mouth? Nope, not having it.

What did we do wrong that made her so repulsed by our food offering? I’m not certain, but maybe trying right at her bedtime had something to do with it. What do you think?

Not to mention her usual 2 – 3 hour morning nap only lasted 1 hour; in which she cried some during that hour. A tired baby is a cranky baby as all parents know, and that’s what we had for parts of the day.

I want to sleep, but I also don't!!! — I want to sleep, but I also don’t!!!

Okay, she wasn’t fussy all day, but she had several of her “moments” just to let us know she was tired and not happy. Since she obviously didn’t want to be in her jumper (see picture above), we moved her to her play yard to give her freedom to move around and practice her sitting up skills.

She got right to sitting up, but still cried while doing so. I had several things cooking in the kitchen and Going Mom was hard at work cleaning the living room, so we had to let her cry for a few minutes. Then Kelley turned on the vacuum which always gets Avery to quiet down and look around.

Ahhh, the loud whir of a vacuum never sounded so good. Apparently Avery thought so too; we looked over and she was sound asleep!

We haven’t had to use the consoling power of the vacuum for a while now, and it surprised us to see how passed out she was! Obviously, I had to give it my thumbs up of approval.

Kelley didn’t want to turn off the vacuum while she slept, so now we have a really clean living room! The nap helped, but it wasn’t even 30 minutes, so we weren’t too hopeful for a happy Avery.

We finished our to-do’s and went for a walk with Avery in the Onya Outback where she had a 15 minute power nap. Upon our return, it was just past 7pm and Kelley went to clean up as I put the highchair together. Avery commenced with crying…

30 minutes later (about the time we usually get her to bed), we strapped her in the highchair for the first time and excitedly prepared for our first BLW experience! I don’t think she was too excited though….

I had steamed a bunch of organic baby carrots, green beans, and broccoli earlier, so I pulled a few pieces of each to serve her.

Avery was already in fuss-mode as I brought the veggies to her, and it only increased with each passing second. I at least expected to see her grab at one of the specimen in front of her, but to no avail. She wouldn’t even look at them!

Pretty sure I knew the reason, I told Going Mom it was just her bib making her upset. Simple solution, just remove the bib, right?

Wrong. I gave this the thumbs down of disapproval. Not being one to accept no for an answer, or “no” as expressed by a baby, I tried dangling a green bean in front of her to get her attention.

If a baby can look repulsed, this is the look. Her hands remained idle making sure she didn’t give even the slightest reach to raise our hopes. On the last straw, I attempted to show her how the food is meant for her mouth, but she wasn’t too receptive.

Might as well of been a cigar because she wasn’t having it. At this point, we called our first attempt a failure and gave up. Luckily, our pet box turtle, Tash, was looking for some good food and she happily accepted Avery’s outcast veggies.

I spent a little time playing with Avery before her bath, and then she seemed to cheer up for a while! And she made sure to put everything around her in her mouth; figures. But our time was limited and only our dog, Abby, could keep Avery from letting out another whine.

Dog kisses just make everything better, huh? Unless you’re me, I don’t care for the kisses too much.

So if you’re about to introduce your baby to solids for the first time, don’t do like us and try when it’s their bedtime. Even more so if their naps have been short or even non-existent! At that point, it’s just smart to put it off for one more day and save everyone the stress.

And that’s what we’re doing. As you read this, we will be making our second, and hopefully successful, attempt at introducing Avery to solids. Avery is usually the happiest in the morning, so at least we should see some smiles! As always, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Any tips on how to get your baby interested in grabbing food?

Do you have any first time baby successes or failures to share?

Going Reviews

FitVine Wine Sauvignon Blanc Review

05/17/2016 R.C. Liley Leave a comment

I first learned about FitVine Wine from the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast that I subscribe to. I’m a fan of Ben Greenfield and enjoy the vast topics on fitness and nutrition that he shares, so when he featured FitVine Wine as the wine he endorses, I had to try it for myself. Plus, as the name, it’s made by active and healthy people for active and healthy people who love a good wine.

After reaching out to FitVine about a possible review opportunity, they graciously agreed to send one of each of their wines for me to review. I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to get started trying their superior craft wines.

FitVine Wine, healthy drink, alcohol, biohack,

Let me get it out now that I am no wine connoisseur, far from, but just like food, I demand quality from anything I put in my body. Yes, even alcohol. I used to be a beer fan, but now stick to straight spirits or wine. With clear spirits like vodka and red wine being my favorites.

That said, I am a light drinker, and only have a glass or two on the weekends. It doesn’t take much for me to feel the effects of alcohol, but that’s fine with me, I like to enjoy the beverages I have, not pound them down just to get crunk. If you demand quality from your drinks, FitVine has just what you’re looking for.

Their goal was to produce a quality wine with less residual sugar, meaning lower carbohydrates and calories, higher in antioxidants, and less sulfites. With their intricate, multi-step process, they succeeded in creating wines with full flavor that’s higher in beneficial compounds like resveratrol, polyphenols, proanthocyanidins.

Here’s a paragraph from their site that explains their process.

All of our wines go through malolactic, secondary fermentation to lower pH levels to ensure the cleanest, best tasting wine. All our wines are cold stabilized and chilled to drop out impurities prior to filtration. We filter with both diatomaceous earth and micron pads. Our fermentation process is extended to 10-15 days to enhance the antioxidants and optimize the pH levels. With pH levels being at optimum levels, we do not have to add sugars, additives and or unnecessary amounts of sulfites. Many wines have sulfite levels of 50ppm (parts per million), where FitVine Wines are at 35ppm – that’s almost half the sulfites of typical wines! No GMOs here and all of our grapes are pesticide free!

That’s a lot of science! What does it all mean? We spent extra time and effort to create healthier, cleaner wines so you know what you’re putting into your body. This is the way wine is meant to be made, not with all the additives, sugars and impurities that wreck havoc on our bodies. #cleandrinking

They basically follow four ways to make a healthier and tastier wine. Here’s a handy infographic I found from Ben Greenfield’s site.

So, their wine is much healthier, and leaves no concern about high levels of arsenic. Which is unlike many winemakers that had a class action lawsuit filed for the arsenic levels in their wine. Very concerning, by the way, so make sure you choose your wine wisely.

As I mentioned, I don’t drink often, so I’ll share my thoughts on their Sauvignon Blanc first. This was the one Going Mom and I opened over the weekend to enjoy together.

FitVine Wine, healthy drink, alcohol, biohack,

I can’t wax poetic about how the wine leaves a dry but fruity taste on the palate with the perfect balance of tannins. Did I even use these tasting notes in the right way?

But, both my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this white. It was in fact dry, but not overly so. I would compare it to a good brut champagne minus the bubbles. My wife and I both prefer reds, so we were pleasantly surprised to find how much we enjoyed drinking this white.

Since it wasn’t sweet like other white wines, that helped, but it was fit perfectly with the warm Texas weather. The aroma left a fresh hint of citrus and made for an easy drink with a crisp finish. I had more wine than I usually do and never felt ill effects from alcohol. It was hard to keep from drinking more as it truly is an easy-to-drink wine that will sneak up on you. Bring this along on your next picnic or other nice weather outing for a perfect pairing to enjoy with chicken salad or a simple cheese and cracker tray.

I think we’ll try the Cabernet next, and I’ll be sure to share our thoughts soon after. In the meantime, check out FitVine for yourself and be sure to connect with them on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

FitVine Wine sent me their wine free of charge in exchange for my honest review. I was not compensated in any other way.

Life, Parenting

Slapped in the Face by a Virus

05/16/2016 R.C. Liley 1 Comment

Have you ever been slapped in the face by a virus? I don’t recall ever having parvovirus b19 lay a ~~finger~~ dna strand on my face as a kid, but apparently it’s a common infection.

Earlier last week, our little girl had a few minor signs of a runny nose and unexplained crankiness which I think might be from a headache. At the end of the week, she was developing a little rash on her body and some on her cheeks.

The next day, that little rash exploded all over her body, was warm to the touch, and left our poor toddler with an extremely red and swollen face as if she had been slapped hard on both cheeks.

parvovirus b19, virus, fifth disease, slapped cheek, infection

As it turns out, this is called slapped-cheek disease aka fifth disease, which is said to be quite common in kids. Seeing my daughter covered in a bright red rash is bad enough, but her swollen hamster-like cheeks simply hurt my heart. Every time I look at the picture above, I feel that sunken feeling in my heart and stomach wishing I could make it all go away.

I’m usually the good one at maintaining composure when our child is sick, so you can only imagine how distraught my wife was all weekend. She was filled with constant concern and made sure to keep Avery happy as much as possible. Despite her ailments, Avery was her happy toddler self running around yapping about certain anatomy along with singing the intro to Little Einsteins at the top of her lungs. Kinda like this pic, but with a rash and swollen face.

virus, happy, parvovirus b19, fifth disease

She was scratching the rash, but Going Mom and was good about keeping her mind occupied with lots of reading and playing.

Avery with fifth disease virus_reading

Cousin Ashlee also spent the night and they had a blast playing together, so that helped tremendously!

All weekend long, the symptoms of the virus plagued our sweet girl. We were more concerned about the infection and mild fever than she was, but it sucked nonetheless. As I write this, we are on day 3 since the rash appeared and slapped her face, and I’m happy to say it’s slowly going away. Her swollen face is slowly returning to normal and the rash, while still all around her arms, legs, and back, has lessened.

With fifth disease, there really is no treatment other than letting it run its course. We’re doing just that and are thankful it hasn’t dampened her spirits one bit.

Have you, your kids, or someone you know ever had fifth disease?

Did you see lots of swelling in the face too?