A Time to Cleanse

So, I've decided that tomorrow I'm starting the cleanse. I went to LFWC this morning and picked up my supplements and then to Whole Foods to get my first batch of groceries. Most everything was organic, and I can say for certain that my vegetable drawer is the fullest it's ever been! I hope that the extra money I spent for this is a motivator for me to eat it all before it goes bad. I have a nasty habit of buying vegetables and forgetting I have them until they've gone bad in the refrigerator. Of course, since they're my main source of food for the next 3 weeks I'm sure they won't this time! I'm going to try to blog about how I'm feeling during the cleanse and how it's going and if anyone has any questions I'll definitely try to answer them.

I'm excited about this because I'm getting to try some new foods and some new recipes. I'm looking forward to breaking out of my usual set of spices to try some new ones. One of the main ones I've come across so far is curry. I ate some curry a long time ago at my friend's house in Tomball, but didn't like it so much. But I realize that tastes change, and I'm sure this stuff will taste good since I'm probably going to feel like I'm starving for the next few days! I'm also looking forward to hopefully resetting my body, so to speak, getting some extra energy and learning new healthy eating habits. I just wish John was doing this with me. It's going to be hard, but I'll make it. Like Cindy said in her blog post, I have a little one to hold me accountable to get healthy! So...(a la Willie Nelson)

To all the food I've loved before,
I have to show you to the door.
'Til twenty-one days hence,
I will be on the cleanse,
And I can't eat you anymore.

But wait! There's more...

I can't believe I forgot to mention that yesterday, I had put Max down diaperless on the floor while I put some laundry in and that when I came back into the living room, he was sitting on his bottom! For a minute I actually thought I had imagined laying him down and that I really sat him down. But then, a few minutes later, he did it again! Naturally, I was out of the room again, but he did it! Of course, he hasn't today, but I know he at least can. Also, he really wants to pull up. He'll scoot over to me and start pulling on my knees or on the side of the ottoman, he just doesn't have the strength or coordination to do it yet. Wow, what a week in development!

Lots of new things happening this week with Max! Saturday, we both had an appointment with Dr. Jim Bob and the office happened to be having some classes and a garage sale, and that meant we got to see Dr. Cindy and Harper, too! I was so excited to be able to see them again, she's been so busy with births we haven't had a chance to get together since May. Harper and Max were excited to see each other, and there was much grabbing and growling that went on between them. Harper would grab Max's shirt and babble to him and Max would growl back. These boys and their growling! Max had his first little temper tantrum that I've seen: Harper was sitting in the floor playing with a little plastic basket and so I set Max in the floor so they could play together, since now Max is old enough to notice other babies and be interested in playing. Max tried to take the basket, so Vicki, the LFWC receptionist, gave him a couple of plastic bowling pins to play with. Harper took his bowling pin, so Max took the basket. Then Harper took the basket back from Max, and he screamed and started crying! I thought he had somehow been pinched or hurt, because that's what it sounded like to me, but Cindy was laughing and saying "welcome to the temper tantrum stage". Oh no! I thought my sweet boy would always be gentle and loving, but it turns out he can get mad just like anyone else. I was not expecting that at all!

Yesterday I took Max to the State Fair with Lauren and her new boyfriend, David, and Max had been napping on the way to her house. He had just woken up when David got in the back seat next to him, and so Max was just staring at him in that groggy just-woke-up way for about 10 minutes as we drove to Dallas. All of a sudden I heard him start crying pathetically...his first bout with stranger anxiety! I guess he couldn't see me and so he was just freaking out a little. We stopped, I nursed him (it was worse I'm sure, because he was hungry too), and Lauren got in the back seat with him and he was fine after that. Again, not expected...in fact the other day I was just telling someone that Max had never met a stranger. I guess he has now! Poor baby!

It was really hot out there, they said it would be about 94 or so but it was easily 100. I'm glad I took the stroller, because I don't think either Max or I would have been comfortable in the Moby or Dr. Cindy's mei tai she let me borrow. The food was good, as usual, I had roasted corn, a jalapeno cheese corny dog, Green Goblins, aguas frescas, and a deep fried peanut butter cup macaroon that was to die for! I did not touch the deep fried butter though...I can't believe they actually had that this year. Yuck!

Max is also just so close to crawling, not going backwards so much and scooting forward a little bit. I guess he's wanting to practice as much as possible because the last couple of nights he's been a hard sell on sleep, wanting instead to roll and play and practice crawling, and finding new positions to nurse. Night before last I didn't get him down until 10, and tonight not until 9:15. His new game is to get on his hands and knees and launch himself at my breasts with his mouth wide open. It's all I can do not to laugh! If he's not doing that he's grabbing my nipple and trying to use that to pull himself to them. He also will lie on his stomach and nurse that way. On the other hand, once he's asleep he's sleeping much more soundly, and I don't have to be as careful getting out of bed. That's a relief, and he's also able to fall back asleep by himself more often if he wakes up a little. He'll wake up a little and cough or sneeze, often roll onto his stomach and go back to sleep instead of fussing to nurse more.

Speaking of coughing, he had a bit of a snotty nose and cough last week, and ever since then he's doing this fake cough that he thinks is hilarious!

In other news, John went for his sleep study last night. I'd been telling him for the longest time that he's got sleep apnea. For the last several years, some nights I'd wake up and he'd be snoring and stop breathing for a few seconds. So after he's been so fatigued lately he was ready to get some help, and especially after a couple of weeks ago with a hypertension scare. He came home this morning and said the lady told him he slept fine! Ugh. He had used some Afrin last night before he left and so now he's thinking it's probably just a result of allergies/sinus problems. I hope it's that easy, but dang! That test wasn't cheap! The doctor will look at the reports and let him know something soon. We'll see. I just want him to get better rest and be able to breathe well; I don't care what is causing it, as long as we can fix it.

Last but not least, I am going to start a 21-day purification program through Jim Bob's office. Dr. Cindy has been blogging about it here, and she's got me motivated to do it and get healthy for me and Max, too! I'll try to blog about it as I go along. But for now, I'm going to relax before bed. Good night!

Scooting Around

Just a quick post while I'm eating lunch...trying to multi-task. Max has been scooting for the past week or so...it's just that he is going backwards! I'd always heard of some babies crawling backwards at first, but I'd never seen it in action. He just doesn't quite have the hang of moving his arms forward and pulling with them, instead he pushes himself backward. John and I've been showing him how, and he really watches and you can tell he's thinking about it. Already he's trying to pull forward, just hasn't gotten it yet. I know that when he does, he'll be off to the races, and I'll be chasing him!

The weather is considerably cooler today, after last night's storm, and it has me thinking about the State Fair, which is coming up. I can't wait to go with Lauren, and I've been practicing my Moby back-carry for the occasion!

Time to go move Max back to the middle of the room!

Did he really just do that?

Today has been a high-maintenance day for Max. I saw the evidence of the bottom tooth #2 coming in, and so he's been kind of cranky, not taking great naps, not wanting to be pottied, etc. So I was lying in bed nursing him, trying to get him to get a nap just a little bit ago, when he popped off and was playing and babbling to himself. Presently he turned toward me with his right hand in a pretty good semblance of the BSL sign for "potty" (I've been using it with him sometimes for a few months now). He hadn't been in a while and so I thought, why not? I reinforced it with him and took him in there. Waiting, waiting...and nothing. He did do it once more while on the potty, quite well, in fact, but alas, it was not to be. I'd run out of diapers so he was nakey-butt at the time, so I went and plopped him down in the middle of my Longhorns quilt my mother made me a few years ago, and went to put some laundry away, or some other household chore. I imagined what a mess it would be should he decide to potty while on that blanket so I came back to check on him after just a minute. He was sitting there, smiling up at me, and as I came around the back of him....Lo and behold, when I looked under his onesie, there it was. A lovely pile of poop...right in the middle of Bevo. (It pretty much matched UT colors, though, so there's that.)

Incidentally, as I am fascinated with the poop now that we've been giving him regular food, I was interested to see tiny little fleshy pieces of mandarin orange from last night's dinner. Way to go, Max!

So I stripped him down and cleaned him up, put him on a puddle pad and went to go dunk his clothes and when I came back, he had peed, too!

So maybe he was using the signs after all! Time will tell...

Little Foodie

Max has been eating solid food for about a week and a half now, and so far, he's had avocado, banana, pear, peach, carrot, sweet potato, squash, broccoli and bread. Last night he had potato salad and baked beans as well! He likes baked beans like his daddy...I can do without them. Mostly he noms on them a bit and makes a big mess, but tonight I took him to Chick-fil-A to eat dinner with Lauren and he ate a bit of my bun, two slices of mandarin orange and two pieces of strawberry, with very little mess! I was quite impressed.


This morning I was thinking that I would have to start brushing his teeth once he gets some, and right after that he laughed and I saw that he had a clear line on his bottom gums...he's getting his bottom left front tooth! My heart leapt and fluttered and I had to call my mom and tell her! No wonder he had such an easy time with dinner. The other day I had felt a point of a tooth in his upper left jaw and was thinking what a random tooth to get in first, but today it wasn't there, and the front one was. How I'll miss those gummy grins, but I'll be glad when he's not bothered by them. He's already seeming to feel better, and hasn't bitten me in a while. To be honest, I was apprehensive about voluntarily sticking my breast in that mouth, because I stuck my finger in there and Wow is that thing sharp! Luckily he was sweet to his mommy ;)



Tooth pictures to follow soon, I'm sure!

Starting Solid Food!

Last Thursday I decided it was time for Max's first food, the lovely avocado. I had wanted to give him this particular food because it's so healthy with good fats and because I like them too! I figured I could eat what he didn't :) So I sliced up the avocado and he promptly went to work on it!


I was going to do the whole 4-day wait rule that everyone advocates so I gave him many chances to enjoy the avocado over the next few days...he wasn't terribly impressed and I think he got tired of me giving it to him. Bananas were to be next, but as of yesterday they weren't ripe enough, so I bought him a very ripe pear. As you can see, it was a hit!

(I love this one!)

Not sure he actually was able to ingest much of it, but it's all about the exploration!

I was doing some more looking around on the baby-led weaning (that advocates just giving food to the child at 6 months because they can feed themselves; no purees) and decided that I'm being too insane about the 4-day wait and introducing foods one at a time. We're just going to give him what we're eating. I think it will make us eat healthier too! After all, that's how they used to do it!

I made roast, carrots, potatoes and steamed broccoli last night for dinner and gave max a carrot and some broccoli. He liked it! I'll post pictures of the carrot-broccoli debacle later ;)