Food, Food, Glorious Food...

...Well mushed up food really!!  Milly's first tentative steps along the weaning process have gone very well.  She has moved on from a bit of baby rice in the morning, to trying some fruit and vegetables, to establishing 3 meals a day, to now having proper little meals for her dinner.  She is taking it all in her stride, as she does everything really.  We had been prepared for her to reject the idea of taking food from a spoon, to spit everything out, and to not like anything.  But she has been willing to give everything a go, and eats most thing that we put in front of her.  She obviously has her favourites, but she tucks everything away and always seems willing to have more.  There does seem to be one stand out favourite though.  Banana porridge.  When this is on the menu, Milly gets very excited indeed, and banana porridge seems to have become the yardstick by which everything else gets measured.  There are even some days when it seems as if Milly thinks that every bowl of food contains banana porridge.  She sees the bowl, starts getting excited, opens her mouth ready for the first spoonful, and then pulls a priceless face when it turns out to be parsnip purée.  Don't get me wrong, she likes parsnip purée, but there is a definite moment where she thinks, "this is not what I expected."


We have now reached the stage where we can start giving Milly proper meals mushed up.  We bought a couple of weaning books that are full of recipes, and I'm not joking when I say that she will be eating better than us!!!  Last week, we spent a day making up 4 different recipes that covered most of the bases.  Over the next few days, Milly will be trying Cauliflower Cheese, Chicken and Parsnip, Beef and Sweet Potato, and Salmon and Pea.  The preparation of these meals involved a lot of dicing, slicing, sautéing, boiling, and finally blitzing.  What was remarkable, however, is that no matter what the ingredients were, by the the time they had been through the blender, they were all pretty much the same colour.  It was good fun though, and the food was smelling good as it simmered away, it didn't taste bad either.  Over the last few weeks, it has been great fun watching Milly get to grips with meal times.  She is loving her high chair, even joining everyone at the dinner table for Easter lunch, and watching her expressions when she tries new flavours is often amusing.  However, the downside to all this is the nervous tension created by the smallest cough.  A tiny little splutter and we are anxiously waiting to hear if she is breathing OK, or starting to choke.  Luckily this has not happened, but Milly is clearly a lot more relaxed than we are!!!

Next week, we have to take Milly to the hospital for her 6 month review.  By the time the appointment comes around, she will be 7 months, but that is not important apparently because she is not considered to be a high risk baby.  The review involves watching Milly play so the Doctor can see how she has developed, and determine whether she has any learning difficulties due to her eagerness to be a September child, rather than a November one.  If all goes well, Milly will be discharged from the hospital’s care after this appointment, or they can request to see her at 12 months.  In my opinion, biased as it may be, Milly is doing fine.  She is doing the things that she should be at her age (not her adjusted age).  She is becoming very dextrous, manipulating objects with her fingers and passing them from hand to hand, she can roll over from her back to her front and back again (when she wants too), she is getting closer to being able to support herself sitting up, and she has started to play hiding games.  The hiding game is a new one.  On Saturday she was laid on her back holding a muslin square over her face and then pulling it away.  Each time she did this, we shouted “Boo,” making her smile.  The more she did it, the more we shouted, and the more she smiled.  Endless fun.  According to all the information that we have read, Milly is doing these things exactly when she should be.  You only have to look in her eyes to see how alive she is, and see that she is working everything out.  At meal times, we give her a spoon to play with to get her used to holding one while she eats.  She has already figured how to manipulate it so that she can get the right end in her mouth.  I think that is pretty smart.  Despite all of this though, I still feel a bit nervous about the hospital appointment.  Logically, I know that she is fine and the doctors will see that.  I also know that she is a little show off, who likes nothing better that performing in front of people.  I’ll just be happier when they say we don’t have to go back any more.