Eliana's half birthday is fast approaching. In a couple of weeks she will be 6 months old and it will be time for my Snow Pea to begin actually eating peas! That's right it's almost solid food time! I had debated when to start solid foods for a while and after consulting my pediatrician and a few wise mommies, I chose to continue exclusive breastfeeding as long as I could. I have really just gotten the hang of the routine we're in now, so it made sense to keep it going as long as possible before adding a new element. But now that routine is about to change and really I know she's ready. She has been sitting in her high chair with us during dinner and everyday she sits up a bit better and gets a little more interested in watching us eat. Her eyes get so big as she stares at the forks and spoons in our hands and I just know she is going to love experiencing the new tastes and feelings of her first foods.
So with this big event coming up so quickly I have more decisions to make. What should her first food be? The conventional choice seems to be rice cereal, especially for babies that begin foods at 4 months since it is easy on little tummies and virtually no one is allergic to it, but since we are starting a little later we do have the option to start with almost any stage one food. If you have little eaters in your house, what food did you start with? I have some brown rice cereal ready to go and am leaning toward staying with the status quo and starting there, but I am so excited to see how she reacts to carrots and bananas and I get tempted to skip straight ahead to a fruit or veggie.
What food to give her is not the only decision I have been mulling over lately. I have also been contemplating it's preparation, specifically whether to buy or make my own baby food. Having worked with other people's children as a nanny for many years while I was in college, I have plenty of experience with those little jars of strained beans and pureed peaches and I have always just kind of assumed they would line my pantry when it came time for me to feed a child of my own. But now that she is here the idea of smashing her food myself has become really appealing to me. Not only will I know exactly what she is eating and that it is free from any crazy additives, the more I learn about it the more making baby food myself seems easy and fun!
Since I am not really much of a chef and I don't already own one, I ran out and bought a small, cheap food processor so that I'm ready to cream and puree. I don't know how good of a job my clearance appliance will do, but I figure it will give me taste of what it's like and I can always buy a better one later. Even better than buying one though would be winning one! And even better than winning a food processor would be winning an entire baby food system complete with food storage. Lee Ann at "The Life Of Rylie and Bryce Too!" is giving away a Baby Bullet system. I have watched the infomercial a few dozen times as well as some real life youtube demonstrations, and I gotta say, it is a really cool system not to adorable with that baby friendly smiley face on everything. I know I don't need to have an appliance with "baby" in the name, but I would still love to have this one! If you want to learn more about it and the giveaway you can find Lee Ann's post here. Does anyone out there have any experience with the Baby Bullet? What do you think?
So now the countdown is on. I have spoons, bowls & bibs ready to go, baby food recipe websites bookmarked and am on the hunt for freezer trays to store my creations. If you have any advice or words of wisdom for me before we get started, please feel free to share! Any recommendations on processors or storage systems are also very appreciated. And if you know anything about those hand held netting feeders please share that as well. When is a good time to introduce those and what is a good food to use with them? I have always assumed bananas were the best start with those but again, any advice is welcome! I am a little sad that my tiny little baby has grown up so much and will be eating real food soon, it is a big milestone and a big reminder that she won't be a baby forever. But I am also very excited to witness and take part in this exciting new stage. I can't wait to see her face covered in smiles and applesauce.
A few months ago I won an amazing giveaway hosted by Ashley at "For the of Shoes...And A Baby Too" to design my own charm from CT's Design It Your Way Jewelry Etsy shop. It took me a little while to come up with the right necklace but after working with CT, I designed the perfect charm to help me keep Sprout close to my heart. 
I love it. It is so beautiful and perfect and I am so grateful to Ashley and CT for making it possible. I feel so close and connected to Sprout when I wear it. I plan keep Sprout close to my heart and wear it to my transfer tomorrow, hopefully it will bring me a little luck. Although I am excited about the possibility of a new pregnancy, I will always love and miss my Sprout and I love having this memorial.
Let me first say that I am so excited about this giveaway and I really wish I had even more of this stuff lying around so that I could send you all an OPK or two!
I just couldn't bring myself to use a random number generator so I put one slip of paper for each of the eligible entries into a literal hat and drew out THE BIG WINNER! (So if you entered 5 times, you had 5 slips of paper in there, it just seemed the most fair to me this way) So without further ado the winner of my first ever giveaway who will receive a fabulous TTC Kit full of OPKs, HPTs and other goodies is..... Congratulations to our winner, who blogs about her TTC journey over at Creating HackSpawn! I hope these goodies help you in your quest to motherhood. Thank you so very much to everyone that entered and a very big thank you for supporting me and my blog!
LOW-TECH TTC GOING OUT OF BUSINESS GIVEAWAY!
EVERYTHING MUST GO!!
As most of you know I am officially out of the low-tech TTC business and moving on to the high-tech: IVF. When I 1st realized that my stash of OPKs, HPTs, Pre-Seed, and various OTC pills and supplements were now completely useless to me, I was a bit bummed. I had not only spent a decent amount of time and money amassing these things, I had also mastered their use and knew when to poas, how to read those confusing pink lines and what days to take baby aspirin and what days to take mucinex. But then I remembered that I have so many wonderful TTC buddies out there who have been reading my blog and have been so supportive and I realized that this was the perfect opportunity for me to say thank you and pay it forward with some great fertility products!
Just a few short days ago I officially received and began using my new high-tech TTC kit. Full of lots and lots of drugs, and needles.
So now that I have this kit: 
I am giving away this kit:
If you are TTC, my loss can be your gain! I am officially out of the low-tech TTC business and everything seen here must go!
Included in this giveaway:
- 12 Early-Pregnancy-Tests.com OPK test strips +instructions
- 4 Early-Pregnancy-Tests.com HPT test strips + instructions
- 4 ClearBlue Easy Digital OPK tests & reader + instructions
- 1 First Response Early Result HPT + instructions
- 1 sample pack of Pre-Seed fertility-friendly intimate moisturizer
- 1 sample pack of Pre' sperm-friendly lubricant
- A coupon for 10% off purchase of FertilAid fertility supplements
- Special surprise good luck charms, just for fun
So how can this amazing TTC kit be yours? Simple! You must be a follower of this blog, if you're not already just click "follow" on the right hand side, and you must also leave me a comment on any of my other blog posts that you have not already commented on (posts made after this giveaway are included so it's ok to wait until I put up some new posts this week) and then leave a comment here letting me know which post you commented on.See, easy peasy lemon squeezy!
And if you really, really want to win here are a few extra ways you can enter: (leave an extra comment for each extra entry)
- Follow me on twitter
- Tweet: "I am ready to win a fantastic TTC kit from @ready2bmom and you can get ready too at http://bit.ly/cl6rrx"
- Add my button to your blog
- Blog about this giveaway (make sure to leave a link in your comment)
Last day to enter is March 3rd and the winner will be selected randomly and announced March 4th. Good luck! **Disclaimer: I have not been paid or in any other way compensated for any portion of this giveaway. All of these products were purchased by me and my opinions on their effectiveness are completely subjective. Many of these products have been removed from their original boxes but all products remain individually sealed in their original protective packaging. I will do my best to ensure their safety in shipping but cannot be held responsible for possible damage that may occur during shipping process.
For a while now I have been hearing about the wonderful relaxing powers of Circle + Bloom's guided meditation program. So I read up on it on their website, which you can do too here and while I was there I downloaded their free trial which got even more excited about the program. You can find the free download here. While researching this program I have also read up on testimonials and reviews by fellow TTCers, and this one by Kate at Busted Plumbing is not only a wealth of information and an entertaining read, it is also part of a fantastic giveaway with Circle+Bloom! Kate and Joanne at Circle+Bloom have teamed up and are giving away an I-pod shuffle pre-loaded with Circle-Bloom's complete fertility program and I want to win!
As you know my 1st IVF cycle is starting soon and the closer it gets the more I can feel the anxiousness creep in. I am starting to get nervous about all of it- the shots, the hormones, the money, the schedule- and I know that now it is more important than ever for me to get and stay as relaxed and positive as possible. Of course just because I want to win doesn't mean you should enter too. The contest is open until February 15th and there a ton of ways to enter.
And in the spirit of TTC giveaways, I want to remind you that I will have my very own and very first giveaway including all kinds of great TTC essentials coming very very soon so make sure to check back and enter!
P.S. I also must mention that the lovely Kate who is doing this great giveaway is "on a mission from God" (movie reference anyone?) to get to 300 followers on her blog Busted Plumbing by her 30th birthday so if you are not already make sure to check out her blog and become a follower!
Eliana's half birthday is fast approaching. In a couple of weeks she will be 6 months old and it will be time for my Snow Pea to begin actually eating peas! That's right it's almost solid food time! I had debated when to start solid foods for a while and after consulting my pediatrician and a few wise mommies, I chose to continue exclusive breastfeeding as long as I could. I have really just gotten the hang of the routine we're in now, so it made sense to keep it going as long as possible before adding a new element. But now that routine is about to change and really I know she's ready. She has been sitting in her high chair with us during dinner and everyday she sits up a bit better and gets a little more interested in watching us eat. Her eyes get so big as she stares at the forks and spoons in our hands and I just know she is going to love experiencing the new tastes and feelings of her first foods.
