Sick baby, Baby food making extravaganza, and BEACH BOUND!

Whew. CRAAAAAZY couple of days around here. Yesterday my day began with the discovery of some blood in the baby's urine, so a day that I had planned to spend laundering and packing for the beach was suddenly thrown into a total panic. I was flying around here like a house on fire packing for the hospital instead, until our pediatric urologist's team returned my page and calmed me the heck down! Given his underlying kidney issues, it is extremely important that we catch and kill any potential urinary tract infections as quickly as possible to protect his good kidney (since it's the only one he has!). We ended up wasting two hours of our afternoon at Express Care, NOT getting the antibiotic nor the urine culture that the urologist told us to get (I'll spare you the details of the incompetency that I encountered). Useless. Luckily the resident on call at Hopkins was able to call in the antibiotic for me. My poor baby was so pitiful, running a 101.8 fever and eventually vomiting his guts up just before bed :'( He fell asleep like a total wet wash cloth, so limp in my arms that I made a point of jostling him when I got up to lay him down, just to make sure that he was responsive. I also proceeded to check in on him several times during the night, of course. My first experience with a truly sick baby has been exactly what it's chalked up to be... the worst thing EVER. Ugh.

My poor lil babykins, sleeping in my arms at Express Care :'(

He seemed to be feeling much better today, though there were still some tinges of pink in his urine. No fevers, no vomiting, but he didn't have much of an appetite and was definitely dehydrated. At least he was acting like his normal, chipper self! After a follow-up appointment with the pediatrician, we were able to get some of the vacation prep work started - grocery shopping, laundry, some cleaning, and LOTS of baby-food-making!

3 pounds of organic apples, 5 pears, a butternut squash, 4 sweet potatoes and a bag of organic baby carrots. $21.49 at Giant.

Cut the squash in half, lay the halves face-down in a baking pan in about an inch of water. Bake at 350 for 45 mins - 1 hour. Scoop out the "meat", puree in the blender. Add a little of the baking water (which contains any leached nutrients) to achieve desired consistency. DONE.

The worst part of making baby food is the peeling. 9 Apples and 5 pears will take it out of ya! But really, if the only "cooking skill" you need is the ability to wield a knife, how hard can MYO baby food really be? The answer: it's not. 

For apples and pears, I peel, core, cube and bake in about an inch of water - 350 for about 30-45 mins (until fork tender... kinda depends on how ripe they are to begin with, particularly for the pears). Again, just add some of the baking water if you need to thin the puree.

This was my first go 'round with carrots, but they were SUPER easy. I rinsed them, checked them all for any "weirdness" on the ends and trimmed said weirdness as needed, threw them in a pot with a tiny bit of water (just enough to cover the bottom of the empty pot) and steamed until fork-tender, about 15 mins. Threw them in the blender on puree, and never had to make any adjustments - perfect consistency. Awesome! 

All told, I ended up with 182 oz of baby food. For $21.49. That's almost half of what I'd pay per ounce for the Gerber plastic containers of baby food. It did take up several hours of my day, but I only have to do that once every three weeks-ish. Ya can't go wrong, my friends! 

Now I'm all set to head to the BEACH tomorrow with my homemade baby food in tow! I'm a little nervous given Eli's recent health issues, but he seems to be responding well to the antibiotic, so we'll just have to keep a close eye and hope for the best. We'll only be about 3 hours from home anyway. We're heading to OCMD with friends of ours whose parents have a beach house, so we'll be staying for free, cooking in, and just enjoying some good old-fashioned relaxation (and hopefully some CRABS)! Packing for the beach this year - with a baby (and all the STUFF that said baby "requires") - has been a whole new challenge! I have about 5 different lists floating around the house, just trying to keep myself organized and make sure that no essentials are left behind! The place is littered with sticky notes, too. It can be difficult to differentiate between true "essentials" and "stuff that makes my life so much easier", but with limited trunk space (since trading in the Grand Cherokee for a CR-V) we're trying to be as minimalist as is practical with an 8-month-old. We'll only be gone for 5 days, and really, one can live without just about anything for 5 days. "One" doesn't want to have to live without anything on her list, however, so "one" will be quadruple checking before blast off tomorrow evening!

I hope you're all enjoying your summer! Catch ya on the flip side of vacay!!!