Hi friends! Today’s guest post is brought to you by Lil. Lil blogs over at Surprise Mommy about her adventures as a new mom. I thought it would be fun to have a baby related post on the blog, since clearly this is a topic I know nothing about. Enjoy!

A Mother’s Motivation

I gave birth to my daughter, Avery, at 2:27pm on April 15, 2013.

She was far from planned, but upon learning the news I was pregnant, I made a plan. I chose to not let my pregnancy be an excuse to gain weight and eat whatever I wanted. I chose to be relatively healthy while growing a little human inside of me. I knew that when she was born, I would breastfeed. I would never judge anyone for deciding what is best for themselves and their baby. I was not sure what was best, I just knew that I had to try. With so many awful things in this world that I can not control, I wanted to be able to control one thing, what my daughter ate. Along with every other plan I have (or haven’t) made in my life, breastfeeding was a lot harder than I thought. A lot. Without all the gory details, after just 6 weeks, I had to switch to formula. Formula became what was best for my daughter. From there, I made a new plan.

I knew I wanted to make my daughter her own food for the same reasons I wanted so badly to breastfeed. I wanted the control over what I fed her. Not being successful with breastfeeding reinforced how badly I wanted to succeed at making her food. Her first meal was sweet potatoes. I peeled and steamed the potatoes before pureeing them. She LOVED them.

In those first few weeks, we did the same with bananas, carrots, squash, peaches, and pears. There were some other vegetables and fruits that I wanted her to be able to try, but would have been difficult to make. Take peas, for example. I would have needed to remove the peas from pea pods, steam them, and purée them. I guess if I was winning mom of the year, I would have done this. However, I instead turned to Earth’s Best organic baby food for those that are not the easiest to whip up. They offer awesome products, and I trust them for those times where I am in a rush and Baby A is too hungry to wait! I found that Sundays were the best days to prep the baby food for the coming week. Depending on the food, I would make them and store them in the freezer in plastic storage jars. I would take out the meals I needed for the next day, the night before. One of my favorite recipes once she was around 6 months old was bananas and broccoli. Sweet and simple. One part bananas to two parts broccoli, steamed and pureed.

It is crazy how fast phases pass. I remember when I started making her food at 4 months, how I assumed I would be doing it forever. At 8.5 months, Avery now eats small bites of what we are eating. We still make her food, or offer her the jarred purees, but she would rather interact and eat with us than for us to feed her. Yet again, my life has changed in the sense that now my own food choices impact her. If we are going to maintain a healthy lifestyle for our daughter, it is equally important that my husband and I set positive examples.

Time for a new plan to get our entire family on the same healthy track!

Parents, chat with Lil! Did or does anyone make homemade baby food for their little ones? How do you keep your kids healthy and your entire family on a healthy track?