Yesterday I made my very first two batches of baby food! I am in love with this process. It was so easy. I think it took at most 30 minutes of my time and now I have enough food for many days.
I decided to purchase the Baby Bullet system. I liked it because of how organized it is. For me, anything with feeding my son has to be organized. I track the times on the Baby Connect application on my iPhone and iPad he eats and for how long every single time I nurse him. I have been doing this day in and day out for 18 weeks! I ordered the Medela Breastmilk Labeling and Storage System for when I do actually pump. I even ordered extra labeling lids. I am obsessed with keeping it organized. If you know me, I tend to be more of a person who works best in chaos. I scrapbook, for example, and the only thing I keep entirely organized are my brads. When I work, it is like a tornado came through. So for me to be utterly obsessed with organizing things is definitely a new trait I have developed as a mom. A good trait though. This photo shows the dial that you turn to make what day of the month you created the food on. You should not keep food longer than 30 days in the freezer and 3 days in the refrigerator. These cups can be refrigerated or frozen.
So when I was doing research the Baby Bullet just stuck out to me. I had received a baby food blender as a gift at my shower. This led me to go back and forth on what I should do. I HAD something to blend food already. Should I spend money on this system? What do I do with the extra blender now? Is this wasteful? I really wanted to make my own rice cereal as well as fruit and veggie purees. The Baby Bullet comes with a milling blade, the other blender I have does not. The system comes with all of this organizational stuff. I still had to purchase several more things for the blender I already had. They had a system too, but it all came separate. I decided to go with the Bullet. I am still not sure what I am going to do with my extra blender. I searched to see if I still had the receipt but I did not find it. I could have gotten store credit at least.
Now that I have taken the plunge, I do not plan to go back. I had a BLAST making Jack’s food yesterday. I had started him on a rice cereal that I bought. Against my original wishes. I found an organic one with the fewest ingredients possible. When we were ready to start him I hadn’t received the Baby Bullet yet. The recipes I found online for rice cereal seemed like rice cereal was complicated. That it didn’t store well. The recipe book in the Baby Bullet was the opposite. It made it seem easy peazy lemon squeezy! Yesterday I bought whole grain brown rice and milled and made my own baby rice cereal. 
I cannot emphasize enough how simple this was. We will see tonight how well it stored overnight.
I filled up enough jars for the next 3 days and then I froze the rest of the rice cereal. I may not use all of the rice cereal but it is no big deal if I don’t. 
Since it had been 4 days since he was introduced to rice I also pureed some banana for him. I couldn’t wait to introduce some fruits to him. The bananas were like nothing. I measure out the water, 1/4 cup, and one banana. Placed it in the blender and voila! We had banana puree. Not all fruits/veggies can be done raw. But banana and avocado can.
It was interesting to see his face. He hasn’t big a huge fan of this new texture in his mouth overall. So he made his stink face at first, but then realized it was a little sweet this time and his expression was just priceless. Kind of like, huh, this is different…not terrible, still weird, but a bit better! 
I decided to taste it. After all it was just brown rice and banana and water. It was actually kind of good. To me it seemed like a banana applesauce texture. It was sweet and not awful! The bowl is a photo of the mixture together. He made some usual stink faces, but he wasn’t all miserable. I got some smiles out of him. He swallowed a lot, but still spit some out. It is an adventure. I am enjoying teaching him how to eat. He has to learn, just like I am learning how to make all of his food.
I never considered myself someone obsessed with all-natural things. But here I am, breastfeeding my son. The thought of putting formula in his body makes ME gag, and I am not the one who has to ingest it. The thought of processed baby food gives me the same reaction. I cannot explain why I am so against giving him these things. When I was formula fed and given jarred baby food. I am fine. A smart healthy girl! I also was never obsessed with organization, as I previously stated. Now I find myself consumed by both of these things when it comes to Jackson. An organized hippie, if you will. And I wouldn’t change a darn thing! 
So here is to my newest adventure. I have conquered breastfeeding. I was determined to do that while pregnant. I was also determined to make my own baby food. I have achieved my first goal and I am onto goal number two. I do not plan to fail. We are off to a great start. I cannot fully explain the joy I get from doing these things for him. He doesn’t understand yet, and likely wont until he is an adult and looks back on these times. That is fine. Being a mom is all about selfless acts. You may never be thanked for them verbally. I do get a perfect little face buried in my neck when I hold him to my shoulder, I do get “big boy smiles” when I ask for them, I do get a baby who just wants to be held by me and me alone sometimes, I do get big blue eyes that look up at me after a feeding and then a silly grin spread across a precious little face. And a million other affectionate acts. THOSE are all the thanks I need for the billion little things I do day in and day out.
Nicole M. VandeBoom 