I don't make homemade baby food and I am ok with it

I had such great plans before Tiny Tornado was born. I was going to be Super Mom. I was going to breastfeed, make my own baby food, use cloth diapers and make sure she only had the most essential things so she didn't get spoiled. All her clothes were washed in baby detergent and we were all ready for her to make her appearance. Oh how plans change when the baby actually arrives.

Breastfeeding was not happening for us no matter how hard I tried. All of the pictures and videos made it seem so easy but for us, it involved screaming, crying, and extreme frustration.  A starving baby who was the color of an orange was not a good thing and so that plan was amended. I pumped numerous times a day and onto the bottle she went.  That worked for us even when people judged that I was giving my tiny baby a bottle. I just would smile and say yes she takes a bottle. No need to explain it was still breastmilk because it wouldn't matter and they don't need to see inside my life.

We did use cloth diapers for a time but only because we had a diaper service that dropped them off, picked them up, and washed them for us. Otherwise, this would have become a distant wish as well. As I have said before I hate laundry, so why I ever thought I would want to wash poopy diapers is beyond me. Once we moved away from our big city, away the cloth diapers went and Tornado was in disposables. Yes, we are destroying the environment but saving our sanity.

At 6 months, we started her on baby food. We were in the middle of a cross-country move so we started with jars of food. I told myself once we were settled I would get into a routine of making my own, freezing it and it would all be perfect. I think the Tornado can read my plans and laughs as she makes her own. I made one batch of pears that I cooked, pureed, and froze. Then I did a batch of sweet potatoes. These were both foods that she loved from the jar so I thought perfect, this will be easy and she will love it. She absolutely refused to eat any of it. By this point, she was eating an entire jar two or three times a day. She should have loved the food I made her. The disaster that occurred all over the highchair indicated she did not. Out of the jar she would eat like she was starving. Anytime I tried to give her a homemade puree she spit it everywhere. Finally I gave up trying.

My plan of being Super Mom was quickly dashed. There are all these expectations set forth for moms in today's society. You must breastfeed, don't feed chemicals, don't feed food that is processed, don't use disposable diapers because they have chemicals that can affect their organs, don't vaccinate, do vaccinate but whenever you want, vaccinate exactly on schedule. What I have learned in the last 14 months is that as much as society tries to manipulate us there is only one thing that matters. It is that Tiny Tornado has food-even if it is sometimes frozen chicken nuggets and broccoli (which she thinks is a cookie), a safe home even if it means sometimes she has to fight with animals over space, and love. Love is definitely present in our home from the cat that insists on snuggling with her during naptime to the dog that allows her to eat his food and sit on him in his kennel. Never will Tiny Tornado doubt that she is loved beyond all measure.  To me that makes me Super Mom for the moment. At least until the next battle of wills which is likely to occur after naptime.