Teething Baby, Gratitude and Pumpkin Curry

We’ve been having some rough nights here lately. I’m running on probably 4 hours a night sleep, all broken up into little chunks. Ruby is teething. She’s been teething for months but is only now showing any signs of discomfort. Her bottom two front teeth came in last month with no issue. She’s now working on her top two front teeth, one of which has popped through, but just barely. On top of that, I think she has a cold. Runny and stuffy nose, sneezing, coughing. We had to do a middle of the night saline spray and snot evacuation that sent her into crying fits. But she couldn’t breath. I hate seeing her like this. She wants to be on me all the time. She has a hard time nursing because of the pain, so she cries. She’s just miserable.

I know this is all normal. But that doesn’t make it suck any less.

Because I haven’t been sleeping well Steve took Ruby for a little while so I could have some me time. To sleep. It didn’t really work out that way though and I found myself getting aggravated. At Steve. But that’s not fair. I mean, it’s not his fault Ruby doesn’t feel well. And while I had some alone time, he cleaned the litter box, did dishes, made me coffee and took care of Ruby’s needs. That’s a lot, even for a seasoned parent. So I just wanted to let him know that I appreciate him. I love him. And I love how much he loves his babies. I am grateful for him and his presence.

Being a parent is really tough. I’ve thought about it and talked about and written about it for months now, and I am still unable to truly articulate what it’s like. I mean, how does one express the most difficult, yet fulfilling thing that you’ve ever experienced? From what I’ve read (and lived so far), this first year is one of the hardest, most challenging things a relationship can go through. I can see that. When you’re sleep deprived crazy things can happen. Our diet certainly went down hill. All the way down hill. But we’re getting back to where we need to be. When your tired and hungry all bets are off. So there are occasional bad moods and what not. I really try to always remind myself how lucky I am. I know single moms, moms in bad relationships, and moms that have had to run for fear. I can’t imagine ever having to do this parenting thing alone. Even at almost 8 months in I still struggle. A lot. So I am grateful. For my partner, for my home, for family that cares, for the life we have, for this amazing baby girl.

Even though Ruby is teething, and we’re not sleeping great, we still have to eat. It is sometimes (read: often) a struggle to get into the kitchen these days. Even more so when everything you have has to be prepared from scratch, or close to it. But we have to eat and there’s not enough cereal left for both of us, so…. Luckily I’ve made curry enough times now that we almost always have ingredients on hand to throw one together. I’ve also tried to keep my freezer stocked with frozen vegetables since I found out I was pregnant last year. We used to do weekly farmers market runs but I just don’t have the energy anymore and frozen veggies don’t have to be prepped. Think what you will, but it works really well for us.

I threw together this curry pretty quickly and it wound up being a big hit for everyone, including Ruby. She LOVED the spaghetti squash. I don’t have a recipe (again) but like last time, it’s more about looking in your cabinets and being creative with the ingredients you have on hand. And to be honest, even as I was adding those first few ingredients to the pan, I had no idea what I was making. All I knew was that I had spaghetti squash, roasted and ready to eat. Here’s what we wound up with.

Pumpkin Coconut Curry (approximate ingredients)

• 1 cup frozen bell pepper strips
• 1/4 cup frozen diced onion
• 1 cup frozen sliced zucchini
• 1 lb. sliced mushrooms
• 28 oz. can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 2-3 tbsp. yellow curry powder
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste
• 1 tbsp. grated ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, grated
• 1/2 14 oz. can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
• 1/2 can coconut milk
• 2 cups veggie broth (I used Better than Broth + water)
• A big pinch cayenne pepper (added after I take some out for Ruby)
  
• Spaghetti squash, roasted
• Sea salt to finish

I literally just added all of this to a large pan, brought it to a boil, then turned it down to simmer for about 30-45 minutes. Be sure to stir well at first to combine, then occasionally along the way. I should also note that I personally tend to use more curry powder than most recipes call for, because I really like it.

So whether you’ve got a teething baby or a grumpy husband, go in the kitchen and make something yummy to eat!