Beckett has not been the best sleeper. He has been up 2-3 times a night still for the last several months. I had tried letting him cry when he woke up the first time then feed him the second time but then he would wake up again just a few hours later. It was frustrating and I was hoping maybe he was just hungry and it was time to start solids. I really really dislike starting solids with babies. It's time consuming, messy and expensive so I always wait until they are 6 months old.
It worked out that I had planned to try rice cereal with Beckett last weekend and my mom was here! She loves being a part of these kinds of milestones, so I let her feed him his first solid meal. Since none of my kids have been big fans of plain rice cereal I mixed it up with a tablespoon or two of carrots. He ate it up like a champ. At first. Then he started shuddering every time he swallowed. Finally he gagged on a mouthful and threw it all up. I'm pretty sure there were two contributing factors to the yakking.
1. The carrots. Too many flavors too soon.
2. The texture. I think it was too thick. I have thinned it a little more for his subsequent feedings this week.
Poor kid was sad. We gave him a bath and a bottle and put him down for a nap. It was semi successful. The next day I tried again but mixed the rice cereal with plain water and he did just fine. He has been eating every day this week and is getting better and better at it. He eats almost his entire bowl!
Sadly it has not helped with his sleeping so far. Yesterday was his official 6 month birthday! I can't believe how fast that went. He wanted to keep the party going all night last night and was up every couple of hours. I'm so tired! I suspect he may have an ear infection and I'm taking him to the doctor this afternoon. We shall see if my mommy intuition is right. I kinda hope it is so that we can get some meds and get this kid sleeping!
5 comments:
I've always been frustrated when people tell me that rice cereal is the magic formula to making babies sleep through the night because it didn't make any difference with my girls. But I met someone who said it didn't work for her first two, but it did for her third. So I guess it does work for some, but it's not a universal solution. I feel ya with the frustration over not sleeping. I stopped nursing Noelle at night and that was supposed to get her to sleep through the night--not even close. Constant sleep deprivation is not a fun state to be in.
He's so tiny in that high chair!!! What a cutie-pie. I'm glad to hear he's eating well...even if he's not sleeping well. :)
My daughter had a similar reaction to her first food! She threw it all up so we waited another month before trying again. She loved it and kept it down the 2nd time!
And I hesitate giving advice, because you've been a mom longer and to more kids than me, and I'm sure you've tried many things, but what worked for us to get our kids to not nurse so much at night was nursing them every 2 hours during the day, and nursing them in their sleep just before I went to bed. I found this helped stretch their sleep cycles to 4 hours at first, then more eventually.
It's so hard to function on not enough sleep! I hope you'll be getting adequate zzzzz's soon!
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