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Food, Glorious Food

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We have been feeding Micah rice cereal since he turned 4 1/2 months old. We started out slowly . . . just 1/2 tbs of rice cereal mixed with 1 ounce of breast milk. Initially, Micah could only eat 1/2 of that at each feeding. We have now “graduated” to 2 tbs of rice cereal with 1 ounce of breast milk every day. I think he would be willing to take more, but we are trying to ease into solid food since it is not really necessary until babies are 6 months old.

As I wade into this world of babies and solid food, I realize how complicated it is. No one can agree on when to feed a baby. No one really knows exactly how much to feed them each time. Some people insist you start with veggies, and others insist you should start with fruits. My pediatrician said we could start food any time after 4 months, and since Micah was showing signs of increased hunger, he suggested we at least start with rice cereal, but start slowly. We called the pediatricians office another day to talk about the heat and dehydration, and the “on-call” pediatrician gave me a hard time about feeding Micah food so early. Pediatricians in the same office can’t even seem to agree!

I feel like starting rice cereal has been a good thing for Micah. It has resolved some of his hunger issues, and it has made it possible for me to continue breastfeeding. Now that Micah is 5 months old, we are trying to determine the “next steps” for feeding. At any time, we can increase his food intake. We can start adding vegetables/fruits. I have no idea what to do next! I think this week, we are going to try oatmeal, and see how Micah does. Next week, he will be 5 1/2 months, and I think perhaps we will start adding fruits/veggies. One new one every 3-5 days. That will take us until Micah is at least 6 months old. I know some people do not even start introducing food until then, but they are encouraged to do so at a far more aggressive pace at that point. I am not certain when we should increase to 2 meals a day. I’m thinking Micah is content with the quantity of food he is getting right now, and since breast milk (or formula) is supposed to be the primary source of nutrition for the entire first year, there is no rush to increase the number of times per day he is eating. Simply adding in the veggies/fruits will increase his intake. I’m thinking I’ll wait until after we introduce the other foods (or Micah shows signs of hunger) before we increase the number of feeds each day.

Does anyone else out there find the whole feeding thing confusing? I sure hope it gets easier! I think I am going to worry about Micah and whether he is eating enough for a very long time. Somewhere in here, I have to start thinking about when and how I am going to wean Micah, but that is a post for a different day.

Micah likes it!

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That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, on Sunday we fed Micah rice cereal for the very first time! My little boy is growing up and eating solid foods. We started with organic brown rice cereal with DHA. The instructions we had told us to make it very thin, almost like soup, for the very first feeding. So, as instructed, we mixed 1 tbs of cereal with 4 tbs of breast milk. The biggest problem we had was that it kept dripping everywhere. We will gradually make it thicker over time as Micah becomes accustomed to eating. We think we managed to use about 1/2 of the mixture . . . probably 1/2 of that dripped on the table or on Micah, but hey, it was a good start! (UGH – I just imagined Elliot telling a bad joke in my head . . . he would have said “Not Good Start, it was Gerber.”)

Naturally, we decided to videotape and photograph this momentous event! Here are the photographs:

If you prefer the live-action version, press the triangle in the lower left corner of the videos. I hope you enjoy these shots as much as we do!

This post is for you, Mom!

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My mom called to remind me that she needs her daily blog fix. In an effort to be a good daughter, I rapidly finished up this post I’ve been working on all week. So, here it is . . . I hope you find it worth the wait!

Another crazy week . . . Micah has been struggling with a stuffy nose all week, and I’ve been running around like a mad woman and trying to get some work done. As you already know, we started off the week with our 4 month checkup (see my last post).

On Wednesday, we went to our playgroup. Micah thoroughly enjoyed himself – he talked up a storm, smiled at everyone, played with his friend Emily’s Hop ‘N Pop (a travel activity center), and just had a wonderful time. The pictures don’t lie!


I can’t believe how big he is getting – and so grown up! He is playing like a “big” boy now. He was spinning the dials, and pushing all the buttons, and having so much fun. We got home in the afternoon, and I got some work done while Micah napped. I had a BBYO Adult Board meeting that night, so Elliot was on Daddy duty for bedtime.

On Thursday, I got up early to head to a conference in Baltimore. The plan was to have Micah join me. Needless to say, nothing went as planned. Micah woke up super early (around 5 am) and was HUNGRY. I actually thought that would give us great timing – usually, when he wakes up early, he goes back to sleep for 3 (sometimes 4) hours, which would allow us to get out the door around 9:30 or so. Apparently, Micah had other plans. He would NOT wake up until 10:45. He was sound asleep, and he would not be woken up. I had a work emergency, so I was dealing with that. When Micah finally got up, he was grumpy. I fed him, and finally got him dressed and ready to go . . . and he decided to have a poop explosion (a SUB as we call them). I changed him again, and we headed out the door.

I made it all the way to downtown Baltimore . . . just in time for the lunch rush. We couldn’t find any open garages, and right at that moment, Micah got fussy – he was ready to eat again. Realizing that by the time I found a spot, and fed Micah, and got over to the conference it would be practically over, I threw in the towel on the conference. Instead, I headed a few minutes further north and decided to meet up with my SIL Jen and the girls. We met at Panera for lunch . . . and I promptly discovered I did not have my regular diaper bag with my hooter hider. I had the emergency diaper bag, so I tried to nurse Micah using a receiving blanket as a shield. Micah was more in the mood to play with the blanket and smile at me, but every time I tried to stop nursing him he shrieked. It was a fun experience. Lunch was . . . chaotic . . . to say the least. I was dealing with nursing challenges, and Jen had accidentally forgotten my niece Peyton’s shoes. We spent the whole meal trying to keep her from walking on the ground. With all the craziness, I think we ended up staying at Panera for only 10 or 15 minutes – we couldn’t wait to get out of there and try to regain control of the situation.

After lunch, we headed back to their house. Paige and Peyton were great with him. He laughed, he played with them, and we had a pleasant afternoon. His cousins even gave him a few toys to bring home – with lots of lights, buttons and music! He has been having so much fun playing with all of these toys.

My nieces were adorable (as always). Unfortunately, they tend to fight a lot. Paige, however, takes everything away from her younger sister, Peyton, and tries to push her around. On this particular occasion, Peyton wanted to eat some goldfish they were supposed to be “sharing.” Paige is very good at “sharing” – as long as she doesn’t have to share with Peyton. She will share with me, with Micah . . . with pretty much anyone else, but not Peyton. I didn’t exactly see the whole exchange, but Paige took the goldfish, and somehow Peyton ended up biting Paige’s finger . . . hard. She meant business . . . Peyton dug in and was ferocious and shaking her head with fury while she bit down. She intended to teach Paige a lesson, and was standing up for herself – the poor thing was tired of being pushed around! Tough situation for Jen – Peyton needs to learn not to bite, but she was also trying to stick up for herself because Paige was being a bully. I thought she handled the disciplining/comforting very well – I was impressed!

Then, Peyton decided she wanted to pee on the potty. We took off her pants and diaper, and she sat on the little potty. Paige then decided she wanted the potty and tried to shove Peyton off. We eventually convinced her to use the real toilet, but not before the two girls had a shoving match on the mini potty. Somewhere along the way, Peyton decided to pee on the floor. I think the fact that she is showing interest in the potty is pretty exciting as she is only 18 months old! We headed back upstairs, and it became apparent that the girls were tired. When they went down for their nap, we headed home.

I made it home just in time to meet with another contractor. We are considering putting an addition on the house (crazy, right, since we just renovated the inside). That went well, but Micah had a SUB while the contractor was here, and we had to bathe him and put him to bed while trying to talk costs, look at options, and discuss business. It was a bit chaotic!

My frustration of the week has been that Micah has been waking up hungry early in the morning lately. This morning, he got up at 4:30 again (2nd time this week, and we had one night that he woke up at midnight to eat), so I brought him into bed and fed him. He fell back to sleep right after eating, and he woke up again at 8:30. We got up and dressed, and we decided to try out an exercise class called Stroller Strides. We met our friend Erica there with HER son Micah, and we had a good time. It was a good class – I’m pretty sore! After exercise class, Micah went back to daycare for a few hours – his second “trial” run. I think this visit went better – they did not over-feed him, and he did take a bit of a nap. Unfortunately, we did have another meltdown at bedtime, so perhaps they are connected. I wish I knew what to do! In the meantime, I gave him a bottle of pumped breastmilk, and he guzzled it down before he passed out.

This weekend, we are thinking of trying rice cereal for the first time (since breastmilk alone doesn’t seem to be quite enough for Micah these days) . . . it should be interesting (and I promise, there WILL be video). My question is – will he end up with more cereal in his mouth or his hair? I’m a bit scared. I keep seeing him stick his hands in the cereal and putting them straight in that luscious hair of his. I then imagine the cereal getting all hard and sort of . . . shellacking to his hair. We may end up needing to give him a buzz cut before the weekend is over. My mom suggested a shower cap – we may need to experiment!

4 month checkup

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Monday was our 4 month checkup – and Micah did really well! He weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 15 ounces, and he is 24 1/4 inches long. The doctor thought he was really strong and doing perfectly! He had his vaccinations (2 shots and an oral vaccine). He cried (but not as loudly as last time – this nurse was a bit more gentle administering the shot). I nursed him after the shot, and we came home. He napped on and off all afternoon, and we had one screaming session for about 2 hours, and then he slept from 5 until 9. I nursed him again, and he was happy and smiley again. We finally put him down for the night around 10 or 10:30, and he slept through until 8:00 this morning.

We talked to the doctor about the fact that Micah has been stuffy all week, and he was not concerned. We also discussed Micah’s reflux, and he increased the Zantac dosage, so hopefully that will help our little Micah feel better. We also discussed starting solid foods, and he said we can start him on cereal at any time! He suggests if we start early that we go slow – just work on cereal only for a while (at least a month) before introducing any other foods. I think in the next few weeks, we will try cereal. I’d like to work in one cereal feeding a day – I think it will help him get all the calories he needs during the day.