No Longer Starving

Monday, August 10, 2009
I'm not quite ready to accept defeat, although it's looking like I'll be getting a whole lot of "I Told-Ya-So's" over this one. If I wasn't so refreshingly well rested I might be grumpy that everybody has been right about this. Let me state for the record that even had I known this was going to be the outcome, I still would have waited to start solids. I feel good about my decision, and I would NOT have done it differently. And, really, it COULD be a coincidence...

Ok, enough already, here's the deal: Day ate solid food last night and slept like a champ. Like never before. Woke up ONE TIME between 9:00 PM and 6:00 AM, and I think that was because Ken slammed his wedding ring on the headboard. (He also talked non-stop in his sleep last night, so I'm surprised all of us weren't awake more often.) Then, she went back to sleep so I could get ready for work, the little sweetie.

Aside from the very random nights that only seem to happen every 3 weeks or so, Day has been getting up every 2 to 3 hours every night for 6 months. Everyone and their mother (including my mother) have been nagging me about starting this kid on solid foods. Among other reasons, "because she'll sleep better". Now, I am not of the opinion that it is wise to stuff your infant full of food before she is developmentally ready just to get a full night's sleep. Otherwise, I would have gone that route before now. But, Day has been showing some definite signs of readiness lately, and so we did it. And she slept. The verdict is still out though. I'll talk to you again in a week or so when I know this was not one of those random nights that only get my hopes up that we might be turning a corner on the sleep routine.

On the menu was avocado and milk (from me, not from a cow). She was more interested in playing with it than she was eating it, and honestly the experience was a little anticlimactic, but it is done. And so now to all the people who have been ashamed of me for STARVING my child, I am no longer starving her. She is on the road to eating like a regular little person. This does not mean that now she can have cookies, pork chops, etc. It only means I am gradually introducing her to the world of solid food, and hopefully teaching her healthy habits along the way.







Side story to all of this: Last week at daycare, I walked into her room to get her for lunch and my child was gnawing on a chicken bone. She was sitting in the lap of her favorite teacher (who shall remain nameless to save her job) and yes, she had a leg bone IN HER MOUTH. Now, it all happened very fast, and the teacher has denied any wrongdoing or mischief, but I saw what I saw. I didn't freak out. After all, what was I gonna do? So, now I'm undecided on what to record in her baby book for first food: Avocado or Chicken Bone?