yummy nummy, happy mummy

last night was our wee wren's introduction to food now that he will be turning six months old in two days. i was anxious to try it, as was e, because for the past month he has been waking up to three times a night and acting as though we've been starving him. so with multiple night feedings draining me of precious sleep, i was hopeful that a full belly of rice cereal would help him return to peaceful, night-long slumber (as would i!). i made up a combination of natural rice cereal and breast milk, thinning it quit substantially for the first try. while sitting on e's lap, we strapped on the extra large handmade quilted bib my cousin made little c, and i scooped up a small helping on a wee spoon and held it up for him to examine. e asked 'what does it taste like? did you try it?' i simply put a dab on my tongue to confirm it was not bad at all. after a second of staring at the spoon before him, c reached eagerly for it. once we convinced him to let me wield the spoon, he opened up for his first bite without hesitation. his eyes a little wider, he swallowed happily and waited for his next spoonful. next i knew, the entire tablespoon of cereal was gone and c was looking around for more. instead he got a bath and jammies before settling in to breastfeed and snooze in his crib by 7:30 p.m.

all was well until 11:00 p.m., when i awoke to him crying. as this is one of the usual times he's been waking to eat again, we thought that maybe he had woken out of habit and decided to see if perhaps he would just fall back to sleep. after about fifteen minutes, he lost all patience with my absence from his room and began screaming very angrily at the top of his lungs. finally, knowing we would only progress into hysteria, i went into his room and scooped him up. calming him down, i sought to 'reset' his mood and then i placed him back in his crib after my five-point-inspection (diaper, gas, fever, teeth, hunger). once back in the crib he began crying again, but was less infuriated. i headed back to bed, determined to break the cycle. after a while his crying quieted and we both must have dozed off to sleep, because at 2:00 a.m. i woke with great confusion. tiptoeing to check on him, i found my wee wren snoozing soundly. with a shrug, i made my way sleepily back to bed and was not roused until 6:00 a.m. when c woke for a morning meal and promptly fell back asleep until 8:30 a.m.

i think that the introduction of solid foods may just have been the help we needed in getting our baby boy back to sweet all night sleeping. thank goodness for that!