Maybe not ready just yet...

This face is telling you "I WANT MY MILK!"

Daddy was home the other day to try rice cereal with our little bug, as he was feeding him he was laughing hysterically, I came over and asked what was wrong...

"I don't know where you got that baby in the video clip, but THIS baby does NOT eat rice cereal!"

And I looked over as Owen was spitting out everything his Daddy had carefully spooned into his mouth into a nice round mushy pile on his tray... and then proceeded to slap it with his abnormally large baby hands.

The books say to offer half a nursing before offering the solids. Mr. Owen DOES NOT LIKE THIS. Ha, "the books" also say that when nursing - once a baby is done on one breast you can take him off, burp him and offer the second breast. Not Owen, if I don't swiftly move him over to the other side all hell breaks loose. Burping? Yeah right, he'll burp, fart and choke mid-feeding - think nothing of it, and go right back to the task at hand. So trying to pause between boobs - unheard of in our house. This "half a feeding" stuff just pisses him off and I have to spend ten minutes calming him down and trying to explain that I am going to offer him some DELISH-ISH rice cereal and then after we try that, I'll offer him the second breast. Reasoning with a baby is a total waste of air.

So today, my brilliant idea was to go right to rice cereal after he woke up from his afternoon nap. I figured we'd skip the second breast fight and he'd be extra hungry for some yummy cereal. WRONG. First off, he looked at me like I was crazy after I changed his diaper and didn't nurse him. Then when I put him in the bumbo he gave me a grumpy face. When I tried to offer the cereal he took it into his mouth and again spit it all over the tray. ALL OF IT. I don't think a single bit even accidentally slid down his throat. Then when I cleaned him off and grabbed him out of the chair he started pulling frantically at my shirt.

I nursed him (with the double-boob special) and he was happy as a clam (are clams really that happy?)

He's also slept 11 hours for me the last two nights, with only a dream feed between 11pm-12am (I pull him into bed, feed him, he eats but doesn't wake up and then I lay him back in the cosleeper - full and asleep) and he wakes up between 7-9am. Since he's hardly getting any rice cereal to speak of, that can't be attributable to the change so perhaps our little growth spurt is over (for now).

So, I decided I'm going to back off on the cereal/solids for a while. I have plenty of milk, since he's increased my supply, I'm back to freezing between 8-12 ounces a day on top of what I feed him. We'll go back to our routine of on demand feeding during the day and we'll see how it goes for a while. I actually don't mind feeding him at night, its just him and me. He's sleepy and warm and I just stare at him in the low light. Thankful for the time, the experience, for my boy.

Because even though eating rice cereal is cute, he's still my little baby and right now, he just wants his Mama's milk.