Tomorrow, April 8, marks the six-month anniversary of Baby Kate's arrival (yes, I know that the term "six-month anniversary" is a contradiction in terms). In some ways, the time has really flown by. For example, if you add up the total hours of quality sleep Devoted Wife and I have had since her arrival and compute what those cumulative hours would mean on a pre-Kate basis, you'd be talking weeks, not months. And we really haven't missed any movies since she was born: those movies that were coming out in the theaters last October are now being released on DVD, so its (sort of) like we never missed a beat!
We started Kate on some solid foods a couple of weeks ago. Her doctor had told Devoted Wife two months ago that Kate's caloric intake was high enough that Kate should be able to last through the night now and didn't need to eat at 3:00 a.m. Unfortunately the doctor forgot to explain this well-reasoned scientific conclusion to Kate, and trying to argue with Kate at 3:00 a.m. proved less than fruitful. We tried letting her "cry it out" for a few nights but found that this had an even greater adverse effect on our ability to sleep. I tried some alternative coping strategies, but it was difficult sleeping with my shooting-range hearing protection earmuffs on. To try to help Kate make it through the night without needing to nurse, we finally started supplementing her feeding with some rice cereal mixed with applesauce, squash or other baby foods. To see her gulp this stuff down, you'd truly think we had been starving her. No "here comes the airplane to the hangar" games required here -- get the spoon within a foot of her face, and she'll lunge at the spoon with her mouth open wide. If she had teeth, I'd probably wear Kevlar gloves when feeding her. I'd be worried I might lose a finger.
So far, it doesn't seem like feeding her this "solid" food (there's really nothing solid about it) actually reduces the time Devoted Wife has to spend breastfeeding Kate. The only direct effect I see is that changing Kate's diapers has become a significantly worse experience. And this is just applesauce and squash . . . I don't even want to think about peas and carrots.
2 comments:
Happy half-birthday Kate! ...oh yes, there are a few of the "older" Anderson Grandkids (and perhaps I should add that they are especially the ones with summer birthdays) who whole-heartedly believe in celebrating half birthdays!
Post a Comment