Starting the Solids

It was Niall's 5 month birthday a couple days ago, and we started him on the rice cereal. I was a little hesitant to do anything besides formula until he was 6 months, but I want to start puree-ing (is that a word?) my own fruits and vegetables for him at that point, so I figured cereal would be a good stepping stone. We're doing it in a bowl with a little bit of formula mixed in and teaching him to eat off of a spoon.

He's so quick- not that I'm biased or anything. But really... the first 2 or 3 bites were really confusing for him and incredibly adorable for me as an observer. He didn't know what on earth to do with his mouth. The cereal would just kind of sit in his mouth until it all plopped out onto his chin. His curious little look was almost like I could read what he was thinking... "looks like formula, tastes like formula, but why is it lumpy and how am I supposed to suck on that thing??" After those first bites, though, he was actually catching on. He would suck on the spoon and hold his mouth shut to keep it all in there. I was so proud of him!

I should mention, as a new mom, that when I heard people talking about starting their kids on cereal at 4 months, I thought to myself "how is a 4 month old supposed to eat cheerios?!" I honestly didn't know that "cereal" was not really cereal until about a month before Niall was born. I know there have to be some of you out there who thought the same thing, so don't be embarrassed :)

Anyway, it's taken some adjusting on both of our parts. He's going to bed earlier now because I'm skipping his last feeding at night so I don't overfeed him. It's really hard to guesstimate how much formula to cut out once you start on the cereal- a question I have for the pediatrician but will most likely forget when the time comes to ask it. It's amazing how much can happen in the 2 months between doctors' visits. So, now that I've got him going to bed a little earlier, it's hard on Matt because he barely sees him and, more importantly, he's waking me up an hour earlier each morning- 6am. Ok, it's only been 2 days so I guess I can't draw conclusions but I have a feeling this is the norm. We'll see...