Thursday, September 08, 2005

Food and sleep

Jonathan had his first "official" solid food tonight at dinner. I've let him taste things before, just sucking on them, but this was his first smashed up solids to actually swallow. He likes green beans a lot. In fact, he cried when it was gone. :)

He also likes the taste of peaches - I let him suck on mine today at lunch. In retrospect, I suppose I shouldn't have let him try two things in one day, but I don't think the peaches really counted, since he didn't get more than a few drops of juice. In any case, I'm pleased that he's so happy about trying new foods. So far there are no "tastes" that he hasn't liked.

As for sleep - it's a mixed bag. Last night he went for 8 hours without eating, which was fantastic. I'm attempting to keep him on a 4 hour feeding schedule, skipping the midnight-thirty one. So far it seems to be working well...I like the new predictability and he seems to get hungry right on time. On the other hand, he's still waking up quite a few times in the early part of the night, for no discernable reason. Last night Gabe and I lay in our bed wondering "should we pick him up or let him cry? How about going over just to pat him? will that help the situation or just make it worse? What about a pacifier? etc. etc. etc." There are as many theories as there are parents, it seems, and so it's really hard for me to know what the best thing is to do for Jonathan. Last night we went with letting him whimper until it became a full cry, and then patted him until he found his thumb again. That seemed to work...once back asleep he slept the rest of the night (until his 4:30am feeding.) I guess we'll go with that for a few weeks and see if it works. I do think its having some effect, since a few days ago patting him didn't help at all, and now it does.

Well, my darling son is crying unconsolably, so I think I'll go help Gabe figure out what's wrong. :)

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