Brief update on food and sleep

The last four nights Liam has eaten a quarter cup of rice cereal before bed (1 Tbsp of the rice cereal flakes plus 1.5 oz of formula). He always makes a weird unhappy face when we start, and he spits some out early on, but then he gets into it, and opens his mouth when the spoon comes towards him. Once he gets going he still sometimes spills it out the front of his mouth, but it has more the look of a kid who hasnt mastered this whole spoon eating thing than actively spitting it out.

The doctor said that after he went four nights of tolerating the rice cereal well we could move on to other solid foods, introducing one new food every four days. That means technically we could start tonight, but I think we are going to do one more night of rice cereal so that Grandma Denyse (who comes to town tomorrow) can be there to share in the fun of his first REAL real food feeding.

We are excited about exposing him to a world of new tastes, and will eagerly hit up Whole Foods tomorrow for some wholesome organic produce. Be sure to vote in our little poll to the left there if you want to share your thoughts for what Liam's first little food should be.

On a related note, this morning I checked facebook to discover that an old high school friend with triplets born two weeks after Liam finally got all three of her boys to sleep through the night (11 hours straight). I was totally thrilled for her, but also green with envy. Despite my envy, I have to celebrate because last night was his best night of sleep ever. For the past few days he has gotten himself onto much more of a schedule, taking 5.5 or 6 ounces every three hours through the day, then 1/4 cup of rice cereal at night followed by a 5 ounce bottle (although last night he didnt finish the bottle). Last night he went to bed at 6:30 pm, and then was a bit restless at 10:30 but Terry got him settled back down without a bottle. Terry fed him once in the middle of the night around 1:30 or 2 am and then he didn't wake me up until 6:45. Woohoo!

Fingers crossed that this is a sign of good things to come. Because I'm really not looking forward to "sleep training" him with tears and whatnot, but on the other hand, he simply must sleep through the night sometime before he is 2 years old. I cant take another year and a half of only sleeping 5 hours a night. Last night was glorious: I crashed out at 8:30 pm myself, and woke up at 4 like clockwork to check on the little man, then dozed a bit restlessly until he woke up at 6:45. I still feel tired, but one night does not make up for the cumulative loss of five months.