October 22, 2007

First Bites

Yesterday, we decided to feed Squiggles his first bites of cereal. Why? Well, he hasn't been napping very well for the past few days, and there have been a few instances where he'll still want to nurse after a feeding but doesn't really eat anything - he just kind of hangs out there. Granted, these things may all be attributed to teething (we saw white gums on top yesterday!), but we decided to try cereal and see if that either helps him or shocks him into napping and eating better.

So after lunch, my MIL and I went to Target to get the "supplies" while Chef and my FIL picked up our new La-Z-Boy chair (muy comfortable!). First, I picked up a big, honkin' box of Gerber rice cereal. I say honkin', but I think it's really only 16oz. That's still a lot of rice cereal, especially considering that we'll only mix up a tbsp or so at a time for the little guy. Still, I had a coupon for $2 off a $2 Gerber baby food purchase and the 8oz box wasn't quite $2 and I'm proving that I'm frugal.



While I'm on the cereal subject, Target had a sign on the shelf stating that the Gerber Organic cereals had been recalled due to "potential choking risk". I'm not sure how one could choke on extremely runny cereal, but it seems some of the cereal clumps do not fully dissolve in liquid, thus causing the choking risk. Be aware, be safe!

The next feeding must-have were some spoons. Squiggles' Great Aunt B gave him a beautiful sterling silver loop handle spoon, but I think I'll let him play with it once we get the hang of this whole feeding thing a little more. I ended up getting a package of Gerber infant spoons. Long, slim handle; small, flat spoon covered in different colors of silicone. Very nice.



So, the big moment. We made sure to have the camcorder set up so we could capture this moment for posterity. I ceremoniously measured out one tbsp of cereal into a small stoneware ramekin. I carefully poured in a few tbsp of warmed breast milk (I thought of using milk straight from the tap, if you know what I mean, but the image of me hovering over and aiming into the ramekin made me giggle too much - and, yes, I realize that wouldn't be the best way of doing that). I lovingly stirred the concoction. With camera running, we cooed and encouraged and told Squiggles what a big boy he was. And then came the first bite. He accepted the bit of cereal on the tip of his special spoon and promptly looked over at Chef as if to say, "You're letting her DO this to me?" Or, as my MIL said this morning, "Come on, you're a chef, can't you make this taste any better?" So hilarious! We tried a few more bites, but eventually, Squiggles' disgust moved from his face to his hand, and he began to bat at the spoon every time I brought it near his mouth. All of this was followed by a hearty nursing session.

We will be trying again this evening, of course, because we know it will take some time for him to get used to this. I will try to post a snippet of the video from last night and/or a picture from tonight's trial.