Ah, food. That oh, so important part of our lives that not only fills our bellies but structures our days and brings family and friends together over meals. Food has had an especially high status in my life over the past 12 months as I have been pretty much non-stop hungry since day one of my pregnancy. In fact, for the first month or so after giving birth, I was STARVING. Meals couldn't come often enough, and I still lost weight! Now, 5 months after giving birth I'm still on a hobbit's meal plan with breakfast, brunch, lunch, 2nd lunch, early dinner, late dinner, etc. Seriously. Breastfeeding makes me hungry! And now Calvin is starting his own food adventure as he broadens his food repertoire beyond just breastmilk.Calvin's food adventure started a few weeks ago with the addition of formula to his daily intake. This change was neither easy nor welcome for me. As a breastfeeding mom, it was my responsibility to provide all the nutritional needs of my baby. I diligently ate the right foods and drank enough fluids, wore the right clothes, educated myself on the ins and outs of breastfeeding, and constantly worked to build up a reserve of extra milk to supplement as needed. And, for the most part, I was very successful - Calvin and I had an easy time with breastfeeding, and I felt very fortunate.
If I had been able to breastfeed him all day, every day, that's what we'd be doing still. But I'm not. After returning to work full time, it was a sad realization for me that I wasn't able to keep up with his monster-baby caloric needs. The truth is the pump does not equal Calvin, and the time-consuming activity had to be done twice for every one meal - I was spending hours at work and at home on the pump, with frustrating results. The advice in every resource I turned to, every book and blog and website, centered around breastmilk being the best thing for your baby - very few even mentioned supplementing with formula. Not being able to provide my baby with the best thing, knowing that I would need to give him something less than perfect and it was all my fault for 'giving up', brought very real feelings of guilt and failure. Of course, the stress didn't help the situation either (stress actually reduces your milk supply), and boy was I stressed. Time, which was in short supply, had to be stretched between family and work and chores and endless pumping. Once I accepted that formula was perfectly fine for Calvin, which it is, I was very relieved and happy; it was a huge weight off my shoulders. This is exactly what we needed to do - it might not be the solution for all families (and let me just say that you working mothers out there who pumped and were able to provide breastmilk exclusively for the full first year, you are AMAZING; I am in awe), but it was the right one for ours, it just took me a while to accept. Now Calvin gets formula during the day while he's at daycare and breastmilk at home for breakfast and dinner. I'm still nursing just about as much as I was before we started supplementing with formula, but without the pumping at all-hours of the day and night. I'm a happy mom, and Calvin is happy to have enough to eat - I don't think he even noticed the change.What he did instantly notice, however, was when a couple weeks ago we put a little dollop of mushy, soupy infant rice cereal in his mouth. Calvin wasn't so thrilled with his first introduction to solids. He made a what-are-you-doing-to-me??? face and instantly started to cry. The meal ended seconds after it began.
But he tried a little bit of the soupy rice cereal most every day (except for a few days when he had a cold), always stopping when he started to get upset, and gradually he got the hang of it.
By the start of this week and with the introduction of infant oatmeal, Calvin was excited about the whole process. He would eagerly and with great exaggeration open his mouth for the spoon and then close it around the spoon as if he was an expert eater and knew exactly what to do. He would even allow whatever was on the spoon to be placed into his mouth. His tongue would then proceed to push it all back out of his mouth, down his chin, and onto his shirt. If his tongue wasn't able to clean out his mouth, his hands were there to help. As soon as his mouth was empty and he was ready for the next spoonful, he would enthusiastically open his mouth for the next round. Of course some of the oatmeal made it down his throat, and since the whole point of introducing solids at this age is to get him to not hate the idea, I think we're doing pretty okay.
Tina and the ladies at daycare have continued the tiny bowls of oatmeal all week and they say that he does really well with the food and that he "eats" most of the tablespoon-sized portion in his bowl.We'll stick with the hot cereals for the next few weeks, make sure he doesn't have any weird reactions and let him get the hang of swallowing the stuff, and then introduce veggies. Yum!
