so I gave Maddie her "lunch" yesterday and she did not use any fingers or thumb to suck! woo hoo! on her first bite, she actually chomped down on the spoon. she finally gets it! it could also be that i made the cereal slightly thicker than normal, but it could also be that shes learned how to do it. I heard it does take a week or so for younger babies.

She ate a tablespoon of barley/oatmeal mix mixed with a tablespoon of breastmilk. finished the whole thing although I could tell she was getting bored right at the tail end. it was SO much less messier since there was hardly any coming out and it wasn't all over her clothes hands and face. What a proud moment...im so glad i didnt give up (i thought maybe she wasnt ready and was going to take a break for a week or so).

So last night i ran out to buy a sweet potato and an avocado. I gave her sweet potato for "lunch" today. During her first nap, I baked it for an hour, scooped out the flesh and pureed it a bit to get it smoother.

I then put tablespoons full into an ice cube tray to freeze, while leaving a tablespoon full out to feed her right then. I added breastmilk to thin it out. I was surprised at how much liquid I needed to thin this out.

I'm still not sure if she liked it. She certainly noticed it was different than her normal cereal. At first, I left it a bit thicker, cuz I didnt know how much to thin it out. I kept added and mixing more breastmilk in, until it became soupy again. By this point she was done...and had only eaten half. So not sure if she didnt like the taste, or texture, or what. Will try again for "dinner".

Forgot to mention also that we gave her mum mums for the first time this week. They are basically long rice crackers which dissolve in your mouth. They taste pretty good, and of course Maddie loved them. She sucked the crap out of them. I started doing some reading online and realized babies were starting to eat this when they were at least 6 months, more like 8 or 9 months. ooops! But yesterday jae came home and we all sat at the kitchen table to eat and i gave maddie another one and she really loved this. She would cry when i took it away or when she couldnt get it in her mouth. My friend Nina was right when she said this was like crack for babies. I think I'll probably continue to give this to her....


As far as her sleeping, she has been doing pretty good. I wanted to get her on a schedule by the clock. I used to get her down for naps based on her sleepy cues, but now I want to get her down at specific nap times instead. This way, I can plan my day better and we have a bit more of a schedule. Her first nap is always at 9am. The second nap is 12 or 12:30 and we are still working out her 3rd nap.

Yesteday was pretty perfect in terms of napping. She went down at 9, woke up but then went back to sleep till 10:30. 2nd nap she went down at 12:30, woke up but then went back to sleep again (hooray! didnt need to rock her) and woke up at 2. Went down for another nap at 4:10 and bed time at 7:20.

Today she is pretty much on the same schedule. It's 2:15 and shes still sleeping...amazing. I think she will probably give up her 3rd nap sooner than later. We always have a bit of struggle with that one. And right now, shes still asleep so I dont actually know if she'll go down for a 3rd nap (too close to bedtime).

REally dreading xmas time when her schedule is gonna get screwed 2 days in a row.