Nursing routines and schedules

I follow the school of thought that babies should feed on demand and lead their own weaning process. This was really easy to do before I went back to work. Now that he is getting older, I am starting to think about how this can change. But there aren't a lot of resources for baby led weaning nursing schedule adjusting.
At 8 months, our nursing schedule is this:
On demand throughout the night
7:15
Between 9:30/10
12
3:15
5:00
(Eats dinner with us around 6)
Bedtime - around 7:15 again
When I am at work, the 9:30 feed is a bottle of expressed milk. Because I work, we do have to be on some sort of schedule during the day or everyone ends up cranky. The trouble is trying to now add in more mealtimes for him because I am starting to see signs that he wants more food during the day.
Lunch is easy as there is a big gap from 12:30-3. But, I am worried that it will lessen his nursing- even though I would especially love to combine the 3 and 5 feeds into one at 4.
Breakfast is tougher because his dad wants me to do it before I leave for work at 7:35. This means he has to nurse earlier when he might not be hungry yet.
And of course, then I have to figure out foods for those times. I see why many moms automatically default to Gerber. It's tough trying to figure out and plan this stuff!

Daddy's Gone!

My husband was out for the day working.  When he is away, we get to play!  No, really, we do get to play with food.  I like to be adventurous, and I will eat just about anything.  Not everyone eats like this which is ok.  But, when I get the chance, I like to try something new.

I knew I had a butternut squash sitting in the kitchen waiting to be eaten.  I do not like butternut squash soup, so I always have to find something else to do with it.  While Mr. S. was nursing, I spent some time browsing allrecipes on my phone, and found this recipe: Butternut Squash Cakes.
A quick glance at the recipe told me it looked to be pretty baby friendly.  I had most of the ingredients and could figure out substitutions for what I was missing (regular and wheat flour instead of the favabean flour and chili powder instead of curry powder). 

Somehow, someway, I was able to cut, mix, and cook while Simon hung out on the floor of the kitchen.  He was such an amazingly good baby! I do wear him in my Ergo around the house, but I don't like to do it when I am cooking or preparing food.  I also don't like him to hang out in the high chair before dinner because who wants to sit in the same place for an hour?!

So, the butternut squash cakes came out to be like little pancakes of veggie goodness.  They tasted pretty good, and I even pan fried them (I am usually banned from frying anything).  I also had a piece of salmon that I pan cooked as well.  Simon really enjoyed both, but devoured the squash cakes!  

I was really excited at how easy they would be to hold, and then he went and tore them all up before he would put them in his mouth.  Oh well, I guess you gotta eat food the way you want.

Firsts

Simon has been trying out a lot of different foods. He really loves celery. He loves to gum it and will hold on to as many sticks as he can.
We had a couple of dining out experiences where he is finally very interested in being involved with eating. One night, we were out for Thai. I gave him steamed veggies- carrots, baby corn,-and zucchini. Baby corn was the big winner there! I don't blame him, that stuff is pretty yummy. The next night we went out for Mexican. I got chicken soup that is topped with avocado. Simon ate almost 1/2 an avocado which is quite a bit of food for him. We never even got to the other food in the soup.
These experiences were also the first times he sat in the high chair from the restaurant. At the Thai place, he was awesomely level with the table- it was perfect. At the Mexican location, he was lower than the table. This absolutely affected his ability to get to his food and manipulate it. Once he finishes, I do clean up anything he dropped so we don't leave a really huge mess.
Simon is officially over anything puréed (the little we have offered). He looks at my play and he wants the biggest piece of what I have, or he whines. Good thing I dot mind sharing food.

Trust the baby

Baby has had a cold this week, so we haven't really been offering food.
Last night we cheated and got Wingstop. I always get some veggie sticks with my wings. My husband suggested we offer some celery. I, of course, am nervous because I don't want him to bite off a chunk. He loved it soo much! His gums are very strong and he ate 1/2 of 2 stalks. It was perfect holding size and it doesn't break too easily, so it was actually a really good food.
For the first time ever he was lunging for our food (of course on wings night!). He has always been pretty indifferent to our food, though interested in our plates and napkins.

Success!

Let me just start with saying last night was a terrible, terrible disaster of a dinner.  I made crock pot chicken.  The chicken was dry.  I used old bay leaves which tasted terrible.  Mr. SiR was in a terrible mood and wanted nothing to do with anything.  I had potato and carrots for him and planned to maybe give him some chicken. I also offered a small wedge of avocado.  He didn't quite scream through the meal, but he was definitely squeal-y and unhappy.  Midway through me trying to eat, I offered him the orange that was sitting on the table - he shrieked with happiness.  I think he knew that orange was sitting on the table and he wanted it!  Lesson learned Mommy!
He did sleep all night long and napped a lot today.  We know he is teething again.  He also seems to be in the midst of a growth spurt and he is really trying to crawl and make some new sounds.  I think all these things together make for an easily frustrated baby.  

Tonight, I did not put any delectable fruits on the table ahead of time as I didn't want that issue again.
My husband and I were eating burgers.  I always top mine with avocado if I have it, so I gave him avocado.  This time, I cut a thick ring of avocado out. He was able to grab that sucker up pretty quick and it went straight to his mouth.  He got almost the whole thing devoured with only minimal help from me (I can't help it, I know I should let him do it- but we walk the line between wanting an independent baby without letting him get overly frustrated because then the meal is Done).  He also had a bit of his puree jar that I had opened a couple of days ago and wanted to finish up if possible.  I preloaded the spoon for that.  He loves trying to get that spoon to his mouth!  Most of that just ended up on the tray- a perfect location for spreading and covering himself with.  My husband is really squeamish, so this part of the meal always grosses him out! 

I really loved watching him eat the avocado because he was able to work it around really well in his mouth.  He was "chewing" and gumming it up.  He gagged twice when he got too much in his mouth and he fixed it all himself within 1-2 seconds.  Success!

So nervous

So we had an incident with apples last week. I cut one up into wedges, and that was not the right thing to do. He was able to gnaw off a chunk and I think he was starting to choke. We unbuckled him, leaned him forward, and he spit it out. This was a bit unnerving.
So, we backtracked. I bought some organic earths choice baby food stage 2 purées. So we have done that a little by preloading a spoon and handing it to him. He takes it, licks at it, mushed it, and seems to be ok with it.
At the same time, we are still figuring the rest of solids out.
Last night we did some purée preloaded on a spoon. He ate about 1/2 a jar. We still follow his cues for eating. I then wanted to share an orange with him. I peeled about 1/4 of it, then handed it to him for a taste.

Ha! There was to be no sharing there. He loved it! He is so much more interested in the food we are eating. We have renewed resolve to make this work!

Mimi's

We went out to eat at Mimi's the other night. My first dilemma was deciding whether or not to request a high chair. They just all look so big I don't know whether or not the baby will fit well into it. We decided to keep him in the carrier, and I sat him in the booth next to me. I was able to sit him up using a blanket and he was content to watch us eat.
I Ordered a meal with steamed veggies. He got to eat some carrots and a pickle. Both we cut into slices not wedges which means he can cram the whole thing in his mouth. I let him suck away until he tried to cram the whole thing in, then he would try something new. He loved the pickle! The kid takes after me.
He loves getting sips of water from my straw, but gets pretty mad when I don't let him chew on the straw. Top teeth are surely making their way down as he is indicating active teething again.

Tiny bites

Sunday night my father in law was in town. Dinner was a little nerve racking because my husband was at work. I still like to have him when we do dinners with the baby.
Dinner was steak with a steamer bag f potatoes with butter and I sautéed up a bell pepper and garlic.
For baby, I decided to offer the last 1/2 of a cucumber we bought for him and left over sweet potato since the steamer bag had a bit high amount f sodium. I also offered the pepper.
I started by giving him the potato. I had warmed it up and then let it cool. It was warm, but not hot. Big mistake! Simon has never had warm food before. So, his eyes teared up and he spit it out. Then he spit up a bunch of milk. Whoops! As my husband said he will have to learn, but I will have to think of a nicer way to introduce it. I guess it fooled him because it was preloaded onto a spoon. Next time he needs to pick it up.
Then I have him cucumber which he loves! I took the top half of skin off and cut the length to make it good sized to be held in a fist. He sucked and gnawed and ate a chunk without gagging!
But...how do I ensure he doesn't gnaw off a piece too big to swallow? That is the answer I am trying to find right now.
After the chunk of cucumber and some licks of potato he was done eating! He got maybe a tablespoon of food.
We also gave him his new tommy tippee sippee cup. He has frustrated with an open glass because he had to have help with it (obviously) and he likes getting sips of water. I don't think he realized what was in the sippee until he accidentally got a drop of water. Pretty hilarious reaction to that!

Sweet potato and zucchini

Sweet potato is probably the biggest hit so far. I nuked it in the microwave and mashed it up with a fork. Simon and I shared one and there was still some left to freeze. I think it was sweet potato anyway, it was yellow and very sweet. His method was to rub his hands into the pile of potato and then lick his fingers and thumb. The thumb seems to be the most effective food transporter right now.
I also cut a zucchini into wedges with a crinkle cutter and he chowed down on that. I was iffy as to whether or not I should leave the skin on. I did, but was nervous about it. Next time I will skin the top portion and leave some on the bottom to help him grip it. I steamed the zucchini in the microwave for about 45 sec. Enough to soften it, but not make it mushy. He got a piece of by gumming it and gagged. That is the scariest thing. We took off the high chair tray just in case he was choking and went to pick him up. By then he had swallowed the little chunk.

At his 6 month visit today, the doc briefly brought up food. He asked if we were giving him meals twice per day. We aren't yet. He isn't interested enough to justify it. We did decide we will add in breakfast next. I think that will be soon enough.

Cucumber!

The little one and I were out at a friends. She bought me a Subway sandwich loaded with veggies. I shared a cucumber with Simon to see how that went over. He loved it! It was a thin round slice, not ideal for a newbie eater. I was nervous, so I just let him suck on it while I held it. (I am working on trusting him, it will come as we practice more). Now the plan is to buy a whole cucumber so I can cut it into wedges for him to go to town.
Got home too late for dinner for me. I had some extra breast milk expressed, so I gave him about 2 Tbsp of baby rice mixed with BM on a preloaded spoon. We are using the organic Earth's Best whole grain rice cereal. He took about 2 licks and then had a blast spreading the rest around his tray. Happy, messy baby.
I got my Gil Rapley baby led weaning cookbook, so now I need to plan our meals for the week.

Third Dinner

We ended up taking a small hiatus in the solids journey. Dinner #2 was a stressed baby. However, the next day 2 teeth popped through. So, we took a little break.
Between now and then little Sir has started sleeping through the night. He has always slept well, but instead of nursing multiple times he is out from 8/9-5/6. Another lesson in trusting the baby turned out perfect!
Dinner last night consisted of chicken, broccoli, and rice. We did offer him baby rice preloaded on a spoon instead of our rice. He sucked on the chicken and chewed little bits of it off. Then he ate about 2 spoonfuls of rice. I made it a bit too liquidy, but he seemed to like sucking it off the spoon. He tasted the broccoli and red pepper. He was really indifferent to everything still. I love that he wants a little taste of it all.

Carrots!

So last night we introduced carrots. Those suckers were hard to get a hold of! He also had access to some of his dishes. A lick here and there-- ooh what's that?! He knew right away the carrot was something more than a toy.
Almost right away he gagged which freaked us out a ton. But after that, everything went smooth. I mushed up some carrots, but he was only interested in the wedges. I tried to hand it to him once when he was struggling and he wanted to do it himself.
Oh what a mess! I did figure out that out high chair has both a smooth top and a compartmentalized top. The smooth top will be much easier to clean.

Still Waiting

So, for his 6 months, we decided to hold off.  We all had a busy day at the Oakland Eat Real Festival.
After all that, dinner was a rush and we didn't want to push what had already been an eventful day.

I am taking this time to do some more research for feeding Simon and reading about "readiness" skills for babies to have.

Recommended milestones before starting solids:
- 6 months of age (+)
- Sits upright (+)
- Can bring food to mouth (+)
- Acts interested in food (+) ...though to be honest, Simon is interested in everything and brings it all to his mouth.

Tomorrow, we are thinking carrots.? I need to do some research over which foods we should be careful of to get organic.

6 months!

Simon turns 6 months tomorrow! 
I am so excited to start some solids with him, but a little apprehensive because this does mean the (slowly, and not for a long time) beginning of weaning him from our special breastfeeding bond.

He wants to put everything in his mouth, so we have let him have tastes of plum, orange, and apple. I am amazed at how he instinctively knows how to suck the yummy juices out.He gets pretty mad when you take the food away too.

6 months exclusively at the breast.  I think he deserves some variety into his diet.  Let the weaning begin!

Magazine Blurbs

Not that babytalk is the premier for learning scientifically based information, but there were 2 interesting blurbs in the September issue (p. 32).

"Don't want a chunky monkey later? Put down the spoon! A study published online in BMJ Open found that children who were allowed to feed themselves were more likely to eat a healthier diet and maintain a normal weight as they got older than those who were spoon-fed."

"50% of babies eat larger portions than recommended by federal standards."

Now, my husband likes to remind me that he was fed "traditional" jarred baby food and he is thin as they come.  However, I have always had eating issues, and would love to give my kid an edge up wherever possible. 

Hello

This is Simon.  This is the first day of him sitting in his fancy eating chair that will soon be the location for his learning to eat new foods.  We are going to journey through baby led weaning.  There are quite a few others sharing this experience on the web, but we wanted to throw our voice in as well.  As of today, Simon is only 4.5 months old.  So, we still have some time before we really get started.  Right now, he is exclusively breastfed and will be until 6 months.