Five things I miss about being pregnant
- My hard ball-of-a-stomach. Much cuter (especially in tight shirts) than the postpartum muffin-top I am currently rocking.
- Eating without guilt. Like having two desserts. Man, that was sweet.
- My maternity clothes. I had built up a really extensive wardrobe by the end, and I miss some of those pieces! Especially the maternity jeans. Ahh, comfort.
- Never worrying that I looked fat in something. I was pregnant, not fat … and now I am, uh, not pregnant. And getting dressed is definitely not as fun, when you have to scrutinize how you look in clothes.
- The attention. Yeah, I said it. Now the baby gets all of the attention. It is SO not “all about me” anymore. Luckily, I get to accept the compliments on his behalf 🙂
CerealGate 2010: An update
I promise to stop posting about cereal soon. But first! IT MIGHT BE WORKING!
Yes, after the first night of no success (with Baby Boy still waking up every two hours — or less), the second night seems to have went a little better.
Baby Boy fell asleep last night at 9 p.m., and didn’t wake up for his first feeding until … drumroll, please … 1 a.m. Woohoo!
Of course, it would have been a sweeter victory if I could have fallen asleep before 10 p.m. (why does my mind always have to race when I’m trying to fall asleep?), and if I hadn’t woken up at 12:30 a.m. when Darling Husband came home. But still, I got 2 1/2 hours of straight sleep, and for that I am very, very grateful.
Oh right, here’s the important part: I used three teaspoons of cereal (and probably five teaspoons of breastmilk — didn’t measure the milk). He gobbled it all up once again. I’m sure he would have happily kept on eating, but I figure I shouldn’t over-do it at first — what if his stomach explodes or something?
In conclusion: thank you, Nestle!
I heart cereal!
I heart sleep!
The end.
High hopes … We had hi-ghhhh hopes …
The cereal didn’t work!!! 😦
Oh, it is with a heavy heart that I type that! I had such high hopes that having a little more substance in his tummy would keep him asleep a little longer, but Baby Boy was STILL up every two hours, all night.
It started out so well. I nursed him often throughout the evening, and then once he’d had a ton of milk and was nice and sleepy, I spooned some cereal into him (the same one teaspoon of cereal/two teaspoons of breastmilk ratio as that morning’s trial run). He gobbled it up and then tried to lick the bowl when I was done — perhaps that was a sign I should have mixed up some more and kept going?
Then we sat in the glider in his room, read a chapter of his book, and he nursed some more. “He’s probably stuffed!” I thought happily. “Sleep, here we come!” He went to bed just after 9 p.m., but then — as always — he woke me up with his “hungry cry” at 11:30 p.m.
I don’t think he’s just doing it out of habit, because he ate hungrily (both sides) at 11:30 p.m., 2 a.m., and 4 a.m. At 6 a.m. he only ate one side and then went back to sleep, and then he was up for the day at 8 a.m. If he was waking up out of habit, wouldn’t he just want a cuddle and a snack or something? Wouldn’t he not be so crazy-hungry if it was just a habit???
I am going to fall asleep standing up. Perhaps two teaspoons is in order tonight? Ughhh, I don’t know …
You know you are a mommy when …
… you can’t pee when you want (unless it’s convenient)
… you can’t eat when you want (need to find a spare moment)
… you can’t sleep when you want (not until the baby is sleeping)
… but somehow it doesn’t feel like a sacrifice.
Food, glorious food!
… aaaaand I broke!
Yup, it finally happened. We started Baby Boy on rice cereal this morning (after, ahem, much holding-out on my part).
The yogurt incident yesterday was the final straw. He was ready. I knew it, I felt it, I couldn’t deny it.
Darling Husband came home from work early this morning (after the overnight shift), and I had the little plastic bowl and spoon set on the counter, the little bag of pumped breastmilk all ready for mixing, and the brand-new box of baby cereal — Nestle Rice Cereal, after much research and package-scouring.
We got Baby Boy settled in his new highchair, put on his adorable dinosaur bib (that matched his sleeper, joy!), and mixed up his cereal (one teaspoon of cereal to two teaspoons of breastmilk).
I knew all along that I wanted Darling Husband to be the one to feed him his first meal of cereal, so I let him go to town while I took photos and ran the camcorder to capture the big event.
He loved the cereal! Darling Husband was very skilled at spooning it in (note to self: try to be as tidy when it’s my turn to feed him), and he ate every bite happily.
And you know what? It was fine. It was a relief. The earth didn’t stop turning because my baby, for the first time in his four-and-a-half months of life, ingested something other than breastmilk.
I still feel a little bit of guilt over the fact that I went against the recommendation that babies have nothing but breastmilk for the first six months. That was my plan. I believed in the merit of it, and I thought it would be no problem to follow through with it.
But before the guilt gets too extreme, I immediately remind myself of the following things:
- I am still breastfeeding, and that is still where he’s getting most of his nutrition. I plan to keep breastfeeding until he’s a year old, hopefully.
- My doctor said to start formula or cereal at four months
- Baby Boy is way above average in size, so it makes sense that his body needs a bit of iron-fortified cereal (especially since I’ve had so many issues with iron)
- It’s important for Baby Boy to have a happy, healthy mommy who is somewhat rested (and not a mommy who resembles the walking dead … and gets no more than two hours sleep in a row … for more than eight weeks … Zzzzz)
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