My past week or Braydens first food

Last Thursday Brayden went to the doctor for his 4 month check up. I was actually really excited for this. Well except for the shots part. Brayden weighs 18lbs 3 oz and is 26 1/4 long. He is a big boy. 97th percentile for weight and 90th percentile for length. Chris and I do not have a scale. so we have been guessing at his weight. I was totally wrong. I guessed about 16 1/2lbs. When you hold him everyday the change is so gradual you don't even notice it. I guess I'm getting stronger also. The doc also gave us the okay to eat cereal for about 3 weeks, then we could move on to green veggie. This was great news for me. Brayden just couldn't get enough food and if we gave him what he wanted, it would been too much and he would spit it up. She suggested that we do the first feeding in the morning so that way if he had a reaction, places are still open. That made a lot of sense to me. After the good part of visit, the nurse returned to give Brayden his shots. I hate this part. It hurts me to see my baby cry in pain, but I know he needs this. Its all part of growing up. This time it was only 2 shots and a liquid. Brayden took it like a man. He cried for about 5 mins, then calmed down and went for sleep for a long while. That night Chris and I talked about when we were going to start feeding him. We decided to wait until Sunday. We both worked the morning shift on Friday and Saturday is grocery shopping day. We still had to buy his spoons, his bowl and of course the cereal. Sunday I didn't have to be at work until noon and Chris was off all day.

Eating Day 1: Sunday morning Brayden was up at 5 for his second bottle of the night. After eating he went back to sleep, for which I was very thankful. He awoke at 7. The Brayden alarm is set to 7, so no matter when he goes to bed, he will wake up at 7. We played for a while then we got him all set up. We decided that he was still a little too small for the high chair so we decided to have him eat in his chair. Since I wasn't sure how messy this could be, I decided to have him eat in only a diaper. Much easier to clean. I mixed up some cereal per the doctors instructions. I found it very runny and hard to keep on the spoon. He tried the first bite, but spit it right out. He gave me this look like "This isn't milks mommy." I tried again and this time he didn't swallow. He just let it sit in his mouth with his mouth wide open. I tried again and he swallowed it. He wanted it non stop and I just couldn't feed him that fast. He was getting frustrated. After about a 1/3 of his rice. We stopped with the food and gave him a bottle. I didn't want to force the issue.

Eating Day 2: Today both Chris and I got off work around 5. We picked him up from Daycare and went to Target to pick up a pan. We also bought Brayden some new pants. You can read about that here. By time we got home it was about 6:15 and he was ready to eat. I gave him his bottle and he passes out after 10 mins in the Exersaucer. He would be hungry around 9 and I would feed him then so it could possibly help him sleep through the night. He doesn't wake up until 10:15, so he was really hungry. This time we made the rice with formula instead of water. He was not wanting to eat. He was too hungry to try the spoon. I feed him his bottle and he goes to bed.

Eating Day 3: This morning Brayden wakes up at 1:30. I change him and give him a bottle and put him back to bed around 2. At 4 I awake to Brayden screaming. I pick him up and he stops crying. I notice that he is sniffling. I take his temperature and he was normal. I try to lay him in his crib and he starts crying again. I go and get his chair from the living room and face it towards his projector. I put him in his chair and gave him his clothy. (Brayden likes to hold his burp cloths and prefers this to any toy. I am in the process of crocheting him a small blanket that he can carry with him) I turn off his lights and turn on the projector. He talked to the starfish for a little while and falls a sleep. He slept until 8:15. It was great. I haven't slept that late for quite awhile. I decide to just give him a bottle since he was all stuffy. After he finishes eating he wants to just sit with me for quite a while. He is tired and is fighting sleep so I put him in the swing around 9:45. He lets out 2 whimpers and falls a sleep. At 11 he wakes up and I give him a bottle. He drinks all but 1oz. After he was do eating a sit him up. He is in a really good mood so I decided to use the 1oz he didn't eat from the bottle and made some rice with it. I put the first spoon in and he closed him mouth and just gives is a strange look. Like he is trying to figure this stuff out. I get more cereal and he just pushes it right out. I try again. This time he only pushed out half of the food. The third time was a charm because this time he swallowed the whole bite. The next few bites I would tap his bottom lip with the spoon and he would open his mouth. It was really exciting to see Brayden's little lightbulb go off that this was food. He ended up eating a little more than half a serving. I was so proud. This was a successful feeding. I hope it will continue.