Rice Cereal, Day TWO

In case you couldn't tell, day two of feeding went fabulously!

We thickened up the cereal for the second day, and this seemed to do the trick- he was a huge fan! He was definitely wanting more, but I wasn't sure how this would be for his digestion (my bestie Brooke admonished me- rightly so- that if the kid wants more, feed him! Duh...) ;-)

A second development (it seems that they're coming almost daily right now!) on Monday was that Brewer learned to sip through a straw. He was grabbing for my cup with a wide mouth, wanting to drink! So, without a good baby sippy cup, I grabbed a toddler sippy cup that we had received as a gift. It has a gummy straw instead of a sippy opening. After fumbling with it for a few minutes, he bit the straw and played with it. Then, he started sucking, and because he's stubborn, he kept sucking!! And so, we're drinking through a straw now!

SUCH a fun stage right now!

FIRST FOOD!

Brewer is five months old today, and per our pediatrician's suggestion, we are starting cereal today! We've been instructed to feed him a combination of brown rice, oatmeal and barley over the next month before we start in on fruits, veggies and meats.



HELP! In order to save money, we're wanting to make our own baby food. We have purchased the Baby Brezza to make food, but I haven't figured out to make cereal with it yet. So, I put some non-cooked brown rice in our chopper (cheaper version of a food processor), and then mixed that chopped rice with breast milk to make the cereal. Well. It of course was just a nasty grainy mess. So, I purchased some regular brown rice cereal until we get this figured out. Any advice on making your own cereals would be GREATLY appreciated.



So. He did pretty good, but I really didn't have any clue about what to expect him to do. He seemed to not be a fan of the taste or whatever at first, but then was anticipating the spoon for quite a few spoonfuls before getting really ticked off that he was strapped in a chair that he couldn't escape. What texture is the cereal supposed to be?? Thicker breast milk (really, really liquidy), or more like liquidy mush? Because mine turned out really, really liquidy, and I don't know if I should be making it thicker...?



Anyhow! He's a pretty cute kiddo!



Last week, he seemed to be struggling to get past some drainage and spitting up more, so we took him to the pediatrician. The dr. was not very concerned about the cold he seemed to have, but about a couple of ingrown toenails! (Yes, our kid has ingrown toenails.) Brian and I haven't really worried about these too much because we both have ingrown toenails (the dr. was beside himself that we live with this issue and haven't had a podiatrist cut them out. Are you freaking kidding me?!?!) Anyhow, the dr. gave us a prescription that would kick the cold and the toe infection. Who knew one med could do both?? After Brian and I discussed it at home later that evening, we decided to wait a few more days to see if Brewer could get rid of these on his own. Three days later, he seems to have lost the green boogers and one toe is looking much better. The other is still questionable...



We weighed him while we were at the pediatrician, and he's at 15.35 lbs., a full pound heavier than 3 1/2 weeks earlier. That puts him in the 33% for weight.

Discontent and Loving It

Brewer is growing like I can't believe. More than physically, his developmental milestones are coming quicker than I can record. (Obviously, as I haven't blogged for over a month...)

His 4 month doctor appointment went well. He weighs 14.3 lbs., and is 24 inches tall. He dropped from the 60% in weight to the 30%, which I was surprised to hear, but the doctor didn't seem concerned at all, saying that a lot of kiddos will flux up and down on the growth chart.

On July 14, he started rolling over from his back to his tummy, and he's been a wiggle worm ever since. Before, his playmat would entertain him for a good amount of time (20-25 minutes), but now that he can roll over, this is no longer the case. Even though he learned to roll from his tummy to his back over a month ago, he seems to have forgotten how to do this. So, he gets stuck on his tummy and fusses quite a bit. It's like he wants to move so badly but just can't figure out how to!

This past Wednesday, we purchased an exersaucer and since then, he's become more engaged and excited about moving around.



Tonight we went to grab some dinner, and he was so unhappy about not being able to move around! He was twisting in his carrier, trying to turn over in his carrier (we'd unbuckled him while we were eating dinner.)

Next week, Brewer will start cereal. I am blown away at how fast he's growing up! (This sounds very cliche, but I never knew how true this would be!)

We love our sweet little guy, and he really is an awesome baby. We are incredibly blessed with his cheerful personality (his daddy can make him laugh hysterically.... I cannot), his health and his presence.

Can't wait to blog about how feeding goes- I'm going to attempt to make my own baby food. (Not because I'm a granola mom- my mother accused me of this- but because it should be significantly cheaper than purchasing food.) Any tips would be greatly appreciated!