I think one of the biggest lessons I'm learning as a mom is that nobody knows what the hell they're doing - which is either frustrating or comforting, depending on how much coffee I've had that day. Now that we've introduced solids, I have no idea when or how much Will is supposed to be eating. My pediatrician was maddeningly vague ("Follow your instincts!" Uh, I have no instincts. That's why I'm writing you) so a few days ago I decided to troll the internet for advice. What I should've done is picked up the remote and watched a few minutes of The Office and let Jim's cuteness distract me. Instead I Googled. And we all know what happens when you Google. Babycenter.com says that babies should eat 1 Tbsp of food per sitting - along with 40 oz. of milk. filetofspam claims that 6 month olds should be eating 2-3 full jars of baby food at a time, while lil'tiger10 skipped the feeding question completely, insisting that "if you go like a doctors office they can give you a sheet 6month olders usually sleep like 11 hours during the night like 7 hours during the day", which is good to know because that was my next question. Right now Will is eating four times a day and napping three. I tried to read "Healthy Sleep Habits" to find out when he should transition from 3 naps to 2 but man, those sleep books make me tense. According to "HSH", Will is supposed to be sleeping 11-12 hours straight. My son sleeps 10. Period. And I AM GRATEFUL FOR THAT TEN. What I am not grateful for is the admonishment that comes from so-called "experts" when your child doesn't adhere to their idea of what "normal" should be. And with that I'll go eat an apple because it's clear that I'm getting a little crotchety.
But before I do, I'm going to take a few seconds to morn the loss of the Things That Will Once Loved: 5 month edition.
- watching me rub my hands together. Joy unparalleled has been replaced with a wan grin. (Once you can rub your own hands together the magic is gone I guess.)
- "Goodnight Moon" (which is actually kind of fine. There's only so long one can spend in the great green room without losing their great green mind.)
- Cooing (those dulcet tones have been replaced by consonants. A-da. A-DA!)
- Staying put.
3 comments:
Internet is a proper name, as stupid as that may seem, so I bet if you capitalized it, your spell-check will recognize it.
If he is sleeping 10 hour stretches at night and napping 3 times a day then I would say you are in pretty good shape. He will let you know when he is ready to move down to two naps. How will you know that. My guess would be that he will do one or more of several things. He may sleep longer at night, or longer at one of the other naps, and start to resist being put down for that third nap. I think the important thing is the total amount of sleep during the day. As long as he is coming with in reach of what is said to be appropriate for his age then I wouldn't sweat how he is getting there. He is doing what works for him and trying to get him to do what some expert says will just frustrate the both of you. As far as feeding goes, it is hard for me to remember, but I think once they were fully on the solids train we did some rice cereal in the morning with maybe half a jar of fruit, then maybe half a jar of fruit and veggie at lunch along with nursing, and the same at dinner. Nursing in the morning and mid afternoon and at night before bed. Again, I think you should go with him. He will let you know when he has had enough and a pattern for eating and snacking will come along. We just kind of fed as much of the solids as the kid seemed interested in, and then nursed again until they gave signs that they were done. I don't recall there being much exactness to it, but again it has been about 7 years since I was in your position so I may be a little off. You are doing a good job. Look at how happy that little fella is! That tells the story right there.
Reading about your sleep issues brings back the bad old days, when I'd go to LLL meetings or just wherever and listen to all the other moms going on and on about how THEIR little darlings had been sleeping through the night since they were six years old and I'm looking at my 7-month-old who'd never managed to sleep longer than midnight to 5 am, and that only if she was in our bed with us. And I'd be feeling wretched, like "What am I doing wrong?" Years later when they all had their second babies and started running into all kinds of sleep issues, and I had my second who actually slept once in a while, I realized--IT WASN'T ME!!! It was the babies' personalities!!
Sounds stupid, but that was such a Eureka! moment for me. Lindsey was not a sleeper. Dinah was a sleeper. Apparently all my friends had their sleepers first--I was the outcast who did it backwards. And yes, I did feel incredibly smug when their second babies started keeping them up all night!
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