FEED the kid!

6:11am- I awakened with the sun streaming through the windows. I blinked my eyes a couple times feeling bewildered. I wondered if I got up to feed Dear Son in the middle of the night and I just didn't remember it. Then I paused a moment thinking that would be a pretty neat trick and why didn't I learn it sooner? Then the voices in my head had a brief argument over whether I did or didn't get up in the night before my feet finally hit the floor to rush to see if Dear Son was still breathing. As soon as my feet hit the floor I was distracted with a more pressing issue: I had to PEE! Not only is this only the third time in the past year that I've slept for 7+ solid hours, it is also only the third time I've gone 7+ solid hours without peeing!

After relieving my bladder, I peeked in on Dear Son. He was lying in his crib with eyes just beginning to open. I tiptoed back to bed wondering about the odds of him letting me go back to sleep until 10am (ha!). A few minutes later he began jabbering. Not crying or fussing, just jabbering. This time when I peered over his crib rail I was greeted with a big toothless grin. Dear Son is like that. In spite of this also being only the third time in his life that he has gone 7+ solid hours wihtout eating, I am still greeted with a big happy smile. I scooped him up and said, "You see, this is one of the reasons why I love you so much."

Prior to last night, Dear Son has done well to only wake up once in the night since starting him on solid food, but the past week that once had gotten earlier and earlier to the point that I was fearing if it got much earlier he would revert to being up twice again. So I've been trying to FEED the kid! I decided to try three solid meals instead of just two. He wasn't always eating solids twice a day when I offered them to him, so I didn't think he was ready for three. However, I'm ready to sleep through the night whether he is or not. Yesterday I tried to feed him cereal and bananas at 8am. He wasn't interested. I tried again at 10:30am. He wasn't interested. I began to think he had just decided he didn't like bananas (though he has liked them in the past). At 2:30 I decided to try green beans and apples. I also added some brown rice cereal. Then I paused thinking, "That's a lot of food!" He ate it. All of it. At 7pm Dear Hubby and I decided to try again. By all means, FEED THE KID! I thought he wouldn't want it. He did. He ate squash. And two servings of cereal.

And so, I hope last night wasn't a fluke. I hope if I continue to FEED the kid, he will sleep. And I will sleep. And life will be good.