I'd really hoped it would be at least a month or two before I would be posting this topic but it seems the time has come... ah, it was so much simpler to just pop out the boob... lol

Sawyer has been waking up at night... and I'm not talking about a 4 am feeding. I'm talking 12 am, 1:30 am, 2 am, 3:30 am, 4:30 am, 6 am, 7 am... yeah, you get the picture! It was a flashback to the first week of his life again and I was getting pretty exhausted. So I decided to give in and try feeding him a bit of solids. I started with a really runny mixture of rice cereal, which he gobbled down in such haste I began to wonder if I'd been starving him. Then I cooked up a carrot and pureed it for him; he wolfed that down as well. I decided to offer him the breast then and he had a full-length nurse! What?!!! Yeah, I'd say he's ready for solids!!

So I decided to do a little research on making my own baby food and I'm really excited about a couple of websites I found. Here they are if any of you are interested:
http://www.rookiemoms.com/make-food/
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/index.htm

Um, all of my kids have nursed pretty much like that for the first year of their life. I'm hardly exaggerating. :~p

I do suggest though, offering the breast FIRST. And hopefully Ruth will come along and provide some extra related links. She has all kinds of info on the benefits of delaying solids, how best to introduce them and all that.

I made our own baby food with #4. Cooked up some carrots, sweet potato and squash, pureed then froze in ice cube trays for easy portions. I decided that was too much work. LOL And went back to just feeding unseasoned versions of what we were having as she was interested, with nursing still being her primary form of nutrition. Every 2 hr LOL

Also...noting the age..your little dude is likely going through a growth spurt, hence increased nursing :)

(I'm sorry, I really hope this isn't coming across as negative..that's really not my intent. I just wanted to further encourage you to delay solids as you did mention something along the lines of not expecting/wanting this just yet)

What about just giving him soft finger foods?

That way, you know that you wouldn't be feeding him anymore than he can handle, but he could still get the experience with solids.

I ditto offering the breast first. Babies that age need the vast majority of their nutrition to come from breastmilk. Solids may be filling, but are lower nutrition than breastmilk. Some babies are more social than others and may simply want the experience of copying the adults and older siblings while they're eating.

He may be going through a growth spurt. Sometimes babies step up the nursing for a few days and then calm down again to a normal schedule.

I think that letting the baby go slowly on solids and other liquids, at their own pace, and continuing to nurse many times a day during the first year is KEY to helping them to keep interest in nursing and wean at a natural pace.

What about giving him soft steamed veggies and soft fruits to play with at mealtime? That way he could have the "experience" of eating without getting filled up on solids too soon.

GL!

Dittoing Tara.. probably just a growth spurt. I know it's tiring but it will probably be over soon and you'll be back to getting a 'better' nights sleep. Also, it may be that your milk is having trouble catching up with his growth spurt but if you keep at the breast instead of replacing with solids, milk production should catch up in no time.

Do you co-sleep? If not you may want to consider it through this phase. It's a lot easier to turn over and feed and get back to sleep then having to get up and out of bed.. ect.

If you still decide to stick with solids.. btw, even though you've started it's not too late to go back, I did that with my 3rd when I researched more about delaying and she did fine.. anyway I would try what Ruth suggested. There is really no need to go through all the work of making your own. You could get one of those mesh bags to put the food in if your worried about choking.

Sorry if this wasn't the advice or feedback you were looking for. Whatever you choose to do I know you'll be doing it in the best interest of you and Saywer. Your a good mamma! HTH :-D

Yup.. Every two to three hours here too! I have given Wyatt tastes of real food but, he doesn't want it... He just wants to nurse. My pediatrician, who is a home birthing mom, told me that breast milk has more calories in it than anything I could "feed" him at this age... So solids are more for me than for him. Breast really is just best. She also told me, and my midwife did as well, that a baby needs only mother's milk for the whole first year to two years of their lives, as the nutrition is better and more filling. It's a false concept that baby's need extra food to sleep longer and be fuller. Now, does that mean I'm not going to give Wyatt solids until he's two... I don't think so. :) but I at least thought I'd share the info! :)

There's never any easy answers with babies is there? I really hated starting solids too because it was as you say, easier to pop out the boob! With our third, I waited and waited and then she joined us at the table and had bits of what we were eating. I'd have to say, it was the easiest.

Though some of you may remember around that time with her, I was having some troubles with my milk too, trying to diet at the same time and not having good quality milk. I honestly can't remember what I ended up doing at that time, if it was to add formula or just cow's milk (she was around 9 months I think) but I nursed her for almost an entire year, something I never managed with either boy! I think delaying solids helped that a lot.

I was thinking of you when I replied to this thread CJ. Here (http://www.christian-mommies.com/forumsv4/showthread.php?t=5538&highlight=solids) is the link to your thread when you were going through that.

Margi.. if you want to read through CJ's thread there is lots of great info on delaying solids. :D

LOL Ashlee, didn't even occur to me to search for it! Thanks. Now I have to go read it. She just turned 3 last week. Feels like a lifetime ago!

Margi-Payton was the same way, he was simply just ready to eat at that point, he is now a wonderful eater, healthy toddler,etc. I totally understand the inconvenience of solids but to me I just couldn't function getting up every 1-2 hours. I was dealing with some depression and other things and it just wasn't good. I started feeding him small amounts of rice cereal before bed and he'd sleep better at night. I know there is controversy over whether or not this helps them sleep longer but in my experience it certainly has. :) Thanks for sharing those links, I would like to try making baby food this time around. :mrgreen:

ETA: Dawson is showing no signs of being ready though so yay for that ;)

LOL, yeah, reading that old thread was a step back in time. I can't even think of the friend who's baby is three months older than E now. Racking my brains and nothing is coming up! So funny! But there was a later one too, going to find it...

http://www.christian-mommies.com/forumsv4/showthread.php?t=6756&highlight=solids+diet+breast+milk&page=2

This was my experience 4 months or so after the last thread link. Shortly after that thread, sometime in July I think, she weaned naturally, dropping feedings one after the other. I don't even recall exactly when she stopped. But at some point, she did, because she hasn't been nursing for a long long time! LOL

And I *do* remember what movie I had to look up! Don't remember the friend with a baby three months older than mine but I do remember the movie! It was "The Importance of Being Earnest" if anyone is interested! LOL

Edit: this link seems to be page 2, but you should be able to see page 1 from it I think.

Wow, I have way more to read than I have time for right now but I just wanted to pop in and say thanks for all the advice! Here I thought I had gone pretty long without solids already since all my formula-feeding friends started their babies on rice cereal at 2 months!!! I absolutely LOVE breastfeeding and plan to keep going until a year, and if I have the energy, maybe delay solids and keep getting up at night! :)

I'm going to go back and read all the links yet but this is one thought that stuck with me... a thought that's gone around in my own mind for awhile:

I really wish that we as moms could be confident in our decisions instead of being told what to do by so-called experts that change their minds all the time. I'm sure that if you go back a few generations (we have to go back to before formula was considered the only way to go because in doing that, we lost generations of knowledge about nursing that we now have to slowly learn again), what we are discussing now was well known and passed down from mother to daughter. Modern science hasn't done us any good.

P.S. The public health nurses now say 6 months instead of 4 like they did when Blake & Nick were babies!!