A completely different experience
So we’ve dusted the blog off, given it a bit of a face lift and here we are again. We’ve multiplied! “Squeaks” joined us mid 2011 and we started BLW with him a few months back. Having two kids is so much harder than one I just have not had the time to update the blog like I did first time around but I’m here to make amends.
I wasn’t sure of the value of writing about weaning “Squeaks” as I think I thought it would be the same but as soon as we started I realised I was wrong.
I was surprised at myself in the week or two leading up to him being 6 months old. I looked at him, my tiny baby boy, and thought there was no way he was going to be able to pick up some food and feed himself. It seemed ridiculous and I couldn’t remember if I’d felt the same first time around with Poppet. But here he was, sitting unaided, beautiful head control, and clearly keen to join in at mealtimes, so we put some broccoli in front of him. And he picked up, and just sort of ate it really. And that was it, we were off.
It has been different though – Poppet was a long term gagger. We just got used to her gagging away with everything until after a few months it stopped and we didn’t even realise until she hadn’t done it for ages. But she was never sick. Squeaks has made up for that! He has gagged for less time but has a had a few monumental puking episodes. He ate one dinner where I was so chuffed, he was 8 months old and had fully shared our dinner of beef stew with red peppers, potatos, courgette and he loved it, couldn’t get enough. And then one teeny tiny bit of potato skin tickled his gag reflex and he proceeded to return every last bit (including the 4oz of milk he’d had before dinner). Un-flippin’-believeable! He wasn’t all that bothered though, slept fine and carried on eating the next day as per normal. There was also the ‘nose and the banana story’ but I’ll save that for another post!
Another difference we’ve noticed is that his appetite seems to vary more than Poppet’s did. There was one legendary evening where he spent 2 full hours in the highchair pretty much saying “Bring it on mumma” and he honestly could not get enough. Contrast that with some mealtimes where he’ll lick a rice cake and then announce he’s done by smashing anything put on his tray to a pulp. We just go with it though, his weight gain is great, he is happy at mealtimes and he is definitely dropping milk feeds and eating food to sate his hunger so it feels like we are getting there. More posts and pictures soon!