Chow Time!

And we have cereal! Woo hoo! Yesterday Jackson had the pleasure of dining on some tasty rice cereal mixed with breast milk! He seemed to enjoy it and did great for his first time eating off of a spoon. We definitely felt like there was more pouring-into-his-mouth action, than him actively eating. Today, however, he has made great progress and is doing a little slurping action! We tried the cereal two different times today and he was really into it tonight! Of course, it goes without saying that he was a mess afterwards, but it is totally worth it!

Our original plan was to exclusively breastfeed until Jackson was six months. As we've gone along we have wondered if he wouldn't benefit from starting "solids" sooner. He has been showing the big signs of being ready: holding his head up really well on his own, becoming VERY interested in Mommy and Daddy drinking and eating, and moving his lips toward his bottle. We also have read/heard conflicting advice on the effects of cereal and other solids on sleep. On the one hand cereal isn't supposed to provide any nutritive value; it's purpose is mostly to let babies become accustomed to a new texture and eating off of a spoon. On the other hand, we have friends say their babies starting sleeping so much better once they had cereal. We thought we'd go ahead and give it a shot! Jackson is overall doing great with the sleeping thing (long stretches at night and multiple, lengthy naps during the day), but if we can get him to sleep even longer at night without waking up hungry, that would be great :)