Finger Food

All the guidelines tell you that one of the signs that baby is ready for weaning is when he takes an interest in other people’s food, and I would say that in the last few days, this has started to be the case. rr can attest to that, having sacrificed half a panini to Bernard’s all-commanding pointy finger on Sunday.

The last few days, he has been sitting in state in his high chair, pointing at whatever we are eatiing: olives, strawberries, etc; and refusing to eat any of the lovingly prepared mush. Well, he has a long history of refusing the mush, but he has never shown much enthusiasm about anything else. Perhaps the fact that, at ten months, he still has no teeth, also supports the idea that he is really only just ready for solids.

So this afternoon, while our servers were down, I made a batch of baby pies and a batch of lentil patties. I’m hoping these don’t all end up on the floor. As I have said before, I would have been happy to go down the baby-led weaning route, and only ever offer him food that he can feed to himself, if only I had another six months off work so that I could continue to breastfeed on demand. But now it seems as though he is actually capable of feeding himself, and that will really help me to relax about the whole thing.

An update on the sleeping project:

On re-reading the No-Cry Sleep Solution, we realised that we were starting with step 2 (fall asleep by himself in the cot); and so started again with feeding/rocking to calm, then putting him down in the cot at which point he starts to fuss again, and we jiggle him by the knee until he falls asleep. The idea is that he will at least get used to falling asleep in the cot, if not without a little parental assistance. The downside is that although this is relatively easy early on in the night, and only takes about 15 minutes including a feed, it takes a lot of energy and commitment, and about an hour, at 4.30am.

Half the problem is that I am still unconvinced that this is the way to go. Half of my heart still subscribes to the idea that this stage will pass as all the others have, and we should continue to be baby-led in our parenting. But that means he ends up back in the bed again; I don’t have to get up in the night, but I do have to sleep without moving, in the only strip of superkingsize bed that is left to me by the man on my right and the babe on my left. I think the fact of the dilemma causes me more of a problem than the sleeping issue does. Parenting, you know, it’s quite challenging.