His Highness' High Chair

Oliver's high chair came in the mail yesterday, and he's now a man on the ready for rice cereal. We have the cereal mix, some little bowls, the spoons that change color if they're too hot for a baby's mouth, and now a chair with a plastic cushion. The only thing is, I don't think we're ready for the cereal. Wes and I keep waffling about whether or not to go ahead and start him. He's only 4 1/2 months, and a lot of pediatriciacians recommend to wait until the full 6 months if the baby seems satisfied on just breast milk. How to know if he's satisfied is another question. I kept track of his eating for a day or two, and he's eating a 7 oz. bottle or nursing for 30-40 minutes every 3-4 hours. This includes at night. The long stretches of sleep we enjoyed over Christmas -- six or seven hours on more than one occasion, followed by another four or five -- are gone. The slate got wiped clean when he was sick and I was constantly up and down. Now we're back to eating every 3 hours, which is leaving me really tired by the end of the week. I have learned to let him settle himself in some situations. If it's only been an hour or two and I hear him up, I wait to see if the fussing becomes more insistent and plaintive, and usually it doesn't and he just drifts back off.

For now, I'm happy that we're all 98% healthy in the house (not including the dog, who's been vomiting around the apartment today...) -- just some stuffy noses here and there, thanks to the permanently sub-20 degree weather in our Chicago winter.

The cereal will come. It may not make him sleep any longer at night, but it will be fun to see.