Why don't they come with manuals?

For the first 6 or 7 months of CJ's life, I felt like I had a pretty good grasp of things. Yes, I had moments of worry and confusion, but nothing too serious. Things are relatively simple when the child's schedule consists of eating formula, sleeping, and playing (and more than a few diaper changes). Then, we hit the solid food stage (cue dramatic music).

My first struggle was in deciding whether I should make or purchase CJ's food. After a little pep talk from my sister Emily, I realized that it probably was not going to be that hard to make his food. In the end, the hippie in me won...or was it the cheapo? I am not a whiz in the kitchen, but how hard could it be to steam veggies and fruits and then puree them? At first, it was that easy. Matt and I picked out the fruits and veggies that we wanted to try early on, and then I started making baby food. While not every batch was perfect, CJ is not a picky eater so it worked out. I actually enjoyed the process. I felt very accomplished each time he ate one of my concoctions. In terms of the time commitment, I was pleasantly surprised. I estimate that it takes about an hour each weekend to prep everything. Last weekend, I made a ridiculous amount of food so that I wouldn't have to make it again for 3-4 weeks. That took about 3 total hours, but well worth it!

Finding out which foods to serve at each age is the easy part. What no one helps with is how much to feed them and how/when to add meals to the schedule. At around 7 months, we knew that we would need to add a third meal to his schedule. I continually found websites and books that told me to follow my baby's lead. Does anyone else have an issue with this? I have some ideas of when he's hungry or if he doesn't want to eat anymore, but he rarely turns food away. I knew that I would need to make adjustments based on his needs, but I really only wanted a baseline to follow.

The idea of adding a third meal sounds like it would be easy, but it meant changing around the rest of the day. I probably made it harder than it needed to be, but that's just my style. The difficulty for us is that a change in schedule does not only affect us, but it affects Denise (his daycare provider). While we aren't complete sticklers on his feeding and napping schedule, we have to have a basic outline for the day. I debated on what time he should eat...how much he should eat...if he should take a bottle first in the morning or go straight to solids. It's enough to make you go insane. After a lot of searching, I finally found a few websites that listed examples of a feeding schedule for an 8-month old. An overwhelming sense of relief came over me as I read each one and then created something that I thought would work for CJ.

I am happy to say that we added a third meal to the schedule last weekend, changed his last feeding to around 2 hours earlier, and he still managed to sleep through the night. Yeah! I think he likes the new schedule, especially because he now gets little snacks occasionally. We enjoy the new schedule because it allows us to go to bed earlier. :)