Kira is a Big Girl

Today Kira is exactly 6 months old!  Starting today, Kira will be embarking upon two major steps in her little life: eating solid foods and weaning.

Feeding Kira solids was an exciting experience.  Watching her figure things out is amazing.  My books and online resources say to feed baby her first solids when she is in a good mood and not necessarily very hungry.  This will make for a better learning experience; the point is for Kira to happily learn what food is and what to do with it, not necessarily simply to get the cereal into her system.  Kira is in the best of moods after her nap, or after eating.  So once she woke up at around 8 pm, I breast fed her a little and then we mixed some rice cereal with some breast milk.  Check out the video.  And pictures HERE (Trevor will be mad that I shared the pictures before he had an opportunity to post-process them, but I just couldn't wait).

The video shows the very beginning of the feeding session.  Kira was having a great time; maybe she was reacting to how thrilled Trevor and I were.  However, towards the end, she starting noticing more and more that something different was going on in her mouth.  She didn't really want to swallow her food.  Little by little, she did swallow it, and eventually (after 45 minutes), she finished what was in her bowl!  What a big girl.

We haven't started weaning yet, primarily because I don't have a plan of execution.  Tomorrow, Kira has her 6-mo doctor's appointment, and I will ask him what he suggests.  Generally, the method is to take away one feeding at a time.  Kira nurses 8 times per day.  Starting tomorrow, I will not nurse her in the afternoon.  Then she will have only 7 feedings.  I'm not sure what I will do instead of nursing her.  I can feed her more solids to replace the missing feeding.  Or, I can give her formula.  I suspect Kira's doctor will recommend a special type of formula for her because allergies and eczema runs in her family.  Recent studies have shown that prolonged breast feeding and/or hydrolized formula can protect against patients susceptible to these conditions.  I can explain better tomorrow.  This entry is so poorly written.  I was too anxious to share the news about Kira turning 6 months.