Kira's Eating Schedule

I had an epiphany tonight.  I need to give credit where credit is due; it happened with the help of my mom.  For WEEKS I've been struggling to feed Kira.  Although eating solids has improved overall, some feedings are good and some are bad.  When Kira is doing her very best to resist, she clamps her gums tight and purses her lips together.  I didn't know babies could do that.  Over the past two weeks, she has even started to refuse her formula.  She uses the same techniques as when she refuses solid foods, plus she arches her back (I really hate that!).

Today was completely and utterly different.  I fed her 1 tablespoon each (EACH!) of oatmeal cereal and pureed sweet peas.  She ate all of it.  The most incredible part was she opened her mouth nice and wide for each and every bite!  Why the change?  Early on, my mom has told me to wait until Kira is more hungry than what she is usually so that she will be more than willing to eat.  But I just couldn't get myself to do it out of guilt for starving my poor little baby.  Every day, except today, I fed Kira formula every three hours plus breakfast, lunch, and dinner (solids) at the appropriate times at least 1 hour after formula.  

Today, we dispersed her formula to every four hours and fed her solids at least 2 hours after formula.  At her 5 pm feeding, she drank up over 5 oz of formula!  I usually get her to finish up 3 oz, and getting her to drink the last oz (from her 4-oz bottle) was a battle.  Then she ate up all her oatmeal and peas at 7:30 pm.  Bedtime is at 10; she finished up another 5 oz of formula before passing out.  Here was today's feeding schedule in summary:

6:30 am - 4 oz formula

9:30 am - 3 oz formula

11:00 am - 1/2 TBS each oatmeal and apples (quite a struggle)

1:30 pm - 4 oz formula (struggle)

2:30 pm - 2 bites oatmeal and sweet potatoes (apparently, she wasn't hungry)

5:00 pm - 5 oz formula (gobbled it up)

7:30 pm - 1 TBS each oatmeal and peas

10:00 pm - 5 oz formula

Two other events may have contributed to Kira's new enthusiasm for eating solids.  I ate half a corncob hastily, thus leaving plenty of bits on the cob, then gave it to Kira.  At first she was hesitant, but eventually she stuck it in her mouth and loved it!  She sucked the cob clean!  More credit needs to be given to where it's due: I got the corncob idea from my co-worker a while back when she was first introducing solids to her son.  It was so much fun watching her eat it.  She was such a happy baby eating her corncob.  She even held onto it on both ends!  I have a video and I'll post it later.  Secondly, I cut up small pieces of tofu and put them on her highchair tray.  She liked using her little fingertips to pick up the pieces and stick them into her mouth.  I think these two activities turned on the lightbulb for Kira in that she is starting to understand the concept of food!!

Let's see what happens tomorrow.