First Feeding (25 weeks, 6 days)

Today marked a big day in Zeke growing up and becoming his own self.

Zeke will be six months old this week -- quite a milestone. In anticipation of his six month birthday, Zeke had his first taste of food. This was really as much a milestone for us as it was for Zeke. As mentioned below, we decided to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline of delaying solids for six months AND feeding breast milk exclusively.


It wasn't easy and maybe it wasn't necessary, but it is what we wanted to do for Zeke. Aaron played a big role in this feat -- he was encouraging and managed daytime feedings so that we could make it on what I pumped.

We'd been getting ready for this moment for awhile. I've been "watching the baby, not the calendar" to see if he was ready. He's been showing some signs of being ready to eat. He can hold himself up well (though still not sitting), he likes putting everything in his mouth, and has been watching us with interest when we eat. We got spoons for Zeke to play with and he enjoys them. He also has sipped water from a cup and he drank from his sippy cup last week.

For his first taste of food, Zeke got a mix of rice cereal and breast milk at dinner. I toyed with skipping cereal and just going to mashed bananas or avocado, maybe just because I'm contrary. I'd heard that a lot of babies aren't crazy for plain cereal. I decided that we would go with cereal, though. The good doctor recommended it, I believe, because the cereal is iron fortified and some babies deplete their stores of iron by six months.

Zeke seemed to get the hang of it and he hardly wore any of it. He seemed to enjoy the experience overall.



"Oh no, I couldn't possibly... well, maybe just another bite."







"Mmmmm, the bowl tastes good, too." Zeke couldn't keep his mouth off the bowl, making feeding a little awkward.

I almost spilled the bowl a few times and had a hard time getting the spoon to his mouth. In the end, I only fed him part of what I mixed up and put the rest in a bottle. Tomorrow, I'll put a little bit more cereal in the mix and use another bowl and see if it is any easier.

"Check, please!" Next feeding time tomorrow....