Penny crossed the 5-month threshold on Feb 26! It feels like a long time and no time at all – I’m in the twilight zone where my brain feels like it’s going 100mph in neutral. We hit the four-month sleep regression a little late; just when I thought we were safe and lucked out with a great sleeper, she decided that 3am is the BEST time to play and smile at us. It’s very hard to be mad at a smiling and happy P, but it’s also hard to be nice when you’re SO.DAMN.TIRED. It’s been a confusing few weeks.

Last week I noticed that P was watching me eat and seemed to be fascinated by the foods I was putting in my mouth. I read somewhere that a baby is ready to try solids between 4-6 months when he/she shows interest in solid food, so Javi and I mashed up some avocado and mixed it with a tiny it of breastmilk for P to try. SHE LOVED IT. She was grabbing the spoon and stuffing the food into her mouth, gnawing her avocado-covered hands, and hyperventilating with joy when she saw me coming with more after she finished the first little bit.

I was elated; I couldn’t wait to try other foods. The general rule is to wait a couple of days between foods to make sure there are no adverse reactions, so I waited a couple of days and tried carrots. I cut them up, steamed them til soft, blended them into a lovely puree, and gave a spoonful to P…she HATED it. She couldn’t WAIT to get out of the high chair and as far away from the carrots as possible. So I froze the rest in the milkies milk trays that we’ve been using to freeze breast milk and bagged the frozen sticks up for another day.

I tried sweet potatoes next…same result. I washed, peeled, steamed, and blended the taters into a smooth puree, mixed an ounce with a little bit of breastmilk, and once again P wasn’t satisfied til she was in a totally different room far away from the orange offense. So I froze the sweet potatoes into little one-ounce sticks and stored those for another day.

Well what the hell, I’m three foods deep, might as well try some oatmeal. I put a cup of dry oats in the food processor and blended it into a nice powder. I boiled half a cup of water, added two tablespoons of the oats, mixed in a little bit of breastmilk and let it cook up into a runny mixture. It couldn’t have been more bland – but she wasn’t having it. I stored the rest of the oats in a container…for another day.

Ok ok, back to the avocado…and now she’s having none of THAT either. So maybe I rushed into the food situation, maybe I scarred her for life, or maybe she’s just not hungry for any of this solid nonsense. Who knows. I did make up a bunch of mashed avocado and froze that just to have it in the future…hopefully she decides she likes some of this soon so it’s not all a giant waste. I gave her a teeny TINY bite of banana and she had no patience for my solid shenanigans anymore.

I’m giving it a rest for a couple of weeks…she’ll be six months on March 26, so maybe I’ll try it again then. I don’t know why I was so eager anyway – solids are a giant MESS and a total time suck. I’ll happily stick her on the boob and wipe away her milk stache in all of the 15 minutes that that takes for as long as possible. As long as she’s growing, and I don’t think there’s any doubt of that, we’re happy!