Ruthie Grows

Yesterday I tried to feed little Ruthie rice cereal for the first time. It was mixed with vast quantities of breast milk, of course, which meant that instead of spitting it outright, Ruu gave me this puzzled little look while trying to suck on the spoon. Today, like yesterday, the feeding went well, but most of it ended up all over her rather than in her, of course.

So I'm slowly but surely working on training Ruu (or Roux, as my french-loving friend Emily likes to spell it) to actually take naps. It makes her a much happier baby overall, although it can sometimes take as much as 20 minutes for her to give in to sleep. I don't let her scream and wail the whole time, of course... I set a timer for five minutes so that I *make* myself give her the chance to settle down on her own. If she's not settled after five minutes, I go in, check her diaper, see if her swaddling has come undone, pat her, comfort her as needed, and start the process again.

This past week we had a breakthrough: Ruthie started taking a bottle without much (if any) fuss.

I started on Thursday, offering her a bottle during her mid-day feeding. Every time she got frustrated, I'd stop and cuddle her for a bit, then offer it to her again. Eventually she settled in and drank a full 3oz bottle of liquid, to my extreme delight!

The next day, I tried it again. This time, without any fuss whatsoever, 5oz disappeared almost immediately. So when Saturday came around, and I had to shoot a wedding in downtown Annapolis, I had no worries. Stephen offered her the bottle. Again: 5oz down the hatch, no muss, no fuss!

This is wonderful.

It's been quite awhile since I've written about Ruth, so here I go!

Ruth is eating all kinds of new foods every day now, with mixed results.

What? Me? Messy?! Never!

Some of my favorite photos of Ruthie of late:

Loves sticks.

Eats with THREE spoons.

And she's the cutest baby ever.

Nursing is on the rise. Towards the end of December, we were down to once a day. Today, it's back up to three or four. I'm not too nervous about it; I will get nervous, however, if she doesn't decide to stop on her own soon. I'm all for breastfeeding, don't get me wrong, but tandem nursing is not something I'll be up for right after moving to a new place.

With the rise of nursing is the rise of mommy-exclusivity. Holding, playing, eating, bathing, bedtime; it's all for mommy to do. This makes it painful, sometimes, when Steve takes his turn with her. She whimpers for me, but goes along with it. Sometimes, though, she cries. I know that this, like other clingy phases, will pass soon, and she'll be on to something new. I may miss it sometime; she'll wave a cheery goodbye without looking back, and I'll long for the day when she tentatively clung to my legs.

It's official: my daughter is now officially All Grown Up. Over a week ago, she stopped nursing, cold turkey.

I breastfed her nearly exclusively for the first 6 months of her life, and never expected it all to last as long as 14 months. I'm not sure what I expected, honestly. My big plan was that if she could ask for it with words, we'd stop.

That never happened. Towards the end, she was nursing just once a day, in the mornings. And what people have told me is true: in spite of the headaches that came with it, I kind of miss it now.

She really is a totally different kid now!