can someone get this kid a chew toy?

no, you may not be excused

i force fed my skinny baby tonight. after reviewing what he'd (not) eaten today, there was no way i was going to let him refuse dinner, too. pace really does normally eat well, i think this teething thing is throwing him for a loop. we had a REALLY hard night--i think i slept a total of 4 or 5 hours, but not consecutively. pace, of course, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for the day at 6am on the dot. energizer bionic baby...

he eats a really good breakfast at 730am: a 2-egg-yolk roll up, probably a 1/4 cup of oatmeal with peaches/pears/blueberries, and water to drink.

i knew after his dr's appt today we'd be out running errands, so i pump to bring breastmilk with us. i only got about 3oz. he has 2oz at 10am, and refuses to drink the remaining 1oz. usually by this time, babies should be drinking 7-9oz per bottle/nursing feeding. not pace...he'd rather eat like a bird, thank you very much.

12pm we sit down for lunch as he was acting hungry. usually if he fusses when i try and feed him, i'll give him finger foods to eat along while i feed him, and he's more agreeable. lunch was a no-go. he looks at me, purses his lips, and turns his head away. he wouldn't even take a sip of water. so around 1, i nurse him for about 5-7 minutes, and he falls asleep for a nap.

330/4pm i try to feed him a solid lunch again. no-go take two.

630 dinner. he takes 2 spoonfuls ok, and then stops dead. won't even open his mouth for the choo-choo train or the zoom-zoom car i do for him. he finally cracks a tiny smile. i swoop in with a spoonful of lentils, chicken, and cannellini bean dip. his smile turns to a full-on wail and he spits out the spoonful of food. i look at him with my sternest face, say, "no, pace, you are going to eat," and put the spit-out food back in his mouth. his wail lasts for a good 60-90 seconds, during which time he spits out the food again, angrily wipes his hand through his mouth, rubs it all over his face, pulls his hair, smears food everywhere. i again shovel it back into his mouth and calmly watch him wear his food instead of eat it. this happens probably 5-6 times, and each time i tell him to chew his food and swallow it. each time i am really thinking--am i making mealtime a negative experience? am i scarring my child's relationship with food? if he wakes up screaming tonight, is he going to be remembering this meal? am i creating a child who will later have an eating disorder? am i doing the wrong thing?--is he really not hungry?!

he finally swallows a spoonful of food and looks at me. i try another spoonful. again, the spitting, wailing, re-shoveling into the mouth, spitting, shoveling, etc. i forcefeed him three spoonfuls. three. that's it. here's the thanks i get:

after we've calmed down a bit:

he nursed again before bed, just to top off his high-calorie diet...

i'm hoping for a better day tomorrow.

9 months, two teeth, and faster than a jabberwocky

9 month stats:

18.4lbs, 15%ile

28", 39%ile

the dr used the word "skinny" to describe pace during his well check today...

this kid never stops moving. what he eats he burns off. he is eating 3-4 meals a day (sometimes he'll split lunch into two snack meals), and nursing probably 4, maybe 5 times in a 24-hour period. there is no "topping him off"--if pace is hungry, he'll eat. if he's not, he refuses to eat. when he's done, he's done. period. i am not concerned about the percentile thing, but i am concerned that he seems to burn off whatever he eats, and there are days he doesn't eat well at all (today for one). what to do?!

routine:

pace is in bed between 7-730, wakes up normally around 3-4 to nurse, and then is up for the day by 6am on the dot. he started crawling a few weeks ago, and is therefore expending more calories during the day. he is waking up 2-3 times/night now--screams bloody murder unless i nurse him and will not just go back to sleep on his own. i think he is trying to make up for the calories he's burning during the day. we need to figure something else out, because me + zombie = bad combination.

he is happiest between 6-9am. he eats breakfast around 730, and is ready for a nap by 9am. on a good day he will sleep until 11. it's a whole new world now that he can crawl, so he is having fun "re"-discovering each room. he eats lunch around 1230/1, and naps around 1 or 2. on a good day he'll sleep for 2 hours. he eats dinner around 530 or 6 and then ready for bed.

food (all homemade purees/chunky mixes):

grains/beans: oatmeal, rice cereal (bob's red mill brand--he doesn't like the infant cereal flakes), barley, quinoa, amaranth, lentils, cannellini beans, homemade white bread, waffles and blueberry pancakes were a hit

fruits: blueberry, plum, cherry, banana, mango, apricot (both fresh and rehydrated), prune (rehydrated), pear, peach, apple

vegetables: sweet potato, regular potato, carrot, butternut squash, acorn squash, peas, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, onions/celery (cooked with the lentils), roasted red pepper (mixed in with the cannellini bean dip)

meat:

ground turkey, chopped chicken

we've tried plain, non-fat yogurt a few times a couple months apart, and he's broken out in hives every time he's eaten it. the dr said it's very possible it's an allergy, but one that he'll most likely grow out of. so no dairy until 12 months, and we'll see from there.

activities:

• pace LOVES singing itsy bitsy spider, i'm a little tea cup, and head, shoulders, knees and toes
• favorite place is still on top of david's shoulders
• loves being outside, looking at birds, watching cars go by
• still hates, hates, hates loud noises--the vacuum, hairdryer, garbage disposal, food processor, lawn mower, etc. etc. our neighbor was mowing his lawn the other day and pace heard it. he started whimpering, and crawled over to the sliding glass door to see what it was. when he saw the lawn mower, he started crying, but wouldn't leave the window, he just looked from the mower to me to the mower again
• pulls himself up to standing position and reaches for things
• loves playing in drawers--i rearranged the kitchen drawers so he could practice putting things in and out of them (i made his plastic dishes/spoons/cups accessible, and put plastic tupperware containers in the other cupboard)
• very detail-oriented--he will crawl along the floor and see a single strand of hair from across the room. he'll crawl over, pick it up and play with it between his fingers. does the same thing with grass, pieces of carpet (we're trying to get him to stop putting them in his mouth), shoe laces...fine motor coordination is great
• we have a little window on the side of our front door he loves to stand and watch outside. today he happened to be there when david got home for a lunch break, and he got so excited to watch david park the big ups truck and walk up the walkway
• when he crawls, he uses his right leg to push off and keeps his left leg bent underneath of his body, sort of using it to hop/slide along. this has resulted in a blister on the underside of his right big toe (the one he uses to push), and skid marks on the top of his left foot
• demands to feed himself (i cut up potatoes/carrots/fruit, etc. into matchsticks, boil them, and let him eat them as finger foods)
• rolling over at 6 months, sitting up at 7 months, crawling at 8 months...walking at 9?

a few of pace's favorite things...

look what we have coming in!

4th of july weekend

thanks, grandma and grandpa, for driving all the way down to see pace! such a long drive for such a quick visit. we had a delicious grilled dinner on saturday, but did not go to any fireworks. pace hates loud noises--blender, vacuum, hair dryer--so we thought fire works would be a bad idea. he got a kick out of grandma and grandpa's dogs--giggled his little heart out every time they made a peep. he especially loved it when they jumped on him and licked his face. i thought little yappy dogs would scare him, as every other noise seems to, but i guess you never can tell!

how to eat a blueberry