This one time I freaked out

This happens on occasion, like when something big is about to take place, like introducing a bottle, starting solids, basically anything that involves feeding LC. Introducing a bottle I feared 'omg he will never nurse again, or, he won't take the bottle from another human being besides his daddy, or, he won't take a bottle from anyone, period.

Starting solids: I sent email after worried, panicked email to my La Leche League leaders questioning them back and forth and back and forth about what to do, what to expect, how to cope, etc. They came back at me with wonderful, amazing, and most importantly, calming advice.

When he started eating more than 1 solid meal a day, the emails started again. 'omg, my milk will dry up, i just know it, he'll prefer bananas to milk and so it goes'. Fortunately it was premature and undo stress on my part.

Clearly, the milk has not dried up - I still pump 3 times a day and get 3 + a lil extra bottles for LC to tote to daycare the next day (and we won't mention the freezer stash I got going on from days where I somehow got like 6 bottles ahead). I plan on pumping 3 times a day til he reaches 12 months (at the advice of my LLL leader), at which point I will be satisfied that I gave him all that I could, and easing up is a-okay. I'm sure at that point he'll be ready for whole milk and to move on from our close knit nursing bond *sniff sniff*, but he's growing and it's to be expected :) Anything extra nursing-wise is a bonus.

Sidenote: I can have a full lunch hour and like run errands and maybe get myself a frappucino at lunch! I can stop wearing nursing tanks (which I a-dore but still), there are as many pluses as their are minuses, but I am focusing on the pluses :)

At any rate, the point of this post is that we are transitioning from pureed foods to more table food, or, finger food. By transition, in this case, I mean on weekends and days off when we have more time to dedicate to preparing the food and to sitting with him while he eats, not racing to make it to bed since he is so dog tired and our 1 hour goes by so fast on weeknights - making sure he remembers to chew nad not gag and barf (altho he managed to do both at ChikFilA on Saturday when I tried to feed him some butternut squash mac n' cheese - good thing it was busy & family friendly).

Sidenote: I think only a mother can clean up barf with one hand while eating her chickfila sandwich with the other lol

So as you all know, yesterday was LC's first day in the pre-toddler room. Well apparently his fellow 7 pre-toddlers are all on finger foods (at least for lunches) - and they all eat in those chairs built into the table at the designated 10:30am lunchtime (still too early if you ask me but who does lol). And there's poor LC, sitting there getting spoonfed his organic veggies n' grains mixture while the other kids are tearing up the finger foods like it's their job.

Um, I just got really sad and feel so bad for him!

So his teacher kindly suggested that maybe we transition a bit faster into finger foods, at least for lunch. They can still do his yogurt or another spoonfed meal in the morning closer to breakfast (but we do breakfast at home), or in the afternoon.

So now with about 2 weeks worth of jar baby food at home, we hasten our step to try to think of, purchase, and make proper finger food meals for LC.

I turned to The Twitter for some fellow mom advice and came back with a boatload. So we'll give it a week of transition before we get him really in the groove. Dinners & lunches of finger foods, omgaaah! Life was so much easier when he subsisted entirely on my milk, for reals!

I have never worried so much about feeding another human being in my life!

I read about some potential good foods for him and thought 'my gosh we have dropped the ball, he has never had a parsnip! he has never had x, y z.' and then 'well heck, J and I don't eat those thing either! gyah! Back to menu planning and incorporating LC's foods and diet into our own.