Hi -
Like I said before, I think having your DH do the settling in the early part of the night is the key. First, it helps your LO to figure out that "Daddy can help me get back to sleep, too!" and that no milk will be coming at that time! We all think that they must be hungry (or that it is quicker to get them back to sleep with a quick nurse), but then they get used to getting back to sleep with a feed and/or get used to getting some calories at that time, so we actually make them hungry. It only took about 2-3 nights of us being consistent to get my LO back to eating only once a night.
I waited until the weekend in case there is a big botch in my plan (!!) but tonight I am going to try W2S at about 2am since he has been waking around 3 to eat for the past few nights. He never responded to it well for naps, but does well with it during the nighttime. I figure that if I can break his habit and get him to start waking to eat even 30 minutes later, then we can keep progressing to eventually wipe out the night feeds. If this doesn't work after a few days then I think I might try the dreamfeed. I never did that regularly because, frankly, it didn't seem to do anything, but my thought is I could do a dream feed to see if he can go the rest of the night and then start making the dream feed slowly earlier and earlier until it is wiped out. I have no problem letting the little guy fuss and complain to get himself back to sleep, but I don't want to make him cry because he is hungry and I am not responding. Frankly, one feed a night isn't that bad! But I know it gets harder to break these habits as new milestones hit, such as crawling and pulling up - then they get really loud and angry when you don't come in!
Deborah, as far as solids, my little guy loves them! He is a great eater. With DS #1, I tended to follow the information sheet my pediatrician gave me for introducing new foods, but I guess she figured I knew what I was doing this time and didn't give me that sheet at his 6 month visit. I now tend to follow the schedule in "Super Baby Foods," a book about making your own baby food. I make about 80% of his food myself (I did with DS #1, too), especially fruits, sweet potatoes, butternut squash. I tried lentils a few weeks ago and it was really easy (cook lentils until very tender, puree, and then push through a sieve to get out the tougher skins, leaving you with a liquidy lentil puree - I add to veggies or apples mixed with cereal and he loves it)! Here are all the foods we have tried: avocado, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, apples, nectarines, peaches, pears, apricots, plums, lentils, garbanzo beans, zucchini, green beans, tofu, and most recently, yogurt. Oh, and Cheerios - his favorite! I've also done several cerals. I tend to mix them with most or all of his food purees for fiber and iron. Tofu is really great. You can make it into small cubes for finger food or mash it into your other purees. My 3 YO still eats tofu. We are vegetarian, so I can't answer as to when to give meat, but I will give you this advice: introduce as many new foods as you can over his first year as after they turn 1 they tend to get a little pickier. The more foods that are in his "repetoire," the more you will be able to give him as he grows older. My oldest is a great eater and although a lot of it is personality and temperment, I think we did a good job of exposing him to a variety of nutritious foods. Oh, and also, avoid giving juice if you can. DS#1 loves the occassional drink box, but from the beginning we only gave him water in between meals and milk at meals and that was the end of the story. No whining for juice during the day - I didn't want to creat a juice junky and he definitely is not. I'd rather him eat his calories than drink them.
Anway, feel free to ask any other questions.
Good luck to all and cross your fingers for me for tonight's W2S!!
Cass
