This was originally posted on May 18, 2014. Thankfully, we are long past the baby-led weaning days!
I’m writing this from the comfort of our couch on Saturday night after a long and busy, but mostly good day. Avery is as mobile as she can be without being able to crawl, and she surprises us by sitting right up immediately after we set her down.
Crazy kid, we love her so much, but she can really wear us out! It helps that I’m celebrating World Whiskey Day with my Breckenridge Distillery Bourbon to wind things down though.
So, um, yeah, baby-led weaning (BLW), is not off to a great start for us. I get that this was our first day and first try and blah, blah, but I still got my hopes up ready to watch Avery grasp a green bean and eat it like she does her red plastic bird.
But the exact opposite happened; she refused to even touch the food I set in front of her! Mommy’s water cup? Sure, she’ll grab at and try to put it in her mouth all day! Food you are actually supposed to put in your mouth? Nope, not having it.
What did we do wrong that made her so repulsed by our food offering? I’m not certain, but maybe trying right at her bedtime had something to do with it. What do you think?
Not to mention her usual 2 – 3 hour morning nap only lasted 1 hour; in which she cried some during that hour. A tired baby is a cranky baby as all parents know, and that’s what we had for parts of the day.
Okay, she wasn’t fussy all day, but she had several of her “moments” just to let us know she was tired and not happy. Since she obviously didn’t want to be in her jumper (see picture above), we moved her to her play yard to give her freedom to move around and practice her sitting up skills.
She got right to sitting up, but still cried while doing so. I had several things cooking in the kitchen and Going Mom was hard at work cleaning the living room, so we had to let her cry for a few minutes. Then Kelley turned on the vacuum which always gets Avery to quiet down and look around.
Ahhh, the loud whir of a vacuum never sounded so good. Apparently Avery thought so too; we looked over and she was sound asleep!
We haven’t had to use the consoling power of the vacuum for a while now, and it surprised us to see how passed out she was! Obviously, I had to give it my thumbs up of approval.
Kelley didn’t want to turn off the vacuum while she slept, so now we have a really clean living room! The nap helped, but it wasn’t even 30 minutes, so we weren’t too hopeful for a happy Avery.
We finished our to-do’s and went for a walk with Avery in the Onya Outback where she had a 15 minute power nap. Upon our return, it was just past 7pm and Kelley went to clean up as I put the highchair together. Avery commenced with crying…
30 minutes later (about the time we usually get her to bed), we strapped her in the highchair for the first time and excitedly prepared for our first BLW experience! I don’t think she was too excited though….
I had steamed a bunch of organic baby carrots, green beans, and broccoli earlier, so I pulled a few pieces of each to serve her.
Avery was already in fuss-mode as I brought the veggies to her, and it only increased with each passing second. I at least expected to see her grab at one of the specimen in front of her, but to no avail. She wouldn’t even look at them!
Pretty sure I knew the reason, I told Going Mom it was just her bib making her upset. Simple solution, just remove the bib, right?
Wrong. I gave this the thumbs down of disapproval. Not being one to accept no for an answer, or “no” as expressed by a baby, I tried dangling a green bean in front of her to get her attention.
If a baby can look repulsed, this is the look. Her hands remained idle making sure she didn’t give even the slightest reach to raise our hopes. On the last straw, I attempted to show her how the food is meant for her mouth, but she wasn’t too receptive.
Might as well of been a cigar because she wasn’t having it. At this point, we called our first attempt a failure and gave up. Luckily, our pet box turtle, Tash, was looking for some good food and she happily accepted Avery’s outcast veggies.
I spent a little time playing with Avery before her bath, and then she seemed to cheer up for a while! And she made sure to put everything around her in her mouth; figures. But our time was limited and only our dog, Abby, could keep Avery from letting out another whine.
Dog kisses just make everything better, huh? Unless you’re me, I don’t care for the kisses too much.
So if you’re about to introduce your baby to solids for the first time, don’t do like us and try when it’s their bedtime. Even more so if their naps have been short or even non-existent! At that point, it’s just smart to put it off for one more day and save everyone the stress.
And that’s what we’re doing. As you read this, we will be making our second, and hopefully successful, attempt at introducing Avery to solids. Avery is usually the happiest in the morning, so at least we should see some smiles! As always, I’ll let you know how it goes.
Any tips on how to get your baby interested in grabbing food?
Do you have any first time baby successes or failures to share?
