Stay Home PaPa

Maddie Enjoys Eating Without Swallowing

Posted on December 30, 2011 Updated on December 30, 2011

If we thought coming home might improve the parental sleep situation, we were sorely mistaken. Maddie burned the evening and midnight oil and then basically dropped an all-nighter in our laps. This once again left her parents comatose and in need of some serious sleep.

Even though there was no rest for the weary and downtrodden – we still had a wonderful day immersed in family time with the baby. Once again, Maddie had no interest in a nap – but she spent the day completely basking in the attention that both parents were heaping upon her.

Maddie sat on my lap and engaged me in a 20-minute conversation this morning that still has me smiling. Since she’s only 5-months-old, I didn’t completely understand anything that she said to me, but it all seemed to be of a demonstrative nature.

We actually had multiple conversations through out the day and one of them involved no verbal communication whatsoever. We both registered a series of expressions, smiles, knowing looks and hand gestures – but never made a sound. This is an area we will have to look into more closely in the near future.

Our other project today involved trying to get Maddie interested in the institution of real food. She is becoming ravenous, but we still can’t get her to eat. Maddie actually does eat, she just won’t swallow anything that doesn’t come from the bottle. Gina made a good point this evening: “Maddie puts everything in her mouth but food!”

We have been trying to feed the baby rice cereal – but it’s not working out. She lets it roll into her mouth, but that’s as far as it goes. She’s decided that she can actually eat without having to swallow. Unfortunately, this method is not satisfying her insatiable hunger and that naturally leads to multiple nighttime bottle-feedings.

Tomorrow we will try feeding her solid food at first light. Hopefully this will work itself out very soon. If not, it will be difficult for Maddie to enjoy sleepovers in the future if her parents still have to feed her every three hours.