You know, I don’t think I asked you this, and forgive me if I missed it in this thread, but have you tried a sling or baby carrier? Some touch-intensive babies love them, and can nurse right in them, and you at least have your hands free and can walk around…
Bananas worked well for us, too. I don’t recall exactly how old he was, but he loved them.
Avocadoes, bananas, and sweet potatoes were the magic First Foods Triumvirate for our kids. They’re easy to mash up and the kids love them, particularly avocadoes. Which is kind of funny, because MrWhatsit and I both hate the dang things.
First, let me ask, is there ever a baby that people won’t say needs more food? Huge baby? Well, she must need tons of calories - give her food! Skinny baby? She needs more calories, give her food! I can’t tell you how many times my husband and MIL have told me to give my (younger, possibly allergy prone) baby food b/c she’s so big.
But that’s not to the point. Your baby is older and may actually do well starting some food. Let me echo and say that rice cereal is not a great first food. Avocado and sweet potato are favorites here too. There’s also a faction that believes that meat is the best first food, believe it or not. I can see that in a way - it’s high in protein, fat, and iron. I’m thinking lamb (the least allergenic meat) would be the place to start if you want to explore that avenue.
As for sleep, maybe you instead of trying to teach him to sleep in his own bed (and annoying the neighbors) you can start trying to sneak away effectively after nursing him down? If you’re still concerned about him alone in your bed, you could always try lying down on a mat on the floor. Works for women in traditional cultures, presumably worked for our ancestors, and doesn’t take too much space or money.
Anyway, good luck, hon. Keep us updated.
You might find that if you just go ahead and give him all the “boob and cuddling” he asks for right now, he’ll move into the next phase and stop needing so much. Once he can crawl, it’ll be a very different scenario at your house.
The Giselle Institute books (which I love - lots of parents have quoted them at the Dope) by Barbara Ames talk about “disequilibrium” that kids go through, typically at the 1/2 year. Of course it’s not written in stone or anything, but I’ve found it to be VERY true of my kids - both twins were a big PITA at 1.5, 2.5, 3.5 and (it started just in the last two weeks) now at 4.5. Very emotional, clingy, needy, irrational, temperamental. Not like they’re prefect otherwise, but they go from a 2 to an 8 on a scale of 10. With a few days of 11 thrown in.
Maybe it starts earlier, and babies do this, too? I don’t know.
I know it’s hard to give them what they ask for over and over and over again, but sometimes it works.
Another alternative to the rice cereal (which didn’t sit well in my baby’s stomach, either), is the oatmeal cereal. I mix it with fruit (typically apples or pears) and Kate loves it! Plus it really “sticks to her ribs” as somebody put it.
Hang in there!!
No, never! It’s like our propensity to gain weight or hover around the food table at parties - somewhere, deep down in our lizard brains, we’re certain starvation is just around the corner! 
I’m actually a proponent of exclusive breastfeeding for 12 months, but if the doctor says someone else’s baby needs food, then I’m not going to argue with that.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, they’re absolutely obsessed with kids’ eating. ALL childhood illness and troubles are considered Spleen based, which means digestive system. Heart problem? Feed 'em cooling foods. Allergies? Feed 'em damp dispersing foods. Broken bone? Feed 'em broths and nourishing foods so the body has the qi it needs to heal. Oh, and you might want to set it after you start some soup. I’m barely exaggerating here. I’m not sure I go quite as far as they do, but really, a baby’s job is to grow. Bodies only grow by breaking down food (and sleeping), so it makes sense that they need good food to do that best.
I think we also have trouble believing that a human being can really exist on a liquid diet. That I blame on a lack of visible breastfeeding in our culture. But that’s another soapbox for another day.
My midwife had a friend with a toddler. The friend had a baby, and the toddler got very concerned about the baby starving, because breastmilk didn’t look like food. The mother was in the kitchen, and she heard a sad, “Wrrrgooooooo!” coming from the living room.
She ran in to find the baby with a granola bars sticking out of his mouth, and an anxious toddler, who earnestly explained, “But he was hungry, Mommy!”
We skipped rice cereal entirely, partially because of the library paste-taste issue, but mainly because Jonah used to poop only once every 8-14 days. That was his normal – he just processes breastmilk very, very efficiently – but we didn’t want to give him anything that would slow his system down (we held off on bananas, too, for that reason). His first food was sweet potato, and then we went to pureed fruits and other veggies (some homemade, some not). I thought that store-bought baby food was waaay too thin, so we bulked it up with baby oatmeal cereal. Worked great - he loved it!
We have skipped avocado so far, but that’s because I’m mildly allergic to it, believe it or not, so we don’t want to go there quite yet.
And yeah - everyone tells us to feed him more, like that will “fix” any problem!
Maybe he just needs a granola bar… 
Mine had stewed apple first - it was the only thing in the corner store when I got to the end of my tether. Apple apparently does have some sleep inducing properties - having a bowl of apple slices before bedtime certainly helped with my last bout of insomnia. YMMV.
I’m sure you know all this, I’m just repeating because it’s safety first in this house.
With all new foods, I was advised to try a single spoonful at first, wait 20 minutes and if there was no reaction, continue with the full portion (about 2-4 tablespoons depending on child). In the interests of full disclosure, my 4 month old child grabbed the spoon out of my hand after the first mouthful and would have inhaled it if I hadn’t kept refilling with more apple.
Introduce only one new food at a time, so you’ll know exactly what to blame if there’s any change in temperament, sleep, stools or if there’s an allergic reaction.
Don’t *ever *save the leftovers - not even for the next meal. Serve a single portion and chuck out anything that isn’t eaten.
Best of luck.
Well, he’s had abour a quarter teaspoon of sweet potato, served on a finger. He seemed mildly interested, but not very. Rough night last night but that’s because Mr. Lissar has a cold, and Nat’s coming down with the same one, and his nose is stuffy and he’s coughing a bit.
Lord, he’s cheerful in the mornings. Can’t stand it.
It took Jonah a couple of months before he really got solid food. But now… yikes! This is the response we get.
Lissla, I was thinking about you this morning. I went to get Jonah when he woke up, and he was still acting sleepy for a minute or two: rubbing his eyes, putting his head on my shoulder, etc. But then he perked up, and was definitely ready to play! I figure he just needs some time to wake up, not unlike his parents. Maybe Nat’s the same way? I mean, it’s pretty clear from what you’ve said that he’s not getting enough sleep. But maybe he’s not so much waking up still sleepy as he’s waking up slowly. You know your baby best, but I thought I’d share my experience!
Also, something we started using a couple of months ago might help you, too: Trixie Tracker . It allows you to track your baby’s sleep, diapers, nursing, food, etc. We started tracking because we thought maybe Jonah had more of a regular sleep-schedule than we thought, and that we were just not noticing it. Turns out that no, he’s a thoroughly unscheduled baby, no matter what we do, but it’s still useful. Plus, the nerd in me enjoys it. 
It’s good to be able to see that his naptimes have indeed gotten longer, and it’s really nice for seeing what he’s up to when I’m at work – I can tell if Daddy’s having a hard day with him, or if I shouldn’t call because the baby’s asleep, or whatever. You might like being able to tell your doctor, “Look, I’m not being an hysterical new mom – he really does only gets x hours of sleep a day, broken into 20-minute chunks.” It’s also nice being able to track new foods.
Oh, and I would like to see pictures of this morning cheerfulness! Pony up!
Lots of pics here, but you’ll have to scroll
I don’t think it’s just waking up slowly, although it’s possible, and I’ll keep it in mind. He yawns on and off until it’s time for the next sleep period. Well, at least sometimes.
That’s funny, our midwife made us stop tracking at three weeks, and took our charts away. I started writing down sleep times about a month ago again, and it was sort of helpful. I’m doing it intermittently now.
WhyNot, we do have a baby carrier, but he doesn’t go to sleep in it anymore, and he’s too heavy for me to carry much. Plus he’s long, and I’m short. Standing, he’s half my height.
I just ordered a copy of The No-Cry Sleep Solution, and I’m picking it up tomorrow. We’ll see. I would love, love love for him not to need cuddling and nursing every time he wakes up at night- so far I’ve put him back to bed three times this evening. I know I’m whining, but I really don’t want to have to go to bed (effectively) at six or seven.
Lissla Lissar - How’s the sleeping going?
StG
Coming in late, sorry. We had an absolutely tough baby, the kind that makes caregivers faint. He was up 24/7 on a 2 hour eat/sleep schedule for weeks. Hell, months. Once he finally accepted food over boob, he was ravenous until he passed out from food euphoria. He cried in the crib at naps and nite-nite until at least 20 months. He was up 3 times a night, tapering to two times around 12-14 months. He cried himself to sleep every night for about 18 months. God, that was horrid.
Things we did to cope, especially to give Mom, the Milk Producer, calm:
We’d stick him in a swing chair, battery operated. AND a play an appropriate sound track. For Crying Out Loud was awesome – standards like “Restaurant Noise” and “Driving with Windshield Wipers” were big hits for us. This CD seems to be out of print, which is a shame. We’d stick the Boy into a an automated swing and put on the “Windshield Wipers” theme, and Mom would get a 2 hour nap if we were lucky.
One night, when he was maybe six months old, Mom needed desperate sleep and I tried to help. I took the small “bouncy chair” and very carefully bungeed it to the washing machine, and started a load of laundry. I layed down on the floor near the washing machine, so I could sleep and still hear the baby crying. The Boy woke me up once when the laundry cycle was done; I offered food, which he refused, then started then cycle again. He fell back asleep, and I lied down and slept until the next cycle. Rinse, repeat.
I have two daughters (now both grown…ages 28 & 21). With my first born, guilt got me up three times a night to feed her, change her diaper, rock her back to sleep, etc. On her first birthday, I was still getting up to feed her, change…continue the routine three times a night.
Shortly after my 2nd daughter was born, an experienced mom gave me a great piece of advice. It’s not easy to follow, but it does seem to work. At the beginning of the night, feed your baby, make sure he’s dry & comfortable & his surroundings are conducive to sleep. Then go to sleep yourselves. When he wakes up (this is the hard part), ignore him. Let him cry himself back to sleep. It takes about two weeks of “reprogramming” him (which, admittedly, make things uncomfortable for your household), but, if you must, look in on him quietly to make he’s not too hot or cold, then let him cry himself back to sleep.
Tough love, but it works.
Love, Phil
Possibly appropriate for a 1-year-old; very inappropriate for a 2-week old. (I know we are talking about an older child in this thread, but my point is that this advice is not good for younger babies.) Under a certain age, babies simply don’t have the stomach capacity to be able to get through an entire night without feeding. What you are doing by ignoring their cries is teaching them that crying, which at that age is the only way they have of letting you know that something is wrong, will not work and will not be responded to.
Sorry, I know this thread has mostly wound down but I wanted to respond to this for the benefit of anyone who might be searching on it for baby advice or whatnot.
You know, sometimes guilt is a useful emotion that inspires us to do the right thing.
In other words, what **MsWhatsit **said.
And in addition, I never liked the “ignore all crying” idea because you never know why a baby is crying. He might cry because he’s lonely and used to having company three times a night, or he might cry because he’s sick or in pain. Depending on the reason for crying and the age of the baby, you should vary your response, not stick to a hard and fast rule.
I agree. My response to my twins changed gradually, and not in a prescribed way. Some of their cries just seemed a little less urgent at about 8 months or so, and I didn’t jump out of my chair in quite the same way. There were times when mine cried for a few minutes, sure, either because of circumstances or fatigue, or because I really thought s/he would fall asleep shortly (which worked sometimes, and not at others).
But I didn’t stop responding because it was 9:00 and I was off the clock - there IS no clocking out.
Some kids DO follow a regular sleep pattern and fall asleep on their own easily – if a brief spell of CIO works, then great. I believe those parents who say it worked for them.
I also believe the ones who say it doesn’t work.
Yep. As far as I can tell, pretty much the only hard-and-fast rule for raising kids is that there are no hard-and-fast rules.
Well, except for that rule about not leaving them locked in a car on a hot day. That’s a pretty solid rule. Or the one about not hitting them with sticks–that one’s pretty much universal, too. And the one about not giving them knives to play with…
Well, you guys know what I mean.