Trying Solids

Well, we took the plunge into the world of solids.

Really, rice cereal at this stage shouldn’t be considered a solid. It’s more like an eerie-smelling mass of pasty goop that bears no resemblance to rice or cereal.

Rice cereal, neither rice nor cereal

We strapped the girls into their big-girl highchairs. This part was pretty exciting, actually. The highchairs seem pretty comfy and sturdy (they’re the Graco Contempo highchairs). All of the parts are nicely constructed and are easy to assemble and clean.

Elise was SO EXCITED to be in the highchair. She was dancing and kicking her little feet. 

The girls in their highchairs

Elise's dancing feet

Even Althea was in a jovial mood.

Althea happy about solids

But, as usual, Althea quickly got VERY SERIOUS about solids.

Althea very serious about solids

Althea was interested in grabbing the spoon and bringing it to her mouth. Then again, she’s interested in grabbing my ears and bringing my face toward her mouth too. When she tasted this new “meal,” she wasn’t particularly impressed.

It's mixed with breastmilk. JUST EAT IT.

Elise wasn’t impressed either, but she did well with sucking on the cereal and swallowing it. 

Elise's first bite of cereal

There was quite a bit left over in the end. (Before you freak out, I know not to save leftovers — for the babies. I, on the other hand, plan to use this leftover mush to kill off the ant colonies in our yard.)

Leftovers

Today was also my first Mother’s Day (one year since we announced the pregnancy to our parents, too). It also marked my first time away from the girls overnight. Yes, I shamelessly abandoned my children to go eat too much, drink too much and stay up late with one my best girl friends. This meant no nursing, which meant a lot of pumping. Thank god I have the Pump to End all Pumps, right?

Wrong! When “they” say that a pump is not as efficient as a baby at extracting milk, “they” are right. I ended up with not one, not two, not even three or four, but five clogged ducts this weekend. I discovered that when you massage out a clogged duct, it’s not really a massaging motion that frees the clog — it’s more of a violent-smashing-to-smithereens motion that will get the clog out.

Boobs are pretty resilient, as it turns out.

On the plus side, I did get an idea for how much milk I’m producing. I already suspected that the morning feedings were important, especially now that the girls sleep for 8 or 9 hours straight after going down for the night. But after pumping this morning, I realized just how big that meal is. I pumped — get this — 16 ounces this morning. Yes, 16! That’s two cups! One whole pound! Go Team Boobs!