James has been going through a bit of a rough patch. After cutting his first two teeth he went back to sleeping for eight-hour stretches, but last week he started waking up four times a night. Worse than when he was a newborn! I know he’s working on more teeth but holy cow. Four times a night is just excessive. It’s excessive, James! I think he’s also going through a growth spurt because he is always hungry, and every day he looks longer than he did the day before.

Unsurprisingly, sleep is at a premium around here. James whimpers his way to sleep even after a dose of Tylenol, so when he finally DOES look like this:

sleeping buddy boy

…my regular attitude of “Oh, you don’t have to be quiet around the baby! Go ahead and vacuum!” goes right out the window. Now, if you wake this baby up, I will murder you.

It’s so sad to see him so miserable, even though he’s even cuddlier than usual. He just wants to bury his head in my neck and if I could, I’d leave him there all day. He does have a bright spot in his day, and that’s eating solids.

After a few meals of rice cereal, I moved him on to veggies. We started with peas, and his faces were so over the top and hilarious. After sweet potatoes and carrots, I gave him pears and apples. He didn’t seem to like those much more, and I started to think that maybe I’d started him on foods too soon. I decided to give him the last package of baby food I had left (peas) and see how he did with it. If he was still unenthusiastic, I’d decided to move him back to rice cereal for another week. However, after a few bites, he was leaning forward to meet the spoon, and moving his jaw in an exaggerated chewing motion. It turns out the kid actually does like peas.

Since then, all James wants to eat is the savory stuff. He pushes all the sweet fruits out of his mouth as if their taste is too much for him. He loves to chow down on all the veggies and can polish off a container of peas in ten minutes. I’m pretty sure Annabel is still working on her first container of peas.

these fruits are meh
Peaches are not for me, mama.

In the meantime, I’m dipping into my stash of teething remedies. It’s hard to see this sweet little guy so miserable.