Cereal: Lesson Learned.

With all of Luke's recent sleep issues and growth-spurt-induced-binge-eating, I thought (and everyone was telling me) that maybe giving Luke some cereal would help him to sleep better and me to stop feeling like Bessie the cow. So I called the pediatrician and asked if I could start cereal a little early, since our 4-month check up wasn't for another couple weeks. The nurse said sure, to give him cereal by spoon, then nurse him as I normally would just before bedtime. With magic-rice-sleeping-potion dreams, I followed directions, and Phil and I gave our munchkin his first serving of cereal while Phil's dad took a few pictures. We put Luke to bed with an especially full belly, and then a little later we tucked ourselves in bed, hoping for a miracle.....until 1 am when we were awoken by a screaming baby!! Oh well, I thought. The cereal wasn't the magic-maker that I thought it would be. The next night he got his second serving of cereal...and woke up twice during the night. The night after that he got his third serving...and woke up 3 times. The fourth night, being the smarty pants that I am, I realized that Luke had slept worse and worse since starting him on the cereal, so I decided to stop for a while. That was about 4 days ago. His sleeping at night got better, so today, being the smarty pants that I am, I decided to give him some cereal during the day instead of at night. While it proved to be a great photo-op, it has also proven to be a bad idea. The poor little guy has had such bad gas that it has woken him up all night, causing him to roll over to his back, which we all know is a HORRIBLE way to sleep, and thus cause for an all-out scream fest. The worst part is that I had observed (and smelled) an increase in Luke's gas during our first nighttime adventures with cereal, and had even witnessed with my own eyes him pulling his legs up underneath him to pass gas in his sleep, only to propel himself onto his back. Somehow, however, I had buried these sights and smells in my sleep-loving unconscious. WELL....tonight I can no longer deny what is so blatantly true--this child's digestive system is NOT ready for cereal. Sure, he may look like he's been eating Five Guys' cheeseburgers for a few months, but it's just not the case. The stinker is just a delicate little guy.

It looks like there won't be much sleeping in the Tatum house tonight.
Oh well. Lesson learned.
At least I got good pictures out of the deal.

Scenes from the very first cereal experiment.

And from today...
Here they are in chronological order:

Dude, like, why am I sitting here in my diaper?

What in the heck am I supposed to do with this stuff?

Uhhhh..Uhhhhh..Uh...Mom, I'm not too sure about this....

Wait! I like it!


If you're not going to hurry it up, I'll just eat my fingers, thank you very much.


Ew. This is some messy stuff.


Now that you wiped me down, I can do it myself.


That was tough. I need some thumb time.


I've had ENOUGH already! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!


No really. If you won't get me out, I'll get myself out.